[tc348]

Purchased a 1995 348 last summer. Love the drive. But have had some electrical issues. The alternator was not charging. The alternator had been rebuilt as part of the major service immediatly prior to my purchase. The repair shop stood behind it, picked the car up twice and finally got that taken care of. I have put in a new gel battery and installed a maintainer,as I live in northern Indiana and don,t plan on driving in the winter. The problem is that I jumped/charged several times and the A/C quit. Thanks to this forum,I located the "hidden" fuse under the hood. It was fried to the extent that I had to replace the fuse holder. Got that done and now I have some function restored in that I can use the buttons to redirect the airflow direction, but the buttons for A/C or heat will not work. I tried to run the dignostics but nothing. Are there other fuse location, or do I need to let the engine warm up before the heat or A/C work? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
TC348

 

[Granucci]

I know of no reason for warmup on the A/C other than letting the engine warm up to 'speed'/performance level before straining it to engage the compressor.

I never use the heater setting until oil and water temp is up to temps, as I want the engine case to warm to correct specs before I bleed that heat to me.

On your button problem, I'm guessing you are unable to engage the heater/ac ?

if so, that may be a fried button...guessing. I need more info. BUT, those switches are easil replace from BOSCH .. same as Ferrari, but without the logos.. VW, BMW, Porsche etc. have that exact switch, I've replace mine in the T. BUT, getting into my area is a bit more difficult than yours, IIRC you just remove a couple ashtray screws etc. and the center lifts out...not sure.

Is it the switch?

 

[tc348]

Thanks for the tip. It sounds life it may be in the switches. I will pull those out . TC348

 

[Night Life]

This might be a bit obvious but what happened to mine one of the buttons got stuck half way in but I did not notice and made half of my system inoperable. Check if all the buttons depress correctly.

 

[tc348]

Have pulled the center counsole out,and have access to the circuit board. It appears there is some corrosion on the contacts between the two boards that may be my problem. However,there is some white material about an inch long on the side of the board that looks like silicon. Not sure if it is supposed to be there, as it covers a number of connections. Also, any advice on cleaning the corrosion? Thanks TC348

 

[GPGardin]

On the 348 owners site they recommend going through the whole car and using Stabilant 22a on all contacts.

This is a contact enhancer - it will not clean out corroded parts. For this, I would use a 000 steel wool ( be absolutely certain that you clean all little fibers before reconnecting ) or emery cloth. Then use the Stabilant on it.

Ricambi sells this as do high end audio shops.

I had a few instances where my clock/temperature control module would blank out. After using this, I have had no reoccurances ( at least not yet ! ) so I believe that it was helpful.

Maybe someone knows of a very good contact cleaner for corrosion for the areas that you cannot manually clean.

Hope that this helps,
Greg

 

[Granucci]

greg, great advice...will research the cleaner

rik

 

[tc348]

Greg and Rick,
Thanks for the great advice. I took the circuit board to a number of local electronic shops and all but the last were of no help. The last shop put some "Bullfrog" on the contacts and worked the connections. He said this was a product developed by the navy and was similar to stabilant. When I connected the board about 1/2 of the switches worked,so I knew I was on the right track. I then worked on the prongs with some 600 emory paper. All functions are working great.
I have put all back together I vow not to jump start or charge again. I have installed a gel battery and a maintainer with a plug connecter that comes out in the wheel well. I do have a question in that regard. To this point I have turned off my battery before connecting to the maintainer. Of course this turns all of the radio presets and the clock off. Should I continue to shut off or can I leave it on while the maintainer is on?
Thanks again for the help. As a new Ferrari owner who's closest repair shop is 4 hours, I was a bit overwheled,especially when I looked up the cost of a replacement($2500). Terry/TC348

 

[Granucci]

the typical dealership solution is not to spend time, but just go to new...and that has valid reasons for many problems with the industry: breaks later, OEM vs 2--n-party etc.

I like your maintenance approach. Not unusual to find after so many years things just needing periodic maintenance ... on everything.

 

[GPGardin]

I have put all back together I vow not to jump start or charge again. I have installed a gel battery and a maintainer with a plug connector that comes out in the wheel well. I do have a question in that regard. To this point I have turned off my battery before connecting to the maintainer. Of course this turns all of the radio presets and the clock off. Should I continue to shut off or can I leave it on while the maintainer is on?

Jump starting should not cause any issue as long as the leads are connected up properly. I did have an issue but that is due to the fact that on my car the RED coloured connector is negative - opposite to any other car I had ever seen. After I forgot my interior lights on, I tried to jump - sparks told me that something was wrong! This did blow a fuse at the back of my radio but no other arm resulted.
I have connected a smart charger to keep the battery maintained all winter. I swear by these. My 2000 Yamaha R6 still has the original battery. I plug it in all winter and in the summer if I am not going to ride for two weeks or more. Disconnecting is not necessary. People who work at the dealer state that they usually only get 3 -4 years tops out of a battery.

Greg

 

[Granucci]

battery tender is a good idea, and worth the quick disconnects one can get so plugin-de-plug = easy.

Disconnecting the battery was my early solution, but
on some cars, it resets valuable information
or
causes some minor problems: CLOCK, or radio presets, or the SDI history.

recommend battery tender.