430 Hydraulic Line Blown, E-Diff Bleed, Where's 1st Gear?

Quick story of how I got here:
I was driving around for a while using my Launch tool to check-check-double check the PIS values. I drove around for numerous miles, and probably went through about 6 or 7 different values until I was happy with the engagement. I drove home, pulled into the garage and GAHHHHH!....I see smoke in the engine bay and ATF on the ground.

I pulled the right-side engine panels and noticed ATF all over the place. I used my Launch tool to engage 1st through 6th gear and noticed the 1st gear hydraulic line was spewing fluid about ½ inch past the banjo fitting. I got super lucky that the line gave out in my garage!

Luckily, my friend did the manual conversion on his F430, so he has spare parts (lucky me!) and was gracious enough to let me “borrow” what I needed. So, I removed the old line and installed the new/used line, topped-off the reservoir (Valvoline Dex/Merc ATF fluid), used the Launch tool to bleed the Clutch Actuator and the E-Diff (per normalguysupercars video process), then I completed the Self Learning process. So far, so good…

Now the fun part:
Time for a test drive around the block: I Backed out of garage via Reverse, put it in 1st gear and drove off. 1st thru 4th gear using paddle shifters, no problem. Coming to a stop and allowing the ECU to shift down, when it was supposed to go from 3rd to 2nd, it instead dropped to Neutral. I coasted to a stop, then used the paddle shifter to shift into 1st, but it stayed in Neutral. I tried a few double-paddle pulls to ensure I was in Neutral, and then an upshift: no luck. Still in Neutral. The only way I could get it to go into first was to first put it in Reverse, then I could successfully upshift to 1st.

I drove the short 1/2 mile back home and got her in the garage. I re-bled the E-Diff, but the issue stays. If I try to go from Neutral to 1st, no luck. It only works when I go from Reverse to 1st.

A few bits of info:
- 2005 F430, 25k miles
- 40% clutch life left
- Battery Voltage = ~ 12.5 (and on the c-tek charger often)
- The line that blew was P/N 8508.A on the EV2 manifold section.
- The pump runs for about 3.5 seconds when I open the door. After turning the key, it’ll run for ~ 0.5 seconds, roughly.
- Hydraulic pressure reaches about 50 bar before the pump turns off. Pressure seems to hold well, 1 bar drop after every 2-3 minutes
- It will run through the Self Learn Process, hitting each gear back-and-forth

So, here we go…..

 

Did you remove actuator and bleed it

 

No. The only thing that was removed (and replaced) was the hydraulic line.

 

You need to remove actuator and do a proper bleed of it

That involves removing the cat if standard exhaust, removing actuator and loosen iup the three screws two turns two and a quarter turns each running the procedure putting it back on with loctite 518 letting it cure 12 hours and then running a relearn and you should be good

Run bleed function,at least 6 times

 

Sounds reasonable. I've got IPE headers, so I'll see about the need to remove the cats.
Gotta order up some Loctite 518 or see if one of my local auto stores stocks it.

Since I'm not familiar with the process, I did a bit of searching and came across another thread that you were part of, and you posted this bleeding process. Gonna throw it here for reference:

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/attachments/bleed-act-pdf.2541766/
https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/attachments/bleed2-pdf.2541932/

 

Please let us know how it goes

 

Before proceeding with bleed which you should anyway ..you should do F1 health check which consists of timing checks

Key on/engine off ..how many shifts from n to 1 to n so you get
Key on/engine off how many mins does the pump stay off in between cycles ..don't count first one
When pump does run ..how many seconds exactly does it run ..not first time
Key on /engine on ..how long does pump stay off between cycles ..you can monitor hydraulic pressure on launch for this ..watch when it goes from 50ish down to 39 ish back to 50ish
Drive 25 mph straight with charging gears and time pump cycle as well

Report back here