97 Ferrari 456 GTA bought in auction

[fastgerman]

Thanks guys, appreciate the research and posts to help me. Those Ratarossa videos are excellent, I’ll have a go and have a volt meter and plastic clamp (for the door switch) on order - my list of tools is growing with this car, similar to owning a Land Rover it seems.

The Ratarossa video on the barn find 512BBI... wow!

[idealstandard]

Davey S2 said:

Only just found this thread.

I also took it to a VMAX day at Bruntingthorpe. I hit 165 in it if I recall correctly. It was still pulling hard but we ran out of runway.

Nice memories there. This reminded me of a time in my old 456 in Germany where we were cruising late at night on the A1 south of Hamburg for quite some while at north of 170mph, It really settled down at speed. God I miss that car. The more I read this thread....

[Megaflow]

Sebastian Tombs said:

Does it have a tracker on it? They will suck all the power out of a battery.

^ What he said!

My wife bought an SLK350 in March, collected it 48 hours before locked down, and it would rinse the battery in two days! Suspecting something was wrong I went digging through the history and found a small credit card sized piece of card with something like trackstar on it.

After much googling I found the company’s details and they confirmed it did have a tracker, it was dead and couldn’t be reactivated because it was too old. They told me where it was and I removed it. It took a couple of weeks for the battery to recover, but it now lasts at least two weeks without issue.

ETA; even if they hadn’t told me where it was, it wouldn’t have taken much finding. Something like that would have to be installed inside the car, so the obvious starting point would be the interior fuse box, which whilst it didn’t have any power wiring for the tracker in there, did have the cable for the antenna in there!

Edited by Megaflow on Sunday 13th December 12:47

[fastgerman]

Hi All,

Well I still haven’t fully resolved the draining battery but the situation is at least improved - I haven’t had any issues for the last few weeks starting the car.

Some Christmas swag:



I have a spare key to get cut in the form of an Enzo key from Forza in Scottsdale US. On the hunt for another fob, they do appear to be the same as the Ford Explorer on eBay... ?? That is random

I’m looking for somewhere that will print me an A5 copy of the user manual also as have a download.

Then I’m hunting for a Ferrari tool kit :-)

Carpool on the PH homepage also - https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-carpool/ferrar...

[QBee]

QBee said:

What did the non-charging battery issue turn out to be?

I took my TVR out yesterday.
Stopped twice, no issues, the third time it wouldn't restart.
RAC called, no power to the fuel pump.
I think it wants to be a Ferrari 456, but I keep telling it we only have two seats

After an hour at the TVR expert, it turned out to be a burnt out pin in a connector for the immobiliser relay,
Seems my upgraded fuel pump has caused the problem - 3 years after I fitted it. £55 and we are mobile again.

I may be in a minority of one, but your battery discharge issues still, to me, sounds like a battery that needs replacing. A failing cell will bring on the "not enough charge to start the car" issue far sooner than with a healthy battery. It's not as if it's an expensive fix, and good autospares place will test the battery for you for free before deciding that you need a new one.

[fastgerman]

Thanks QBee, I’ve had the battery tested, all is fine with it. I need to spend more time with the volt meter and get some new battery terminals. It’s probably similar to the Ratarossa vid posted above, just haven’t had the time yet

[mkjess123]

Hi,

Re your battery draining issue, we have an Audi TT convertible that for about a year has had similar issues.

Long story short, it would drain down within 30 hours. Fault located to a faulty amp. Being a convertible it suffers from condensation quite badly. All ok for a couple of weeks and fault reappears. Fault located to another electrical component. Fault reappears days later. And on and on........

Had a very competent friend / mechanic who specialises in TTs continuously look at it and he's now admitted defeat.

It would appear that having got damp, many of the numerous electrical components on the car are slightly corroded.

If we sell what is otherwise a very nice car we would get very little for it. The only option was to fit a battery isolation switch next to the battery. Yes, a pain but the only sensible option.

Andy

[DaveEvs]

Hi OP.
Lovely car and I’ve enjoyed reading about your experience with it so far.

Re the battery drain - I had a similar problem on my 2008 Land Cruiser. The head unit also kept losing station presets with ignition off and the CD changer didn’t eject the cartridge.

With a bit of diagnostics I found the constant and switched 12v feeds to the head unit were reversed, meaning the unit remained fully powered (including amps) when the engine was off.

There was also a James Blunt CD fouling the changer, meaning the motor ran every minute to try and eject the cartridge.

I corrected the power feeds and replaced the changer with a Connects2 Bluetooth unit to give phone compatibility and keep the original facia.

Hope you get it sorted soon and all the best on your adventures with it.

[fastgerman]

Great shout on the Bluetooth connecting replacement of a cd changer! Finally got off my arse and followed the Ratarossa steps and guess what:

Battery at 12.6 volts after not being used for a week (switched off):



Battery drawing between 2.9 and 4 amps (negative connected voltmeter and positive prong on the negative battery terminal):



Culprit (unplugged amp and cd changer):

Edited by fastgerman on Wednesday 30th December 16:31

[bolidemichael]

What a result

[dscam]

What a fantastic car and wonderful write-up to accompany it - thank you for sharing it with us.

Like many others the want levels for a 456 are high. Never more so than having enjoyed every page of this thread.

What a fantastic result solving your battery drain issue. Such things really are tiresome and can dent the enjoyment of the car. Great that you can stroke that off the list now. It’s also been nice to see the enthusiasm and support of many contributors here

Looking forward to much more on your adventures. Good luck!

[fastgerman]

Thanks guys :-)

Next winter project will be removing the passenger side airbag cover to sort out the rippled leather.

I won’t be using the car with salt on the roads so it’s now in partial hibernation.

[ferrisbueller]

DaveEvs said:

Hi OP.


There was also a James Blunt CD fouling the changer, meaning the motor ran every minute to try and eject the cartridge.

Toyota's early implementation of the taste chip protocol was only partially successful.

[fastgerman]

ferrisbueller said:

DaveEvs said:

Hi OP.


There was also a James Blunt CD fouling the changer, meaning the motor ran every minute to try and eject the cartridge.

Toyota's early implementation of the taste chip protocol was only partially successful.

Hahaha

Happy new year to that!

[nsa]

Great thread. I've been following Ratarossa's 456 story on your recommendation.

[DKL]

fastgerman said:

Great shout on the Bluetooth connecting replacement of a cd changer! Finally got off my arse and followed the Ratarossa steps and guess what:



Culprit (unplugged amp and cd changer):

That was his issue too wasn't it? Must be a design fault!!

[t4thomas]

late to the party, but love the car and appreciate your bravery.

[fastgerman]

Cheers guys and yes the issue was the same as on the Ratarossa YouTube video.

I don’t think it’s a design fault for the kit in the boot, possibly the head unit receiving direct sunlight in the centre column is not ideal. A 23 year old Sony amp and disk changer has probably exceeded its life expectancy.

I’m not too fussed on originality of the hi-fi bits that can’t be seen so plan to upgrade everything while keeping factory sized speakers and the Sony head unit in place.

I could even leave the old Sony head unit unplugged and install something in the boot with Alexa capability. This is quite far down the list though haha.

Anyway, it’s nice that I can lock the car and the battery isn’t dead 1 week later.

Edited by fastgerman on Thursday 7th January 14:21

[fastgerman]

Hi All,

Winter update... having been recommended a few pages back, I have bought some of this so I can drive through winter:



I have a cracked wheel arch plastic trim, which Eurospares has helped out with:



Wasting much time looking at exhaust upgrades, I stumbled on this most fantastic sounding 550. The work was done at Rardleys and this is the sound:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BnmmMT9FtYk/?igshid=1w...

It is incredible! The tubi, capristo etc systems I’ve heard on other 550’s and 456’s sound a bit ‘farty’. Now the downside... you’re looking at about £10k for the full system including 6-1 manifolds, sports cats and back boxes but this is the only way to do it properly in my opinion:

[idealstandard]

@ Fast german, i just got this setup for my 599. They arrived on Christmas eve (great present) and will be fitted soon. Fabio is a true gentleman and the workmanship is phenomenal.








Alex.