New to me 1995 456 GT

Hi,

Congratulations, and welcome, I hope you will have at least as nice experience as I have had now for over five years with our 1995 456 GT.

1) Be careful when opening the doors and observe that the glass lowers and raises correctly and that the glass does not "wobble" or jitter. Listen to the hiss if any form the side window seals. They are NOT easy to replace. When you switch power off from the battery main switch, make sure you either have the doors closed and locked (and don't completely close the bonnet (hood) unless you want to open it by pulling the "emergency" cable) or windows open as you do not want to destroy the seals by using force to pry the door open with the window up.

Also pay attention to the rear ride height and if the suspension setting form the center dash actually works. Leaky shocks should be replaced or reconditioned as you probably already know. Check if the seats move forward and rearward normally and height and tilting work normally, does the automatic movement occur when you tilt the seatback. Steering should be a bit heavy, but not jerky or stiff by any means (or you have a faulty rack or steering ECU).

It is normal that 2nd gear does not always want to engage before you have driven 20-30 mins, no problem you can go from 1 to 3, or 4.
Also please do not hit hard when you engage reverse gear, i have been told there are some parts in there which may not like too much force.
And of course, just like the owner's manual says, never open the throttle and rev high before oil temp is at least 70°C.

2) I would not do it. It would be easier in a 456M GT. The original unit is really fine IMO, but may need reconditioning. I have a long thread about this in here, as the problem usually is you would need the head unit and cable from head unit to the trunk to go together with the stereo, radio and am and CD changer to go to an electronics repair shop. Unless you can source the same parts from some wrecked car, Ferrari used the same stereo at the time at least in Testarossa /512TR if not also in some other models. The cable from the stereo/radio head unit to the trunk obviously runs under the carpet, which is under the center console, rear sear, rear quarter trim etc.

On mine the repair cost was less than €200,- euros (replacing old and blown caps, resistors etc.) but of course it took me more than two weeks at the garage to take the interior out, clean and apply hide food, wash the carpets etc and put it back in. more complicated was fixing the A/C, lots of threads about the 456 GT A/C here on fchat. Again on mine, the cost was just a €80,- euro switch unit and fabricating new seals and a few rods myself, but the evaporator unit is ABS plastic so if it has seen a lot of heat it may be crumbling to pieces and can only be accessed by removing the whole dash. I was glad mine's a Japanese sold car so it has no airbags to mess with.

The "subs" or bass speakers below the rear seat were shot, you can cheaply get new ones or have them repaired.

Then again if you do all that then your nice original Connolly leather interior will be good. for another 10-20 years with proper care.

And I added a 3.5mm miniplug and USB charger/cable to the rear center box to replace the rear cigarette lighter, so now in addition to 10 CD's I can also listen to the music from my phone or iPod/iPad etc.

3) Like the rest of the interior, you can relatively easily take it apart and see what can be done. The leather has been glued to the panels, mostly glassfiber, in some case aluminum, and in some places with some padding. On mine part of the rear window shelf needed reglueing. I was able to pry the leather out carefully, clean it and reglue it just nicely. if you haev access to an experienced trim shop, you could also just take the panels there.

There are many good threads about all the 456 GT subjects here on fchat, just do a search.

Cheers!