Replacing 599 battery

virtual_law · Nov 12, 2024

doodja said: ↑

I swapped mine for a new one a couple weeks ago. Hope you are agile and have nimble fingers. Very tight space. And oh by the way, housing for passenger side taillight is part of battery compartment. And it's painted metal, not insulated. And will arc. Maybe there is a trick to it, but what I experienced was the only way to get the positive terminal reconnected to clamp/cable (and plastic fuse/terminal thing) is while the battery is sort of half way outside the compartment. Which I was trying to support with one hand. (Rig up some sort of prop in advance when you do it). And trying to get your hand over top of battery to get to positive terminal in back left corner when battery is in compartment is pretty much impossible. And room for a wrench movement back there is pretty much impossible anyway. So you have the battery about halfway out to connect the positive cable. But the negative terminal is in front right corner. And so negative cable won't reach. So you push the battery in just a little further, but not all the way. Then connect and tighten the negative. Now you have to get battery all the way into compartment. THIS is where things get sketchy. There is barely enough clearance between negative terminal and underside of metal taillight housing - and you are down partially in trunk trying to lift heavy battery into tray. So you have to be very careful to not let terminal touch underside of housing. Nevermind the spark, you're also potentially grounding the entire electrical system and lighting up the dash. And with all the finicky and fragile Ferrari electronics - not good. If i ever do it again, I will make some sort of thin insulation barrier out of rubber or something to firmly secure over the negative terminal. And a support prop or shelf that is the exact height of the compartment. So you just slide the battery straight in, no lifting. You can't just cap off the negative terminal, push battery in, then install cable. No clearance to get clamp over top of terminal when in place. I would love to see how the dealer does a battery swap in a 599. I probably won't attempt it again.
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This is my exact experience with a Varta battery. Isn't there a small swivel tool of some sort that we can invest in to help with negative terminal clamping?

gsholz · Nov 17, 2024

I put some tape on the underside of the taillight binnacle to prevent any contact during removal and installation. The only time you'll get a spark is if you disconnect the battery via the switch. If you leave the switch connected, the binnacle is just another path to ground from the negative battery terminal.

Battery removal/installation is pretty straightforward.

Remove battery hold-down clamp

Disconnect negative battery cable

Rotate negative battery side out 90 deg

Disconnect positive battery cable

Reverse steps for installation

I did not have relearn issues other than having to input radio code.

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Replacing 599 battery

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Replacing 599 battery

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