430 will not roll backwards in neutral

OK, so I just got my 07 430 F1 back from having new AP headers installed and now I find I can't put the car in neutral and let it roll backwards down the driveway and into the garage. It sits there on the incline and will not roll. I put it in reverse and backed down the slope into the garage. Now it is in neutral and I can manually push it forward but not backward so I don't think it is the parking brake.

Called my tech and he has no idea why and doesn't think it is related to the install.

Any ideas?

 

Wow. Good one.

If you can push if forward, it should roll backwards as well. Of course, it's a manual transmission, so neutral means no gear engagement. Will it roll backwards while running? Try backing up and putting it in neutral while it's rolling. If it stops quickly, you may have a binding brake somewhere. You can drive it to a steeper uphill incline and try there. Check the fronts also.

 

How far can you actually push it forward? Just a few inches or a couple of feet? Could it be that it never is going into neutral instead it is just "rocking" slightly forward while still in gear? Perhaps something was not re-connected or possibly damaged during the header install and neutral is not functioning other than the display on the dash.

 

Tried backing in reverse then dropping it in neutral. It comes to a gradual stop. Before when I was rolling backward in neutral I had to use the brakes to slow it down before reaching the garage. When I try to push it backwards I hear a groaning noise coming from the back. I think I will jack it up tomorrow and see if the back wheels are turning freely.

 

I can push it several feet and rev in neutral without the car moving.

 

Hard to imagine how the headers would cause this issue.

 

Could it somehow be the brakes? Not the E brake, regular ones. I don't know.

I could definitely imagine though that during the install of the headers something could have gotten messed up...

 

Very strange

Can you engage and disengage the e-brake a few times to see if it's dragging? Odd it would roll forward though but not back if it was brakes

Does it make any groaning noise reversing under power in reverse gear?

Perhaps the installer moved some wheel well or suspension components around to gain access for the headers and it is causing interference?

 

Tom,

It certainly sounds like a brake issue. Ask your mechanic if ANYONE touched ANYTHING in ANY WAY ANYWHERE on the brake system. Could they have tightened the parking brake? It is an easy job with the rear underbody cover removed. Maybe your mechanic thought it needed an adjustment and since he was in there anyway…. Also, the parking brake cables are not very far from the headers.

I adjusted my parking brake a few months back and if there is any drag at all, the car will be quite difficult to move. It is, after all, a 3200 pound car and just won’t move like a baby carriage. Pushing my BMW M3 (3400 pounds) up a very slight incline then over two 1” steps (in quick succession) into the garage is tough but doable. Even though my 430 is 200 pounds lighter, it is almost impossible for me to push over the same terrain. My point being that the 430 is not an enthusiastic mover without its engine doing the moving, so any hindrance, like a tight parking brake, will be a real movement killer. Also, washing the car will weld the brake pads to the (steel) disks; my car will start moving with a loud pop after sitting overnight after a wash.

Tom (another TNT)
2007 F430F1 Coupé

 

Update: Jacked up the car and the LR parking brake is is binding in revese, turns somewhat freely foward. I loosened the two outward facing bolts on the pbrake caliper about half a turn and the wheel now turns easily in reverse. Retightened the bolts and it's binding in reverse again. So what's next? How do I adjust it?

 

Do you have a workshop manual?

All Ferraris

 

Tom,

Timba has got the right idea with looking in the manual (Sections G2.06 and G3.05). Maybe the thing to do is to loosen the parking brake cable and see if you can get the wheels to turn easily, then re-adjust the parking brake cable to the correct tightness. The manual says, due to the design of the parking brake system, the left parking brake caliper engages first.

I include my post, made on 7/11/2015, to a thread begun on 7/9/2007 (yes, eight years apart), entitled “430 Handbrake”, that adds some information from my experience with 430 parking brake adjustment.

1. First, jack up the back of the car or raise it on a lift. Whatever method, the wheels have to be able to turn and the rear underbody cover has to be removed. I jack up the car using the rear jack pockets and a 2x4 block cut to fit the pocket. I put my jack stands on the A-arms as far inboard as I can. For this procedure the car needs to be high, about 16” at the underbody-diffuser joint.

2. Remove the underbody cover. It is fastened with 22 6mm screws with 10mm hex heads. While the cover is off, you can look for evidence of leaks or other bad things and wash it and recover all those sockets and screws you dropped when you were working in the engine bay from above.

3. With the parking brake lever all the way down (fully released) make sure both wheels turn freely. Pull the parking brake all the way up, then fully release. Then, pull the handle up just two clicks. The wheels should still turn freely.

4. From the left side cooling air intake (part of the left rocker panel), move under the car inboard about a foot. Look up at the car and you will see the adjusting turnbuckle in the middle of the parking brake actuating cable.

5. Using two 8mm open end wrenches, hold the barrel (long center part) with one wrench and loosen the two thin jamb nuts on either side of it. Note that one nut is left hand thread and the other is regular right hand. Move both nuts away from the barrel about ¼”. This process is made easier if you lightly attach a pair of vise-grips to each stud-end fitting (male-threaded parts crimped to the wire rope sections), leaving the handles hanging down; this keeps the wire rope sections from twisting with barrel rotation.

6. Turn the barrel to tighten the wire rope assembly. Get the tightness “about right”: closer to too tight than to too loose.

7. Fully release the parking brake lever. Try to turn both wheels. They should turn easily but with just a bit of drag. If they don’t turn your adjustment is too tight. If there is no drag your adjustment is too loose.

8. Engage the parking brake lever to two clicks. Make any adjustment to the barrel tightness setting.

9. While holding the barrel fixed with one wrench and leaving the vise grips in place, tighten the jamb nuts up against the barrel. They can be stripped, but make sure they are tight enough to not work loose with use.

10. Final-test the hand brake. Significant resistance should occur at 3 to 5 clicks at which point the rear wheels should not move even with a major effort to turn them. With the lever fully released, you should be able to turn the wheels with some ease but also feel a little drag. The drag should disappear with driving the car a bit.

11. Remove the vise grips. Inspect your work.

12. Replace the rear underbody cover. Engage the tongue in the front middle of the cover early in the replacement process.

13. Jack the car down and test drive.

Tom
2007 F430F1 Coupé

 

Tom,

Thanks for all the detailed info. I told my tech that I had isolated the problem so I am letting him take a look at it before I do any adjustments. I will post the outcome.

 

Nothing $1500 wont fix temporarily.

Could be other things, but I think its the excess heat.