Dead Battery While on the Ferrari Trickle Charger

My guess is a defective battery from what you've described.

If you've had it on the trickle and you've driven it once a week and it's completely dead, it can't be either the alternator AND the trickle charger that are both defective.

BTW: I leave mine alone for over 2 weeks without starting and it's always started without an issue. Even 3 I think. I've never used the trickle once.

Hope they get you on the road quick!

 

Suspect it is a dud battery. Mine is good for just about three weeks between drives but dead after anything more. Trickle charger solved it.

 

Easy to test for a dud battery.

Good luck. Please let us know the results.

 

I can't see how. You may have had a bad battery from the start.

 

I leave mine in the whole time and never caused an issue so very unlikely. I agree with The Mayor, it was a dud from the beginning.

 

70 is BAD. 90 would be "ok".

When you say you can't get it to 100, over what time are you charging it to get to 70? Where did is start from when you first charged it? 0? If it was zero, the battery will never come back to 100% ever...

The starting voltage is really on the very bottom at about 11-11.5 volts in most cars.

 

This.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/repair-questions/4221215

And this.

http://www.ehow.com/video_2319935_test-car-battery-multimeter.html

And this.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGMmtcsuLgc[/ame]

 

Added a third which may help as well. Trickle charger should be showing 1.2 to 2 amps when plugged in. Check the specs on your charger. It takes about 7 hours to charge a 12 volt battery with a 2 amp charger. A 1.2 amp will not charge a battery that is 90% down.


Good luck.

 

You will need to charge it a good 4 to 6 hours more. It will get slower and slower as it climbs.

Starting at 8% is really bad. Most likely, the battery has had some damage now. The question is how the battery got to 8%. That part, I do not understand as you say you drove it once a week and trickle charged it. Something does not add up. You may have an electrical problem.

 

Had a similar problem today. Wanted to take out my beloved Spider for a ride but it did not start after only 3 days in the garage. Battery was not dead but below 11 which was not enough. I have now connected the trickle charger and the car should start ok tomorrow again (had this issue before).

Three days is obviously way too short so I wonder what could deplete the battery so fast? (or the battery is damaged). I had removed my Ipod so this was not the issue.

I have spoken directly with Ferrari in Maranello about this problem but clearly I am not the only one.

I will take the car to the dealer next week to see what is going on.

 

Wow three days... that's bad. Let us know what the situation is.

I have often wondered if switching to a higher capacity battery would help this. In my Maserati, I put in a Interstate Megatron and it's absolutely the best battery I've had for long term storage problems. No other battery even comes close, including Optima (which ironically was one of the worst).

 

Bob, that seems unsual to be able to leave your car without the trickle for 3 weeks and it still starts. I presume you don't lock your car when its not used. Locking the car does draw substantially more on the battery even with the trickle charge on.

 

I accept what you are saying but I'm not sure why a locked car uses more power than an unlocked one.

 

The head mechanic at our dealership explained to me that it has someting to do with the additional antitheft systems (internal motion sensors and anti-lift system) being activated when the car is locked. I'm sure there is other program issues that are activated but there is certainly a marked difference between locked and unlocked.

 

No, I put on the alarm and lock the doors. It's never had a problem starting.

 

I think it's because you are activating the alarm.

 

Ok, that's interesting - I wonder if the trickle then is perhaps the culprit!!

 

I have no idea. I can't charge it in my condo complex and when I travel, it just sits there. I'll be back home next Saturday afternoon and that will be a little more than 2 weeks since the last drive. It's not unusual for me as I travel a lot.

Mine's a 2012. I don't know if that matters but maybe they did some software or hardware to improve it. Or, maybe it's that the battery is still really new.

BTW: I never had this problem with my F430 either under the exact same situation for 3 years. I never had a dead battery once, but the dealer did replace it about 2 years in because they found a small leak during it's annual.

*Covered under warranty which was cool.

 

Yeh, mine's a 2012 as well so no issue with longevity. I might try not using the trickle like you and see if there is a difference.

Also, are you saying you that can lock the car without activating the alarm?

Cheers

 

No, I just do what I normally do with the remote. The alarm is on. I never tried it by just using the key.

My understanding is that if you start a car, it takes about 20 minutes at idle to make back that lost energy. That may be old data but that was the rule of thumb I used in the past.

So, if you start the car and let it run a few minutes to charge, you're not really doing much of any good aside from warming it up.