I used to have a 308 QV and I sold it. Then i've done an upgrade to a F355 F1 from 1998 27K miles. I got it 2 weeks ago. I'm attaching pics. I 'm a fanatic of Ferrari chat 355 group and I learned so much with you guys....You are the best Ferrari mechanic on line .!!! This is the problem that I'm having....after 20' driving in the sport mode the red ligh of Slow down appears for 5-10' and then disappear. what i do is to go slow for a couple of minutes. This happened to me 3-4 times. I didn't have the chance yet to take it to my mechanic here in florida. The car has the 15K-30K service. All the services were done in this car and they change the catalyst converter in 2004. Do you guys had the same porblem? how can I fix it ? or what do you recommend me to do.? Again, thanks so much for your professional opinion. !!!! Lucho 355 Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
A few basic checks should be done first. You must determine if its a true cat over heat problem, or just a malfunction of either the cat ECU or the thermocouple. Get yourself a good infrared temperature gun. Take the car for a good blast to get everything up to temperature, park let idle and take temp readings from cats and compare side to side. Remember a cat converter will always be hotter at the front then the rear. If your readings are close (say within 20 degrees of each other), then more then likely you have a malfunction of either the thermocouple or ecu. The worst case is you have incorrect cam timing or a fuel mixture issue. May have also have a failing cat that is restricting exhaust flow.
Very nice car, nothing like driving a Ferrari F1. As for sport mode, I still need to find out why mine doesn't work. One of these days if I can stop driving it long enough I'll dig into it...
Hi I have a 99 GTS F1 with about 11K miles that has had the same periodic problem. I have noticed that if the car is driven a bit more regularly, the light blinking goes away. I'll be curious to hear what your mechanic says. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I took it to the mechanic and he told me 2 things 1) the catalyst AC from the right side was burned ( I need to replace it $300) 2) the relay of the water pump was not working. So those were the 2 erros he got from my ECU. Then Everyhting was perfect in the engine and I should be fine. I will take it next week to the shop....I will let you know.
I would measure the cat temps with an IR gun before I spend money on repairs. +1 The light came on the day after I bought my 348. It never came back, presumably because I drove it regularly enough... and was non-issue anyway because they measured the correct temperature after a hard run.
I had the same thing happen just briefly on 2 occassions just before my 30k mile service. The cats were completely fine, it turned out just to be the Cat ECU acting up. Even though they are solid state, water and heat seem to degrade them over time. Quick replacement and everything is fine.
I have had and intermittent problem of slow down lights blinking for 3 years. All the CAT ECUs checked out at .5V when cold and below 5V when hot, the Motronic was switched out and still the light blinks. When running hard sometimes it comes on solid and shuts one bank of cylindars down. Finally after 3 years the dealer found a broken pin at the harness to the ECU and replaced the connector. All lights are out and Check engine light out with no other codes showing - finally. Its basically a stupid design that sends a trace voltage sufficient when there is a wire fault to shut the engine down. Most modern designs have a trace voltage that will tell the ECU there is a connection fault if there is one and send an appropriate code. Not in F355s. If you run it hard with a certain wire broken, the combination of the trace voltage and the running voltage is enough to shut the engine down.
