Hi, Anyone know what the 355 Battery Warning Light means? It popped on this afternoon while coming back from Atlantic City and a Drifting Demo at SEMA (See the post in the NY Forum in a few minutes). I was driving up, cruising "slowly" at 60mph in 6th with A/C, Radio, V1 running. I dropped to a lower gear, shut down some of the 'lectronics and was good for an hour until... it came on again under similar conditions, low revs, lots of devices... - Is this an indication of a low-charge condition? - What should I do to "fix" this? - What is the current I should see when I test at the cigarette lighter? - Can I buy a volt/charge meter? Let me know what you all think!! Emil
My thoughts would be - with all those things on (and if you have an AMP with your stero). You might not be throwing enough Amp from your Alternator to power everthing and thus draining your battery. 1.) Is your battery new or more than 3 years old. If it is older - replace. 2.) Your alternator could be going... If it is - rebuild and have them kick up the AMPS a little to ensure you have enough to power all your accessories. You can have your Alternator checked at any Auto Parts store - Autozone, etc. 3.) I don't think the Cigarette lighter test is very accurate - so you can either do # 2 above or you can purchase one at the same type of place... The OM will have the proper amps you should be throwing. I just recently replace my battery - similar thing going on (and mine would not recharge to full amount). When you do - if you haven't replace one - to save you time and frustration (cause the Owners Manual is not clear) - you must take off your right front wheel - and in the finder well at the front is a panel with 5 screws - take that off and you will see your battery... The OM leads you to believe it is in the storage area.. It is not - and a lot of 355 owners tear that apart looking for it Including me the first time I looked! Hope that is a little help. Rich
I've got a fresh battery (newly installed in September) and a fresh alternator (I bought the car with a rebuilt GM alternator -- not the nippondenso). This prooblem only surfaced after running a bunch of "stuff" off the power in the car. I bet a capicatator or 2 on the system can resolve this as well... If anyone has any other ideas, I'm open! Emil
First, I thought that all 355s came with nippondenso units, with the 348 (or at least the early ones) suffering the dreaded GM Alternator problem? Anyway, one common problem with the charging system on 355s is the lack of a proper groundstrap from the alternator to the frame. There is an update. $20 for the wire from Ferrari, takes a few minutes to install. Check and see if it's there, my guess is that this will solve your problem. vty, --Dennis
I have replaced the alternator twice on my '95 F355B. The first time I had the grounding strap added. A year later, the alternator went bad again.
