550 Undertray

My 2000 550 has suddenly developed an oil leak. It seems to be coming from between the front wheels and seems quite rapid (about 1 drop every 5-10 seconds)
Has anyone experienced a similar problem?
Also when I looked underneath (as far as I could get my head under !) the undertray has 2 sections one on either side, with a space in the middle, which seems to have wires or a wire frame showing up inside in line with the front wheels. This appears to be where the leak is coming from. Is this space normal, should there be an undertray panel covering the middle section / sump area.
Not very well explained, so maybe someone would post a picture of the underside of a 550, so I can compare with mine.
Any suggestion / advice gratefully received.

 

If you are leaking oil that fast; Don't drive it. Flatbed it to a mechanic! I don't know what it is, but it does not sound good.

 

Have you bottomed out hard recently? You may have damaged the oil pan. Don't drive it!

 

No I've not bottomed out. But point taken, it's being taken away on a flatbed tomorrow. Not sure if the fluid is engine oil or power steering fluid. So better safe than sorry. Thanks for the advice.

If anyone has a photo or a diagram of the underside of a 550, I'd be interested in seeing it.

 

550's have a design issue that is very serious, you have two oil lines on the bottom of the oil tank. The oil tank sits on the left front corner of the car. One of the lines is an aluminum pipe that goes to the front of the engine, the other is a stainless steel braided line. It is common that the braided line comes in contact with the aluminum pipe and it will rub a hole in the pipe. It may start off as small leak but it gets very, very aggressive in a short time and you can run yourself out oil before you catch it.

Every 550 that comes in our shop gets the belly pan taken off and the pipe and the braided line are inspected, we wrap the line with heavy rubber to prevent this issue. If damage has already occured, the pipe is welded, then we weld an additional aluminum plate on the pipe.

I do not know if that is your problem but it is a design defect on 550's.

 

I had a similar issuse and it turned out to be related to the power steering system.

Stan

 

Great post. Thanks!

 

OK, car went into the shop on a flatbed today. Seems it's the same old 550 issue with a split coolant hose. Good and bad. Good, it's not anything like a cracked sump. Bad that I checked the hoses before buying the car and they looked like the revised models. Guess I need glasses. Ha ha.

Was there a recall to replace the three faulty hoses or did Ferrari just manufacture improved versions to be fitted at owners cost if affected?

 

So it was leaking coolant & not oil? Did the big hose under the manifold have the white ring?

 

cmparrenzo,
Thank you for this helpful information.