458 458 Interior Removal

Dan, Awesome Awesome, Awesome! Thank you so much for doing this and posting it!

 

Great job and excellent write ups.
Seeing things taken apart and detailed like this takes a great deal of the mystery out of our cars and make DIY projects less scary.
Thanks for doing this and I hope you continue to write up instructions on other interior parts.

Thanks again,
Gene Greer

 

That info is priceless!! THANK YOU!

 

Great info, this should be stickied at the top

 

Thread added to the 458 master sticky:

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/most-458s-discussions.564954/

Kind regards,

Nuno.

 

Hi Dan,

I just can't get enough of this information.....
It's like eating potato chips - I can't stop at one

I might need to remove the headliner on my 458 spider
Do you have any advice?

Thanks a million,
Gene Greer

 

And here I am, stressing out about changing the menu switch on the left side of my binnacle (should be here in about a week or two), lol. Even though I know it should be easy and straight forward, it's hard not to stress when it's my Ferrari.
I have to say, for the things that I have taken apart already, the car is designed great and comes apart very nicely. It's not like the 80's and 90's American cars where clips break and fall out, etc. Everything is screwed together nicely, and all the push pins are secure and solid. I'm also very anal about rattles and noises, so anything that I take apart, I use Tesa tape on every touch point, so I only have been improving the car every time I do anything on it.

 

I'm surprised that there are a lot of little screws on there. After looking at the shop manual, it seems like I just had to remove the binnacle, the lower left fuse box cover with the light switch, and the small trim piece on the left of the steering wheel that's held on by push pins. Then it showed 4 screws to hold the vent assembly in place (remove 2 electrical connectors). Once removed, they showed 2 screws at the top of the switch, holding the switch panel in place on the vent. Did I miss something? Did you maybe mean that there are a lot of little screws and shims involved if I wanted to separate the vent from its housing (as in the work required to replace the silver piece with carbon fiber)? If that's what you meant, then hopefully it's the way I thought it was, so it's even easier!

 

@DoubleD33 - You rock again my friend. This info is great!

 

Amazing write up. Anyone know how to remove the steering wheel turn signal buttons with out having to remove the whole Steering wheel? Did a quick search and didn’t come up with anything.

 

This is good stuff.
It would be great if you could remove the passenger side Binnacle. If you remove the glove box and liner, you're 90% of the way there. At that point it's basically reaching in there with a wrench and removing a few fasteners that hold the binnacle to the dash, and then basically pulling it out.

Here's one that I tried to figure out for a long time, then obtained the information from an exotic auto wrecker that owns a Speciale. The knee brace that is mounted where the glove box is otherwise mounted, is just held on using the same kinds of pins that hold the door covers to the doors. You just get in between there with a plastic tool and gently pry it off from each of the four corners. There are no tricks, no hidden bolts, etc.

 

You have to remove the two tamper-proof torx head fasteners that are recessed on either side of the steering column cover. There are two plugs covering these holes. Once you remove the fasteners, the airbag cover will come off and you simply pry off the carbon fiber or aluminum cover and remove the switches.

 

Thank you for that info!

 

Thanks! It looks like the switch is due to arrive on Monday. I will report back after it's installed.

 

Wow!! Thanks much for the documentations !!!


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I installed the switch today. I have to say, it was VERY easy, and dare I say "fun", lol. Everything went perfectly smooth, thanks to your photos and advice. I'm truly grateful for that. I just removed the top binnacle, and it came off very easily. Then the lower left fuse box cover just snaps off, as well as the small dash trim piece to the left of the steering wheel. The whole vent is exposed and ready to remove with only 2 screws (one left and right of the tach) for the binnacle.
Once that stuff was removed, it was only 4 screws holding the vent assembly in place onto the dashboard. Once I took the two electrical connectors off, and had the whole vent assembly in my hand, the switch only has 2 screws holding it in. One was very easy to access, the other was tucked in the corner and hard to reach. In order to reach this screw, I simply took another 4 little screws off in order to separate the top half and bottom half of the vent surround (it's very obvious when looking at it). Then the new switch installed very easily. Installation was also very simple, and reverse of disassembly. I worked very slowly and carefully and it took me an hour at most.
I have a few little hints for someone doing this job, or similar job:
1- Put blue painters tape on any surface that can get scratched in the area that you are working.
2- Once the fuse box cover is off, it's a pain to take all the connectors off, so just leave the wires attached, BUT, don't hang the cover from the wires. use another wire, or something to hang the cover, keeping the car wiring harness loose.
3- Before reassembly, put a VERY slight amount of white grease on the metal push pins. This way when you try to pull it apart in the future, the pins work beautifully, and there is no risk of damaging any covers, or pieces.
4- Any time you take anything apart, put Tesa tape on any of the touch points before reassembly. That stuff works great, and will make the car feel and sound better than new. You will eliminate any rubbing noises, or squeaks or rattles.
5- Tap, push, and pull on everything, while dash is open. If you hear any vibrations or noises. Locate it and tighten/secure/apply Tesa tape to fix it.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, but here are some photos of how it looked before, during, and after the switch change. You will see that the new switch I installed has the Pit Speed knob (it's a long story, but the original switch was replaced with an improper switch by a mechanic while he did me a favor and replaced the whole vent assembly due to a rattle)

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Oh no...Sorry for the sideways photos! I don't know how to fix that