Trouble Jump Starting 360 F1

I don't know much, but I was told never to jump start my 360. Install new battery instead if the old one won't take trickle charge. Good luck!

James

 

Yes, me too, I never jump started my 360 when I owned it.

Instead I turned off the battery switch in the front trunk and then hooked up a low amp Battery Tender to those same battery leads (in the passenger footwell). I waited overnight, disconnected the charger, turned the battery connection back on in the front trunk, and the car always started right up.

I think my battery charger was 1.75 amps and most other types have a low amp charge around 2 amps.

I too was told to not jump start the car and to only use a rapid charge (high amp) charger if I took the battery all the way out of the car.

 

One problem (of many) with jump starting modern Ferraris is that our alternators have to work too hard (to try to charge up the flat battery) in an already hot engine-compartment.

Another problem (of many) is that voltage surges and current spikes from the jump-starting process is rather hard on already-fragile Italian electronics.

With an F1 Ferrari, you've got your F1 pump kicking on for a good 30 seconds or more before you can really start your engine...that's a long time to extend the already problematic jump-starting process.

In short, I wouldn't recommend going that route. Remove the battery and recharge with the battery *out* of the car if you are cheap; or just install a new battery.

Btw, a fast "Click, click, click" typically means that you don't have 12 volts reaching the starter motor.

 

Had the same exact problem with my 04 360 Spider F1. Manual says jumping is OK without disconnecting anything. But a "quick-jump" didn't do the trick. Solution was to leave the jumpers connected for 30 minutes with the "doner car" running at idle. Came back and while jumpers still connected,and "doner car" still running at idle, then it started like a champ. Went for a 1hr drive and it was fully re-charged. Before engaging the starter motor,I gave it 15 seconds after tuning the ignition key part-way to re-set the computers and cycle through the system. Trickle chargeing, disconnecting and removing the battery all seemed like too big a pain.

Best of luck.

 

If the battery was very low you will need to keep the jumpers on for at least 15 minutes (minimum) to recharge the battery so it will deliver enough current to spin the starter.

Get a tender and always connect it.

 

The click rapid clicking is lack of current to the starter...

Read the Owners manual....

The jump starting point is behind the LH seat. Just remove the carpet panel (3 screws) then fip open the black plastic cover with the big RED cross on it and conect your positive... theres 3 big cables in there.. any is ok to use...

Then connect your negative lead to the specially fitted extra large bolt head that holds down the grey panel near by... that's your ground point....

Fishing and stabbing around with jump leads on the battery itself gives hi risk of short circuit/wrong polarity... either of which can frazzle any number of electronics....

 

I had the same problem on my 360 that you are having. My glove box would not close, bad latch and the battery went dead.

It was still under warrenty so the dealer came out and jumped the car. I was not a problem. my car was a 6 speed.

The battery is inside the car on the passenger side. it is near the foot well and can be opened as per the poster before me verbally diagramed. The dealer did not use 15 minutes but it does make sense. he did have trouble getting a good connection to the terminals. When he did it started right up. He then took it back and replaced the battery.

Of course with the F1 the "N" start etc applies.

Good luck!

Lee

 

Hey guys . . . maybe the little glovebox lamp wouldn't drain the battery if you drove your cars everyday . . .

On a serious note, there's some good info in this thread. Thanks to all for the input.

 

this is the only way to jump start the 360

 

It would seem that a trickle charger / battery tender is a common need for these cars, due to the low mileage, etc. Is the Ferrari version a must? I believe it's an $800 + dollar option. How is this any different than the $40 Battery tender?

I have many motorcycles and part of the routine when getting a new one, is to install the pigtails for the tender. I keep my bikes plugged in ALL the time! My belief is that this prolongs the battery life. Would this not be the same case with the cars?

Happy Holidays,

Alex

 

Besides being fire hazards, trickle chargers are a hassle and a band aid rather than a cure.

Instead, I'd think that you'd want to know how much current is being drained from your battery when your car is off, for one thing, and that you'd want to minimize the things that could potentially drain said battery.

For instance, replacing the glove box light bulb with an LED will make it much less likely that an open glove box could drain your battery (LEDs take months and months to drain a car battery). Ditto for the light bulbs on the side of the car doors (e.g. door not being fully shut). Same again for the dome light (especially if mistakenly left in the ON position).

Another potential cure is to use timer relays in place of old Bosch relays so that various light circuits only have power for 5 minutes after you turn off the ignition.

Even a beeper that would sound a brief warning with the ignition initially turned OFF if the current draw was above a certain threshhold could work, too.

But asking Ferrari owners to deal with hooking up trickle chargers *every* time that they park their Ferraris is adding too much to the hassle-factor. The more hassle that a car becomes to drive, the less people will drive it. That's a bad thing.

Ferraris need to be out on the road to lead, aesthetically, by example. Ferraris are rolling art. They improve the very scenary of the day. Lower the hassle factor and they'll be out on the road more often.

 

Jumpstarting a 360 F1 is one of the few things I have done on a newer Ferrari. James at Norwoods said that the manual tells you not to, but it is fine.

First, make sure you don't let the + side of the jumper cables touch the metal crossbar above the battery. I used the bill of a hat to insulate it while installing the jumper cables. We let it sit for about 10-15 minutes before cranking, then it started just fine.

Gene

 

Besides being fire hazards, trickle chargers are a hassle and a band aid rather than a cure.

I think this depends on how many "battery" toys you have. I have 10 vehicles and it is impossible for me to drive all of them more than once a month. If you add boats and waverider I have 13 plug ins.

The fire hazard is real if the owner does not buy a good unit and it is not hooked up correctly. I insist the unit have turn down to trickle automatically and that it does not run hot. I recently bought a unit that looked good at Sears. it runs too hot compared to my normal units. I also watch to be sure I buy low charging rates.

Just my point of view.

Lee

 

It is most certainly not a bandaid. Speaking for myself we have 7 vehicles in a 2 person household and as for my clients, some of them have 20 or more. It is just not possible to drive them all enough to keep the batteries up. As for battery draw the typical late model Ferrari has 30 or less milliamp draw and that is sufficient to bring a battery below the threshold voltage to start the car in very little time. Our 99 Mercedes in perfect order kills a battery faster than either the Ferrari or Lambo so it is not a Ferrari thing as some uninformed here say either.

The simple fact is a lot of us have a lot of toys and not as much time as we would like to play with them. Those toys require batteries to run and those batteries go dead in normal circumstances unless we keep some nature of charger on them.

 

I understand your points. They're valid.

But constantly charging a battery (rather than fixing whatever is draining the battery such as the open glove box for this thread) *is* a band aid.

Useful. Practical. Understandable, but still a band aid.

I mean no disrespect by that.

 

Also with no disrepect - there are 2 things that drain a battery.

Current Draw and Time. You can work on the draw as you say - but time will also cause a battery to go flat. If you got the toys - Battery Tenders seem to be the way to go..

 

Right. Because it was the least valuable of my cars, I once had a Porsche 928 parked outside rather than in the garage. Because it was outside, I had a solar-powered trickle charger on it. This kept up with the current drain on the battery while the car wasn't being driven.

This was still a band aid (the real problem was that there was quite a bit drawing current even while the car was "off"), but it avoided the key problem that I originally mentioned: the hassle factor.

Which is to say, I didn't have to hassle with connecting two leads to the battery after every drive. The solar charger was mounted in the upholstry of a side window, which on that car was a little window that looked upward. That angle allowed the charger to get plenty of sunlight each day, keeping the battery charged.

Since it was mounted permanently in the car and always "on," there was no hassling with it after every drive. It was simply on, charging the battery when the car wasn't in use.

...and that's more in line with my beef with chargers. The band aid factor is only one aspect; the hassle factor of connecting the charger after each drive is a bigger deal. The less the hassle, the more you'll use a car (in general).

 

I agree -- battery tenders are a cure, not a fix -- mine have all worked great.

They're especially important if you have a classic F1 car where electric valve actuators losing battery power is a "bad thing"... LOL .. not a problem I personally have to worry about ;-)