Electrical issue after 550 transported from FL to CA

I just bought a 2000 550 and had it transported from Florida to CA. The car was driven onto the transport, and then moved one time to the upper level during the trip. Upon arrival, the car would not start, no red alarm light. Battery is charged, all fuses check OK. I put a new battery in the remote, but nothing.

The mechanic who worked on the car in FL said it's likely a blown fuse to the alarm system. He said it's location doesn't show up in the repair manual, you have to look for it.

Anyone know where the fuse to the alarm is located?

 

Jim, the first question that comes to my mind is how old is the battery? Many times with these Fcars the older batteries show charged but cannot carry the load for these finicky cars.
If it's an older battery I'd replace it with a New fully charged one and start there. Also might be a good time to establish a relationship with the best qualified tech you can fine in your area.
I'm sure you'll get some more ideas here as well.
Bill
FL

 

Hi Bill,
Brand new battery, fully charged (checked with volt meter).

 

Jim- Make sure you pinched the contacts on the fob where the battery fits and that you are getting a red fob LED light when you press the fob button.

Is she turning over and not starting or not turning over? On the 550, I believe if the alarm system is not happy, she will not even turn over. On the 575M, she will turn over, but not start. It varies from model to model depending on which Motronic system is fitted.

 

550 will not turn over if alarm not happy. Describe exactly what you are doing to start the car. Also, the shipper did not turn the battery disconnect switch off by the battery for travel did he???

 

As Carl said, I'd check the battery disconnect switch, and while you're poking around down in that area, reset the inertia switch (disables starting if tripped).

 

Here's something weird: I came home last night and my emergency lights were flashing (I had pressed the switch many times before to see if they would work). Now the alarm light flashes. Seems it took a whole day or more to sort itself out? Fuse reconnected? Phase of the moon?

But, pressing the button on the fob had no effect. The light on the fob works. Of course, I don't have the PIN so I can't go that way.

(I noticed when I turned on the radio that there were 4 asterisks in the center of the display and a row of numbers across the bottom. It appears that this is another way to enter the PIN?)

If the key fob doesn't work tonight, I'm thinking that I'll need to replace the immobiliser setup along with new keys.

 

That's the radio code, if you don't have it you can get it online with the serial number on the rear of the radio.

 

Jim,

The radio and immobilizer each have their own PIN.

As John mentioned, check to see that the inertia switch wasn't tripped. Then disconnect the battery with the battery disconnect switch, wait a few minutes, then reconnect the battery with the switch and see what happens with your fob.

Barry

 

Thanks, everyone. The key fob no longer works. I've tried dozens of combinations of things. Seems the immobilser has gone into learning mode, if that is possible. And with no PIN...

 

Might suggest that you find a good specialist in your area and get some assistance. Seems like all the easy steps have been taken and a little assistance might be needed and helpful.

There are dealers in your area and maybe your next thread should be asking for some names of good independents.

the fun can quickly go away and that is the reason you bought this car.

Just a thought.

I am sure you were aware of the expenses these cars can bring. Once sorted out, they are fantastic and fun. Between now and then, you may be spending a little money. Hopefully that was built into your purchase price.

 

Jim,

Somehow I think we are not getting the whole story. Not getting the whole story often clouds potential diagnosis which is already near impossible from a keyboard.

That said based on your posts sounds like someone cut the power to the car. That is why there is the request for radio code. It also appears that you did not press the fob but pressed and held it. Read the owners manual on the alarm. There is a mode where you can hold the button and send the alarm into panic mode to make the siren blare to attract attention like if you get robbed. I can't exactly remember how that mode works but iirc it was press and hold for 3 seconds. You need to get out of panic mode which is indicated by flashing lights you can't turn off. You get out of that mode iirc by pressing the button and holding for 3-5 seconds and the flashes will stop if you havent already killed the battery for the continued flashing. Once you get the car to stop flashing and know you have a fully charged battery DON'T GUESS, then get in the car and put key in ignition. Then press the fob once and the car should at least crank over and probably start if you hold the key for a few seconds.

if the siren is dead which happens to many of these cars the imobilizer will work fine and the only indication of function is the lights and near silent click of the light's relay. We can talk you through that once you get the car started.

 

Jim, lots of people here are willing to help but we need more information.

When was the last time the car started with the key fob working?

What is the state of the red alarm LED on the dash, blinks once every two seconds? or what?

Are you aware we are speaking of two different things when we say "Inertia switch" and "anti-lift sensor?

Have you checked the voltage in the remote battery? should be 12 volts. Just because the remote LED works does not necessarily mean there is enough voltage for the transmitter.

You can download the alarm manual here
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/456-550-575-sponsored-bradan/513725-550-alarm-length-life-battery.html#post144510037

 

The story gets weirder, but first:
Checked car battery with voltmeter - OK
Checked fob battery (new) with voltmeter - OK
Checked all fuses with ohm meter - OK

Car was driven in FL and driven onto the transport.
Car was moved once when another car was delivered somewhere in Texas.

When car arrived, only the dash, windows, and seats were working. No alarm light, flashers, horn, etc. Note that the relays would click when I turned the lights on, same with high beam flash. But no lights.

Checked inertia/impact switch. It did go down a little when I pressed on it.

Used battery disconnect overnight - two days ago.

Reconnected in the morning, went to work.

When I came home two nights ago, electrical was working, including the flashing alarm light. Key fob would not disable the alarm/immobiliser, so car would not turn over.

Last night, my girlfriend said did you try to unlock the car when the windows were up. So I went out, got in the car, set the door locks, closed the windows. I then pressed the key fob button next to the seat and, to my amazement, the alarm chirped and the light went off!! The car started! (Closed windows a coincidence?)

I grabbed my girlfriend and we went for a nice ride in the back roads, about 10 miles. When I was 3 blocks from home, sitting at a red light, all of the lights went off! No dash lights, emergency blinker, horn, etc. Luckily the engine was still running and I was able to drive home (carefully) in the dark.

Now, we noticed the green indicator on the upper left of the dash (fog lights on?), and when we were coming home my girlfriend starting pushing buttons. She may have pressed the ASR button about the time that the lights went off. Any connection?

Another strange one: while I was on my driveway waiting for the garage door to open, steam starting poring out of the right side of the engine compartment... Something came loose or popped - not sure if this has anything to do with the electrical. (Red herring?)

Anyway, I immediately pulled the car into the garage, turned off the key, and now I'm back to nothing working except the dash, windows, and seats.

I'm thinking that when the car was on the transport that a connector came loose. Or could the ASR have something to do with it? Could this be a fault in the immobiliser itself?

 

OK, now we know the alarm system is OK.

This is going to sound dumb but...

On the fuse panel there are two big red cables plugged into the right front corner. Check those for corrosion, check the terminals on the other end of that two wire cable for voltage. Make sure that you are getting current to the fuse panel on both cables.

If you determine that there is voltage to the entire fuse panel you may have a problem with the fuse panel itself.

See this thread for more info.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/456-550-575-sponsored-bradan/427763-fusebox-repair.html
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Has anyone washed the car?

 

Probably when the fan relays tried to turn the fans on, the current peak burnt a cold weld in the fuse panel (and the fans failed to start).

The expansion tank vented due to overheating maybe? Was the temperature gauge working?

As the engine was still running only part of the fuse panel was isolated.
If you don't find any corrosion or bad connections in the fuse panel, I would re-heat all the solder points at the back of it with a big soldering iron and see if that cures the problem.

Stefano

 

Thanks for the help, everyone. The issue with the fuse box/board could be the problem. I must admit that that picture of the little green snakes (rewiring of the fuse box) was intimidating.

As for the heating, can't be sure of the temperature at the time because the lights went out! But looking at the anti-freeze on the driveway, I think I got really lucky with it blowing just when I got home.

I'll look at the fuse box and post here when I find out more.

-Jim

 

Jim, It looks like have power to part of the fuse panel but intermittent power to the rest of it. I suspect either corrosion on one of the two spade terminals on the big power cable I pictured or a cold solder joint on it's receptacle in the fuse board.

Try unplugging and reinserting that big plug several times with the battery turned off then turn on the battery. Reason for that is to avoid possible damage to the airbag ECU.

 

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your suggestion to wiggle the cable from the battery wire junction. That worked once, I was able to start the car. To check whether I would get stuck if I went for a drive, I turned off the key. The alarm light was blinking, but when I pressed the fob, everything went off again.

Note that this must have been an issue before, as there was silicone grease around the connections at the fuse box (go figure). I'm going to try to make up another cable from parts from the hardware store.

By the way, where did you get that cool picture of the assembly of the fuse box components? I didn't see it in the Service Manual I have.

Also, thanks for the help with the visor.

-Jim

 

I really suspect you have a "cold solder joint" in the fuse box. Probably at the connection to the main input cables. I suspect that it is the spade terminal on the left as you are looking at the fuse box based on what you have said so far about the engine kept running but the lights went out.

I think you are going to have to bite the bullet and pull the fuse panel out and disassemble it.

On edit: I have a spare fuse box so just for kicks I opened it and sure enough, the solder joints at the mains connection look very suspicious. I can clearly see evidence of poor solder flow although I still have continuity.
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I took out the fuse box. Behold, someone has been in here before. There was a lousy soldering job on the incoming 12V connections. So this electrical problem has happened before.

Note that I also had a water leak at the fill tank. I removed the hoses from the tank. I found deposit build up on one of the small pipes, and the hose end was ruined because it was tightened too much. I used a wire brush and steel wool to clean it off, then cut off a short piece of the hose to get to the good material.

So happy hands have visited this car before.

Dave, any suggestions on touching up the soldering? I'm not ready to take the plunge to rewire just yet.

-Jim
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It is amazing to have someone solder parts for a quarter million dollar car who obviously never soldered before. It could have been done better by a high school shop class.

At this point I would heat the solder joint and bang it on the table gently so the molton solder falls off. You could use proper suction device and or solderwick. If you do my quicky method make sure the molton solder does not harden on something else like an unlikely bridging of two other terminals. Then inspect the joint to make sure you got good clean parts to solder. Then resolder the joint. You could be super lazy and wire brush the existing joint and solder over if you make sure you got clean parts of metal to solder to.

 

Jim, I would get some flux paste first, put a little on and heat it up, then try touching up with some small size flux core solder. The problem is that the prongs on those tabs were not cleaned or the plating was incompatible with the solder, or no flux was used.

Another alternative way it to grind the tips and solder down a bit with a very small Dremel bit so you have fresh bare metal then solder over with a flux core solder.

I think the second way is probably better.

 

Thanks, guys. I do have a soldering iron and have been doing soldering for decades. Just want to be sure that this turns out well.