My turn for 488 battery problems

And who supplied the new software ? Ferrari

 

I think you have your answer - nobody, because it doesn't exist and if it did the techs I've since spoken to certainly don't know anything about it, and they say they would if it did.

Was also told Pista battery being a lighter weight lithium is equally or subject to the same situation as the regular battery esp where the car isn't daily driven distance and the tender connected in between time. So on that score the situation remains status quo I'm afraid to report.

 

There is no new software. My car just got its first annual service and I asked the tech.

Bottom line is keep it plugged in to a quality charger when not being driven. If driven everyday it will start every time even though the charging system will not 100% charge the battery but it will charge it enough to start the car. I explained this in technical detail in another post. Ferrari chose this charging system and algorithms to put very limited parasitic drag on the engine by design. They stand behind their decision and it’s the same in all their modern mid engine cars.

Don’t keep the battery on the tender and it will be destroyed in several months and require a replacement. The OEM battery is awful. Get a high quality replacement. This is the price of admission. It’s a marvelous car nonetheless.

 

Oh, sorry to hear.

 

I've been monitoring my battery voltage while driving using the dash display. On my short commute in "sport" mode I've never seen it at other than 14 volts, so the alternator is consistently charging while I'm driving.

AGM batteries like to be topped up with some regularity, and the chargers are designed to do that. Also, significantly draining AGMs kills them. If a battery has ever been drained sufficiently not to start the car it should be replaced.

Lithium is a different story. They like not being topped up.

 

My neighbor is an ex-executive at Rolls/Bentley and was employed by Ferrari years ago. He is still connected even though he is retired.
He told me if I don’t drive my car for at least 25 to 30 minutes each time the battery will not be fully charged by the alternator. The battery tender will only maintain the existing level in the battery. Therefore he suggests at least one long run a week to keep the battery in good health.
This all assumes there are not excessive draws on the battery beyond normal
He has a 720S and said the car will provide you with % of battery life left when you start the car

 

The amount of false information in this thread is staggering. The Ferrari battery tender is a Ctek. It will always charge the battery to 100% if left on long enough. That is what it’s designed to do. You will know because it will finally turn green. If it doesn’t you have a bad battery. All it takes is one time letting the battery get below 11.8 volts to hurt it. It is a small amperage charger and a larger amperage can be used so you can update to the larger Ctek. The larger one charges faster but ensure that it is still within the amperage capability of the tender circuit.

The voltage on the display changes drastically as you drive on all 488. It’s how they are designed. The 458 is different and it keeps the voltage at 14 or so all the time as it is not as sophisticated as the 488 system. The 488 will reduce the drag on the alternator depending on state of battery charge, engine load and electrical load. No matter how far or how long you drive a 488 the battery will never come back fully charged. That is why even after a long drive when you plug it in the tender does not show a green led right away for full charge at it takes significant time for it to get there.

Bottom line. Drive the car, as it will always charge the battery enough to start it if it is in serviceable state. If your battery is weak you will get stranded. No matter what, the static draw of the 488 will kill any battery in short order if you don’t keep it plugged in when not driven.

Enjoy the car. It’s spectacular.

 

That’s simply not true for all of us.

My car has never once been at home without the battery tender plugged in, and the battery still died after a 40 mile, hour-long drive when I stopped for lunch for 10 minutes. It’s always plugged in, and always goes green. Still died.

Service said the battery was completely dead and couldn’t be recharged. This was after one year.

That’s not normal.

As a first time Ferrari buyer who absolutely loves the car, if this happens again I would seriously consider a different marque. There’s too much competition right now of amazing cars in this price range to be nervous every time I go for a drive. I won’t stop at “view points” because I’m nervous now, which is crap.

 

Sorry to hear that but you just got unlucky and got a bad battery. If the battery couldn’t take a charge then I don’t understand how the charger ever got to green. Must have had a bad cell in the battery. Hopefully you replaced it with something NOT OEM as they are awful.

 

That is true...

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It happened to me twice on a ‘17 488 Spider and I sold the car. Wish you better luck.

 

So you bought a $350,000 car or more then you sold it because somehow you could not put a new battery in say every 6 months ?

Sure bet the depreciation was more than 20 battery's cost

 

Did you swap the battery after the first time with a better aftermarket battery?

 

If it was as simple as putting a battery in the car it would be a no brainer. The problem is I never knew when it was going to fail. The first instance occurred after the car had been on the charger for 2 days. I drive it about 2 miles to a car show. After being parked for 3 hours it failed to start, dead as a doornail. Car was 10 months old. Ferrari Roadside finally got it started after about 25 minutes. Towed to dealer and told battery needed to be replaced. They would not cover cost due to less than 2K annual mileage. Was able to negotiate a new Interstate battery as a replacement. I had 3 more instances where the car would start and give all types of error messages. After letting the car sit the error codes would go away when restarted. The final straw happened when I drove the car for about 40 minutes and parked it at a restaurant. Had a couple of buddies looking at the car so I tried to start it up - nothing but clicking. Told them I would see them later. At that point I decided I had to sell a car I couldn’t rely on.

Car was always garaged and on the tender when not driving. During the first failure the Ferrari Roadside driver told me he has seen the battery issues really increase over the past couple of years. This factored into my decision as well. I have not totally given up on Ferrari but I plan to sit on the sidelines for a while to see how they respond to this issue.

Fortunately I got a very good number for the car when it was sold, although the dealer (non Ferrari) told me the auction numbers on Fcars have been very soft the past couple of months.

 

I do believe this shouldn't be happening but it does.

Ive had my car on the charger always . One year old and past 3 months I was receiving error messages. Ferrari said it was battery and they would replace it.

They told me its the 488 . IMO changing the battery for me is a non issue relative what my car cost me and the happiness it has brought.

As far as being standard , best solution is the Jump starter , one like Shadowfax has recommended.

Glad you got a good number but you cant deny buying a jump starter and replacing the battery would be a cheaper proposition than the lose of depreciation.

 

Who’s got the part number for a replacement interstate battery for a 488??

 

Frankly, I am at a stage in life where I will not own a vehicle that I can’t trust. I paid my way through school working on cars so that is not the issue. If it was a rare occurrence that would be tolerable but not at the frequency I experienced.

 

Anyone

 

Replacing the battery is a little more involved in the 488 as compared to the 458 - as you might have noticed in the video there - but still doable for anyone with a few tools and some spare time on their hands. The yellow marks will re-align when you put the screws back in; I doubt anyone at Ferrari will notice either way.

And man, sorry to hear about your story with the car. It's certainly a sinking feeling when that happens, even when you're at home in your own garage. I can only imagine in your situation it must have really been terrible. Two things you can't jump start when the battery goes dead: a boat and a Ferrari with an F1 gear box. A least with the Ferrari, it won't drift into shore and require hailing the Coast Guard :-D

As others have mentioned, I think the charging system/logic of the 488 is not as straightforward as with the 458. I don't know if I would say the charging system of the 488 is flawed, but it almost feels like that to me. With my 458, using the Braille battery, I never had any issues - despite leaving the car sitting for up to a month. When the car was driving, the alternator was providing 14+ volts the whole time and so I guess the Lithium battery was always fully topped off after coming home. With the 488 GTB, the voltage was all over the place and rarely did it seem to ever be consistently over 14 volts (i.e. long enough to fully charge up the Braille battery).

One reason the Braille battery helps matter so much, is because its static discharge is very low (about 1/10th the rate of a normal car battery). So with a normal car battery, not only does the parasitic load of the car's ECU's eat away at the battery, but its own discharge is an issue. With the Braille battery, it's still being taxed by the car's electrical system (i.e. the parasitic draw when the car is parked), but at least the battery isn't also discharging of its own accord.

Personally, I think Ferrari made a mistake when they discontinued providing a master kill switch under the hood. Sure, there is a lever now, but nothing is as nice as having a knob to disconnect the power. On my 458, just before I sold it, I was in the process of retrofitting a master electrical switch from an F355 into the car. I think being able to reset the car easily and also being able to disconnect the electrical system (not only when the car is sitting, but also during recharging) is a big plus. It's too bad Ferrari did away with the switch.

To me, the whole "you must keep the car constantly on the battery tender" is just a flawed solution from Ferrari. Just provide owners with a robust charging system and a solid, modern, reliable lithium battery. It's insulting to expect owners to spend close to $300,000 or $400,000 for a car and deliver it with a $100 battery that works no better than the one Ford used in their 1966 Mustang's. I mean, seriously.

The 458 is still the best V8 Ferrari to date, as far as a car you can actually live with, depend on and enjoy. Cars like the 488 GTB, the F8 and now this ridiculous SF90 are all just abject failures in my opinion. Ferrari needs to get back in touch with their roots and stop worrying about trying to be the Bulgari of the automotive world.

Ray

 

My pleasure.

So what's your take on the 488 vs the 430 Scuderia?

Ray

 

The 488 is fast, I'll give you that.

From how you describe things, I think you'd probably really fall in love with a 458 Italia. Originally, after selling my 360, I wanted the Scuderia. A few nice ones slipped through my fingers, then I got busy with life and never found just the right one. Later, I ended up deciding to get a 458 Speciale, but then after speaking with a number of people on this forum (who owned both the Italia nd the Speciale), I realized that the 458 Italia was the better choice. Like you, I wanted something fun, but also something I could take my girlfriend out to dinner in, without feeling like we were always putting on a 4 point racing harness. The Italia was - and is still - by far the best Ferrari I've ever owned. It just hit all the check boxes for me. Very connected to the road, amazingly fun when pushed, but also very tame around town (especially when in sports mode). My girlfriend drove it also a few times and really enjoyed it. We both loved taking that car out on the town, yet you could drive it at 120+ on the highway and feel totally at ease. Really an amazing job by Ferrari.

488, not so much. Yeah, it was fast and yeah it was a Ferrari - and yes, my girlfriend liked it - but I never felt it brought much to the table above the 458 and yet it lacked quite a bit that the 458 did deliver (fun, connection to the road, sound, refinement, etc). The only thing that ever really got under my skin about the 458 Italia was the interface with the iPhone and the horrible design of the radio / entertainment system. But, once you sort of figured out how that liked to function, then it wasn't too bad usually.

Also, on the 458, with a Braille battery, the car is basically bullet proof. I drove mine all the time over the place over a 3 year period and it was a reliable as any Toyota. On the 488, the charging system logic (or whatever they are doing with the 488 now in that department) is very questionable in my experience. Overall, I just personally found the built quality on the 488 a bit questionable. My 488 paint had defects and areas where it looked like they didn't even bother to properly assemble the car. The feeling of the suspension and steering was also strange to me. Whereas the 458 felt very surefooted on the road, the 488 felt nervous and dodgy most of the time. I never felt connected to the car, nor did it inspire any confidence. When you add in the horrible sounding exhaust note, it's just a nonstarter for me.

If you are thinking in terms of keeping a single car for 10 years, perhaps you should look into the 458 Italia?

Ray