Hi Everyone: I am new to Ferraris and just bought my first (a 2004 360 Spider 6-Spd) and I have a question about general driveability. First some background on me. I am 49 years old and have been driving sticks all of my life. I have had several cars that I bought new with a stick and drove them for 150,000 miles and then traded them in with the original clutch. So I consider myself to be a good stick driver. But here is the issue. When I take off in my car and I hop on it (heavy throttle and shifting at 7,000 - 8,000), the car is amazing. The acceleration is flawlessly smooth and it pulls amazingly well. However, if I accelerate slowly and I wind it out to anything over a few grand, the car every so often bucks in a jerky fashion....almost like I am repeatedly pressing and releasing the accelerator. Another data point is that this occurs when my foot is off of the clutch pedal. So it is not a "Brian doesn't know how to drive a clutch" issue. So one of the things that I am wondering is if this is just a really sensitive throttle. For example, I am wondering if, when pulling away from a light and the motor is beginning to come into its power band, if something in the road (e.g., the crown when crossing an intersection) causes my foot to push a little bit down on the throttle...tossing me back in the seat...releasing the throttle...tossing me forward in the seat...pushing down on the throttle...and repeating itself. What I have noticed is that it DOES NOT do it if I shift low (e.g., 2,500)...put I feel like I am lugging the car. If anyone has any ideas concerning this, it would be greatly appreciated. The car had no fault codes the last time it was checked (about 1,400 miles ago) when it was already doing this...but everyone I talk to mentions everything from faulty throttle mapping, to a bad TPS, to a bad throttle assembly...all of which make me a little nauseous. Thanks for your thoughts. Brian
Chalk it up to a learning curve....I did the same until I got used to the car....a little embarrassing, I know how to drive a stick as well and was a little perturbed but after doing it enough you'll learn how to feather the pedal. I don't do it at all anymore.
Take it to a shop with an SD or Leo scan tool. Have them reset all the adaptations. See if that makes a difference for you. Should not take any longer then an hour.
Well it's electronic throttle so there is something extra there and I have 4K miles on mine and am still trying to be smoother. I also consider myself a very proficient manual trans driver. I have noticed that if you "dump" it at a certain point...I am not sure where this is sometimes it feels like maybe 70-80% into the release under some load that it seems to be smoother than I can feather. Looking forward to reading some more points of view on this...
Hmm... Never have bucking issues like you describe with my 3 pedal Modena. Once a good friend of mine (also grew up driving sticks) drove it, and no bucking for him either - just went on his merry way like with any other manual...
Did the same thing for a while on my car after I got it, but I eventually got used to the throttle sensitivity in 1st gear and now it never happens anymore. I would relate it to the learning curve like Brett mentioned.
Search herein...very common experience when first driving 360 F1...it happened to me the very first time I tried to drive mine...then one learns to be extra gentle with the throttle Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
God...I love Ferrarichat. The people on here are great. What an absolutely wonderful community. Thanks everyone fore the feedback / suggestions. I am bringing the car in for a gearbox mount replacement...so I will have them hook it up to the scanner to see if there are any bad codes.
Silly me...was reading too fast in the airport lounge...I suppose it could happen with a gated car too...it's after the clutch is fully engaged on F1 anyways...I always attributed it too the fast revving lightweight flywheel (just a guess).
Gearbox mount? That's part of your problem there, exaggerating the jerkiness if the mount is bad and/or loose....
I get the same thing in my 430 stick shift if I don't get it just right- this also happened to me in my old M3. When it happens just put in the clutch and shift to 2nd. It only happens rarely to me, when I have a mental lapse. If its more frequent I'd be curious to investigate it.
Okay...so I had the car at the Ferrari shop and it turns out that the motor mounts were both shot but the gearbox mount was in good shape. However, the torque arm that connects to the lower portion of the gearbox to the frame was very loose (loose where it connected to the frame and loose where it connected to the gearbox). So that was able to be repaired cheaply. Then there was a slight balance issue between the two banks of the motor. Evidently this all made a world of difference according to the tech. I am getting her back tomorrow...so I will know soon enough.
Don't fret if you still get the bucking. Just a learning curve as others have said. I went through the exact same thing.
I experienced the same thing the first few times I drove my gated 360 Spider. I chalked it up to the very light flywheel, making it hard to keep the revs up when you're slipping the clutch to get the car moving from a stop.
Okay...my baby is back and she is better than ever. The difference is night and day. Balancing out the banks of the motor made a world of difference in idle and smoothness. Further, there is no more jerkiness. It appears that one of my motor mounts was collapsed and the other was failing. It really feels like a totally different car. She was always a blast to drive...but a little *****y at times. No more...she is a smooth refined lady...until you want her to be a demon. My hat is off to David Feinberg of Ferrari Service of Bedford NH (Ferrari Service of Bedford). How often do you work with a tech that gives you an estimate of up to $x...and it comes in at about half as much, telling you that certain parts were actually fine and did not need to be replaced. Wow...what a great guy.
Awesome! Glad to hear you got everything sorted out. Thanks for providing us updates. Have a great weekend. Enjoy the weekend drive! Dan
He needed to use an SD-2 to balance the trim parameters on the two different throttle assemblies. Evidently, they were calibrated quite differently with one way askew. He forced them to reset and then had them relearn and they balanced out nicely. Evidently, when these trim parameter get out of whack, they will not recalibrate on their own. It made a world of difference in the smoothness of the car.
I would think it was the replacement of the motor mount that solved the jerkiness issue... (Had the same issue)
