488 GTB: Rattle noise under steering wheel

Depends on how big the noise is. Most Ferraris make some level of annoying noises around the dash area. Unless you search high and low, it's almost part of the norm for Ferrari ownership. If it's more than just leather creaking back and forth, then perhaps something is loose under there. I've taken apart several Ferrari dashes over the years and it's always a horror show as far as how they are put together and which screws go where. Even straight from the factory, it's not uncommon to find screws which are stripped or poorly installed. On my 458, I had to reassemble a number of areas and re-install panels which were improperly installed by the dealer and/or previous owners.

On my 488, brand new from the dealer, there was a strange rattle in the motor area, which I initially thought might be some problem w/ a compressor wheel inside the right bank turbo. As it turned out, someone had dropped a sheet metal screw into the motor compartment and I guess didn't bother to retrieve it on the assembly line. So the good news was that it wasn't a turbo failing, but the bad news was that the screw eventually rattled its way out of the motor compartment and right into my brand new rear tire. Awesome. I didn't bother the dealer and just repaired the puncture myself. But it just goes to show you what owning a hand built car is like.

On my 458, when I took apart the center console, one of the retaining clamps in there to hold the wiring harness wasn't even attached. They had just tossed it in there and not bothered to screw it into its little hole. I fixed that, but it took me almost 60 minutes on my head w/ a mirror to do it. So I can see why that didn't get done on the assembly line. Also, if you ever take apart your dash or anything on your Ferrari, you'll just be shaking your head, wondering why nobody at the factory standardized the screws. You'll see nutty stuff like a panel held on by 3 screws, but 2 are long and 1 is short - and if you accidentally put the long screw into the location where the short screw should go, it will inadvertently do something like puncture a fuel like or something crazy (I'm joking of course, but only just barely). You just think to yourself, "clearly 3 exactly the same length short screws would have done the job here, so why 2 longs ones?" It's almost like someone in Italy has a huge bin of random screws and they just grab whatever is handy and slap it in there. I've seen places where some screws are allen head, while others right next to them are Torx. WTF? That's always fun when taking stuff apart in the dark...

Another thing is I think they install some of the M6 bolts with an air driver or something. On one of my cars, someone clearly didn't bother to align the threads correctly on a screw, but just powered it home anyway and ended up cross-threading the aluminum body hole. Oh gee thanks! When I was putting the car back together, I had to go get an M6 tap and re-thread the hole in order to get the bolt to go in properly. My guess is that the new people on the assembly line perhaps aren't either getting the training they need and/or they don't have the time they need to assemble the cars well. You'd think Ferrari would make the construction of the cars a little more "click-together", but I guess not. Compare any Ferrari to how your average Toyota goes together and it just makes you wonder sometimes.

So just stuff like that... never a dull moment.

My advice would be to look around and see if you can fix it yourself. It's extremely difficult to find people who do great work on cars. You are almost always better off just doing your own work if you are able to.

If it's just leather dash parts making noise, you can usually resolve it for a while with a little leather cream or silicone spray or something. On my 458, the dash creaked so much it would drive me crazy. Right up there in the left hand corner area, above the instrument cluster. I can't remember what I sprayed to fix the issue, but I want to say I quickly sprayed on some leather cleaner or conditioner and then wiped it all over the place and forced it down into the meeting points of the dash with my air compressor. Eventually the dash stopped making too much noise - the leather surfaces probably just wore down enough with age to quiet down a bit haha.

Good luck!

Ray