Ride control on the T... How do you know if its working?

Good evening,

On our '89 T Coupe the effect of selecting each of the settings is quite noticeable. You can readily feel the changes in the car's ride. Ciao.

John

 

Hi Ted,

As you know, I have long been associated with the "T" cheer leaders, in not only the "I Love My Ride Control Rocker" song & dance, but a host of other T features as well..
The best way and place to "reveal to yourself" - the magic of the Ride Control system, is to find a portion of a road (or freeway) that has those segmented cement partitions (there's a George Carlin joke here somewhere). In a "sport" sprung car ("hard" in our "T" cars), it would very quickly show itself as an uncomfortable "ka-bump-ka-bump-ka-bump" .......... Now, flip the rocker switch to "soft". If your system is working correctly, the "ka-bumps" should disappear, as if by "MAGIC" !!!!!

Ahh, Mondial T Magic I love it !!!

Cheers, Hank

 

Hank's got it right. The difference should be quite noticeable. If not then the control units that sit on top of the shocks may be bad or malfunctioning. Does the "shock" light stay illuminated after the car is started?

 

Since having one of the rear shocks repaired by Bilstien the ride control light now stays on all the time so dont really know if anything is working or not. Tried all sorts of combinations with the fitting of the servo motors but no joy. According to the handbook if the light stays on then some sort of default setting takes place and you should then seek help from a Ferrari main dealer.

 

Ted,

The light is actually an icon showing a profile of a car with arrows underneath pointing down. This is the shock light. This light should illuminate when starting the car and after it goes through the whole start up proceduce should then go out. This is how I start my car EVERY TIME (even when warm): turn the key to the on position and lights will come on, wait for the system to cycle completely and most all of the lights should go out. Start you car (then a remaining light should go out so now all lights out). If the shocks are not toggling then the light should stay on. It's possible that your bulb is shot and needs to be replaced especially if the shock light does not illuminate at all upon start up and the toggle switch is not working from soft to medium to hard. This light is the light that tells you something is wrong with the system. The system is set up so that if the shock adjustments are not working properly then all four shocks should default to the medium setting.

Something else you can try; have someone turn the key to the on position while you are at the rear of your car with the hood open (do not start the car). Put your hand the red control unit on top of the shock then turn the key to the on position, if all is OK then you should be able to feel and maybe even hear the control units cycling as they should. Try this on both shocks. Just turn the car off and then to the "on" position. You can try this multiple times. If no cycling occurs then probably one or more of your control units is shot. This may be the time to have both (all?) of the shocks rebuilt including the control units. Do not buy new shocks Delta can rebuild them to brand new specs for about 1/5 of the price. Hope this helps. Let us know. And yes I believe there should be a fuse for this. Consult your manual.

 

Yes each shock has a control unit

On switch on of ignition you can feel(place a finger on the control unit) the control motors rotate and stop

As the Mondial system was copied for the 355 and the motors are interhangeable you may wish to read up on the system in the 355 sectiion although the Mondis have a Medium setting which the 355 does not

 

The icon is on the left side, 1 or 2 to the right of the left seat belt light. Sounds like your light is not working.

If one of the control units is not working, the light goes out for a couple of seconds, then comes back on.

There are front control units, a lot harder to get to than the rears.

Someone said the units default to medium if not working, I thought they default to hard. But irrelevant for your purposes.

Here is the link for repair:

http://www.deltavee.net/services.htm



Regards,
Jerry

 

Ted, Jerry is right the light is on the left side of the dash (between the 2 lights you show in your picture) and yours is burned out. As I said before when there is a malfunction all shocks should (key word here is should) default to the medium setting. Sooooo if your car has defaulted correctly all shocks should be on the medium setting so no problem driving it till it's fixed. BUT if 3 shocks are medium and 1 shock soft or hard or any combination therein driving it may then be a problem 'cause things are not what they should be. And yes as stated above all 4 shocks have a control unit. Use your best judgement.

 

Just my opinion Ted but I really think you should get your car to Dave sooner rather than later.

 

Totally agree !!! After all this time, Ted should be able to enjoy all the performance features that his Mondial T was designed to "give".

Cheers, Hank

 

Hey Ted, don't know if this helps but I posted this video of a cold winter start for some reason I can't remember, but below are the sequence of lights on start-up. The yellow light on the far left is the suspension.

Caution! Do not turn the key more than three times without starting and do not leave the key in run for more than 45 seconds (I think) without starting. This warning is in the owner's manual and it states that damage to the suspension computer can occur if these values are exceeded.

Hank is right about finding a rough road. The suspension incorporates a G-sensor which automatically tightens up suspension in curves making the difference between selections on twisty roads minor. However, on a bumpy road the difference is stark.

Dave

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loj_fz-sK5c]Cold Start - YouTube[/ame]

 

For SURE! It's huge. I never use soft. It will bottom easy.

 

That be true, Coach But some of those sections of our California freeways that have not yet been scraped and grooved, can really get on one's nerves. It's not the fear of bottoming out - - it's those damn bumps !!! So I select my "freeway bumps setting" - which of course, is soft, and instantly, the suspension puts me on a cloud. Yes, that's right, a cloud. When I exit the freeway, I go back to the medium or hard setting.

Just another amazing Mondial T feature - that found its way on to 355s.

Cheers,

Hank

 

Just for reference, the Mondial T system is definitively different from the F355/ 550/ 456/ F50 system... It's considered "generation one" in that the gear on top of the shock has a significantly larger sweep/ rotational arc: about 160° for Mondial T and about 90° for "generation two" F355/ 550/ 456/ F50.

The system controls internal oil flow inside the shock, typically referred to as "bleed" or "bleed circuit", this oil flow bypasses the shim stack that's bolted to the main piston.

There's a huge range of damping control with this system, so much so that we've modified a few Mondial T's for customers who found "soft" setting unusable; we basically move the range of damping more toward sporting so that "sport" becomes a track day only setting.

Be aware that if you ever need to replace the adjuster gears that they're different from the more common F355 design. We have had a couple of Mondial T shocks here with the wrong adjuster gear which messes up the shock's operation.

As to why was the system changed, Bilstein/ Ferrari (and GM with their Corvette) made the changes to reduce response time of the active damping system.

Finally, keep in mind that if your car seems to ride very rough it's possible you have a shock or shocks hydraulically locked, there's an internal rubber bumper that deteriorates over time and blocks the oil passageways. Not every shock was built with this internal bumper.

Best,
Rob

ps, thank you for the mention in this thread!