Should I be worried about Pista battery issues?

As long as you use the battery tender no issues. I’m forgetful and hardly plug it in and have zero problems.

 

My 458 sat for five months over winter with a tender on it with no problems.

 

Never had issues with mine. Left it off tender for 5 days once by accident. Fired right up no issues. I live in Utah where winters are long and it sat on a tender undriven from Nov to March with no problems. It’s an amazing car and you will love it. Welcome!!


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Yes. Very much from what I've had reported by actual owners re their actual failures and, also warned by the dealer how vulnerable the battery is when the car is off the tender. If you are looking for advice I'd ask your Ferrari service and get them to put it in writing as advice on these forums can be incredibly flawed and unreliable. If you plan taking it away for a few days I'd also strongly advise carrying a power pack and the Alan key for the floor plate as a back up plan just in case. There is no way known would I ever risk taking my Pista away for more than a day or two off tender - let alone a Pista which was not purchased brand new - without having a back up plan on board at the very least. You'd be asking for trouble! Whatever you are being told otherwise on this thread I would take with a very big grain of salt and I mean a very big grain.

Furthermore if you have other accessories plugged in to the lighter or USB port they will draw down on the battery. I've learned this from personal experience always unplug everything when the car is off and locked. If they are hard wired in I'd also be checking with Ferrari service as wiring into the loom can cause other issues along with potential draw down. I recall having a tracker hard wired in which had its own battery source and it caused endless problems. I had to get rid of it.

 

I typically drive my Pista about once a week and tender it through the NJ winters for 2-3 months once the roads are salted and with that, it’s been fine.

However, this past April we went away for a week and after we returned I didn’t drive due to rain so at 10 days had a fully dead battery. Service guys advised to plug in tender to see if there was any charge left to bring it back which didn’t work at all. They even overnighted a new tender just in case as some of the factory tenders were failing. In my case, still no luck so dealer send flatbed and experienced driver.

Since it’s a lithium battery, Ferrari advises not to jumpstart it so was pulse charged and in a few minutes, lights, beeps were coming on line. After 10 minutes was able to start it but service said to not drive it all? So he put it in reverse to get out of the garage then the Pista was winched onto flatbed and taken to dealer. Battery checked out fine after fully bench charged and car was returned the next afternoon.

After this ordeal, I would say no longer than a week off the tender. I also learned that if car couldn’t get started at all, there are 2 tools in the trunk to ‘unlock’ the transmission to place into neutral to pull car out.

 

Mine sat for 3 months on a tender after delivery with so start up problems. I always keep it on a tender when in the garage with no problems. Before the car was delivered, I asked Continental for a battery report and all was good for my peace of mind!

 

Mine is at the at FFL dealer. I got a suspension failure message along with stop/start inactive. The car started but noticed the red low battery indicator came on. I started and drove the car car a few miles and left running 30 minutes. Everything came back on line except the suspension failure message. The dealer tech. diagnosed that an accelerator sensor needed to be changed under warranty. Here is the catch; the tech left the battery charging for two days and claimed it charged only to 50 percent capacity. The fact that all the 7 charger indicator lights indicate charged, does not reveal the actual state of the battery. Unless the battery shows complete failure it will not be covered under warranty. Yes, I can drive the car at a 50 percent battery load but takes away the allure of enjoying it. My take away is next time at the dealer, have them check the state of the battery and don’t rely on the charger indicator lights. I opted to have the dealer order a new battery from Italy in lieu of one on the shelf. Prices on these have gone up so be prepared for high Ferrari tax.

 

The Pista has a Lithium ion battery and comes with a compatible charger. Different circumstances than a conventional battery.

 

Is a properly tendered lithium battery more likely to discharge over time than a AGM or lead acid?
Can it make it 4-5 months undriven if tendered?

 

Mine is little over a year old. Time will tell inasmuch as the early Pistas are coming into their second year. I have never let mine sit more than a month without starting/driving. On the other hand,my FGT sits for up to six months on a tender and never has an issue with the lead acid battery.

 

I have had numerous modern Ferraris on road trips, usually at least a week, never had a battery issue on a trip. But, despite keeping them on tender, from time to time at home I have had battery failure. Our Lusso battery failed in its first year, dealer couldn’t find any fault, was about to return the car then (happily, because I knew it wasn’t right) it wouldn’t start for them so they replaced the battery. FF also needed a battery but that car was three years old when we bought it. Pista has been fine over winter, four months and barely a start, however occasionally I get stop/start system malfunction indication, which goes off after a few minutes. From experience, when you get odd error messages that reset themselves, it’s the battery. The only time I was nearly let down was with the Lusso occasion mentioned above, and I drive about 5-10,000 Ferrari miles per year. I was out and in a car park, it turned over very slowly but managed to fire. I returned home, left the car outside to go back out again an hour later and it wouldn’t start. 15 minutes on the tender and it started as normal (very curious). That battery was replaced and the issue never returned in three years of ownership.

 

If the battery is tendered, then it will be fine for as long as you like. That is what the tender is for. It can sit on the tender for a year if you want it to.

It will also be fine on a road trip. You drive every day so no issues.

A few days on a transporter? No biggie.

More than a week? That's where things get sketchy.

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Lithium discharges a lot slower than normal car batteries. However, the issue here is more related to parasitic current draw from the car's ECU's, as opposed to just static discharge from the battery sitting.

I'm not sure how good the Lithium battery used in the Pista is, but it won't make it 4-5 months. Perhaps 1 month if you're lucky, but generally it's not a good idea to totally deplete a Lithium car battery down much below 10-11 volts. If you do, it usually requires recovery using a special pulse charging mode - and that has to be done with the battery totally disconnected from the car in my experience. Also, unless you can do all this yourself, I suspect your local Ferrari dealer would be out of their comfort zone and would probably require a full battery replacement in this situation - and who knows what they'd charge for a new Pista battery.

If you need to go 4-5 months, my advice would be either leave it on the tender or better yet, power down the car and disconnect the negative ground strap while you're away.

Ray

 

No problems with mine, usually keep in plugged in but forget occasionally and so far, no problems. A few times, I have received a stop/start error message or a low battery message. I turn the car off, restart it, and it goes away immediately. Not sure its battery related, I've blamed it on finicky electronics that just need to reboot.

 

It's primarily battery / voltage related, but rebooting now and again certainly is a good practice.

Ray

 

In this day and age, still having battery issues and hassles with a technology that is a century old. What is going to happen with hybrids?

 

I trust a Ferrari hybrid about as far as I trust my ex-girlfriends... and that ain't far.

I'll stick with Toyota and Tesla when it comes to electric vehicles. As far as Ferrari goes, I'm perfectly happy owning a 458 or a 360 or an F40 or something older and more simple. My daily driver these days is a 1990 Toyota pickup. It's rock solid, simple and I know every nut, bolt and wire on that truck. No way in heck I'm buying any of these new hybrid cars from Ferrari when they can barely even design a website that works correctly.

It's all interesting to watch from the sidelines, but like you say, 'what's going to happen when they go knee-deep into hybrid land'. They really ought to stick to making sports cars and leave SUV'a and hybrid / EV's to someone else.

If I ran Ferrari, I'd probably merge the V8 line and the V12 line into a single normally aspirated V10 powered car that is sporty and also can double as a touring car if needed - take it or leave it. The single minded goal would be to produce a solid car which sounds amazing and which little boys dream of one day owning. If you want to 'save the planet' by driving a hybrid, cool... go buy something else.

Ray

 

2019 pista
Battery toast
£4000

 

NOT GOOD .... please show us some fotos please, which battery was in (brand etc)

Did you replace it yourself or ....

Good luck ...