Reply To: 3200GT Won't Start Showing NO/ASR

[Graham Wood]

Hi Richard,

You are best to check the voltage at the battery – 3200 voltmeters are notoriously unreliable at showing an accurate value.

Assume it is sitting just past vertical most of the time when about & about (which is 13v)?

Mine often hovers between 13v & 14v, and as Chris says shows 14.5+ at the battery terminals with my multimeter, and has been known to dip to 10v for obscure reasons I cannot fathom!

It does seem that your battery may have been run down and that was the problem, so it may be worth trying to find out what caused that in just a week. On a different post, when I first got my 3200 (15 years ago) I had a faulty RAC Trackstar that took the battery out in just 3-4 days. Other things to check (apart from obvious interior lights) are memory switches etc. on the seats that can get stuck.

The good news is you did still have some power in the battery as the dashboard light came on. If it had been totally depleted that would affect life of the battery even after fully charging.

What year is your car?

If it is a late one with the OBDII connector as I described earlier, it will probably also have a battery disconnect switch in the boot (right hand side behind the battery flap – a round black knob about 3cm in diameter to the left of the fuses.

If page 83 on your 3200 manual describes it, then you have it.

I have shown at least 3 people this who were not aware of it as it was only put on the very late 3200s and it seems some had the older manual without the descripton for it (so Maserati!!).

Mine has that and I just switch it to disconnect when leaving the car for more than a few days, and just run my Optimate battery conditioner on the battery twice a year to confirm the battery is in good condition. Last battery was 12 years old when I replaced it, and only then because I wanted to ensure reliability.