Car goes into neutral while driving

Happened to a friend of mine. Sounds like the clutch needs replacement.

 

Wear or remaining?

 

Mine did that with about the same wear as yours. The F1 pump was overheating & eventually had to be replaced. Hasn't popped out of gear since ...


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I would take it for diagnosis. The sooner you figure out the issue the better. I wouldn't take any chances.

 

thats what happened on my vanquish when the clutch was getting down there, my 360 has 3 pedals as a result

 

My guess is it is clutch time. How many miles since your last clutch replacement? Your 20% is based on?

 

Here is a thread on my experience in my 360:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/360-430/457743-360-spider-f1-going-out-gear-question.html


It has not happened again.....as I make sure in slow traffic I give enough space of the car in front of me to fully engage the clutch. Seems to have helped doing that.

 

Clutch - when I had pump issues the car was difficult to engage reverse gear.

 

Billy got it right. Take her to somebody good with an SD2 or equivalent. Going to neutral is the F1 system's safety net so you do not get stuck in an intersection with her in gear and you unable to move her. Over a dozen things can cause that to happen, from clutch to pump to sensors to air in the system to bleeder block to whatever. Get an expert to figure it out for you and hopefully it is something minor. While he is at it, have him change the F1 fluid. Should be done every three years max, even though it is not in the maintenance schedule. Finally made it into Ferrari recommended maintenance in the 599 schedule.

 

+1 with Taz. They should run the max/min engagement/selection values before they attempt to center the Actuator if that's what you are referencing. There's no need to center it if those values are showing they are good. They can record the values before a self learn, then after a self learn overlay them and it should tell them how far it's moved out. If the issue is a centering one.

I have to be honest though I don't think this is your issue. If you are already in gear and it's going to neutral that's telling me the Actuator is already finding it. You didn't say it was staying in gear in neutral on an upshift/downshift or a blinking gear indicator so I don't think it's centering.

I also wouldn't say it's an F1 pump issue, only because if you lose pressure it won't switch at all it stays in the gear it lost pressure in, and you didn't mention a gear box light.

I think it's good you have it in a shop like Taz stated. I'm kind of leaning towards an F1 position sensor issue but look forward to hearing your story.

 

I just went through this. Started with the F1 flush, bleeding, clutch re learn, F1 pump replacement. All for not. Car finally (after numerous tests and tweaks) throws a code for gear position sensor. Shop said they had to remove tranny to replace it. The gurus here said not necessary but in the process they found my throwout bearing was almost seized and they needed to cut it to even remove it. Car shifts fine now. BTW my clutch was only 10% worn.

 

Dave- That is why you always want to change the throw-out bearing on a clutch change, especially on an F1 Ferrari. One of our pros estimated the F1 T/O bearing sees about three times the cycles of a 3 pedal Ferrari. Even in neutral, an F1 clutch is always open, even if stopped.

 

good to know. thanks and happy driving

 

Terry
That is something I never understood about the F1. As the transmission is identical to the 3 pedal I don't see why going into neutral shouldn't be just that -- put it in neutral and engage the clutch -- same as a 3 pedal.
Alan

 

Along these lines is it better to shift to neutral to come to a stop and then shift to first for the next takeoff or allow the system to click the gears down? I'm talking about manual mode of course.

 

Long debated. The argument for says that it shifts several times so it wears the clutch more. The argument against says it represents minimal wear so does it really matter, and being out of gear presents a specific risk if you need to move quickly.

The uneducated will say it saves the throwout bearing but that has been discussed here and you can see that it isn't relevant.

I guess that makes it a matter of choice.

 

I went through similar issue, transmission pops out of gear once in a while, had 50% clutch wear when it started doing it randomly.

Root cause: Clutch. Removed and replaced clutch. $8,200.00 later issue fixed.

Dan

 

Alan- Just the way it is mechanized. One less thing for the TCU to worry about.

Best advice on F1 is to drive it just like you did your last three pedal car. If you are one of those downshift to 1st kind of drivers, do the same thing with F1, but do it yourself so you know what gear you have. If you were a roll to a stop in neutral guy with three pedals, do it that way with F1. If you are rolling in neutral and the traffic starts moving, use the downshift paddle to get the highest gear in which she will run smoothly. Puts your hand in the correct position to do a quick downshift to get a more usable gear. Upshift and downshift paddles give you the same gear when you hit them while rolling in neutral.

 

Actually, yes and no,........ it wears a few parts more than just the clutch, and throw out bearing. Unlike a three pedal car it also wears the Actuator and the solenoids that fire in order to get the actuator to downshift. To sustain the hydraulic pressure this will also turn the pump motor on usually after 3 shifts. So for instance, down shift from 6th-5th to 4th the pump comes on to build the pressure back up over 700 psi before it switches off again. Whereas if you put it in neutral the pressure stays steady until you shift back up again.

The clutch is one of the expensive parts that is worn by down shifting but again not the only one. A three pedal car doesn't have to worry about all the rest of the parts. Additionally, I haven't scanned all the model year 360's but the later model years also store how many times it's been shifted into each gear in the NCR along with the clutch wear, engagement/selection values, and a host of other data.


Personally, I do switch the cars into neutral then I only wear my brake pads which are simple enough to change. Taz is dead on with keeping your hand on the down shift paddle if you need to get out of the way or if the light just turns green. Just my two cents though, as skidkid stated correctly still a matter of choice.