355 F1 Geabox solid warning light and 5 beeps

Anybody know what 5 beeps and a solid gearbox warning light coming with 5 beeps? The car shifts normal as usual the light is solid stays sometimes for 10-20 secs sometimes for a min or 2 then goes away by itself. Happens once or twice per each 1-hr ride.

I had flushed 3-4 times by now the F1 ATF oil from the F1 expansion tank over the drain plug under the rear bumper next to the gearbox and from the bleeding valve on the F1 pump. Building pressure in F1 on a cold car went down from 14 flashes (seconds) to 5 flashes and when stopping on a route from 10 flushes to 2, 1, or none (pressure stays on). The warning light still comes on the same way though, no difference.

I didn't find any reference besides of the general principles in the 355 Workshop manual Vol. 2 where it describes the F1 Gearbox.

Anywhere else can I look /anything else can I do before bringing the pup to a shop with the SD2?

P.S. Last August I got the blinking gearbox light while driving and no shifting until the car cooled for a few mins so I pumped the F1 fluid out of the expansion tank twice and added fresh one and the issue had went away then. The blinking light means low pressure in F1 system but don't know of what the solid light along the 5 beeps is?


Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The manual does say that a solid light and a "buzzer" means that you have a hard failure.

Image Unavailable, Please Login
The WSM has a list of reasons the buzzer sounds. See the Sound & Failure signs chapter. e.g. it can occur when the car is stationary with the engine running and one of the following:
Gear engaged and one door is sensed open without pressing the brake or accelerator
Gear engaged and the engine lid is open
Gear engaged and the accelerator or brake pedal isn't pressed for 10 seconds

You could check that the switches are ok. e.g. clean and lubricate the brake pedal microswitch. Sometimes these get sticky and the plunger remains pushed in.

It can also mean a clutch overheat.

 

Have you checked your actuator to make sure it’s not rubbing frame due to saggy engine mounts
This problem can be intermittent at first

 

Hey Ian how you been?

Thanks for pointing out. Checked the Sound and failure signs from WSM Vol. 1 not my case. My solid light comes sometimes and goes away when the car is warming up and on Sunday it happen after 30 drive twice and on the move. The rest of the trip for the other 30" it never happened.

Good point about the actuator but it happened a couple times as I mentioned in above when the car was warming up and stationary.

Observing a behavior of the warning light once it went away right after a gear change but other times it was going away when in-gear for a min or two. After a deep thought I suspect if F1 pressure ball gone bad and not providing a back-pressure no more? I have a spare brand new ball I'll swap 'em today see if it's the ball?

 

Here's a tutorial on how to change the ball

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/f1-accumulator-bulb-replacement-procedure.555260/#post-145469962

I'm not sure if it will fix the problem though. You say you are getting only 5 flashes on (cold) startup now?

Not bad thanks, Alex, but we all seem to have one thing in common... broken 355's

 

Well that's for sure. Hopefully not all the time but from time to time or sometimes. Those cars are aging so no surprise at least for me.

I replaced the accumulator ball and it's not it. I am going to the shop next week where they will plug the SD2 in.

By the way I had replaced at a time 1.5 years ago the car battery to Duracell 34R Ultra 690CCA not Ultra Gold and not AGM and that battery is way better than the Interstate.

Duracell Ultra Flooded 690CCA BCI Group 34R Car and Truck Battery - SLI34R at Batteries Plus

 

I was saying the warning light comes on both when the car is stationary warming up and on the move.

 

Understood, but your system seems to have no problem building up pressure (with only 5 flashes with the ignition turned on). Excessive flashing can indicate accumulator failure.

Good luck with your SD test. Let us know how you go.

 

Likely an obvious question but I assume no leaking on the hydraulic lines that drips

 

You could also when it’s flashing and stationary try shifting a gear
If it won’t shift you know it’s a pressure problem or the pressure sensor is going

if it shifts even though it’s flashing you would have pressure
When I had a leak and it flashed I could not change gears.

that being said the computer may not allow a shift if light is flashing that I am unsure of as it has never happened to me

 

The SD2 showed today it's a dying F1 oil pressure sensor which is on the Power Unit I'll be replacing it tomorrow want the car to cool down overnight.

 

Ok here we go. In my case It wasn't the F1 pressure sensor. But it was a right direction. When I put yesterday my old F1 pressure sensor and took the 355 for a spin the warning light came as before and I know my old sensor is good - it never happened on the old power unit. I noticed a little tiny metal particles in the pan with oil I put under the power unit when swapping the sensor because the system is holding a pressure and when I unscrewed the sensor it was a little spray of oil. And after the sensors swap the warning light came in just briefly for 2 sec. and went off which was better than before. Knowing the principle of how the pressure sensor works - it changing the resistance depends to the pressure applied, I thought if once in a while these metal particles touch the sensing element the sensor's resistance will change until the particle detaching from the sensing element the TCU gets a reading from the sensor which is off the limit and fires up a warning light. I seen the oil with tiny metal particles when I was draining the F1 ATF from the bleeding valves so I think the fluid is not mixing much and it was lots of old dirty fluid in the power unit. I crewed the sensor back in but not all the way, turned the ignition to build up some pressure, took off the sensor; and repeated it again making a total of 3 times of spitting the oil from the high pressure chamber from the power unit while adding fresh ATF to expansion tank, put back in the original sensor and took the 355 for a spin and ta-da! 1 hr 15 mins drive along with the 2 short stops all good.

I didn't do a full flush for some good while just changing the F1 ATF in the expansion tank like once in 2 years thinking it should mix all over. In old good days a full flush with SD2 was $800 how my is it today I am afraid to learn so it does gets dirty with these super-tiny bits of metal as some friction in the actuator as I understand and as it turns out is not mixing as much with the oil with the expansion tank so from now on either the options are to flush the F1 fluid if you have endless supply of $$$ or drain it 2-3 times from the bleeding valves while watching the level in the expansion tank and either drain from unscrewing the accumulator or the pressure sensor. I observed when swapping the accumulator you got to do a trick to keep the oil at the lips of the accumulator tread while putting it in upside-down or better do the pressure sensor because it's positioned horizontally less air can get in when screwing it back. In either case it will be very small amount of air if you get to the power unit and it's heating up + 5atm. of pressure it eventually burb this air out when changing gears to the expansion tank as a few small bubbles.

 

If you would pay attention the matter is a SOLID gearbox light + 5 beeps, not FLASHING.

 

Ok
That’s what I meant so you could check the pressure sensor
Good for you