Ferrari battery

[boxbox]

I've only owned my 550 for a couple of months, but hopefully those of you who have run a ferrari longer could answer this one;

I bought a trickle charger for it recently and on Friday plugged it in for the first time. It took about 10 hours to fully charge it from whatever charge it had in it to start with. Thought I'd try an experiment over the weekend and not plug it back in until late this afternoon after some local motoring over the weekend - I drove the car for about an hour over the two days and started the car 5 times. On plugging it back in this afternoon, I noticed it was still charging after 6 hours. Is this normal or perhaps an early sign of a failing battery or perhaps failing alternator? I guess a lot of battery power is required to turnover a v12 from cold, but wouldn't have thought it needed 6 hours and still going after being used as it was

Thanks in advance

[Cerbieherts]

More likely a battery past it's best than an alternator. 550's really don't last long without an efficient alternator, so being as you drove it without issue it would point to the battery. Any half decent garage should be able to drop-test your battery and check the charging system to confirm an issue.

[mike01606]

My 360 trickle charger goes from amber to green within 10 minutes of plugging in.. I'd say battery. As suggested have it tested.

[Chris99]

Bear in mind a trickle charger is only putting about 0.5 amp max into the battery so 6 hours charging is only 3 amphours. Not a lot if you've done 5 starts on the battery.

[JazzyO]

We have too little information to really tell you if it is an issue. It could be a battery on its way out. Personally, with my 550, I have had two batteries go without warning. Battery tested, 18 months old, all fine, on the trickle charger permanently, and it suddenly died. This has happened to me twice in the past 5 years. It seems the way things go - nobody has found any issue with my car. I would say: replace your battery for the new season and you should be fine for the two after that.


Onno

[ssray]

A good trickle charger will test the battery whilst charging,a brand new motorcycle battery
(approx 75% charged) still took around 6hrs to go green
The only way to tell is have the battery checked and tested when under load
Ray