Small pool of coolant under my F8

I did a search, but couldn't find anything.
So my F8 Spider is currently on a transporter being taken to Bulgaria for a driving trip across Bulgaria and Romania.
When I checked the garage floor after it was taken away, I noticed a small-ish (about 18 inches across) pool of pink liquid under where the left hand side of the middle/rear of the car would have been.
I was told that it was the long life coolant that Ferrari use, rather than transmission or engine oil and did feel more watery than oily.

It had just had its 3rd service, where there was no mention of topping up coolant, and it did a track day a week after that.

Any ideas where it could be leaking from and how serious it is likely to be?

Unfortunately where I am going it is nowhere near any Ferrari dealer...



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It's like a morning after photo of vomit in your bathroom but you don't disclose your stomach situation before, during or after the event.

Edit - I suspect it is simply an overfilled coolant res. Ask the person who serviced the car.

 

As above, quite likely to be nothing more than the overflow due to an overfilled header tank.

I would keep an eye on the coolant level and not worry too much.

 

See if there is coolant on the transport floor. Also see if you can get the car in these , remove lower floors and see see if a hose fitting is leaking

 

The 458 under trays can collect and hide quite a bit of coolant

 

Weird spell check or correction typing... meant to say get the car in the air on a lift and remove bottom panel to visually see where the coolant leaked from.

 

Ask me how I know
Pull those trays and inspect
The 18 inch wide coolant stain is not small

 

Any updates here? Everything ok?

 

I'm not with the car yet, but it should be at the destination tomorrow. Will get the transport guy to report.
What was the cause of your leak?

 

Water pump

 

The pump itself or a connector to it? What was involved in fixing it?

 

Pump itself. Engine out to replace. Water pump is a rare failure on a 458. Expensive.

 

Other than the leak, were there any other symptoms? Noise, higher water temps?

 

Nothing. My tech dropped the trays for normal oil change and saw dried up coolant EVERYWHERE. Never saw a drop on the floor. Traced leak back to pump. We monitored the situation for a while. Small leak. Finally bit the bullet and repaired.

 

I'll keep a close eye on temps and levels. Thanks for the heads up. Let's hope it's not that serious. It has literally just been serviced...

 

Oh dear, turns out there was a mystery strip of metal that somehow pierced something near the left rear tyre. The guys with the car are convinced it is transmission oil, not coolant, so maybe it holed a transmission oil cooler, is there one in that area?
Whatever, that’s the car’s tour over before it started, which is incredibly disappointing. Will see if I can hire a supercar locally and deal with this leak when I get it transported all the way back. FFS.


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Oh man so sorry to hear that. Those pictures definately look like oil and not coolant as you first thought. Hope this doesn't spoil your trip too much.

 

Yeah that is terrible luck. I wonder how that happened

 

@DavidYu888 1st...thank you for reporting back...so many mention an issue and poof they are gone from here. LOL. I feel bad for you for sure...hope this is a quick simple fix under warranty for you.
Odd as the entire rear seems to be covered so how did something puncture anything? Heading to my garage now and go look under my F8 and see what is open to the road.

 

If road debris came up and punctured something, that is not a warranty item, of course... but either way, hope the repair isn't too devastating.

 

Thanks guys. Yeah it won’t be a warranty repair. A specialist said it looked like power steering fluid and there is a pump connected to the engine for that. No idea how that strip of metal got past the under tray, just unlucky I guess.
But at least I found out before catastrophic failure and my amazing tour leader has found a 296 GTS for me to rent instead.
Will update when I know exactly what happened and the required work.

 

Heretic

 

That strip of metal looks like wiper blade insert.

 

So finally got my car back today!
It went on a nice comfy tour of Eastern Europe tucked in the back of a transporter, whilst I got to drive a rented 296 GTS.
That was a mighty expensive week of motoring...

Anyway, back to the leak. When the transporter returned to the UK, I asked for them to deliver my car back to DCT Scuderia near Ascot who had previously done some suspension tweaks on it.
Scott is a very experienced ex-Ferrari main dealer tech and does great work for a much lower rate than the main dealers.
He soon traced the problem to a very unexpected source. I had previously run over a protruding low stone kerb at the exit of the Goodwood circuit tunnel when some deliberately unhelpful bikers refused to move back and were blocking a Ferrari California from backing out of the entrance enough to give me room. (It's a two way tunnel that is only wide enough for one car and I was 3/4 way down when he started to enter at his end).

It made a horrible noise, but the only visible damage was a minor scrape on the edge of the lower valance, so I was furious, but didn't suspect any internal damage.

It turned out the bump had nudged the front suspension lifter motor (which is mounted just in front of the left hand rear wheel) enough to cause a micro split in a small hydraulic hose.
That was enough to start the very slow leak of hydraulic fluid.

So the bad news was that meant my car wasn't used on the tour, although it turns out it COULD have been driven, but using the suspension lift would probably have drained the motor of fluid which would have caused it to burn out.
But the good news was, the fix was simply replacing the short piece of pipe, which, even with "Ferrari tax" was a mere £40! Possibly one of the least expensive components on the car?!

Diagnosis and labour was obviously considerably more, but it was still a relief to not be facing a major bill on top of the unexpected expenses of the tour (paying for the transportation costs having not driven the car a single yard, was especially painful!).

And the important thing is, I've got my beloved F8 back.
I was wondering if it would still thrill after a week driving the 820hp 296 GTS, and you know what? It absolutely did!
I could do a whole other post about directly comparing the two cars, but my F8 Spider with the Novitec exhaust is still absolutely the more engaging car for me.
I know I've said this about countless other cars I've owned, but this beauty is definitely a keeper.

 

Nice simple easy fix which is awesome but caused you a lot of frustration. Reminds me on going to Sebring for a track day with new Cup2's and new lightweight forged wheels and driving into the tracks pit area to unload and put the car ( Porsche) into ints pit I got a screw in my rear right tire. no where to get a new tire late Friday for the weekend. Had to call my wife and get her to drive 2-3hrs hrs to Sebring and bring me my street stock wheels and tires at night. That was more costly than the lost track weekend and hotel.