How new of a Ferrari is still diy friendly?

There is no question that an SD for a Ferrari is the best of all worlds. There was a time I could not diagnose a warm start issue on my 348 racecar. A fellow racer at the track ran the 360C. He plugged in his SD of the time and nailed down the subsystem that was giving my issues. After more ferreting around where the SD pointed, I solved it. I needed that SD pointer and that was on a '91 348. There are often cases where the SD is great but no substitute for a brain. There are also many times a brain is just as good as an SD. Many of you have better working suspension systems because of the work Ferraridriver did with the actuators and figuring out the system and he never used an SD. We know just about everything to fix bypass and eliminate the SDECU issues and none of that came by way of SD to help us understand ferarri's thinking. SD would surely help but there is quite a bit you can do SDless. My newest Ferrari is 2001 and it has never seen an SD under my ownership and I doubt it ever will. So 2001 that's 550's and 360's and I see no issue. Sure there can be, and sure SD might be the only way to find a problem, but I'm pretty deep in the hobby and I have not used a pro mechanic on any of 6 Ferraris I have owned since 1979. Two of those were 2000 and 2001 model year cars. Two of those were Euro spec cars too. The later model DCT box cars there was a time Ferrari did not fix the problems but replaced the boxes. So...a lot of good an SD was going to do you there if FNA techs could not fix it. I hope that has at least changed. Then there are things the SD makes easier and faster like cycling and bleeding ABS systems but there are ways around that with just a little know how.

If I were asked what is the most important piece of hardware you own to fix cars besides the obvious hand tools it would be the lift. IMO not having a lift severely limits what you can do without resorting to doing things like the Reiner method. So if you are limited by no lift then having the SD to find some problem that you can only access after removing the PITA aero undertrays and reaching from the bottom with a tool you have to make out of a harbor freight cannibalized box wrench, isn't going to be an issue for you. Can you do a major on a 348, 360, 550 without a lift? Well yes but it sucks and my back and knees aren't 17 y/o anymore...

 

I agree with you on this. A scan tool for diagnosis is definitely helpful, and the newer the car the more important they are. I'm also in the same camp about having a lift. I've done plenty of jobs without one, but now I wouldn't want to lay on my back anymore. The way I feel about car repair is; if I can't have fun doing the job and have the proper tools to do it, then I will just farm it out.

 

Except your brain cannot see inside ECU's as an SD can. It's not about brain, stupid or smart, it's about a purpose built tool that without it, your hands are tied. Maybe you did not see my post about Bruce's 575.

 

Sometimes hands are tied and sometimes not. I have already acknowledged that even as far back as the 348 which is considered and analog car no SD required. There are many many FNA dealers using their shiny tools, Ferrari certified, who fail to fix things on a daily basis lacking value. That is why there is a whole world of places to fix your Ferrari.

An average SD is in the low 5 figures. There may even be software upgrades at an additional expense. At $250 bucks shop labor to have FNA plug the SD in to give me a read out it would take me a lifetime to ever recoup that investment. In my 6 cars prior to 2001 MY I have never needed an SD nor on any others I have worked on. I would not be surprised if the SD cost you $20k. If you were willing to sell it to me for $10k I would not be a buyer. But that's me. I would not even buy one if I ran a 430 and newer challenge car unless I was tied to a series. It would be so much better investment to do Bosch motorsports tuneable ECU's and tunable ABS with race grade traction control and all the docs and software to run it. I bet that is barking at the 20 grand number then you could run a real race series like Blancpain or SGT in TransAm.

 

Again, without the SD - I would have never been able to change the tire manufacture on Bruce's 575 and he would be driving around with a TPMS error. I've also cleared suspension faults for a couple (by them sending me their ECU's), again, something that cannot be done without the tool.

I think you fail to understand that the tool is not optional, or should I say not optional for those that want to not be limited by what they can and cannot service.

As for the cost, I did not pay $20K for mine but it was not cheap and they don't come around often. I bought the tool because I understand the value and I want to be able to do any and all jobs on my cars myself.

 

Maybe you needed the SD and maybe you didn't. Maybe if you just bought the right tire sizes as before Bruce would have been fine. These are old cars now sometimes you can't find a specific tire size from michelin or whoever because they don't make it anymore. Some TC systems allow diameter changes to put the front rear roll ratios in synch with what the computer expects. Yes if you can't buy the right ratios from combination of the right tires you gota go to the computer. I think there is more to Bruce' story on why the SD was the only solution. Modern racecars with TC have to use different tires based on series specs so we need to change these parameters all the time to optimize cockpit tunable TC and ABS.