[85Mondialcab]

Hi! I am new to this message board and I have recently bought a 1985 Mondial cabriolet in the Pergo color with 26K miles. The car had been a blast to drive but I have recently experienced a starting problem. The first time this happened, I hooked my battery charger to the car and it started up. Since then I have replaced the battery but it just makes a humming sound when I turn the key and will not turn over. I have heard that this could be caused by the starter not getting enough voltage but I am new to the car so I am not sure where to start with this (no pun intended). In worse case, does anybody know of a good Ferrari mechanic in the Philadelphia suburb area? I appreciate any help on this. Thanks.

 

[Psylence]

I'm not sure where you purchased the car from.. But there are 2 places that come to mind, depending on your location. There is Dinardo Foreign motors in Horsham.. They always seem to have a few older Ferraris on hand so I would assume that they know whats up. There is also the official area Ferrari dealer, Algar. They are located in Bryn Mawr.
Good luck!

 

[85Mondialcab]

I purchased the car in Pittsburg so that will be way too far to use for maintenance. I knew about Algar since I have been down there drooling over the cars before but I did not know about Dinardo Foreign Motors. It is always nice to have at least 2 places for maintenance so that you can get a competative bid on maintenance. Thanks for the information.

 

[Stradale]

Try checking the contactors at the bootom of the car. Most likely it is bad contact/s. It happened to my 328 a couple of times once at home and the mechanics just came around again after I filled it with petrol. The mechanics went under and checked all the contacts and walla the car started. It was embaressing because I was stranded at the pump station for all to see.

 

['75 308 GT4 (Peter)]

Simple things you may check is to put a multimeter on the battery terminals to see how much power there is when the engine is off and when it is started.

A starter in good condition doesn't need that many volts to turn over a motor (well, its not really the volts that turn the motor, but the current - a.k.a: Amps - but a good indicator to battery condition anyways), so if you're getting readings even in the high 11 volt range, it should still start.

If you can hear the starter motor spinning, you could have a problem with the starter motor gear/drive mechanism.

I can't suggest a mechanic, I'm not in that area.