left the parking lights on....

Yes, hook up the charger to the car first then plug the charger in. Yes, it will take a couple of days to trickle charge the car enough to get it started. This happened to me on my 360. It's probably faster to tow the car to Shelton. The tow charge should be covered under warranty. I believe the warranty states if the car is not driveable to a dealer then the car can be towed.

 

The manual is misleading. On my 360 I used the Battery Tender charger. That manual stated it would take 3-4 hours too to recharge a battery. The only thing it would do in 3-4 hours was turn the lights on the charger from red to green. But there still was not enough charge in the battery to start the car. This happened to me on a weekend so I had no other choice, the Ferrari shop was closed, but to leave the car on the charger. 48 hours later the car started. I took the car into the Ferrari shop and had them replace the battery under warranty.

I never knew when there was enough charge in the battery. I periodically tried starting the car until I had success. The hood light is a problem because it will drain the battery. Can the bulb be removed?

 

Ahh, why cant you just jump start it after a few hrs, and then drive it awhile to charge it back up like a normal car?

 

These days you can buy jumper leads with built in shock protectors that help to avoid spiking the ECU's when jump starting. That or just put the negative lead onto the engine block somewhere,as i did with mine 3 weeks ago when it was flat up town Then came the screwed clutch.......................

 

I highly highly recommend you buy 1 or 2 portable battery jump start devices. I used to have problems with my 360 when the battery went bad. Basically, it stopped holding a charge for more than a couple days.

These portable batteries are great. I've been able to jump my 360 at least 3 times without having to recharge the portable battery device. There are many different manufacturer's of these things, soem are definitely better than others.

The brand I got is discontinued and actually has gotten negative remarks at Amazon (see link below). Regardless, when I bought it, it was highly recommended to me by a couple people. Alll I can say is, I was so impressed about the battery being able to jump my completely dead Escalade on the first crank in the winter in NYC, that I went ahead and bought 3 of them to keep around. I've jumped my 360 at least 10 times using the thing before I got off my ass and got the 360 battery changed. I was also able to jump a semi dead Cigarette boat with the thing. It's amazing how relatively portable but powerful these devices are.

FWIW, if you ever start getting wierd electrical things happening in the car, like your turn signals stop working sometimes or your doors lock on you automatically... think about replacing the battery. I had some very odd electrical type gremlins that went away when I got a fresh battery in the car... wish I made the change sooner.



http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00002265K/qid=1136490206/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl263/104-0328885-4227138?n=507846&s=automotive&v=glance

 

Dumb question, but why not get the family sedan, disconnect the hot cable to it, disconnect the cables from the Ferrari, use that battery to start your Ferrari, reconnect the cables? You won't get a surge because you're just using a "spare" battery. Drive away; just don't stall the car for an hour!

Ken

 

Bizarre. On my 348, the parking lights (and headlights if they are on) automatically turn off when I kill the ignition...unless I have pressed the parking light switch on my center console that tells the car to leave them on.

 

That will work (in the short term), but it's very hard on the Ferrari alternator (makes them burn up rather quickly in the high heat engine compartment recharging the dead battery).

 

All of the above is true and will work...but kiss your Ferrari alternator goodbye as its time left is limited. The jump start may get your car going, but that now means that your alternator, in the high heat engine compartment, is working overtime to run all of your electrics, your sparks, as well as recharge your fully dead battery.

 

That will work. However, the safest option is a new battery, of course...but just charging the heck out of your old battery, presuming that it holds a charge, should be fine, too.

 

A low battery is actually worse for your alternator than a dead battery, in the sense that people tend to replace or recharge on a home system the dead battery...whereas most people just drive on (oblivious to the damage) a low battery, letting their alternators fry in the high heat Ferrari engine compartments by working to recharge the low bat.

 

I didn't think of that; I didn't realize an alternator generated so much heat charging a dead battery that it would self destruct as opposed to the normal ambient engine plus alternator heat from a good battery. Is this just a Ferrari issue?

I drained my Lotus battery once and drove around to charge it...and come to think of it, the VR fried a year later! LOL Related? Perhaps...or maybe the 30 year old VR was going anyway.

Ken

 

I'm surprised that your F430 parking lights stayed on. My 348 is a dozen years older than your car, and Ferrari made it turn off the parking lights when you kill the 348's ignition (unless you have a special "leave on" button pressed).

 

Right. It's not so much a "Ferrari" issue as it is a heat issue. The more load that is being demanded from the alternator, the harder it must work...so it gets hotter.

Well, if you already have a high temp engine compartment for a performance engine, then your damage is being compounded.


Btw, my brother rebuilt your model of Lotus Europa back when he was in High School 3 decades ago (just in time to have a cool ride at college). He loved it. It sat so low that he would just drive under the parking bars of tollways and parking garages.

For Air Conditioning, he'd put a bag of ice around the fan ducts/blower each Summer day. It worked.

 

Yes. Ferrari replaced my battery under warranty. They didn't ask how come they battery died and I didn't tell.

By the way, even if you get the car started the battery should be replaced. It's probably not reliable. My car started for about 2 weeks then one day it was completely dead. No amount of charging would bring it back from the dead

 

OK.

On my 348 there is a parking light button on the center console...but it simply means "leave the lights on after the ignition has been killed."

There is the normal parking light option on the steering column stalk for parking lights only or parking lights plus headlights. Kill the ignition and those lights go off (unless the "leave on" center console button is depressed).

 

OMG! We always joke about putting a bag of ice in the front plenum and yes, it DOES work. Until the ice melts...

Ken