Advice on this photo

[paul-hill_1]

Hi, I’m new to both Maserati ownership and the club but pleased to be both an owner and member. I have recently purchased a 4200 coupe but I’m unsure as to the identity of a particular item. I have pictured it below. It is slightly smaller than a credit card, has a barcode on the rear but i cannot figure out what it is or what it’s for. I cannot seem to find any reference to it in the owners manual either. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

[Tony Jaskeran]

Hi Paul,

Welcome to ownership and lots of miles smiling.

This to me looks like the fob for the tracker, it’s exactly the same as mine. I had mine disconnected as I keep my car in the garage plus it does drain the battery.

[paul-hill_1]

Thank you Tony.

Regards

Paul

[profchristopher-green]

I am not sure what the tracker and other things are supposed to drain but i repeatedly checks mine for battery loss and it worked out at between 0.4-0.5 amps per day on a 4200 battery . I then put one of those Halfords solar panels in the back window which will do 340milliamp/hr (the big one about £40) and yes this is correct- the battery is now 10 years and 3 months old ! BUT its not the original Fiamm – but a Bosch relplacement.

[Graham Wood]

I have one on my 3200 (disabled it about 15 years ago as it did not impact my insurance).

Had the car 2 weeks (used daily), then went on a 2 week holiday. Came back to a totally dead battery.

Got it going, then left it for 3 days. Totally flat battery. Meter told me something was draining the battery heavily and suspected the tracker.

Called RAC (as I knew the item was an RAC tracker fitted by the first Owner on purchase – not installed by Maserati). Engineer said the unit was faulty. Should continue to draw 250-350mA for about an hour after switching the ignition off (i.e. when in ‘transmission’ mode) and then drop to about 15mA (in ‘standby’ mode). Mine was continually drawing 300mA as it was not switching to ‘standby’ mode – hence soon took the battery down. Unit left in the car but disabled. Where I learnt how easy the rear seats of a 3200 are to remove!

Sure the modern ones are far better and probably draw less standby current (technology of mine was probably around 2000).

Car went from 2004 to 2016 on the new battery fitted in 2004. Installed a new battery in 2016 just because I thought 12 years was long enough to trust a battery!

Interesting the 4200 one came with a fob, so you could disable them and also that Maserati installed them. Was it an optional extra or standard I wonder?

[profchristopher-green]

i can assure you the modern ones still draw 300-400mA  (6 month old MY20GT) as i have measured  it a couple of times roughly based on time and charge needed to get back to full.

My 4200 tracker was factory installed and had a fob -standard fit on UK cars as i got mine new from Egham. Still draws 300-350 per day.

[Graham Wood]

So the 4200 was the start of factory installed trackers, my 3200 (one f the last out of the factory) did not come with one, hence the ‘aftermarket’ fitment.

Intriguing the constant draw of 300-350mA, so with just the tracker the battery (~70AH?) would drain in about 9 days.

[Graham Wood]

Just saw this thread on another forum… interesting there is such a difference in draw on different 4200s

The battery on my LHD 2005 4200 CC coupe (MY2006) was discharging quickly.

I decided to try to find the source of my rapid discharge – measure the discharge rate with a multimeter on amperes in series between the battery and the ground cable, then remove one fuse at a time, one after the other, until I found the culprit.

Leaving it long enough for all systems to ‘go to sleep’, I had a discharge rate of 0.30 amps. It’s MUCH too much, enough to completely drain the battery in a week or two. I know that modern cars discharge quickly, and that the Maserati are perhaps among the worst, but being unable to start after a few days seemed excessive to me.

After removing several fuses, “bingo”, by removing fuse number 29 (AKA “F22”) (“Ceiling lights, ceiling light timer, electric seats, luggage compartment and fuel flap opening controls”) : drop from +/- 0.30 amps to +/- 0.01 amps.

Then, with the fuse number 29 back in place, I disconnected one of the multi-pin connectors under the driver’s seat and again: drop from +/- 0.30 amps to +/- 0.01 amps.

My driver’s seat is has the memory option.

[Tony Jaskeran]

Thats really odd, makes you wonder if there were slightly different build specifications e.g. different trackers or wiring looms. Maybe it could be something to do with different batteries. I don’t have any facts or evidence just some wild guesses but very odd indeed.

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