2010 California: Where are Pos/Neg battery poles?

Hi, your request does come across as strange. Here's why.

If you are the owner of the Cali or if the car owner has provided you the car, you should also have the owner's manual. If you then read the owner's manual, you will realize the Cali has a special battery charging port which is nowhere near the battery. More importantly, the Cali also comes with a special battery tender which can charge up the battery to various degrees depending on the model of the tender provided with the car.

So, do you have the owner's manual and the battery tender? Please read the manual and look for the section that covers "Battery conditioner". FYI, the Cali and other Fcars from the same period also have special circuitry connected to the negative post. If you connect a charger, especially a "dumb" charger, to the battery without disconnecting this circuitry you could damage some of those circuits. You need to charge the battery using the charging port.

 

Are you in Ohio by any chance? And are you working with an authorized Ferrari dealer or 3rd party dealer? In any case, the advice to circumvent the Cali's dedicated recharging port is wrong. You will likely regret it - the dedicated recharging port was very expensive for Ferrari to develop and provide on their cars - not for NO REASON.

If you check FChat you will see most FCar owners who discuss battery tenders know of and own CTEK chargers that can recondition a dead battery and can supply 4 to 7 amps peak current. CTEK made the cheap 0.8 Amp OEM chargers for Ferrari but their better chargers can use the special plug of your "supposedly" toast stock charger. Your low-amp stock charger only keeps already charged batteries topped up - it doesn't recondition or recharge dead batteries. It is a cheap OEM CTEK model that many exotic car makers also provide with their cars because many owners do not drive their exotic cars enough. The special Ferrari plug uses a CTEK Comfort Connect cable interconnect.

If you insist on charging the battery directly, you must only use high quality smart chargers or you risk frying the car's circuits. The Cali's battery is not easy to directly access so the safer, easy connection to the battery is the dedicated recharging port which only accepts the special plug supplied with your stock charger. NOCO chargers appear to be copycat versions of CTEK chargers and may also work with the CTEK "Comfort Connect" cable of your supposedly toasted "stock charger". Check with NOCO to make sure their cabling works with the CTEK Comfort Connect.

CTEK chargers are available from Interstate battery shops as well as on eBay and Amazon.

 

I just purchased a CTEK 7002 brand new from eBay for $100. I also ordered an adaptor for the California for $70 which is arriving tomorrow. I just had a long discussion about this and also searched the forum pretty extensively before choosing this route.

 

I am not familiar with the NOCO chargers but CTEK makes many different models of chargers and can use the special CTEK connector of the cheapo charger that came with your car. That connector is of a proprietary design specific to Ferrari so CTEK cannot sell you the connector - you use the one from your cheapo Ferrari charger. If you lose it, you can buy a replacement on eBay.

The generally accepted "sweet spot" for a CTEK charger that can handle all expected issues with car batteries is currently acknowledged to be the MXS 5.0 - FWIW, while I own several CTEK chargers I often use a CTEK MUS 4.3, which is the model that preceded the MUS 5.0 and it works very well. These models can recondition a sulphated battery (when necessary).

Your battery is probably just low on charge and may be sulphated (need reconditioning) but only Ferrari dealers have the proper battery tester for current Ferrari models - all other testers, regardless of sophistication, will give incorrect test readings because Ferraris all have extra circuitry mounted on the batteries which will throw off regular battery testers. Just read the manual and heed the instruction and advice re recondition the battery.

 

^^^ I bot the same one from ebay this summer. Works great!

 

FWIW, I also own a CTEK 7002.

It was a gift from my dealer because my 2013 HELE Cali30 came with the wrong battery tender. I do use the 7002 as well as the MUS 4.3 but the guys in the garage tell me the MUS 4.3 and MXS 5.0 are likely better suited, presumably because their max current is lower (4.3 and 5 Amp) than the 7.2 Amp of the 7002, and thus less likely to unnecessarily "warm" the battery when left connected over many weeks (it can be up to 6 months up here).

Batteries can dry out if they are unduly heated over long periods.

 

I was looking at that but I went with the 7002 after reading a lot of positive posts about it on this forum. I'm sure either one is fine. Now, I need to figure out what mode to use it on. I drive the car about 15 miles, 2-3x a week.

 

My Cali30 is actually on the 7002 at the moment and will likely spend the off season that way, as it has in the past. I have personally not experienced any issues using it over long periods and I am just passing on general advice I received from people who have more experience and expertise than I have.

As for what mode on the 7002 to use, if your battery is AGM use the "snowflake (AGM)" mode which charges at 14.7V at 25 degrees C ambient temperature, otherwise if your battery is a standard lead acid starter battery use the regular "CAR" mode, the one with the "car" symbol which charges at 14.4V at 25 degrees C. Chargers will vary charging voltage depending on ambient temperature.

 

Another vote for CTEK 7002. I have HELE so I charge on "snowflake" mode.

OP - do you know the age of the battery? It may need replacing.

T