But what is this light?! Have you ever had a warning light that comes on on the dashboard, which doesn't prevent you from starting, but spoils the pleasure of driving your Ferrari? With the continued development of electronics in our Ferraris, over the years, fears of electronic breakdown or failure have continued to increase in discussions between owners. @Mike051 recently had an alarm malfunction in his Ferrari 612 Scaglietti. He explains in detail how he went about identifying and then solving his problem. With a strategy that might serve you well one day...
@Mike051 : This year has been a good year for “Gina”, our Ferrari 612 Scaglietti. She was able, in addition to frequent valve burn-ins on the beautiful roads of Morbihan, to participate in the drivers' parade for the centenary of the 24 hours of Le Mans, then attend the 3 days of Le Mans Classic, as well as the Ferrarista 3 International Meeting in Auvergne. , each time thanks to Ferrarista. What good times...
But also, quite a few moments spent parked in the sun. And it should be remembered that in addition to being black, my 612 is equipped with a panoramic glass roof which can cause high temperatures inside.
It was when leaving the Le Mans Classic, after a hot day, that when starting up the TFT screen showed me a yellow message “Alarm System Failure”, or I imagine in French “Alarm system fault”. The fear of a locked immobilizer system invaded me then, but it did not happen to my great surprise: the Ferrari 612 started immediately, and I was able to return home without problem.
The next day, I restarted it from my garage, and surprise: no error message. So I let the summer pass, using it normally, to try to better understand what seemed erratic to me at the time. I thought it was due to the temperature being too hot when he left the Le Mans Classic. At the end of the summer, I understood that there was nothing erratic or random about this: this message became systematic after the Le Mans Classic after the alarm worked, and therefore the car was locked. The temperature of the passenger compartment during this event must have caused the malfunction of a component involved in the operation of the alarm.
What strategy should you adopt when you have an electronic problem with your Ferrari?
From there, I remembered that since I owned the Ferrari, I always had strange behavior from its alarm. I never managed to understand how it works:
- Frequently, after deactivating the alarm, opening the passenger door triggered the siren
- The beeps from the indicators when the alarm is activated or when it is deleted seemed random to me (from time to time 1 beep, sometimes 2…)
- Ditto for the alarm indicator LED, located on top of the dashboard, under the windshield: I even happened to drive with this LED indicator lit red!
When we talk about alarm system problems, we immediately think of the internal battery of the siren. This problem is frequently mentioned on cars over 15 years old where the siren's internal battery fluid ends up leaking and causing short circuits in the siren. But in my case, as I frequently triggered the siren, I suspected that it was not coming from there.
Another possible avenue: a weak battery, that of the Ferrari this time, can often be the cause of many small gremlins on our cars. But in my case, I had changed the battery myself 1 year before, and my CTEK MXS-5 charger indicated that the battery was in full health.
How to use OBD to eliminate trivial hypotheses and better understand the problem?
A priori, this was not one of the usual symptoms indicated by members of Ferrarista. So I took out my Autel AP200 OBD reader, and plugged it in. Please note, for owners of Ferrari 599 and 612: the OBD port is located under the steering wheel on the left: there is a hatch with two large screws, with plastic heads. This hatch is removed by pulling it downwards.
Following the scan, in the “10 BODY COMPUTER” module, the error “B1028 – Inclination Sensor” appeared.
So here is a clue, and it is all the more interesting because at the ceiling level, the Ferrari 599 and Ferrari 612 Scaglietti have within their light dome two buttons for deactivating the volumetric sensors and the famous inclination sensor, two buttons linked at the same time to the inclination of the car and to the alarm. From there, a search on the forums shows me that this was a frequent problem on the Ferrari 599 and 612. The problem a priori lies in this dome, where an electronic card houses the tilt sensor of the car , which was therefore positioned at the highest point of the car. At this location, he experiences intense heat in summer during a car exhibition.
So I then dismantled the dome. To do this, I first activated the circuit breaker: this is better to avoid errors subsequently recorded in the car. Then, I removed the light unit (slot on the right with a plastic screwdriver) then removed two screws: the dome is detached. You can then disconnect the 3 cables which are connected to it (no risk of making a mistake when reassembling: they are all different in terms of number of pins but be careful how the connectors are stored, because the space to store them is limited ).
A few screws and unclips later, we obtain the 2 parts:
- The orders part:
- And the circuit part itself. We can then see the inclination sensor:
A visual examination of the card under a magnifying glass did not reveal any broken solders or burnt components. However, I didn't desolder the metal cage to see what was underneath (it's a multi-layer board): I didn't have any desoldering braid with me, and I didn't want too much. touch this card until I knew if it was an easy card to find or not. Experiences of other members, notably on the TCUs of Ferrari 612 OTOs, taught me to be vigilant regarding the rarity of certain electronic parts.
How can you broaden the scope of your research through common Ferrari/Maserati parts?
By digging into the trail of spare parts, it appeared in the databases (Eurospares, etc.) that the electronic card integrating the inclination sensor was not sold individually. The entire dome is sold, at a price of more than €1,000. Furthermore, the reference of the sensor itself is no longer made, replaced by more recent technologies: therefore no possibility of changing only the card or the component itself. It was therefore not useful to diagnose the component itself since it could no longer be found individually.
So I started looking for Ferrari 599 and Ferrari 612 domes (the color didn't matter since I was only interested in the tilt sensor board). Only problem: whether on eBay or LeBonCoin, there were none available. And at the same time, the Ferrari 599 and 612 were produced in a total of less than 8,000 units: the probability of finding one was not very high. And besides, anything that is not common and has the Ferrari logo is generally not cheap.
So I broadened my search: I know that the Maserati Quattroporte and Maserati Granturismo share a lot of electronic elements with the Ferrari 599 and Ferrari 612. I went to check if they didn't have the same dome. And the answer was no…but yes: no because the shape of the dome is not the same, but yes because the buttons are identical, and if the buttons are identical there was a good chance that the electronics behind them were too. . So I looked for ads on eBay for Maserati domes, which are much more common, and the photos allowed me to select a dome that had the same circuit reference on the back as mine. With taxes (it was in Texas), I got it for less than €80, and 1 month of waiting (the package having been temporarily lost in Roissy).
When unpacking, you can clearly see that the dome of the Maserati is different in shape but that the buttons are identical:
And the disassembly showed that the circuits indeed had the same reference and that they were identical:
A comparison of the two button/circuit pairs, Maserati on the left and Ferrari on the right. The only difference, planned by the manufacturer TRW when designing the circuit, is that the Ferrari has green LED ambient lighting that the Maserati does not have (black and red wires).
The last step was therefore to reassemble the dome, then reinstall it by reconnecting the cables, and replace the battery.
I then took the opportunity to reset the car's boxes (starting with all power sources deactivated such as headlights, air conditioning, radio... and waiting for 10 minutes), then I reconnected my Autel AP200 , I read the error codes then cleared them and went for a walk. Coming back, I parked the car in its parking lot and locked it, activating the alarm. The next day, I opened it again, I started the car: no more error messages on the TFT screen, and a new OBD scan showed me that the error had not reappeared. I also discovered a much more logical behavior during the following attempts at the level of the indicators as well as the LED on the dashboard (which I had never seen turn green before), and the passenger door does not trigger no longer the mermaid. All these changes in behavior make me say that my problem is solved!
@Franck: What can you learn from this concrete case of electronic malfunction on a Ferrari?
1. By being methodical and taking it step by step, @Mike051 was able to resolve an electronic anomaly present on the dashboard
2. A simple OBD reader can greatly help you in the diagnosis to find out what the error actually is (See this article: Easily manage your Ferrari's error codes yourself)
3. By studying the common parts with other brands (many examples on the Ferrarista forum) he was able to find an identical circuit on a much larger spare parts market than that of Ferraris, and for less than €80.
While not all electronic problems can of course be resolved so easily, many of the little “gremlins” we know can certainly be resolved using such a method.
Have you encountered similar cases to share with other members?
What other Ferrari parts do you know are common with other brands?
If you liked reading this article, you might also like:
- [Tutorial] How to change the door sills of your Ferrari F355
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