430 Whoops. F1 Problem!

Hmm sad day; good friend of mine and I wanted to drive out F430’s for an early cup of coffee after a spirited drive on one of the last sunny days here in The Netherlands.

Unfortunately, going up on the freeway, doing 90km/h’s, there it was: a long beep. With a very nice red ‘Gearbox error’ light in my dash popping up. FML. Now, I must have done some good prayers last night because we were 10 kilometers away from home and I got to drive everything in 3rd gear without issues: all lights turned green on time! My God, my heart was throbbing.

I immediately noticed that I was able to downshift, but shifting upwards was not possible. I’m so, so glad the traffic and traffic lights were helping and my good friend lead the way carefully for me, eventually I got to park the car perfectly on my driveway again haha.

Now, you might believe this or not, but the first day I had this car (4 years ago exactly) I had the same issue! Well, almost. After hitting a bump on the way, the car beeped, the same F1 error light came on, the car shifted to N and would not shift at all anymore. Had to push the car into a parking lot to be towed : it appeared to be a sensor, a pretty expensive one, but okay, I could drive again!

Now exactly 20k km’s later, I have a different issue. The car goes perfectly from Neutral to 1st and to Reverse. However, not any further than 1st.

The pump cycles are all normal and the pump sounds normal as well.

This coming Monday the dealer is going to pick the car up, but because I like losing sleep over these things, I’m dying to hear what you guys are thinking. The garage (Ferrari specific) does not think it’s the relais as then nothing should happen at all. But it’s clearly not holding pressure in anyway. Actuator? E-diff? Something else?

I don’t have any codes pulled as I don’t have a reader here, but I can keep you guys posted!

 

Wait, the key on/engine off and 25mph test, you lost me there

 

I understand, but you want me to drive 25mph in first gear, to see what? What happens? Nothing will happen, it won’t shift.

 

Ahhh wait I might do that thanks! Problem though is my time is very limited tomorrow and the car is being picked up on Monday morning..

 

Update!

Car was picked up yesterday and this morning came the message that the car was running as new again! Apparently the potentiometer (?) needed replacement. No clue yet what that does haha but I’m happy they fixed it!

Picking the car up soon yay!

 

Haha Dominick yes you're very right! True, true.

Just a question; what does the potentiometer(s) do? Also: given that nobody wants to have the horrible long error-beep and the car not moving at all or partially functioning, what other F1-components can be replaced in order to prevent this from happening? My car is at 80.000km's now and 20k km's ago the cluth, flywheel and other parts were replaced. I had a sensor replaced the moment I picked up the car and now the potentiometer. What would you advise in order to keep errors away as much as possible?