Hi guys (and gals) After the long winter hibernation, I pulled the cover off the 360 spider (2001). I turned on the battery switch and the car started up right away. I let it warm up for about five minutes and decided to take it out for a short ride. Right away, I could feel there was a significant decrease in power. In addition it didn't have the same sound that I'm used to. I continued to drive it for three or four miles and the slow down light started flashing on the dash. All the pressure and temperature gauges were well within normal range. I turn around and drove home slowly and parked the car. I couldn't see anything glowing or any excessive amount of heat in the engine bay. Incidentally, the lights will not shut off when the car is turned off. Any ideas before I take it to the dealer? PS, the car has had a Capristo Exhaust installed 6 years ago. It was serviced before putting it away for the winter with a full fluid change. It had a clutch replaced 4 yrs ago and has 16k miles. And yes, its an F car. What a rotten way to wake her up!!
I am willing to bet it is the MAFs! With everything I am going through right now, I have been learning a lot about these expensive meters. This is exactly what can happen if they fail on a too rich mode. The Cats get over worked and you get the slow down. My car did this exactly when I had tried putting in the cheap knock off MAF's. No CEL just a poor idle and and significant loss in power with the Slow Down warning coming on after about a mile.
My experience is with a 360 but I suspect the 430 is similar. If you have slow down light and don't have a red-hot glowing cat then you probably have a faulty thermocouple or a faulty ECU to which the thermocouple is connected. Both are common enough failures on the 355s and 360s and perhaps beginning to show now on 430s. Bear in mind though that you would probably only see a glowing cat in low light or darkness. Lights? Maybe you hit the parking light switch? Best of luck!
Ferrari Dublin: I read your post about hitting my parking light switch and thought...that's dumb!! Not possible that i couldn't have thought of that...well I guess I'm the dummy..that was exactly the issue.. Wow, do i feel stupid!!! The light issue fixed!!!! as far as the primary issue goes, while I was checking out Ferrari Dublin's dumb suggestion -)), I started the car again. Suddenly it sounded great. I took a chance and took it around the block. The car feels and sounds great! I took it out for about five miles. I hit it hard....no slow down light...just pure unadulterated ferrari sound and power. I don't know what has happened but the car is perfect again... Thank you to all for your suggestions and Ferrari Dublin, I'm embarresed to tell you that I grew up in Belfast before moving to the States and that sometimes the best solutions are the most obvious ones. Thanks again. I love this board. PS Im still going to take it in and make sure all is well.
Sometimes they are a little cranky when they wake up. Aren't you? Over the years I've learned that the first thing to try is to shut off the engine, give it a minute, restart, and see what happens. Software glitches have become commonplace and you fix them the same way as any other computer: reboot. Anyway we are glad for you that the situation resolved. Enjoy the car.
I can't believe how many slow down posts there are on the Forum right now. Must be that time of year? Maybe everyone should drive their cars more often! I drove mine in the snow for the first time last night(it was snowing and I got caught in it not by choice) ha ha
Slow down lights come on for a number of reasons. You have to take it to a dealer and they can read the computer to get more info about it.
Glad all is well. I had the same problem on my F430. Took to the dealer, checked out ok. The darn light would still randomly come on. Back to the dealer. Apparently if you have some soot buildup, it will cause this to happen or if you change through gears 4-5-6-5-4, like running through some traffic, it will also cause the light to flash. When this happens on my car, I run it at a high RMP to blow out any soot and watch it. The light stops every time. Just thought I would give you my experience after being to the dealer 3 x's for the same problem.
