Tender love is killing our batteries

Definitely not a good combination, the v12's require so much cca and they produce so much heat, not a good situation for any battery

 

+100
Every time I park my Fcar in its garage I open the hood to help the engine bay to cool down.
Once ambient I close and plug the tender, most often the next day.

 

Thank you for this. I’ll change the way I do things.

 

Give your car a few years and your battery will still die. It isn't the heat but your theory sounds good. Car bats work better and last longer when they go through periods of charge discharge. Keeping a battery topped with a tender does it no favors. Bats last longer if you let them have their parasitic drain for a week and then plug in the tender for a week then rinse and repeat. The best is to drive your car. Think about how long a bat lasts in your Ferrari vs. your daily driver. Daily driver bat lasts longer hands down and the ferrari bat never got the workout your daily does.

 

I hate to be a kill-joy, but it won't change anything. The battery sees the most high voltage charging as the car drives. The battery is constantly being charged at a high rate while also cooking underneath the bonnet. The OE charger is a very low current unit and is nowhere near as hard on the battery as the internal charging system is.

Your battery is not dead because you had it on a tender. Your battery is dead because it cooks right above the passenger side exhaust manifold while being rapidly charged during the drive.

In fact, the OE charger is so weak that it is not even caoable of actually charging a battery to full. It may say full on the LED's, but try and charge it using a 7ah CTek. I promise you that the battery will not float at the same level when charged with the OE charger as when charged with an actual charger.

Simply put, the OE is nowhere near as damaging to the battery from a heat perspective as the internal charging system is. The FF, Lusso, F12 and 812 all share the same issue. They cook the battery.

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Sick DD. Thank you


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What about lithium batteries?

 

I think this is a very pragmatic approach. Thanks ANOpax for posting (as always) very useful information and for taking the time to run these tests. Your extensive posts here and on pistonheads are always valuable and have been incredibly helpful for me particularly as I have recently taking delivery of an FF as my first Ferrari.

Cheers

 

Great stuff from all, I just have two minor questions:

a) Which is the optimal (?!) CTEK charger, is it for example the MXS 7.0 or the MXS 10?

b) Will an upgraded charger work over the magnetic connection in the rear of an FF (2016)? Or is there any limitations on that connection?

I would hope that one day there is a Lithium battery that actually works for DD usage and fits the compartment....

 

I think several companies are using the magnetic connector now and you can often find them on eBay. There are people who are also making the connector for the older style connector. The only exception here is the Lithium battery in the Pista and maybe F8.

I think a pragmatic approach also, the only problem I have is I know I would forget to plug in and then sometimes leave a car for maybe a few weeks- so I will accept that the battery life could be shortened. All I can tell you is my approach for 17 years now is to plug them in after driving because I worry I would forget, and in that time Ive had batteries last for 10+ years and others fail within 18 months. There doesn’t really seem to be much rhyme or reason to me but then again, I am not taking the detailed approach which you all have applied here, I am only telling you my observations. I will add another factor for your consideration: the battery originally supplied is sometimes faulty. We’ve had several cars that do not get put on tenders have batteries fail between 6-18 months and they all had bad cells. You would never know until it seems like your battery is not powerful enough to turn over the engine but a typical tender will show no faults and it can charge right up. Bring it in for warranty and the dealer says- gee this battery has bad cells. The only time I put it on a tender was at the end to see if it would charge up, and it did unusually quickly. A worthwhile discussion for sure. Seems to me there’s never a free lunch. You just have to decide which set of issues you will face.


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I use these, work a treat.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182967461758?_trkparms=aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D233199%26meid%3D249596b101624d6388dcbc10528d2731%26pid%3D101224%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D183641012432%26itm%3D182967461758%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DDefaultOrganic%26brand%3DFerrari&_trksid=p2047675.c101224.m-1
Works with the 7A charger. As long as the 10A charger has the same plug, then there should not be an issue.

 

I just wish it wasn't so expensive, definitely Ferrari tax applied lol

 

My solution is to drive my 812 daily. Don't need a charger when the alternator works

 

Thanks for the post! I found it only takes a couple hours or so for the engine compartment to cool way down with the hood up. I also like to blow off the car in the garage after a ride with a blower. It keeps the paint clean and cools the battery down which does indeed get cooked up against the passenger side header. If you have the CTEK monitor try doing the same and see what data you get. Agree about lithiums. All batteries are consumable items similar to tires, belts and fluids.

 

Regarding #3: the higher voltage will lead to a higher current. A battery as an internal resistance which basically means that the amount of current going in increases the voltage between its connectors. And vice versa. So the question really is: Is 13.4V at 40DegC (and its corresponding charging current) worse than 12.8V at 60DegC? difficult question to answer as you also need to take into account the time spent in each configuration.
It is also worth noting that the battery is not being charged continuously during driving. If you monitor the battery voltage, you will see it goes to 13.4-13.5V during deceleration, but goes back to 12.2-12.7V (ie normal battery voltage without alternator and with a light load) under normal use. So the ECU is programmed for the alternator to charge the battery only during deceleration, which increases mileage.