Yearly fluid service

You already 'wasted" a large chunk of change when you bought your Scud, what a couple $ more going to hurt?

 

I have to agree with your mechanics advice. On all my low mileage and limited use cars, I do a yearly oil change.
On the Ferrari I do the yearly oil change plus Coolant, brake fluid and gear box every two years. Since I have a 360, I am also going to do all the belts every 4 years.

 

Depends on whether you prefer to pay small annual installments to keep the car in good reliable shape or if you want to pay in large chunks for major repairs and take a real beating on resale.

The saying "pay me now or pay me later" was coined for this exact scenario.

 

The 360s we have had failed heat exchangers and serious cooling system failures and also most of the expensive transmission repairs were serviced like yours.

 

There have been cases of trans cooler leaks resulting in co-mingling coolant and gearbox oil. The only practical way to check for this is to drain it and examine what comes out.

I strongly recommend that all fluids get changed annually. A Ferrari isn't a Benz or an M5.

It's your car, do what you want.

 

We have Fords and Ferrari's. I don't service them the same either because I do get it. They are different and really do need different service.

 

whats your take on the f1 flush and bleed in the SCUD
dealer says it is lifetime fluid yet i have read on here that others change every few years.
its a big job, 6hrs of work.

 

Doesn't take that long.

Lifetime fluids are good for the life of the part. The key is the old fluid is often the cause of the failure. Have a look sometime. If used hard the system gets quite hot and it discolors in the same way it does in an automatic trans that has been getting very hot. Not to mention the contaminants. It acts not only as a hydraulic medium, it is also the lubricant for some very expensive parts.

 

+1

 

Wow Brian that's upsetting!
Are you saying that I should change ALL the fluids yearly?
That seems excessive, but I do see your point of doing it more often since the fluids can be examined for cross contamination, etc.
Are you sure that the ones that you see with the big failures weren't consistently neglected for longer than 2 years? Or neglected by the prior owner unknown to the current owner doing the 2 year interval?
If they weren't, I need to reconsider my plan for maintenance.
Is it the same for 430's, or can they wait the 2 years?

 

Zeke- It took Ferrari a while to figure out the F1 fluid needed regular changing, flushing and bleeding, just like the brake system. They finally figured it out on the 599, where it is recommended that the fluid be changed every 3 years or 30,000 miles, whichever came first. Same with coolant where many Ferrari maintenance schedules do not call for coolant changes (permanent coolant or fluid, my rear end). That has resulted in heat exchanger failures, overheating, and, in one case at least, a hole in a cylinder liner.

Brian recommends changing all fluids every year, which actually turns out to be pretty cheap insurance at $1-1.5K annually. His customers are generally very happy.

For those who find the F1 fluid change hard to believe, here is the 599 maintenance schedule. The 599 F1 system is very similar to the late F430/Scud/16M system. Note, though, no recommendation to change coolant, a recipe for disaster down the line.
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355 & 360 uses the same heat exchanger. 430 has a different style but they have also been known to fail. All three models (and probably others) should have annual fluid changes as insurance against the damage that cross contamination can cause. Some of these cars are pushing 20 years old. Neglect proper maintenance at your own risk.

 

+1. I change my fluids and oil annually, regardless of mileage. The transmission oil is subject to a lot more heat than in most other cars. Also, draining the fluid is one of the best ways to see if you're getting cross-contamination due to heat exchanger failure. Use up the additives in the coolant, and you're in for expensive cooling system repairs. Does it seem like a waste? Certainly compared to most other ordinary cars. But the difference is that parts on Ferraris are very expensive, not to mention labor, and fluid changes relatively cheap by comparison. Just swapping out the heat exchanger when it hasn't yet failed is a lot of work. Doing that AND trying to clean out all the gooey stuff that results is much worse (hint: you probably can't get it all out unless you change all the parts). But it's your car and your risk. Spin the roulette wheel if you dare.

 

The lack of use/infrequent use allows more moisture to build up in the transaxle, for one...hence causing the potential for more corrosion. The packaging of the drivetrain is such that the transaxle is in very close proximity to the catalytic converters which substantially raise the temperature of the oil. Higher temperatures translate into shorter life for the oil...

All of the above mentioned items coupled with the inherent difficult to effectively flush cooling system, plus the long term know failure rate of the coolant-gear oil intercooler are exactly the reasons why you should be doing fluid services annually.

For a car that costs $200K plus, piece of mind for a few dollars seems like one hell of a deal. Regarding the "extended change" intervals you state, one might ask if your MB or BMW have factory "complimentary service." They have a financial incentive to keep maintenance costs low...

 

Brian
How much time should it take? I asked my service tech at the dealership if the F1 fluid should be changed and he said only if the system was opened up. I guess he didn't read the Ferrari recommended service.
Alan

 

I took my 360 in earlier this year to my service department when my AC was on the fritz. It had been 8 months since my last oil change, so I said, save me a trip back here in a few months and change the oil now. They refused, saying they didn't want to change good oil because it had only been 700 miles since my last change and I was wasting my money. Sigh, I will still be back in a few months regardless of the mileage.

 

I would not go beyond 12 months. The mileage doesn't matter. Ferrari specifies changing the oil at least once a year. Why risk a catastrophic failure?

 

Pelican Parts wrote this:

 

Something to consider when just doing an oil change is this.

When an annual fluid/filter service is actually performed, its more than just draining and refilling a bunch of fluids and replacing the filters.

There is a long list of items that are checked, adjusted, updated, treated, etc... all of which are truely preventitive service.

One example would be treating the body seals with seal conditioner. When seals are not treated with each service they may start to shrink and harden. The result being wind or water leaks.

I've had low mileage F430's come in, that have been serviced by that guy that does oil changes and calls that an " annual service ", then he had a concern about the wind noise coming from the windows... that repair was a whole lot more expensive than 3 years worth of annual services. ( Body seals )

So, regarding the myth.... if the tech you have , really performs all of the items an annual service should include, then no, it's not a myth. It's saving you from issues you haven't thought of or experienced yet.

If on the other hand, he "saves you money" , by charging less, changes the oil and maybe performs a brake flush and tells you that your good to go... then yea, there's your myth.

S

 

Also, it's not always about the fluid itself breaking down. Possible contaminates getting into the fluids could be harmful too.

Small rodents building a nest inside your air box , using the filter element as stuffing...

All things that would not be caughts when an oil change were to be performed.

S