Hitting the rev limiter in an MC Shift manual mode

[ensignia]

Chaps, like many of you I've been out taking advantage of the recent nice weather and pushing the car a little to hear the exhaust note with the windows down and generally loving it.

Last week I was driving and a clear road presented itself so naturally I put my foot down in 2nd gear, but as I was approaching the rev limiter there was a slight bump in the road which threw me and the car off so I missed the manual change and the engine hit the limiter which immediately cut the power and warned of transmission failure and EBD errors. It remained in 2nd gear and I had to turn off feeling rather chastened.

This lasted for around 30 seconds after which everything went back to normal. Using a Carista scan tool afterwards there was an error P0563 System Voltage High which cleared on the next drive cycle.

However a week later I'm getting an intermittent battery light and associated error warnings. It still drives fine but below 3000RPM the battery light comes on. Battery is a year old, but bought a new one just to test and rule that out too.

I'm thinking the alternator is borked after that bit of amateur driving. Anyone have any experience or advice with system voltage errors? I know these cars can be notoriously volatile with their electrics and that I need to test the alternator, but if anyone has experienced similar I'd be grateful for the advice. Car is a 2010 GTS.

 

[ChrisQP09]

Chaps, like many of you I've been out taking advantage of the recent nice weather and pushing the car a little to hear the exhaust note with the windows down and generally loving it.

Last week I was driving and a clear road presented itself so naturally I put my foot down in 2nd gear, but as I was approaching the rev limiter there was a slight bump in the road which threw me and the car off so I missed the manual change and the engine hit the limiter which immediately cut the power and warned of transmission failure and EBD errors. It remained in 2nd gear and I had to turn off feeling rather chastened.

This lasted for around 30 seconds after which everything went back to normal. Using a Carista scan tool afterwards there was an error P0563 System Voltage High which cleared on the next drive cycle.

However a week later I'm getting an intermittent battery light and associated error warnings. It still drives fine but below 3000RPM the battery light comes on. Battery is a year old, but bought a new one just to test and rule that out too.

I'm thinking the alternator is borked after that bit of amateur driving. Anyone have any experience or advice with system voltage errors? I know these cars can be notoriously volatile with their electrics and that I need to test the alternator, but if anyone has experienced similar I'd be grateful for the advice. Car is a 2010 GTS.

Interesting same year as mine! Only took mine to 5k revs so cant comment but will be interesting to hear opinions! Did it sound gd?

 

[CatmanV2]

I think it's unlikely that the spirited driving damaged your alternator but it's possible.

The HP6 will lock into gear if it gets over voltage. 2 or 5th from memory.....

My bet is your reg is screwed and everything else is glitch

C

 

[spkennyuk]

Chaps, like many of you I've been out taking advantage of the recent nice weather and pushing the car a little to hear the exhaust note with the windows down and generally loving it.

Last week I was driving and a clear road presented itself so naturally I put my foot down in 2nd gear, but as I was approaching the rev limiter there was a slight bump in the road which threw me and the car off so I missed the manual change and the engine hit the limiter which immediately cut the power and warned of transmission failure and EBD errors. It remained in 2nd gear and I had to turn off feeling rather chastened.

This lasted for around 30 seconds after which everything went back to normal. Using a Carista scan tool afterwards there was an error P0563 System Voltage High which cleared on the next drive cycle.

However a week later I'm getting an intermittent battery light and associated error warnings. It still drives fine but below 3000RPM the battery light comes on. Battery is a year old, but bought a new one just to test and rule that out too.

I'm thinking the alternator is borked after that bit of amateur driving. Anyone have any experience or advice with system voltage errors? I know these cars can be notoriously volatile with their electrics and that I need to test the alternator, but if anyone has experienced similar I'd be grateful for the advice. Car is a 2010 GTS.

Have you checked to make sure the aux / alternator belt isnt slipping ?

If its slipping the alternator wont supply enough power to charge the battery at lower rpm but can do at higher rpm.

 

[GeoffCapes]

I’ve hit the limiter in 5th and the car was fine.

it meant I lost a little race with @Zep though.

 

[Sam McGoo]

First of all, congratulations on driving your car properly
Yeah, check belt tension and condition first and that battery connections are tight, as the bump may have dislodged something.
Pretty easy to check your alternator with a £10 amazon/screwfix multimeter, so do that next.

For what it's worth, I've (accidentally) hit the limiter a couple of times in both my 2011 and 2013 MC-shift cars, and never had any issues. And yes, it does sound Awsome at redline! Lol. (not necessarily at the limiter though )

 

[Zep]

I’ve not heard of that and had no issues with hitting the Rev limiter in normal driving. Was it a particularly big bump? If you were full bore, approaching the limiter and it skipped and lifted the wheels from the ground you might have had a momentary over rev which has given you alternator something to think about.

As above, alternator / alternator drive seems to be a likely culprit, check the front of the engine for something looking out of place (frayed belts etc) and have the alternator checked. Also have a look at your battery connections and see if they are clean and tight.

 

[Zep]

I’ve hit the limiter in 5th and the car was fine.

it meant I lost a little race with @Zep though.

You were always going to lose that one though

 

[GeoffCapes]

You were always going to lose that one though

My car was certainly carrying several kilos more than yours though.
That car coming the other way didn’t help either!

 

[Sam McGoo]

Interesting same year as mine! Only took mine to 5k revs so cant comment but will be interesting to hear opinions! Did it sound gd?

Seriously? The car doesn't even go into mc-shift mode until 5500rpm and over 80% throttle!
If you think you like your car now, go for a drive, and with the pedal floored in second or third gear, don't change until 6500rpm ish and you'll realise how good these cars are.
The noise and the thump in the back on gear change in mc-shift mode is what it's all about.
It's not the fastest out there, but so much more enjoyable than a DCT gear change
GO FOR A DRIVE NOW!

 

[spkennyuk]

My car was certainly carrying several kilos more than yours though.
That car coming the other way didn’t help either!

View attachment 73818

If you had been the car in front that wouldnt have been an issue !

 

[Scaf]

I have hit the limiter a number of times with no ill effects, in fact isn’t that the whole point of the limiter !!

 

[ChrisQP09]

Seriously? The car doesn't even go into mc-shift mode until 5500rpm and over 80% throttle!
If you think you like your car now, go for a drive, and with the pedal floored in second or third gear, don't change until 6500rpm ish and you'll realise how good these cars are.
The noise and the thump in the back on gear change in mc-shift mode is what it's all about.
It's not the fastest out there, but so much more enjoyable than a DCT gear change
GO FOR A DRIVE NOW!

Haha i can get into mcs mode under 5k revs! In fact I use this when in manual/sport. I too read it in the manual. I just think the car needs to be warm. Will take it to 6k next outing.

 

[Ryandoc]

Haha i can get into mcs mode under 5k revs! In fact I use this when in manual/sport. I too read it in the manual. I just think the car needs to be warm. Will take it to 6k next outing.

Think he means the quicker gear shift only happens at full throttle (or accelerating anyway) and over 5.5k revs.

The gear change is so much quicker, massively noticeable. Being in MCS mode just means that it’s available.

Try it !!

 

[Scaf]

I agree with the others, you are missing out on what these cars can really deliver- don’t stop at 6k get a gear change in at 7k and you will think you are in different car !

 

[azapa]

i'm quite friendly with my rev limiter too, no harm done yet. the errors you mention are common in Maserati ownership. the battery often being the cause.

 

[Ryandoc]

There’s no way hitting a rev limiter does damage, that’s it’s exact job, stop things where it starts to hurt the car.

That bump is the cause of your issues

 

[Ebenezer]

Always hitting the rev limiter. It's the law!
Unfortunately with mine, it changes up automatically so difficult to hold it at just over 7K.
Eb

 

[ensignia]

Thanks for the replies everyone, good to know I'm not the only imbecile who doesn't know how to shift properly

My bet is your reg is screwed and everything else is glitch

Is this the voltage regulator on the alternator?

Have you checked to make sure the aux / alternator belt isnt slipping ?

If its slipping the alternator wont supply enough power to charge the battery at lower rpm but can do at higher rpm.

I don't think it's slipping from the brief visual inspection I did. I tried removing the engine bay covers to get a better look, but of course the torx bolts are corroded so didn't get very far...

First of all, congratulations on driving your car properly
Yeah, check belt tension and condition first and that battery connections are tight, as the bump may have dislodged something.
Pretty easy to check your alternator with a £10 amazon/screwfix multimeter, so do that next.

Yep. Ordered a multimeter and it should be here on Monday. Battery connections are good, I tightened and triple checked everything around there.

i'm quite friendly with my rev limiter too, no harm done yet. the errors you mention are common in Maserati ownership. the battery often being the cause.

Tried a brand new battery, but it made no difference. The old one had a production date of 19/02/2019 so not old at all, but thought it easy enough to replace and rule out.

Interesting same year as mine! Only took mine to 5k revs so cant comment but will be interesting to hear opinions! Did it sound gd?

Unless you've only owned it for a day or two, this is absolutely scandalous.

 

[Wanderer]

Never dared hit the limiter! Done 5k revs tho, sweet spot for proper paddle-ups....