Mondial T running rough after fluid change..

yes, disconnecting the battery does reset the ECUs. You need to run through the learn mode process again. I would clear the ECUs again, then start the car without touching anything, and let it idle for 15mins.


Lou

 

This still doesn't address the "why" of your symptoms, though. Resetting the ECUs definitely sounds like the cure, but I'd be wondering just why in the hell a tranny fluid change (and also an oil change) is causing the car's electrical system to act up. Know what I mean? Sounds like there's more going on here than just a strange coincidence.

 

not ferrari related but another one of the strange coincedenses (sp?) anywho, i changed the tranny fluid on my father-in-laws SHO. once done the car refused to-restart. couldn't figure out why in the world a tranny fluid change would cause this so after a few days of fiddling i figured out it was a host of sensors that finnaly crapped out. problem was they decided to go right when i did the oil change. it's those types of situations that'll really have you scratching your head.

long story short he decided to rebuilt the motor, so what started out as a simple oil change turned into a rebuild. if you thought space was tight on a ferrari the front wheel drive yahama motor in the SHO is a complete joke.

 

I may have misread the original question, but when asked if disconnecting the battery could have caused the ECUs to reset, I took this to mean that he had done a bit more than just change the oil, and had disconnected the battery in the process. On a 348 and MondialT (perhaps others also) anytime you disconnect the battery you run into the issue of having to repeat the learn mode.

If the battery had not been disconnected prior to experiencing the problem, then I agree with you that a bit more hunting is needed. On these cars (I owned one for 8 yrs) the typical issue is that some connector worked loose while the car was being worked on. On my car at the first sign of odd behavior I would take a pass at disconnecting each major wiring connector, cleaning it if dirty, coating with Stabilant 22 contact enhancer, and then reseating it snugly. In many cases Ferrari provided very little strain relief or support for the wires, so I also used plenty of zip ties to keep the wires from dangling and putting weight on the connectors. This improved the early reliability problems I was having tremendously. Also, the fuse box is a well-recognized disaster. Reseating the relays cured several ills, but I don't recall any being directly tied to rough running as those were typically associated with the wiring in the engine compartment. One of my favorites was a round screw connector that attached at the driver side frame rail in the engine compartment ... the wiring harness that it connected was substantial and dangled into the engine bay. That caused at least 2 stall + no restart incidents that I remember. Making sure that stayed snug and well-supported cured the problem for several years. Also needed to make sure the ground straps and the battery terminals were tightly connected.

There can certainly be other reasons for rough running, but the above are things are easy and cheap to address as a first step. Resetting of the ECUs applies if the battery had been disconnected, turned off via the knob in the front of the car or had gone dead, or if one changed something like putting on a sport exhaust, removing cats, replacing O2 sensors, etc.

In short, I suspect the tranny fluid change wasn't the real cause but rather battery power failed to the ECUs or something else got disconnected or jiggled loose in the process. Just a hunch.



Lou

 

I don't mean to frighten you, but this wouldn't be the first time that a Ferrari owner drained the engine oil...thinking that he was draining the tranny.

That will most certainly cause rough running!

I use Red Line's "no shock" tranny fluid, which is yellow, to prevent (among other things) this very situation. If you or your mechanic yells out "why is your engine oil yellow" then you know that you or he is draining your tranny fluid in error...and if you are draining your "tranny" but it's not yellow fluid coming out, then you know that you are draining your engine oil.

Color coding matters...especially since not everyone correctly translates the "oilio cambio" instruction that's stamped onto your tranny next to one of your many drain plugs.

 

*Oof*....I hadn't even thought of that, but you're right - certainly a possibility.