360 shock absorbers

you need to change the front springs ...read this;

AFCO 10” Spring Installation

360/430 Front Spring Installation is a great mod to do on Ferrari 360/430's when you are also deciding to lower your Ferrari.

I found that my F/E was bobbing a bit and at highway speeds it would in some cases bottom on a high spot on the road. I decided to remedy both problems.

I chose an AFCO replacement spring for the 360 front suspension. It is an AFCO P/N: 23400. See: http://www.afabcorp.com/AFCO_Dynatec...p_coil-over-10.

It is a 400# spring and it measures 10” in height. The OEM spring is 9.5” +/- in height, and it is about 350# in pressure. The P/N: 23400 AFCO is about 15% slightly greater in pressure which gives the front end just a bit more control, less sway, and takes away the slight dip at speeds.

The final vehicle height adjustment process can be done easiest with the shock body mounted in the spring compressor. It can certainly be done with the spring mounted, but it is much easier to do it with the spring compressed outside of the vehicle. See 360 Front Shock Removal.

Have an experienced person compress the springs on a quality piece of equipment if you are not familiar with spring compression. It is a dangerous process for a novice!

Remember that prior to removing the OEM spring one must measure the original location of the spring support collar to a fixed point on the shock before removing the OEM spring. Mark with a small felt pen on the shock body and record the distance on each shock with a digital vernier or equivalent. You are measuring from the bottom of the spring support collar to any point on the shock for a reference point! When installing the new AFCO spring you will then have a reference point to drop the additional required ½” (8 turns) on the spring support collar.

Since there is a ½” height difference between the OEM and the AFCO spring, when the AFCO spring is mounted into the coilover the spring supporting collar (measurement) must be lowered by this ½” amount (8 turns) to equal the original spring distance.

The additional pressure of the AFCO spring will initially raise the vehicle about 1” when the spring support collar is dropped the additional ½” from the OEM location on the shock body. Remember, however, that springs drop a bit after initial usage, and this will happen with the AFCO springs.

With the spring in the compressor and with the support ring set to the OEM spring distance above-marked, there are approximately 8 additional turns required to lower the spring support ring beyond the ½” (8 turn) spring differential of the AFCO spring so that the vehicle will settle to factory settings. This is based upon the OEM springs set to the OEM Ferrari ride height. Refer to the Motion Ratio table for height changes per given turns.

See “Lowering A 360/430” for the procedure and preferred tools.

When the adjustment is done with the spring in the compressor, turning the spring support ring is easy.

In review, mark the OEM distance of the spring support ring on the shock body before spring removal, compress the OEM spring, loosen the locking ring and remove, slowly loosen the spring support ring until free, remove the spring, install the AFCO spring and compress, reduce the distance you measured for the OEM spring by ½” (8 turns) and then set the spring support ring down 8 additional turns from there. Securely lock the two rings, and then slowly decompress the spring.

Check the lower shock support bushings before reinstallation and replace if necessary. This is important as they may knock. They are Ferrari P/N: 157630.

 

No its not normal, before changing springs get the geometry and ride height checked, also raise car and check for worn bearings,inspect upper and lower arms for cracks, etc, check worn bushes, check both upper and lower ball joints for play (sound rattly going over bumps) , replace worn parts first before doing mods. any springs cracked? what mileage? standard tires and correct pressures?

 

Now maybe it's different on Ferraris but in most any other car, spring fatigue, to the point of significant softening is rare; ever rarer yet is complete failure. The symptoms described by the OP sound much more like worn shocks, giving him an underdamped condition. This seems to go away by turning on the sport setting, so I would think it's worn shocks. The shocks on this car vary their damping with magnetic field changes (it's what happens when you turn on sport mode), and that property seems to still work, as the damping and handling improves by engaging sport mode. So it's possible they are just plain worn or perhaps some of the seals failed on one or more of the shocks. A thorough inspection of the undercarriage is in order to detect any worn or broken bushings or brackets, and any leaking fluid from the shocks. How many miles on the car and what year? Most quality shocks easily go 40-50,000 miles before losing their damping efficiency (and many miles more before they actually fail), but on cars that are infrequently driven, it wouldn't surprise me that that point occurs earlier, mileage-wise. BTW, I think the magnetic shock technology is the same or similar to that in Corvettes, so it may be useful to cruise their forums to see what their experience has been with these shocks, though I don't know if Ferrari sources them from the same supplier or licenses the technology and has them built by their own supplier.

Here's a related question. Is there any possibility of someone connecting the shock mode "backwards," so that they're normally in stiffer mode, and when sport mode is engaged, they soften back to normal stiffness? I could swear that my car rides better/softer in sport mode and handles better (more stiffly) in normal mode!

 

Something broken or worn out.. should not be rattles... Have someone knowledgeable about suspensions inspect her on a lift...

 

+1

 

Without seeing the car, and with the information posted I'm guessing its the front Lower Ball joints.

This sounds like the very common fault that effects all 360's and 430's eventually, especially if you live in wet or humid climate.

What happens is that the steel of ball-joint itself corrodes and that corrosion/rust causes metal to metal wear to rapidly accelerate the death of the ball joint. Hills Engineering do stainless steel coated ball joints which are uprated in this regard and don't have the same corrosion problem's.

I specifically asked the question about a 'rattle style sound' over bump's because this is symptomatic of your front suspension, lower wishbone ball-joints being severely worn.

Once you get new ball joints (lower are the most common) done don't forget to get a full geometry alignment check done too. The car will feel much smoother and ride quality will drastically improve, not to mention handling!

 

You have to be very very careful about uprating just the front springs rates without taking into account the consequences of this modification in isolation. I'd only recommend changing springs if you do both front and rear and get some balance, I'd also do this in combination with uprated anti roll bars (sway bars) too and if your going to all this trouble you should ideally corner weight the car for perfect handling balance. When Ferrari uprated the rates on the CS they did more on the rear. Its easier for most people to catch understeer than oversteer so the alignment and springs are setup for very average drivers.

In reality the main reason for the bobbing effect tends to be poor ride height setup and out of alignment geometry. Most cars (even when supplied brand new from the dealer) are not set up correctly, with the effect that radically different handling characteristics and ride heights between different cars of the same model.

 

Can 360 shocks/springs be replaced with 430 shocks/springs?

 

I had the same problem in my 2002 Ferrari 360 Modena..
I took it to my mechanic and he suggested two option : buy new at around Euro 1500 per piece, or rebuild them for 500 per piece...
We sent them to Sachs and had them back in around 1 week... They replaced all the parts (they also put a service valve) and the car drove like new at the front... The back was ok, even though my mechanic suggested to replace/rebuild them at some point too...

 

Do you have contact info for the Sachs rebuild shop? Will also be handy for the 575M owners and their Sachs shocks.

 

i wonder if Sachs would be willing to revalve the shocks to CS specs for those that wish to upgrade their rear shocks when paired with CS or stiffer springs.

This would be easier than trying to find 2 used rear CS shocks

 

The Sachs rebuilt shop I used is in Athens, Greece...

 

Big place, Athens. I have been there several times.