I had a weird glitch in my 430 today and I wonder if anyone has experienced something similar or has any ideas of what happened. I had driven the car around for maybe 30 minutes, warmed it up to full temp at below 3500 RPM, and was cruising hilly country roads at moderate level, ie mostly between 4-5k RPM in 3-4 gear and 40-60 MPH. It was my 3 year old son's first ride in the "new red car" and he had asked three times this morning so I moved his child seat over and we went for a ride. I stopped to show him some horses. After stopping for maybe 10 minutes, we loaded up and headed out. My first observation of weirdness was that the 430 started but not with the normal enthusiastic sound. Kinda subdued. Like a normal car instead of a Ferrari. Then when I drove off it was choppy and felt really underpowered in a weird way. I struggled around for a few blocks with it not working right. Gear changes were doing something, ie changing rev level. It felt like it was going to die sometimes, didn't seem to accelerate normally or have anywhere near the normal power. I was really worried and was trying to decide if I should stop immediately and call for help (that would be really bad especially with my son), or head directly home (about 3 miles away), or try restarting the car to see if the condition cleared. No error codes or indications of the car detecting a problem were present. I decided to try to see if it cleared while heading gently toward home. After a few blocks it died at a stop light. Behaved like a manual where the driver screwed up the clutch and killed it. But its an F1 so that clutch driver is the computer, not me. It was supposedly in 1st. I got honked at by someone stopped at the light heading in a different direction, and felt really embarrassed even though the guy was probably just doing the usual "I love your Ferrari" complementary honk and didn't know I was in distress. But I felt like I was naked in a room full of people in business attire, all of them staring at me. So it was killed, and I decided to restart it (limited options!). So I turned the key off, then back on, then pressed the start button. From then on it all worked normally. I drove home directly at gentle RPMs but all seemed normal after the car was turned off and back on. Anyone else experience anything like this? Any ideas? The clutch was 99% new in November and has maybe 1K miles on it now. So unless Ferrari botched the install, it should be in good condition. Is this just the price of computerization? Do these cars sometimes have weird unexplainable glitches that clear themselves by "rebooting"?
Any chance you started the car before the "OK" lit up on the dash. I have heard that if the computer doesn't go thru the checks it can cause different types of glitches. The normal solution is to turn off the key and let it cycle thru the checks and wait for the OK to appear before pushing the start button.
Hmmm. Interesting theory. It's possible. Normally I'm very methodical about waiting for the OK but my son was in the car, talking to me continuously, which could have distracted me and caused me to violate my normal routine. Hopefully it is something like that, or a rare computer glitch, and nothing mechanical. I'll be paying close attention to see if anything strange happens again. And reading to see if anyone on fchat has had a similar problem.
Here is some more info. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/360-430/403509-consequences-not-waiting-ok-start-f430.html
Right after I bought my 360 I realize that I started it a couple of times without waiting for the OK light. It actually ran quite smoothly without any caution lights or other indications except that it acted like it had about half the normal power. Turning it off and restarting it after waiting for the OK light immediately fixed the problem. Now that I know what I did, I'm more careful. Hopefully, you did the same thing and nothing is wrong with your car.
Very similar situation happened to me last year in the Scuderia, went to pick up pizza and when starting the car I was too quick. The car ran on 4 cylinders until restart, embarrassing but not dangerous ;-)
I drove mine in heavy rain for over 4 hours. No choice. When I got home the car felt underpowered. I had it checked out and IIRC a sensor had gone bad and only one bank of the engine was at work.
Your PIS might be off. I stalled my car twice years ago and my service guy readjusted my PIS to allow the clutch a bit more slip. No stalls ever since.
I'll confirm. This occurs with improper start procedure. Must wait for ok especially I'd car was shutdown at full operating temp
Thanks everyone. I'm going to write off this problem to being distracted by my 3 year old and not waiting for the OK signal. I'll try not to worry about my 430 having a real problem, but will be extra careful to follow the proper routine. Kinda makes me wonder why Ferrari allows the car to be started before the initialization sequence is complete, especially given that it can cause serious malfunctions. Hmmm. In any case, it was a beautiful 75degF day for a drive through the country and my son had a great time. He loves the "red car", and loves going fast, often asking me to "go faster daddy!" As if I need that temptation. He's even getting used to the engine sound, although it scared him at first. Last week I ordered a red sportcar bed for him, which I think he will love since it looks a lot like dad's Ferrari. I'll leave the corvette stickers off and look for some nice Ferrari shields! Future fchat member in training. -Dan Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Nothing like when they are 3 years old. Wait another 10 years and you will look back at that pic and say "Ahhh...that's when Jr actually liked me and thought I was cool!" Cherish the moments my friend. Love the booster seat in the Fcar. Priceless. Now you really need to add Cuoio (or is that beige) leather and bling it out with some genuine Scuderia shields!
Indeed, I trust and fear your wisdom as it probably comes from direct personal experience. It is a Cuoio interior, which I have come to be glad about vs the other tan-ish variants. Do you think I can get a Cuoio child seat?!? That would be great! I need to find a better way to rig the child seat so it doesn't rest on the raised edges of the seat. You can see that I put a white towel under for this trip, but that isn't a good long-term solution. Either I need to find a child seat with a more narrow and smooth base that rests flat on the bottom flat section of the seat, or I need to find/make a good padded seat protection pillow and set the child seat on top of that. If anyone has figured out the optimal child seat for a 430, please share.
