Went to start my 2015 F12 this morning, car went through its diagnostics and then hit the start button- nothing. Waited a few minutes tried it again, car did not go through its diagnostic test. Waited 15 minutes, car went through diagnostic but hit the red button - nada Lights are on, windows work etc. don't think it's a dead battery. Last time I drove the car was about 5 days ago. Anybody have this issue yet? Dealer will flat bed the car Monday. Great day in Chicago for a run!!!!
Probably is a dead battery. Scroll up your voltmeter in the left TFT and see what it reads. Less than ~ 11 volts and the starter won't have enough voltage to crank though you still have accessories. Next put on your battery tender and let it sit overnight. There is a good chance it will start and you won;t have to use the flat bed. You may need to invest in a new battery though. PS same thing happened in my 458 when it arrived... even one day would put it out of action. Replaced the battery. Fine ever since. Good luck.
nobliesse, thanks, My mechanic checks his email's on the weekends (this is the Ferrari mechanic) and said it is likely a dead battery. Car has about 250 miles on it. So it would be a warranty replacement by Ferrari if it is the battery. pretty sad that sitting 5 days and the battery goes dead. I did hear this about the 458's. My 458 had no battery issues for the 3 years I owned it. Thanks again.
Unfortunately, the down time during shipping and dealer prep is the time that a battery is apt to fail. It is actually pretty frequent as far as I can tell, but it does not happen every time. And modern starter motors have a pretty abrupt threshold for starting voltage. Below a certain level, and you will get nothing: not even a tick tick tick. But you will still have accessories so no problem with locks; disengaging the transmission etc. if you have to pull on to a flat bed. But do try the tender. Always good to avoid a flat bed if you can.
Get a trickle charger and hook it up every time the car is to sit for more then 3 days. Had the same issue with Bentley Speed a few years ago. Not so with my 10 year old Porsche that sat undriven for over a month while I was in Europe and started immediately.
I had the same experience with my 458. Connected it overnight to the tender and drove it to the dealer. Also a battery issue. Cheers,
Out of town now. If they damage my car on a flat bed they can replace all the damaged parts. Unrealistic to always keep my car on a tender every 3 days. The Ferrari manual should have said this. My 458 went several weeks without the tendor and started up just fine.
Everyone has their own rule of thumb on how long to go before putting it on the tender. Mine is a week. It is not that it won't start after a week or 10 days. It certainty will. The issue is that repeated deeper cyclings of a lead acid battery shorten its life.
I was told by the dealer to connect the car to the battery charger As often as possible. Always thought this was somewhat exaggeration No problems yet, but was wondering if this could short my FFs battery life.
Had a similar problem with my 458. It HAD been on the battery tender and would not start. Got flat bedded to dealer. Dealer had no problem charging battery. Turned out the problem was a bad tender, not the battery. Service manager told me that a bad tender will drain the battery down. Fwiw.
Unusual. Were the green and yellow charging lights operating normally? Another test is to open the car door when the battery is fully charged (green lights on). The yellow light should go on immediately, stay on for a few minutes, then change to green.
A new battery will sort the issue I'm sure and once you have a new battery, I wouldn't worry about putting on a tender unless it's well over a week. I have had no problems with my F12. If you have had any after market stuff installed (e.g. radar detector), if it wasn't installed properly, it could have a draw on the battery even though the car is off.
I expect my FF and California to last MORE than two weeks without the charger. When it won't last that long then the battery has failed. The FF went to 3 days for a while, then two, then one, then nothing as the battery was no good. I replaced a battery some months before because a 'crackling' sound was coming through the speakers during starting up which went away with the new battery. The dealer says batteries should last much longer that I experienced, just had a couple bad batteries. I put the tender on when I hit a couple weeks without driving, no less. Daily or weekly breaks I do not bother.
Rick agree with you related to the tender. They are picking up my F12 Wednesday. Technician is at Ferrari training this week. He will look at it Saturday. Before anyone goes WTF - it's fine with me. Out of town so can't drive it anyway. Thanks for the ideas. Will let you know what it is.
And I agree with no technician at times ... they have a life too, and training, they get sick, have family problems, but never deserve a vacation . I'm extremely fortunate, when one Ferrari gets ill I have another to drive. Plenty of folks here don't know how to spell daily driver anyway.
Mechanic conclusion: Keep the car on the trickle charger when ever not using the car. I said I never had this issue with my 458, he mentioned that there are about 50% more computers in the F12 than in the 458. Some of the computers continue to "work-monitor" the car even after the car is turned off and drain off the battery. In other words, owner fault.
I took delivery of 2014 F12 in mid March. I live in central Illinois, so I don't drive it in bad weather. I have about 3600 miles on it. I've never used the battery tender. Maybe longest car has not been driven is 5 consecutive days. Most frequently 2 consecutive days of nondriving. Distance to work is about 9 miles.
Latest update. When starting the car, it would not go through its diagnostic test and then got numerous warnings to take car to dealer. Car did start, dealer determined bad battery which was replaced. Hope this solves the issue.
Does the F12 have a standard car battery or a special one, like lithium ion? I'd be shocked if a car couldn't sit at least 2-3 weeks without a charger or driving it. I've had cars sit for even a month or more and fire up just fine. If the car battery died after 3 days, I call bull**** on it being your fault. Sounds like a bad battery to me and should be replaced for free.
Further update, after replacing the battery and a few days later, noticed some of the previous issues coming back. What we now think it is, the Bluetooth for music streaming stays on after the car is parked and thus draining the battery. At night my iPhone is still in range of my car. I even close out on my iphone music but for whatever reason the car is still streaming music even with the switch off for sound etc. Mechanic will likely call Ferrari. Anyone else stream music and had any issues?
