Ferrari battery
Discussion
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
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
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.
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
Onno
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