Did I just break something?

I guess **** was bound to happen with my car at some point.

I took her out with a friend to sample exotic noises on our country roads, rowing through the lower gears with the engine at high rpm... lots of hard downshift noises in the corners and backfires at stops. Everything went smoothly at first, slow warmup for about 20-30 kms before opening her up for a noisy stretch of maybe 30-40 km at the end of which we stopped for lunch.

After we got back in my friend said "what is that noise coming from the centre air vents?". We thought it was a wire or some sucked in debris tapping on a hose or something. It would get louder and quicker as engine revs moved up, not very high frequency, much lower than engine rev. Luckily, we were heading home by then. After I dropped off my friend and I pulled over, I easily located the noise to somewhere close to the passenger wheel well. It was a light tapping noise at idle. I could also hear it above the engine when I popped the hood. The car drives fine with no apparent loss of power or throttle response.

What I did notice recently was that the gas mileage seemed to have suddenly gotten worse after my car came back from annual service and an HS Pack upgrade. I was visiting the gas pumps sooner after my drives. I also noticed the coolant temperatures rose higher on the return trip, still well under the red zone.

I'm now wondering if I have a passenger side exhaust manifold leak that opened up during my drive. It would also explain the poor gas mileage. So I've sadly had to park my car until I can flatbed it to the dealer for proper inspection. I imagine it would be relatively simple for them to put a stethoscope up from below once she's up and check the O2 sensor for signs of running rich. I recall reading about F430 exhaust header nightmares on FChat. My factory warranty booklet includes "Exhaust manifolds" under the list of warranty parts list.

Does anyone have experiences or opinions on this? I can't imagine the engine being damaged by rowing through the gears, hard downshifts on the DCT. I've attached a couple of MP4 sound files made by my iPhone in case you want to hear the noise. These files open on MacOS as well as Windows using Windows Media Player.

What a bloody !@#$%^&* shame though - the open-top driving weather here has just started in earnest!
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Thanks very much for your encouragement and support.

When I was leaning over the passenger wheel well, hearing the unfamiliar noise, I had that nauseating feeling come over me. Now it hurts to miss my drives just waiting for my car to be inspected... certainly makes a point for having a backup fun car.

Oh well, at least F1 Montreal is on the tube this afternoon. Engines on in a few minutes!

 

I see the censor boys have been playing with the title of my thread. Oh well.

 

Yes, it would throw a CEL if it poisoned the O2 censor but it's very possible my manifold leak hasn't been there long enough. The noise just started. An exhaust air leak would cause the O2 sensor to run the right bank a bit richer but maybe not enough to trigger an error code. I didn't find any error codes with iODB2.

The other possibility is a valve lifter problem but the noise does not sound like metallic clicking from the engine compartment and is more dominant over the background when listening from the wheel well (try listening to attached sound clips). Lifter noises are generally noisier with a cold engine - it's the opposite with my noise. My driving also involve subjecting the exhaust system to a lot of back pressure (hard downshifts, backfires) and would definitely worsen a weak spot in the exhaust system. Lexus SUVs don't do hard downshifts or use high performance headers.

Finally I think bottom end problems would be unlikely with a relatively new Ferrari engine. They would also sound different coming from inside the block.

I'll update the forum when the dealer completes its work.

 

Thanks for your input MG. Great to have you share your Cali knowledge as well as "war stories" from your impressive Fcar mileage experiences.

 

Thanks, my car's being picked up on Wednesday. I will update everyone once the dealer checks her out.

 

Sorry Beef, yeah she's all good now and it wasn't an expensive fix. Here's the nitty-gritty on what happened after they picked her up on Wednesday June 15.

I let them work on her for a couple of days and then checked in on them on Friday. David Webb, the service manager told me it wasn't the engine (big "PHEW!!") but also said it wasn't the exhaust header either (OH-OH!). Luckily, they had tracked the problem down by then and said it might be just a noisy fuel pump issue and discussed it with the guys who worked on Challenge cars. Apparently noisy fuel pumps had been an issue with some Challenge cars and they had a fix for it.

I dropped by on Monday to see how they were making out. David and Gord G. were working on my car as I arrived. David explained the fix suggested by the Challenge car folks involved applying silicone sealant on the noisy valve of the fuel pump. Only the passenger side pump was affected in my car. They had just finished applied the sealant and reassembled the pump. Unfortunately, the sealant had to sit for a day to set before they could fire up the engine and test the car.

The next day, they made several test drives as well as heat cycled the engine before retesting and she was good. I pick her up on Thursday and put 500+ km on her, including a long drive to the vineyards to celebrate with my GF and she runs perfectly... knock on wood!

David tells me noise from pumps is not unusual and the noisy pump worked fine. Not sure how my "noisy driving" suddenly made the "normal noise" from my fuel pump so obnoxious. While I hope the noise fix is permanent a replacement pump from Ricambi is only $900 (USD) and it's not difficult to replace. I've attached a photo showing the location of the 2 fuel pumps. Apparently these pumps are normally noisy because direct injection engines use high pressure pumps. Fuel pump noise was actually mentioned in an earlier thread under "What IS that whirring sound? ". My passenger side fuel pump noise exhibited as a noise from the centre air vents. I think noise from the driver side pump would sound like noise from the driver side air vent or noise coming down the driver side of the car.

I've actually noticed the noise from the pumps before but it was (and is) very mild, a light ticking noise at low rpm which (naturally) goes away when you lift throttle. That's actually a good clue if you ever experience a noisy pump. Lifting throttle should momentarily kill the noise. The black plastic cover over the pump is actually an acoustic cover which has lots of sound insulation on its inside surface.

All in all, it was just a 4-hour service charge and even though my car is out of warranty they did not charge me to pick up my car and even offered to flatbed it back to me for free. It all turned out really well and I learned something from the experience. I'm very happy!
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I'm happy to contribute some of my personal experiences as I've already learned so much from you and the FChat community. BTW, here's a bit more on the fuel pumps (courtesy of a schematic I lifted from All Ferrari Parts).
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There are 3 fuel pumps in the Cali. Two (green) high pressure ones in the engine compartment and one in-tank fuel pump (purple). The acoustic fuel pump covers are circled in orange.

And someone is even offering CF fuel pump covers to complete the look for the ultimate CF engine compartment. LOL! (BTW, the yellow acoustic material is not shown in these covers).
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