458 Dead Pedal - from Hill Engineering

UPDATE: Thanks for the pm Daniel and for sending out the replacements. Much appreciated.

 

Hi Daniel
Just received my dead pedal today without the longer sized bolts. Can you please pm me
Thanks
Chris

 

My spider required M6 X 35mm screws. Couldn't get the 30mm length screws started even when pressing against the dead pedal forcefully. Wonder if it has anything to do with my alcantara carpet?

 

I have standard carpet and needed the 35mm length screws when installing on top of the existing rubber dead pedal.

 

Perhaps I pushed too hard! It feels secure though.....

 

I have nothing to say but good things about Daniel and his company and I will order mine but I need to know if this dead pedal has the same pattern etc as the Speciale.

 

Hey guys,

I'm back in business over here with a recently purchased 458 Italia; so of course one of the first orders of business was looking at installing the Hill Engineering dead pedal.

After coming across this thread on Ferrarichat, I decided to go ahead and order the part from Ricambi America and see how the install turned out.

First things first, here is the link I used to order the part:

DP458 - 458 ITALIA/SPIDER DEAD PEDAL - Ricambi America, Inc.

The pedal arrived in record time via USPS, so that was great. Ricambia shipped almost instantly, which I appreciated.

Incidentally, when I received my order, I noticed that the flap on the brown cardboard mailing envelop had popped open during transit. Luckily, the pedal inside had not fallen out - but it was definitely making a good attempt at exiting the building. I believe I saw - earlier on this thread - where someone had mentioned that their ordered arrived without the pedal inside. I can certainly see how that might have happened now, given my own experience. Anyway, I'm glad nothing escaped in the mail, because wow, this pedal is darn nice! Super high quality.

Here are a few pictures showing what you get - and then I'll continue to the actual installation with the next post:
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So here is a before & after picture, just to get the ball rolling. Then I'll detail the installation that I went through myself over here:
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As you can see from the photos above, the Hill Engineering pedal is a fantastic match to the already very nice pedals that come on the car.

1. I removed the factory rubber dead pedal from the car. It's secured in place by two M6 allen head style bolts, which require a 4mm allen wrench for removal. The factory bolts come out pretty easy, then the rubber pad itself simply pops out if you pull it off the car (it's secured with some press in little plugs along the edge).

2. Once the rubber pad is out, then it's a pretty simply matter of screwing in the Hill Engineering aluminum pedal. They include a number of screws, but unfortunately none of them work all that well. In the package are some very nice stainless countersunk allen head screws, but I found them a bit short for the job. In my photos, you can see they are M6 by 20mm. I think if you force the pedal down, they might just catch, but I didn't wanna risk applying too much force against the first few threads in the hole on the car. I had some longer philips head screws handy, so I used those instead.

3. Be careful not to cross thread the screws when you install the pedal. Start them with your fingers only and use light force. It's a threaded hole, so it should thread in fairly easy to begin with. To help with alignment, thread in both screws before you run either down. This will help align the pedal as you tighten each one up alternatively. The temporarily philips head screws I used were a bit long. I have since ordered some 316L M6x30 screws from McMaster.com and will be swapping those out later, once they arrive. I opted for 316 vs 18-8 since these will be under foot, as it were

4. I had to touch up a small silver spot on the car, which had no paint - it was showing through one of the holes in the pedal. I just used some universal black car touch-up paint that I had in the garage.

5. I secured the screws by hand, as I helped push the pedal down against the car. I think removing the rubber pedal really gives it a nice clean install and helps to clear the edge of the floor mat also. Originally I was thinking about installing the aluminum pedal over the rubber one, but after seeing it all in the flesh, I definitely would remove the rubber and install the Hill Pedal directly to the car - without anything else in between.

As you can see, it really dresses up the car. Even if you have to buy extra screws, the upgrade is well worth it. The cost of the pedal is very fair as well, so a big thanks must go out to Ricambi America & Hill Engineering for offering such a great upgrade part at such a reasonable price.

I have a few spare 316L SS M6x30 bolts coming from McMaster.com (had to order a box of 25); if anyone needs a couple for their installation, feel free to PM me. Send me your address and a few bucks via paypal and I'll be happy to toss them into the mail!

Ray
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Okay, the factory pedal is off...

Here is a comparison of the two pedals; you can see the size and hole alignment is spot on:
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So about these bolts...

Here are a couple of photos kinda showing the bolt length situation. The ones from Ricambi are 20mm long as shown. The factory bolts are the same length. However, I think part of the issue here is that the factory pedal has an inset area which allows the factory bolts to get further down into the hole in the car; while the Hill Engineering pedal sits up slightly higher, due to being a flush aluminum plate design.

On account of this, slightly longer bolts really make the job go smoother, due to the difference in relative heights of the mounting surfaces between the two pedals - and also having to push the aluminum pedal down a bit more during installation over the carpet in the car. Not a big deal, but something to be aware of. As mentioned above, I used some longer M6 philips head screws to install it for now; that helped quite a bit to get everything aligned and installed properly.

I have ordered some 30mm length allen bolts (which I think should be about the right length) and I'll just swap those out later.

Here are a few photos:
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So the philips head screws I used for now, which are pictured above, were 35mm in length. That's longer than needed, although there is nothing behind the holes that would interfere with longer bolts as far as I can see.

I ordered M6x30 screws from McMaster.com (part # 93395A366), which I will swap out later.

All in all, a great part and I think a fantastic upgrade to the car. I really love the look of the Hill Engineering aluminum dead pedal. Makes the car look really finished and just gives a really nice extra touch to everything.

And here's AbiNada doing her final tech inspection on the job haha

Ray
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It looks great. I now have a gift idea for my GF's next occasion.

 

Most women prefer hard over soft, so I'm sure the aluminum pedal will be most appreciated!

Ray

 

If the gift idea includes driving the car to test it out I'm sure she'll be all in.

 

Yes, but it's her car.
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I have this dead pedal. Perfect match and fit. Simple install.

 

Very nice.

Car ain't half bad either

Ray

 

So the A4-70 (aka 316) stainless allen head screws arrived from McMaster.com today.

They were way too shiny for my taste, however. They also didn't sit down totally flush when in the mounting holes of the dead pedal. This was an issue with the bolts I believe, not the pedal itself.

I was going to try to find some different bolts, but instead I decided to just modify these a little. First I ground the heads down a bit, then I used some sandpaper to smooth them out and knock off the shine. The final result didn't turn out half bad.

Here are a few photos. The shot of the brake pedal shows my bolt on the top/left, the factory Ferrari bolt (top right) and then the un-modified SS bolt from McMaster.com (before grinding and sanding).

Ray
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Hi
I ordered one now!
I have to wait 3 weeks

 

Nobody like this Part?

 

Hallo
I want to Buy a passenger footrest with same Design
Where can i order one?

 

Hi if you find the passenger footrest to let us know as I would like one of those.

I installed the dead pedal to and it looks great, a nice simple easy to do upgrade.

Regards

Michael

 

Here is mine installed. The original dead pedal on a 2011 doesn't have any screws to remove so I just screwed the Hill unit on to the existing rubber pad. I like it and this is how they should have left the factory. Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I too installed mine and it does look factory great