Hi Guys, It's starting to get cold here in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US and I have not yet put my '86 Mondial 3.2 Cabrio away for the winter. Still holding out for a few more days of driving before she goes into hibernation for the winter. Anyway, with temps recently dropping into the 20's and I haven't driven the car in 2 weeks, I'm wondering if the battery may have died? If so, I was wondering if I can go ahead and jump start the car without any problems? Or is there anything I should be aware of before I do? I know the Mondials don't have the ECU chips like the modern cars. Can I just go ahead and hook up the jumper cables to the proper terminals and try jump starting the car? Bill P.
Hey Bill, we keep a Battery Tender on our Mondial at all times. The battery is 8 years old and works perfectly. I wouldn't worry about jumping it if you can get the cable on the terminal (might be difficult) Are you sure you want to hibernate it? We try to drive ours in the winter after the occasional rain washes off the salt. Dave
Hi Bill, Yes, you should be fine, there are no electronics in a 3.2 that will get fried. If you truly want to go the safe route, run an extension chord out to the car, get a slow charger (ctek) and let it charge for a day or two. see my thread: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/142108233-post27.html Best
Hey Dave, Good to hear from you! We miss seeing you at Fairlakes Cars and Coffee, but I understand you're doing a lot more flying now which sounds really cool. Yeah, I unfortunately have to store the car because I don't have a garage. So I store her at my Mom's house during the winter WITH a battery tender. I'm just trying to hold off until the last minute before I store her. Look forward to seeing you at a future event! Thanks Mike! I knew you'd respond and WITH photos!! You are so awesome documenting stuff like this! I'm almost certain my battery will still have juice. I don't know how old the battery is. It came with the car when I bough it last year. I plan on starting it tonight and taking her for a quick drive. I just wanted to be prepared just in case. I currently have an Interstate battery. Glad to hear you like Optima batteries. Where did you get yours? Bill
I only bought an Optima because that was the brand/model in my car at the time. Picked it up at Autozone I believe for $180. But so far its been very reliable since 2012. I do place my cTek charger on it if the car sits more than 4 weeks. Since you have an Interstate, from what I remember, its as good or better relative to the Optima. Best, Mike
There is the battery kill switch next to the battery that I suggest you turn off when charging. Probably good to exercise that switch once in a while.
I think you should be fine if the battery is otherwise ok. Just be sure that the battery in the car will accept a charge... if it doesn't (i.e. it's truly shot), I'd replace it with a freshly-charged battery. While it's true that there are no microprocessors or microcontrollers, they nonetheless do have solid-state electronics; in the instruments, in the heat/ac controls, and in the digiplex ignition units (where a PROM lives, IIRC). We've all read the cautionary instruction about "not jump starting a Ferrari"... this is my reasoning: I think the danger here is "load dump". Load dump occurs when a battery is disconnected from a car's electrical system while the alternator is running. When this happens, the voltage regulation will get very rough, and inductive transients from the alternator windings can rise to hundreds of volts, and this can kill electronics. Automotive design engineers know all about this, and there are specifications for safeguarding against load dump as well as testing equipment with simulated load dump. So here's a possible scenario: I think the problem may arise when a car with a truly defective battery is given a jump start -- the car will start and then of course the next step is to disconnect whatever was used to jump start it. If the battery in the car then acts like an open circuit (for example), or has very small amp-hour capacity (for another example), a load-dump situation will occur when the charging source is disconnected -- and there's a risk of damaging solid-state electronics. So I'd just use a little caution... if the battery is merely discharged but is capable of being charged, you should be fine once it's charged. If the thing is inop due to a defect, or if the terminals are so corroded that they present a high-resistance connection, there might be some risk. I think the safest thing is to just put in on a charger until a good charge is indicated. The multi-stage chargers meant for marine use are what I use. Note that a battery "maintainer" or small trickle charger may not charge a deeply discharged battery at all, or it may take a very long time. These things are all my personal opinion, but I think it's mostly right. Sorry for the long response, storage batteries are a sort of hobby for me (the house here is partially solar-electric with a couple of huge battery banks.)
Thanks for the replies guys. So, last night I attempted to start the car. Battery was too low to start the car. I jump started the car and it started on the 1st turn. Didn't have to wait long at all. Drove the car for about 25-30 minutes to charge the battery. When I got back, I turned the car off, waited a few minutes and started it again. Started no problem. Last night, the temps were down in the 20's. I'm wondering if the battery is drained again? When I get some daylight, I will look at the battery to see if I can tell how old it is. May have to get one sooner rather than later. I will hopefully drive the car tomorrow to work AND will definitely be driving it on Saturday to a local car event at our local Ferrari Dealer. Thanks again for the feedback. Next week is looking to be in the 60's!! Bill
I use the a battery 'tender' on my battery. The battery is 10 years old and has gone through 10 Michigan winters. I do not turn on the 'kill' switch on the terminal when on the tender.....don't know if that will increase or decrease the life of the battery.
Hi Jay- Long time!!! I have my car on tender, should I turn the switch to off position while on tender?
I keep tenders on my 348 and 94 esprit. I never switch off the cutoff switch. I think I can understand why someone would suggest that...protecting the rest of the cars electronics from a power surge or something, but I personally have never had an issue.
Hey buddy! There's no downside to using the battery disconnect switch, unless you break the switch. I would. However, it's not intuitive which way the switch is supposed to turn. And it only turns about a quarter turn to disconnect.
