Dead battery recommendations

Hey all, I have been having battery issues since last year. Battery is likely at least 5 years old and due to be replaced. Even after charging it on the tender overnight, it will start a few times and then die as I don't think it's taking a charge from the alternator. I am in Louisville, KY. Does anyone have a recommendation of who can replace it? I think an interstate MT-93 is the way to go??? Do you think I absolutely need a dealer to swap it or is there a good local place?

 

Eric, you can manage this yourself. I am an absolute novice and managed to change the battery and it was very satisfying. Please look back at threads I have been on and you will see a fellow F-Chat member gave step by step instructions. It sounds like you need a new battery now.

 

Eric, I agree with J.S. you can do this. The Interstate MT 93 is the way to go in my opinion. Make sure you turn the power switch off next to the battery, I use an Alan wrench, push in and turn counter clock wise. On the top of the battery there are two little arrows which releases the cover. Change the battery and turn the power back on and give the car 5 minutes to reset itself. Good Luck!

 

If it starts but doesn’t take a charge it is likely your charging system. The battery may be bad too but you need to look at the charging system.


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My 612 is an 09 OTO. Not sure if that matters. The battery in it right now is an interstate MTP49-H8. I looked at the back threads and thought the MT7-34R was the correct one? Is one the correct AGM and the other a non-AGM? They are very different in shape. I did find the thread with instructions too and can follow them. Just want to make sure it’s the right battery. Also the old one won’t even take a charge now (did before) which hopefully leads me to believe it was 100% the battery vs a bad alternator or something.
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If it won't charge then it is most likely the battery. I am not sure what battery goes in the 612 but it should be easy to look up.

 

The MT7-34R has been replaced with the MTZ-34R and it is the correct battery for the 599 if you want a good AGM battery. My 575 uses the same size battery and has the predecessor MT7-34R, which has been outstanding. The new MTZ should be even better.

https://www.interstatebatteries.com/products/mtz-34r

 

Taz I have a 612 OTO. Did you mean a 612 or 599?

 

As I am in Europe I went for a Bosch S5 A13 on the advice of a fellow F-Chatter who works at Bosch! Snug fit in the 612 but it fits with some encouragement thought the terminals aren’t the easiest for placement

 

Someone want to show me step 2 - cut off the power with the red key next to the battery and take off the key. I don’t see where that is???

 

Ok if it’s the torx screw I got it.

 

Interstate shows the same battery size for the 599 and 612. So many battery threads, I forget which one I am posting in.

 

I went for an Optima red top battery. Interstate was a special order and I did not want to wait. Optima is smaller in size. It's been in the car for almost 2 years now with no issues.

 

So I thought I would update this tread on the dead battery issue. I recently found that I needed to replace my 4 year old battery, which I just did with a new Interstate battery.

The interesting part is that I didn’t know I had a dead battery (or a battery going dead). My 612 is a daily driver and I rarely plug in the battery tender. For the last few days in the morning when I started it up it sounded like for a second or two it was only firing on a few cylinders and then after a second all cylinders would kick in and it would run fine. This only happened in the morning when the car was cold. I went to my mechanic and he explained when the battery was at less than a full charge only one bank of cylinders would fire as to not overly drain the battery and then when it successfully fired and the alternator was charging then the other bank would fire. Hence what I thought was the engine not firing on all cylinders was in fact just that.

So if you ever have this happen when you start up, you probably have a battery that is going dead. Live and learn!

 

I almost didn't respond because I don't want this to come off as critical or in any way disrespectful to your mechanic, but I find that hard to believe. I'm curious if others can verify that, and if they can then it is indeed a lesson learned for me!

And btw, I do appreciate your follow up.

 

Paul, we all can only rely on what people tell us. So no offense at all. All I can say is that the car has started fine now for 2 days in a row and the only thing the mechanic did was replace the battery. The mechanic is a Ferrari trained mechanic and used to work at Ferrari of Newport Beach before he started his own shop. So it will be interesting to hear what others say.

 

Yes, a battery can cause one ECU to not start promptly and you will drop one bank. I am glad that you got it sorted. Paul is right though: I don't buy your mechanics description AT ALL, total BS. The high drain is in starting the car, not firing the sparkplugs; and the alternator is working when the car is running so it can easily fire the sparkplugs.

Oh well, all fixed now and good to go.

 

Sometimes the message gets muddled between what the tech says and what the owner hears and understands. Like it does with your wife or girlfriend.

 

Yes, Taz is right! Maybe that is why I have had so many wives/girlfriends!

My fault. Skidkid, you correctly described what the mechanic said. He said that one ECU did not start promptly because of the low battery, therefore I dropped to one bank, that bank fired and then after a second the second bank fired. The whole process only took a second or two. I thought that is what I said, but obviously I am not technically proficient at describing what I was told.

 

No fault. Heck, sometimes I read what I wrote here and I think 'what the ??? was I talking about.' Failure to communicate what is clear in our heads is universal.

 

Thanks for your kindness John.

The interesting take away, for at least me, is if your car is missing on initial start up it might be a battery going dead. I never heard of that before. I was used to wrenching 60s cars and if the battery was going dead you would get the “tick, tick, tick” and it wouldn’t turn over or maybe it would turn over slowly.

 

This vintage Ferrari is very sensitive to voltage. That means there are other potential issues and odd behaviors: you can get parking sensor errors, CAN bus errors, electrical system failure warning, warnings about seat warmers, and other things. They all magically go away when your battery is working properly. AND you really need to let it get to Check OK before starting the car or you can get a bunch of issues from that. So I guess starting them is a little about having a process and following it, totally worth it.

 

Also you might get a new Ctek battery tender which will require a new dongle or salvage the one off the OEM charger. I want to keep that OEM charger “as is” so I opted for a new dongle. The Ferrari service manager suggested I upgrade to the Ctek as he said the OEM charger was not so reliable from his experience- so I took his advise. Went on line & found the dongle and Ctek I wanted. No problems since which was over a year ago.

 

Randy, personally I have never had any problems with the OEM battery tender in my 4 years of ownership. But I also only rarely use it when I go on trips because otherwise I drive my car everyday. Of course lack of use may be why my OEM battery tender still works.

But for everybody else here could you indicate the Ctek and dongle you got and where you sourced them. I sure that will be useful to someone in the future.

 

Here's the one I bought earlier this year after the OEM tender failed for a second time on me. The first time it was connected to an extension cord and I thought maybe there was a faulty connection. The second time it happened there was no faulty connection, clearly it was the tender. Very happy with this CTEK model. It has several capabilities, and with the clips I can use it on other batteries.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ferrari-CTEK-MUS-7002-Battery-Charger-Adapter-360-F430-458-California-599-612/192365458849?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649