Low Beam Failure -- Dead Battery | FerrariChat

Low Beam Failure -- Dead Battery

Discussion in 'California/Portofino/Roma' started by wrs, Jan 4, 2020.

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  1. wrs

    wrs F1 World Champ
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    Jul 11, 2015
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    Lakeway, Texas
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    William
    #1 wrs, Jan 4, 2020
    So my wife went out to the car to start it on Thursday morning and it wouldn't crank, just tick, tick, tick and a report of Low Beam Failure. The lights all came on but no start. So I hooked it up to the trickle charger and let it charge back up. We drove it about 30 minutes yesterday and parked it for an hour when looking at a house and it started right back up so we figured that there had been something left on.

    Thursday night we checked with the lights out in the garage and same thing last night. This morning it started right up and my wife drove it to play tennis 25 minutes away. When she went to leave, no start, Low Beam Failure was reported. RSA is picking up the car and the dealer is going to have a look at it. They think it's possible that one of the computer systems is not going to sleep and instead drains the battery.

    That happened to my 2015 RR Sport when we first got it new. One of the computer systems was staying on and draining the battery. They had to figure out which one by trial and error which took them several days and then they had to get a replacement. The car was out a week. Not sure how this is going to work out.

    Ugh. If anyone else has had this happen I would be intersted to know the resolution. In any case, if I am the first, then it will be chronicled here.
     
    of2worlds likes this.
  2. Solid State

    Solid State F1 Veteran
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    #2 Solid State, Jan 5, 2020
    Have you had the battery tested? The trickle charge is incapable of solidly recharging a low battery and the same true for the alternator. Battery should be tested and if OK then fully charged with a real charger. That's where I would start.
     
  3. wrs

    wrs F1 World Champ
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    #3 wrs, Jan 6, 2020
    Wife is picking up the car this afternoon, the dealer says the battery had a bad cell. They replaced the battery so hopefully it will be happy motoring going forward. This seems to happen frequently with the Ferrari factory battery, dies an early death, in this case it was only two months.
     
    Solid State and Statler like this.
  4. vjd3

    vjd3 F1 Rookie
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    #4 vjd3, Jan 6, 2020
    Dealers around here don't even bother with the OEM batteries anymore, they replace them with Interstate or Odyssey batteries.
     
    wrs likes this.
  5. Statler

    Statler F1 World Champ

    Jun 7, 2011
    17,389
    #5 Statler, Jan 6, 2020
    hopefully done with issues for a while.

    would you say at this point it's good practice to just replace the battery in all newly delivered Ferraris?
     
  6. Surfah

    Surfah F1 Rookie

    Dec 20, 2011
    3,135
    #6 Surfah, Jan 6, 2020
    My 458 Spider's crapped out after 3 months despite being on tender.
     
  7. wrs

    wrs F1 World Champ
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    #7 wrs, Jan 6, 2020
    This is the one of three that I have bought new that had a battery issue. My Cali T never had an issue and the 488 once was dead but it was because I had accidentally hit the parking light button with my knee getting out. I didn't notice it and the next day the battery was dead but the RSA guy came over and used two charger packs to get it started. After that I haven't had an issue. I had the Cali T only a year but on my 488 I'm getting close to two years. I was probably lucky.
     
  8. 4th_gear

    4th_gear F1 Rookie

    Jan 18, 2013
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    #8 4th_gear, Jan 7, 2020
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2020
    It’s called a “surface charge” - the battery was not properly conditioned and charged when in service and eventually only held a charge on the surface of the plates. That charge is only enough to start the car once or twice, just enough to fool you to believe your battery has recharged and then get you stranded if you take the car out.

    The thin charge on the plates deceived the battery tender or charging circuit and made it think the battery was fully charged. A dead battery usually takes days to recharge if you try doing it with the Ferrari tender that came with your car - that’s why they insist on calling it a tender and not a charger. They don’t have the capacity to recharge dead batteries at a practical rate. If Ferrari gave owners more sophisticated and more powerful battery chargers they run the risk of owners wrongly using those chargers and possibly damaging the batteries.

    That’s why the proper procedure is to just always plug in the puny factory supplied tender when you’re not driving the car because most people do not understand how batteries work. Those tenders are easy to use, adequate for maintaining batteries and do not have the capacity to damage the battery due to user error.

    Surface charge conditions are usually fixable.
     

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