Looking at an F430 and just found out the clutch reading shows it's 86% worn. The car has less than 25k miles. Do yall think the car has been driven hard if the clutch is already gone?
Maybe not. To let slip the clutch going uphill ( and may e a wrong PIS will complete the work...) or to reverse the car uphill are two killer applications for F1 cars. A smell of burnt clutch is not unusual in these situations. An hard driving is more "gentle" to the clutch than an use and abuse in traffic. And with a 16% left....it is possible than more often than not you have problems in shifting with missing selections of the gears. Are you sure about the reading? It is an estimated value by the system not a failproof analisys.
Set the PIS properly, drive it for a while, and then measure... My PIS was set to over 5 and it was slipping too much. Tighten to around 4 or slightly under (until car moves in neutral slowly, then back off 0.5 or so. City driving will wear the clutch more than aggressive driving as said above.
agree, driven hard you will not lose the clutch, baby it and you can wreck it in just a few thousand miles.
Will the owner install a new clutch before selling? If not, I would look somewhere else. For your first Ferrari, unless you are an experienced mechanic looking for a project, I would recommend you find the best maintained one you can really afford….this doesn’t sound like that.
If all else is fine, I would not hesitate to get a worn clutch F430. I would negotiate the price of the new clutch in the deal, and then you are set for 30k miles. A car can have clutch wear reset done, even when worn... Don't trust 100% that reading, could be fake. Look at the visiting port under the car to assess the clutch wear... Actually, I would prefer it to be honest; new clutch, resurfaced flywheel, throwout bearing, mounts done at same time, golden.
You can burn the clutch out in one of these in an afternoon. 25k miles in traffic, or if they live in a condo with underground multilevel parking, and they are on the bottom, that will kill a clutch. So many factors. Maybe the owner was just not awear of the damage they were causing. Meh..replace it an get on with it. It's a consumable.
Mine had the clutch replaced around 22k miles I think. You could be in a good position with this though. The seller might not want to eat the cost of the replacement and thus is selling the car. However, he might be willing to give you a great deal to compensate you for doing it. Then, just find a great indie mechanic that will charge you a fair price but negotiate on a dealer install price.
FYI not the same, but similar. In my 2005 GranSport I had the Drive-By-Wire mod that RPM tricks system into better shifts, I always drove in Sport, and I always drove it aggressively. At 45k miles clutch still had over 50% life. GranSports were known for 10k clutches too.
