355 355 stubborn gear at start up

Hi all,

The reverse gear in my 355 is always impossible to engage at startup. It will take about 5 mins of warm up/ driving before I can engage it properly, thereafter with no problem.

I don't have issues with the rest of the gears. It's a pita if I need to do any reversing once I start up the car.

Anyone else has / had same issue? Any recommendations on best way to fix it, and cost? Dealer wants to replace gearbox which would cost massive.

Thanks!





Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I know that my car is difficult to engage 1st gear when first starting off cold, and getting into 2nd, but I think that is a Ferrari thing. I have looked into it and there is a few takes on the cause/solution. Most folks recommend changing the gear oil to NS (No-slip) so that the syncros can grab and slow the gears down. But, the trade off is that the limited slip diff needs some slip to prevent chucking when turning around corners like in a parking lot. From what I have read on this site is that using redline ns gear oil solves the issue and doesn't cause any diff issues, so that is what I'm going to try with my spring service this year.
I'm not sure why the dealer would want to ohaul the transaxle for a cold shift issue. Did they elaborate on a cause?

 

The gearbox in my 328 didn’t want to shift when cold, my 355 is better but still stiff when cold.
I always warm mine up for at least 5-10 minutes before backing it out of the garage.
Even after a short warmup, sometimes I skip 2nd gear for a few miles, until the gears warm up.......still resistant.
Old cold manual Ferrari gear boxes seem to be this way.

 

Does it shift into the reverse gear at all with the car not running?

 

never had an issue with reverse from cold..

as the norm goes, my 2nd gear is stiff until fully warmed..
to help a bit, as mentioned above.. from pure cold I never just roll away.. easy a good 5min at idle before rolling away..

 

Redline suggest adding a little of their friction modifier to their 75w90NS gear oil. The recommendation is to keep adding capfuls of the modifier until you get the right balance, but this is not very practical on the Ferrari (and we are not all race drivers to know if the right balance has been achieved). They do recommend quite a lot more for new transmissions and are more specific with quantities. I started using it, but 2nd gear required the usual warmup. Then, unrelated to the oil, my gearbox failed (and I required lots of new parts including bearing, synchro rings, etc). After this with some expert tweaking of the shift linkages, the gearchange is like butter. Even 2nd gear is barely noticeable when cold.

Perhaps your shift linkages need a little tweaking? Just make sure you don't have any large pieces of swarf on your gearbox magplug .. or worse (bits of gear teeth).

 

Try Motul Gear 300. Best shifting oil I've ever used. I have no idea why Redline is so highly praised.

 

First start up of the year and mine would Not go into 1 or Rev. it was really pissingme off

 

Then I realized when i checked the coolant i left the bonnet open.

Sorry for the hijack but i thought. It was funny

 

What was the root cause to your gearbox failure? I would assume tracking a car often could be tough on a trans and cause failures, but just street use shouldn't bother them.

 

You would have to ask the previous 5 or 6 owners I treated it like a baby.

Something caused a support bearing failure which caused the main shaft to move sideways damaging 3 sets of gears. The previous owners must have removed the broken teeth from the magnetic drain plug and tossed them in the bin, then sold the car to the next person. On my first gearbox oil change, I found 2 bits of teeth, but when the gearbox was opened, there were 10 or so teeth found missing/damaged.

 

I have not seen too many problems like the OP posted. Usually when you can't find reverse, it is because the shift linkage is a bit too far to the one side, or the engine mount is broken and not the gearbox itself.

 

Yuup correct answer above

 

Yup i concur
I have first hand experience withthe motor mounts. Next time when they are getting bad they will be yanked

 

I had the same issue when I first purchased my '95 GTB. Reverse was inoperable during a cold start. It took a good 5 minutes of warming up before I could get the shifter to slide into reverse. It was so infuriating and embarrassing all at once. Graciously, the previous owner agreed to have the issue troubleshooted, repaired and paid for. This is what the after action report said...

"Removed gearbox from car. Found that the Teflon bushings for the reverse, 3rd and 4th shifter gear rods were swelling. Reamed the bushings and readjusted all of the shifter rods and fingers."

Thankfully, after the repairs, she now shifts nicely.

 

Interesting
Have been on here a very long time and first i heard this.

 

Thanks, will look into this


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I had s strange issue a few hundred miles after a major engine out at 41,000 miles.
Everything worked great and one day I shift into 2nd, let the clutch out and .....nothing.
I look down, shifter is definitely in 2nd but it acts like I am in neutral ?
Driving it back home slowly it did it a few more times.
New engine mounts were installed during the major.
The issue was the rubber parts of the shifter pads/bushing.
20 plus years old the rubber separated, had them replaced and works fine ........
But you get that awful feeling a gear has failed $$$$$.

 

I thought the transmissions on the 355 were pretty solid?? How on earth did this happen to you?


Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat

 

Basically previous owners and a useless PPI. Even my fragile Lotus' gearbox lasted 16 years (without a glitch).

 

Maybe the guy was doing donuts and recording it on you tube toget more hits