Hi all - I went to drive my spec yesterday and got the epb/avh error, which freaked me out. A restart cleared the epb error, but the brake light on the dash and the avh fault remained. I did some reading on fchat and it seemed like it was one of two things - the battery or the (an?) ECU. Desperately hoping for the former, I started looking up how to swap the battery. I found many threads for the Italia but not a spec. How different can it be? Well... It starts the same. Remove the vertical part of the floor with four screws. Remove the bottom bracket. The plastic box on the positive terminal is too high to slide the battery out, so the rightmost screw on the leather covered metal piece at the top of the battery needs to come out. Here's where it gets a little different. 1 - The passenger floorboard has a lip that blocks the bottom of the battery, so that needs to come out (six screws). 2 - Instead of a big bracket holding the battery in like on the Italia, there are two old school j hooks holding a bracket that runs along top front edge of the battery. Getting these out is easy, but getting them back in is a huge pita. There is no space on the sides of the battery to hook the hooks into their mounting holes, so they need to go in before the battery slides into place. But if they're in their holes, any jostling by the battery will knock them out. I wasted a ton of time here - eventually a friend came over and one of us held the hooks while the other moved the battery. The other problem was that the nut end of the leftmost hook (negative side) butts up against a trim panel, so even if the hook is in place, there's no room to get the nut on, and even if the nut is on, there's no room to screw it down. So, hold on to the hook, slide battery into place, move hook so it points out, put the bracket on, put the nut on, and screw the nut down to about where it should go. Then put the bracket into place and stick the right hook into the bracket and tighten. It appears that Ferrari puts the battery in before any of the trim goes on. Loosening the trim to the left of the battery hole helps (removing it would be great, but too much other crap needs to come off), but make sure you put a piece of tape over the hole in the floorboard. I didn't, and watched as, in slow motion, one of the screws fell, rolled around the edge of the hole, and then fell in. A long and loud string of expletives and a telescoping magnet helped fish the screw out. Sorry no pics - I was too irritated to get my phone out. Once the j hook tie down is done, everything else is just a reversal of taking everything out. I put the battery on a tender overnight but the avh fault was still there this morning. I took it out for a drive and happily the fault went away (thank goodness). All in all, I spent about four hours trying to swap this damn battery. I think next time, I may just pay someone.
OMG! Thanks for sharing… seems like major surgery for a battery swap, but I’ve learned my lesson vicariously. Thank you! Ruben
I had something similar happen to my Speciale. The EPB wouldn't release- could not move the car. I read all the horror stories about loosening the bolts on the caliper, etc. but both sides were behind the wheel spokes, so fortunately I never resorted to that. I tried every possible reset suggestion to no avail. I finally just started fiddling with all the parking brake switches, on/off ignition etc and it mysteriously released. As for the battery, the way they have that retained is a nightmare. Getting the battery out over that lip required inserting a piece of plastic under the battery and sliding it out over that ledge. I don't care how strong a person is, it's impossible to get any lifting power the way you have to lean in there. It was a totally frustrating ordeal for such a simple issue. I love the car though!
I swapped an Anti Gravity Lithium into my Speciale yesterday. It is the most time consuming battery change I have done. It took me an hour and 10 minutes from start until I had everything re-assembled. Nothing particular hard, but I think there are 25 fasteners to remove and replace, hence the time consuming part. As far as the J-hooks go, either never remove them or hook them back in place before sliding the battery back in. For the left (LHD car) J-bolt nut, it is possible to make minor adjustments to it with a deep socket by flexing the upholstery panel. I did not remove it completely, just loosened it a little and removed the right one completely, leaving the hold down strap attached to the left J-bolt. I then followed the re-initialization procedure published by 338Lapua here: https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/changing-the-battery-on-the-458.560727/ The Anti Gravity AG-H6-60-RS is 24.9 lbs lighter than the Genuine Ferrari battery it replaced. And BTW, I got the CTEK lithium battery maintainer because you do not want to use lead acid type maintainer with a Lithium battery.
Sounds a lot like the 488 GTB. I have a video on YouTube showing me doing the battery on the 488: Let me know if that's basically how the Speciale is setup. It was definitely a lot more time consuming than doing the 458 Italia. Ray
Yeah. I looked at that lip and figured it was easier to take the aluminum plate "floor" out. Six screws plus the styrofoam thing underneath. I got the epb/avh error again this morning. A restart cleared the epb again (so I could move), and the car was fine after the next couple restarts. I'm starting to wonder if my battery tender is doing more harm than good right now. Need to figure out the Ferrari dongle and get a new ctek.
