Can anyone direct me to the issue of a constant dead battery on a 360 coup? Car started perfectly fine and had no issues with poor battery start. battery always cranked. one day it just didnt start. nothing but the clicking sound. replaced with correct top of the line Interstate battery. Next day, battery was totally dead. There doesnt seem to be any noticeable draw or load on the battery that I can see. Ie: lights, blinkers, dash lights, etc. if you have any knowledge of what I should be looking at to fix the problem, would be greatly appreciated in advance. Thanks, D
If you put in a new battery and it's dead now, then: a) your charging system (alternator) is not charging b) or you have a constant drain c) or both. I'd do a voltage check of the charging from alternator, and then if that does not prove positive I'd remove the pan and physically look at the alternator to see if a bad connection, etc.
I'll also add to check the charge at the battery terminal and then at terminal behind the seat. Could be corrosion or bad cable/connection... sorry to hear...
All good suggestions. From your description I would suspect the charging system. The connection to the alternator is a known weak point plus the alternator itself takes a lot of heat and fails on occasion. If charging isn't the issue go to the fuse panel. Pull individual fuses and put a current meter in the circuit. It will show what is pulling the current and running down the battery.
I found the computer don't sleep unless the trunk is completely closed. Any chance that is the problem? Jeff Pintler 89 348tb, 86 yr, 99 360 3pedal
You could also have a bad alternator harness, you will need to look at the harness coming off the alternator, and if you have about 6 inches or so of brittle cable, you need a new harness. There is an upgraded harness available from Ferrari, unfortunately this was never a factory recall, unless you were lucky enough to have this fail under warranty. Were you using a trickle charger before? Were you using a cig lighter adapter? Sometimes even "new" batteries you purchase are bad, you might get it tested, I put a "new" battery in my RX-7, moved to driver's side rear compartment, but it died soon after too. Was a bad battery, they had to order a new one that hadn't been sitting on the stock shelf for over a year. A brand new battery usually would not drain in one day, I think you have something else going on, but could be one of the things listed above.
just had the exact same thing happen to me - car started and drove awesome yesterday at 5 pm - battery is very new and has always been maintained, went out today (20 hrs later) went to start it to check the radio etc and the dash just whined, and seemed dim, went to reset the key, then the /ASR fault comes on, windows will barely budge, checked voltage on the battery and it is 11.6 V - that is WAY low considering it cranked perfectly and strong last night... no lights were left on and it was just sitting... guessing that wire cracked on me on the alternator? gonna have to go in for an inspection... wondering if after I charge the battery their will be enough juice to get me 10 kms to the shop...? just a little concerned... KK
You state the "battery is very new ". How new? It is possible you could have a bad cell that just decided to bite the dust. If the battery is not holding a charge then any of the above suggestions could be the part of the cause as well. You could start by checking the cables on the battery for contact and tightness. Be careful of that metal bar that supports the foot rest. It can short the battery if it contacts and will make a terrible mess.
Any aftermarket electronics? They are often the cause of a dead battery. Also, if you do a search you'll find that a defective door micro-switch has been found to be the cause of battery drain.
K well start with the simplest, Battery is 2 years old and has less than 1000km on it - it was on a trickle all winter and started right away and has been left for up to 2 weeks and always fired right up like a brand new battery every time and it did this yesterday 2wice - initial start in the AM and coming home from work in the PM and it was rock solid. - no aftermarket bits - bone stock 2004 with 35000 KMs on it. usually if the battery was older it would gradually degrade, not go dead flat in 20 hrs in 20 deg cel weather.. I've put it back on the trickle and will take off it tonight at 9 pm and do a voltage test.. if it is a switch it will kill the battery overnight, if it is a duff alternator connection, the charge degradation should be minimal. all terminals are tight and clean... we'll see what we find out in the next 24 hrs,,,,
The summary is good. If the battery is up to snuff (charged) after being on the tender overnight then that tells me that your alternator is not properly outputting! You could check the fuse associated with the alternator output. If it is good then either your regular is bad or the alternator circuit has a fault. Those are both within the alternator. So it it turns out that the car starts after being on the tender, then it looks like an alternator issue.
thx for the note - also should note thatI checked the mini fuse on the hot battery feed and it is good too.... I'll be pulling the tender off as soon as the light goes green, measuring the voltage and then doing a 8 hr delay second test, if that shows similar voltage (allowing for some milliamp draw) its going to either be a duff alternator, a duff main fuse or a fried connector on the alternator - the seem to cook off a fair bit from what I have read.. ah joy....
I think you will find that after an 8 hour standdown your battery will be fine. It does sound as if your alternator is not outputting. When driving your battery is also feeding the ECU's and draining quickly. I would check the electrical connection to the alternator as well.
Had a month old Interstate battery die on me, but it was just a bad cell or something. Replaced under warranty. That does not sound like your problem though. As others have said, the battery is either not getting charged, or something is draining it. Electrical gremlins are the pits. I just finally got one fixed that bugged me for months. Took three or four tries to locate the problem. Good luck.
so we are now at part 2 of the triage. with the trickle charger on over night, (without isolating the battery) we only got up to 12.24 volts. just for ****s and giggles , I've isolated the battery with the battery isolated (switch engaged in the trunk) and w'll see how it charges up.. I'm guessing it will be fine and go up to to 13+ volts...that triage will pinpoint that it is a drain somewhere.. then comes the hard part... finding it Ugh- thx for assisting with the pointers and we'll see where this leads... KK34
OK - so why the battery tender Junior it took 24 hrs to get to 12.9 Volts and it stayed that way for 3 hrs when isolated with no degradation. re-engaged the battery isolation switch and went through the start sequence- car was not happy for the first 3 seconds or so while the computers figured things out and the set to idle for 10 mins while resetting - charge rate from the alternator at the battery terminals peeked at 14 on high idle.. took for a 10 min drive after the warm up sequence, and re-tested alternator charge rate at the terminals and it is 13.8V so that is good, shut it down and get a nominal voltage at the terminals of 12.9 which is good for a resting state. I've left the car in non-isolation state and will go back in 4 hours and see what our voltage is at.. good times. I'll be quite peeved if its an intermittent micro switch as that will be a PITA to isolate ... and I really don't feel like getting stranded somewhere with a flat battery again... KK
If you have a multimeter, one way to know for sure if there is an undue 'trickle' is to put the multimeter into current mode (mA or Amps) and place it in series with the battery, i.e. disconnect one of the battery terminals and put the meter in between - make sure it is in current mode otherwise voltage mode just blocks the current. I haven't done this myself, but I would expect a reading of 10s of milliamps, rather than 100s or even above an amp. If you are reading high, then you could isolate it by pulling fuses... Dont forget to put the multimeter back into voltage mode when you're finished...
that's going to be the next step.... just came back after being out for 2 hours and static volts is now down to 12.75... - next step will be the milliamp test ah the joy of electrical troubleshooting... KK
this might be helpful... https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/questions-about-f430-door-micro-switches-battery-drain.573612/#post-145923917
yeah after 6 hours of sitting we are only down to 12.7 volts on the battery so I'm left wondering if it was a perfect storm situation - will do more data tracking on loses, then if the pattern returns, will start doing the inline amp pull fuse process . good times this electrical trouble shooting - ps thx for the switch link
Sometimes relays hang-up and stay energized. Another test is to let the car rest for a while then feel the relays in front and behind the Driver & Passenger panels The one that feels warm or hot is your culprit. My old Porsche used to eat batteries and I found the power window relay on a cold morning so hot I had to use pliers to remove it. That was 4 years ago and it still starts strong. Good luck
thx guys,, well the car sat for 24 hrs and no loss now and it started bang up no problems.. I'll tuck it all back together as I now won't be able to troubleshoot till the drain re-appears - good times KK
