Roof Failure!

I have my roof down and the roof failure light just came FIRST TIME EVER , I drive the car every day so I did not charge it but I now have it plugged into the charger and will try to full charge the battery .. However mine is different in that I cannot get the roof to raise at all any body else have this problem ... THe dealer is over 200 miles away so I really want to try to at least get the roof up .... IS there a manual way to raise it.??????HELP
LarryH

 

FOR INFORMATION after having the car say roof failure with the top down and it prevented me from raising the top at all I charged the car for a couple of hours still not fully charged but I started the car raised and lowered the windows and opened the door then turned car off. After sitting for about 10 seconds i started the car up and then the roof raised the roof failure light went away and all seems fine .. I will let it charge over night. THis is on a car that I drive virtually every day yet I had not charged it .. I guess i will need to charge it occasionally over night ..
LarryH

 

How old is your battery? If you are driving several miles each day, you shouldn't need to recharge each night. Maybe your battery is getting worn out. Or else the alternator isn't fully recharging it.

Also, do you leave the engine running while you raise/lower the top? I was advised to do so, since the motors draw a lot of power.

 

Actually the car is only 8 weeks old I do drive it every day but sometimes for only 15 miles or so, my guess is it is not fully recharging . and yes I do leave the engine running when putting the top down..

LarryH

 

Hmmm ... I don't have any better ideas, other than you might want to have a local shop test the battery before sending the car to the dealer if the charger doesn't help. I would have thought 15 miles would be enough to recharge after starting the engine. Please keep us posted on the diagnosis. Good luck.

 

Actually, if you just drive it at city speeds for 15 minutes a day, it will definitely kill the battery in a few months. Idling does not generate much current, it just runs the spark plugs, the AC and radio. I guess you haven't been reading my posts on this topic.

My experience has been that car batteries do not recharge unless you do at least 30-40 minutes of uninterrupted fast highway driving. I learned that lesson over 20 years ago with my BMWs.

If you use the roof quite often, that will definitely quicken drainage of the battery. To be safe, you must plug the battery tender in EVERY DAY. Hopefully, your battery tender will fully recharge the battery. You can test with a voltmeter if you are familiar with doing an open-circuit voltage test. I posted instructions on doing that as well. If your battery is in good condition it should read 12.4V and above.

In case you have a problem with the hydraulic pump for the roof, make sure you check that as well.

 

How much did it cost to fix the roof closing issue (outside of the dent/paint fix)? Just curious because if I have the same problem wanted to know how much I have to save up for that?

Thanks much

 

The Ferrari engineers are not so good with basic math and electricity.

Otherwise, they would design the electrical system with an alternator and a battery (located in a better cooler place away from engine and exhaust heat) and circuitry with an efficiency which could meet the needs of a DD.

Ferrari needs to improve in this area!

 

Since the work was done under warranty and involved an (outside) Ferrari-certified bodyshop I don't think you will get a straight answer on this.

Steve's car apparently had defective hydraulic strut(s) that leaked as well as the dented roof panel so the work would have included troubleshooting to determine the cause of the dent, as well as cleaning up the hydraulic fluid spill(s), replacement of the strut(s), testing as well as repairs to the roof panel and repainting.

 

Luxury cars tend to have more problems with batteries, probably because of the amount of electronics stuffed into them. Not sure if we can avoid the use of battery tenders but I think Ferrari can make the charging ports a little friendlier to use. It would also be more convenient if the chargers could be located inside the car and just provide a power socket on the outside of the car so all you need is to attach an extension cord to an outlet.

As you identified, the battery location is not good for the battery. Given that rear weight bias is preferred, I also think they could have moved it to the back. BMWs have batteries in the trunk where they stay clean and are easy to service as well as provide effective ballast.

 

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IMO, the dent repair and paintjob should not cost $3-$4K because at that price you can just about do an entire car. I would run a quick price check with other bodyshops that repairs Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Replacing the defective strut(s) should be less than $500.

I think the most expensive item that would benefit from extended warranty is the DCT transmission because it pretty well has to come from Ferrari so you don't have a price competing option.

 

Hi
I am new to Ferrari chat
I have just purchased a 2010 California and also have a roof issue.
On closing the roof the rear glass and roof crashed in to the closed position and dented the roof panel.
I have checked for fluid leakages and there dosn't seem to be any.
Is there a recognised repair for this common problem ?
Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Frank