2010 California Last night, while traveling approximately 50MPH on highway, the car went into neutral and lost power. I saw one warning light saying "Clutch Overheated" and I coasted to a stop. Once stopped the emergency parking brakes came on and the car had to be jacked up onto a flat bed and towed to the dealer. The noise was like a tin can in a clothes dryer. The car has 700 miles on it and the launch control (power start) has never been used. During the failure, the car was in 4th gear and while shifting into 5th, everything came to a halt. I'll keep you posted as I hear from the dealer and Ferrari. If you have heard of this failure, please let me know. Chad
Wow. That sounds like serious stuff - only 700 miles! Do please post the results as they come in.... My best to you Jedi
Ahh the joy of owning a first run exotic...good luck..I'm sure they will take care of you without issue.
Chad- Scary stuff. Hopefully, they will just install a new transmission unit and take your broken one back to the factory to find out who assembled it incorrectly and how to prevent it from happening again. 10:1 odds that will be exactly what happens. Thanks for letting us know and keep us informed. The bloody things were supposed to be bulletproof. Taz Terry Phillips
+1! Whats the chances of having a spare California gearbox laying around? Have them remove one from another new car and fit it into yours.
When your car was delivered, how many miles did it have? Maybe, they had a little too much fun with the launch control prior to you picking it up. I know with Stradales, it is only good for so many launches. I just received my Cali and it had more than a 100 miles on it. I've been worried on how hard those miles were excluding the factory testing miles.
I can only imagine wat was going thru your head as it was happening. i hope it's less serious than it sounded so keep us posted
You should go over to Rennlist and see what is going on there. I seem to recall the PDK transmission issues were related to low batteries.
A very similar thing happened to my 430 on the 5th day of ownership. I had about 500 miles on mine at the time. It slipped out of gear from 4th to neutral, then it would drive normally for a couple miles and then an array of transmission warnings, beeps, lights, etc were going off. It took the shop two weeks to figure it all out. If my car wasn't under warranty it would have set me back 15K. Im so sorry to hear about this and I so know how you feel. They will figure it out and get the car in perfect shape. My 430 had a lot of issues and it was very trying, but Im still a Ferrari driver for life. I drove that 430 for 27K miles in two years through a new engine, exhaust manifolds, busted hoses that left me stranded with a steam filled car, on and on.........After all that I have a 599 arriving in 3 weeks and a 458 in my future as well. I just can't find a Marque that holds my interest for more than 5 minutes other than Ferrari. Their cars are THAT amazing to me! Hang in there buddy.
HAHA! Yep, I can be patient once in a while. I guess I was in shock that I could even own let alone drive a modern Ferrari, so it almost felt bad complaining if it went to the shop. After over 75 days in the shop out of two years I got over it. Ferrari stood by me and took every issue seriously. They kept me as a customer for life. I can't and won't go into any details other than to say that Ferrari of North America know how to treat a good customer. So many people take an adversarial stance when if they just realized that we are all on the same team. It's stupid, short sighted, and self-centered to get all puffed up and start with "After all the money I spent on this car, etc" Or you could be like Jay Leno and hold a grudge against Ferrari because of his bruised ego.....I like Jay, but he's really missing out while Ferrari couldn't give a rats ass about his car collection. Rant over. Ape
Im also a Ferrari man for life and I have had NO issues with my Ferrari! You have a GREAT atttitude Ape and I wish you many trouble free miles in the 599 buddy!
I was told by dealer service that the gearboxes are completely sealed units from Getrag (German manufacturer) and most likely, they will get another gearbox in from Ferrari to replace the whole thing as there is no "single part to be replaced." I will keep you posted.
for a second I thought I was out of fuel. Then I looked down and saw the digital display flashing N-4-N-4-N-4, as I was in 4th gear when it happened. Then a "Clutch Overheat" warning came on and quickly went off. The car was not in Auto mode and I was on the highway, which didn't make sense to have a "Clutch Overheat" indicator as I had NOT shifted gears for 10-15 minutes prior (when I got on highway). I've never had a major problem like this with any of my cars so I am curious to see how Ferrari handles this. Hopefully it will be a good experience, I'm not worried and I love these cars.
Mine had 94 miles on it at delivery. When I questioned about it I was told that nearly all are "factory test" miles. BTW - I have not had the trans issue you experienced (but I am only at 400 miles so far) - I am sorry for you about that and hope it gets fixed quickly and lasts for many miles of trouble free operation. I really like this car and hope these early USA deliveries are not full of annoying warranty issues that need to be cleaned up.
I've had a new Ferrari with 83 miles on it when I got it. I'm pretty sure you are good to go and right in the range for delivery miles.
I don't know if this is still the case but delivery miles should be in the 45 mile range. These miles are the road tested miles when the car leaves the factory. If a car doesn't pass the road test then the problem is corrected and retested on the road again. This is why some cars have a lot of delivery miles on them. The more miles on the car the more problems the car supposedly had at the factory. But I can tell you from personal experience that one of my Ferraris arrived with 42 delivery miles and I was relieved that I had a solid car. Well the car (360) never made it 12 miles before it broke down. It spent the next 6 weeks in the repair shop. I never drove the car after that and sold it back to the dealer.
My F430 had about 75 miles on it when I took delivery. My Cali apparently had 70 miles from the factory. Dealer added 15 more in predelivery, before I got it. Have almost 500 now, with no issues. Ferrari will take care of you. Just a bummer and hassle.
Wow. Watching this thread with GREAT interest as it may impact my spring decision. Please keep us posted on the causes. I believe we're all interested in the cause.... and if this is a one-off or a weakness. I must say I'm concerned about "sealed clutches" that don't have replacement parts/procedures. As a mechanical engineer, I'm suspicious of any mechanical design that is "forever". ALL moving parts wear. Time will tell!
