New 360 owner- tips/tricks? Dos/donts?

You are on the right track. There are many quirky things with these cars. If something odd or unusual happens, check in here. Chances are that someone else has had it happen before.

Just a few off the top of my head:
- White dust in the engine bay. The stock exhaust silencer material breaks down and "leaks" from the seems. No big deal. Just dust the engine bay occasionally.
- The car is very sensitive to low voltage on the battery. All kinds of odd electrical issues can manifest themselves even thought the car will still start.
- screw the gas cap on tight or you will get a check engine light.
- the trunk and gas cap release buttons in the center console only work if the car is on.

 

3-4 thousand left on the clutch after 8000 miles.... You sure?

 

1. Find a reputable Ferrari mechanic and have them get familiar with your car. Take the car in to get a routine fluid service (motor oil, gear oil, coolant for sure, maybe brake, F1, and steering if you want to be complete) so you know that the major fluids are fresh and so that the mechanic can get the undertray off and spot any leaks that may have started from such little use of the car.

2. Check the date code on the tires. If the car has few miles the tires are possibly really old and the rubber will be shot, even if they look like they have a lot of tread. You don't want a blowout while doing some spirited driving. And even if they don't blow, they will handle and ride like garbage if they are more than 6 years old.

3. Get used to having to beep the alarm right before you start the car. The car will not start unless you attempt to turn the ignition within 30 seconds of disabling the alarm. Multiple times when I was a new owner I would forget about this feature and the car wouldn't start for me and I'd be scratching my head until I remembered to lock/unlock the car again.

 

Put it on a battery tender, check age of said battery, age of tires, PPI done before purchase? This should show these items...I always cover mine wherever I spend the night.

 

Drive the hell out of it. Don't baby it. It likes the rough stuff. I'm on my 2nd 360 Spider gate shifter and I really enjoy it. These cars are very dependable and it sounds like you found a winner. Such low mileage for a 2002. You can open the trunk without the key on. There is a cable under the dash left of the steering cable. Comes in very handy. Make sure they give the books and radio code. You'll need the code if you plan on installing a battery tender hook up. Not that you need to listen to the radio much. There is a battery turn off knob in the trunk. Hit the sport button on the dash for spirited driving and open exhaust note. The 360 is a great car, raw visceral feel. Enjoy and drive it in good health. Let us know how you like it and post some photos. Best, Tom

 

I second the notion of driving the car! I pull my Bella out on Friday and put her up on Sunday night. The occasional weekday drive as well. Almost 38k on her and with top down weather it is going to hit 40k in no time! Not a collectors car, not a special model, nothing but a beautiful Ferrari to drive and enjoy. Enjoy!

 

It's a great car and if you get the kinks worked out then you will have a fabulous ride
That's if you have any kinks.
Be careful you don't get any bugs caught in your teeth, its hard not to smile the entire time you are driving
Enjoy and good luck
Glenn

 

Congrats man. My experience has been fairly mixed, considering that I'm mechanically inclined. These cars seems a bit fragile to me.

Things that I have seen or have gone bad on my car with just 2 years of actually "driving" it.

Not in any particular order, just stuff from memory.

1. Once you start driving a garage queen the ball joints may show their age, plus the tie rods. You will hear knock and slight play in steering.
2. Coolant caps will seep, check coolant every now and then to make sure there isn't any other fluid in there.
3. You may get random "Slow Down" lights and will shut down one bank of the engine. It seems the CAT ECUs are usual culprits.
4. Turn signal relay under passenger side dash will activate randomly on its own if its too hot. (Usually when you have heater blowing towards the foot area)
5. Butterflies in the intake will tap and the hydraulic lifters will tick.
6. oil disareator has aluminum fins holding the center tube that simply fall out into the oil sump. Not totally disastrous but check behind mesh filter every now and then.
7. Precats in headers will fail for whatever reason, either old age or poor tuning or who knows. Have them inspected every few years to make sure they are not coming apart.
8. Fuel cap seal will separate from cap which requires re-gluing.
9. Brake calipers could have one side seized if the brake fluid wasn't changed at correct interval. Check for uneven pad wear on the calipers.
10. Like the guys said here, old DOT tires ride like plastic. Easy to get in an accident during emergency braking as the tires will simply slide.
11. Check passenger front wheel arch for contact from tires when entering driveways. seen so many of them pulled out.
12. Grips on wiper and headlight stalks just slip around without changing position. I solved this by moving the rubber piece aside and adding some friction tape underneath.
13. Alarm range is very poor, perform that mod to pull the antenna out from under the metal bracket.
14. Exhaust brackets tend to break in several places. Inspect during fluid change.
15. Valve cover gaskets and cam seals will seep oil as they aren't always changed during major service.
16. Depending on mechanic, they will leave the cars "off" in their timing. Scanned a lot of them where the banks aren't "balanced" on exhaust cam.
17. Try to maintain interior temperatures low when you park the car outside by using windshield covers. This will slow down the dash shrinking and the interior parts becoming sticky. However, its just delaying the inevitable.
18. Try to change reverse lights to LED to keep the plastic lenses from deforming.
19. Oil sender has a tendency to go bad and have erratic readings or out of range. I'm working on trying to find a cheaper solution to the $200 part.

I have to get dinner, if I think of more I will post it. There are many more issues that surface on these cars. I apologize if it seems like fear mongering as it is not the intent. Some people have better experiences, but overall I agree that driving the car will surface all the issues which once addressed will make a nice long term driver.

 

Kommons has posted a nice list. I'd like to chime in on the clutch life situation.
Somebody telling you that you've got 3-4k miles left on a clutch (after only 8k miles, that seems strange) is pretty much "crystal ball" magic.

3-4k miles - it might be more or it might be less. Do you go in reverse up any steep slopes? If so, the clutch will burn fast. Or, will you be driving sensibly trying to keep your clutch in mind when you do things? Then it will probably last longer.

Regardless, drive it sensibly and enjoy it. A beautiful car all around.

 

All these are great tips. My advice. Put away at least $500 a month for maintenance plus $5K for that first year.

 

I thought I read here many many times that we cannot read the clutch wear through a port. Yet here I clearly see a way to view the clutch directly. Am I missing something? Is it simply a matter of removing #16 from the Ricambi website? Oh and OP you may wish to bookmark this for your needs.

Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini Parts Diagrams: Model = 360 Spider
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You definitely can read the wear through the port. It isn't sitting right in front of you but it can be seen. Then you just need to know what a new one looks like and how thin it is when worn out.

 

You need new tires now. 2002 is way too old for that one tire, 2007-08 getting old...and all different age tires- get all 4 replaced. Now. I had a front tire go flat in the garage on my 360 when I first got it- When I checked I realized the front tires were both original and almost 10 years old at the time- visually they looked fine, no cracks that I originally noticed, good tread, but I could see the cracks once the one tire went completely flat overnight. I had already driven the car pretty fast on the highway- good thing no blowout!

Drive the car easy until the oil (not just water) warms up...ideally drive easy and shift around 3,000 rpm if you can without lugging the motor (manual says not to exceed 4,000 rpm but I baby it a little more) until the oil is warm.

My only comment from Kommons' post is that in 5 years of ownership I have never had any slow down light- if that comes on get it checked out- that is not normal. With these cars do not ignore check engine lights or any other lights. The pre-cat went in my car and we were chasing a CEL before we realized what was causing it. Luckily no internal engine damage was done and she was all fixed up ($10,000 later- new header, new set of hyperflow cats, intake re-seal from earlier in the process of chasing the CEL). The pre-cat design in the headers sucks.

 

All good advice!
I couldn't tell if the car is an F1 or manual
1.) If F1, keep your foot on the brake when at a stop, if not the car will beep and go into neutral (just up shift to 1st) Scary the first time if you don't know what's happening.

2.) wait until the OK display comes on before starting the car

2.) Don't panic if something beeps or doesn't seem right...all can be fixed.

 

Make sure you have a tire patch kit, fresh can of air/goo and in my case, a small air compressor as well because there is no room for a busted tire even if you have a spare

 

Where are you located? I would post in the regional section of f-chat and ask for recommendations for a GOOD tire shop....no need to go to a dealer for tires. I had the RE-11s on my 360 and was very happy with them by the way....

 

Michelin Pilot Sports are probably a good grip/tire life compromise tire. Most modern tires have significant grip these days, just have to be mindful of load ratings.