6th gear 550

I had this happen to my 575. They did a major service and didn't change the gearbox oil it was very short. I drove 125 miles home from where I bought it on 6th gear, it began making this whistling sound. My tech in miami drained the oil and it was black, they hadn't changed it, 6th gear was damaged, it took a long time to get a replacement gear, 4-5 weeks. In my case I think a tech just forgot one thing on a checklist. The dealer I bought it from paid for the repair and now I have a pretty cool paperweight. Mine had 20k at the time.

I found an old email and have cut and paste some of the back and forth statements from the dealer I bought from and below my tech, it was an epic putting someone in their place

Dealer: am not questioning your techs credentials but the tech that did the major service before your purchase has in his notes that he checked the levels and also check the fluids for contamination from water etc so unless you had a big puddle of fluid on your garage floor I do not know where it went

My Tech: There are no notes on the service invoices that you gave me that state the gearbox oil level was checked or that any fluid was checked for water contamination. Also the gearbox oil should have been changed during a “major” service and there is no gear oil billed out on the invoice. There are no leaks coming from your gearbox and its not likely that it leaked out. It is however very likely that it was not filled properly the last time it was done which from the invoices you provided it was last done by Ferrari or New England in 2013 on RO # 19360.

Dealer: When we did the clutch back in 2014 the fluid was changed. I sold the car to a good friend and my attorney, my Son has detailed the car about every two months while he owned the car and there was never any fluids on the floor of his garage. When I purchased the car from him the car sat in our dealership and there was never any signs of fluids on the floor. For the car to have lost 2.5 quarts there would have had to have been quite a sizable leak.

My Tech: Again there is no gearbox oil billed on on the 2014 invoice that you gave me. Also no tech notes about the level being checked.

Dealer: This is what I am questioning, that and the fact that both my tech and a Certified Master Ferrari technician both say that if there was a shortage of fluid in the gearbox, 6th gear would be the last to go, first would be synchro’s in 2nd, then third and so on.

My Tech: These statements are just technically incorrect. Attached are diagrams of the 575 transmission and as can be seen diagram (main shaft gear and oil pump), 6th gear is the one that is closest to the front of the transmission. The 575 transmission is broken up into case sections as can be seen in the diagram (gearbox case). 4th, 5th, and 6th are all in the forward most case. At the bottom of each case section is a hole that reduces the ability of the oil to flow backwards into the other case sections which will occur during acceleration. Therefore when this transmission is run low on oil, it is actually 1st, 2nd, and 3rd that will receive the majority of the available lubrication because they are in the rear section of the gearbox. The main and input shaft also ride higher in the transmission than there mating gears on the lay shaft. So the reason why 6th is making noise is because its the biggest gear on the main shaft at the top and its in the most forward position of any of the gears. Most likely the damage occurred while 6th gear was under load (car being driven in 6th gear) at highway speeds for a period of time without the proper amount of oil in the gearbox.

After the last paragraph, the dealer agreed to take the car back and repair it for free.....it was great. Needless to say I think my tech here in Miami is the best tech I've ever met in my life, so knowledgable its just incredible, im lucky to have him.

 

Quite interesting. My car did not have the best service history and it is not very good in syncro from second to third, but sixth have never been a problem. What I really want is to get a higher sixth gear!! The revs are perfectly matched to the power at top speed, but how often do I go that fast? The ideal thing would be to have fifth the same ratio as sixth is now, and that sixth would be an «overdrive» gear with low revs at 120 kph. and up. That way the car could still do the right top speed i fifth.... And cruise with less engine sound and consumption in sixth. It would be great for very long drives. As the car is now in original spec, I feel I could go just as fast through Europe with my dad’s 200 CDI, because it can be run efficiently at quite high speeds like 160-180 kph. with a low consumption like 0,8 liter per 10 km. at that speed. The 550 on the other hand consume so much fuel that you need to refuel all the time, so the average speed drops significantly and of course the cost is 3x higher. So for the money I save I can allow much higher speed and arrive just as quick. I am speaking from experience as I last weekend drive the poor Benz from Oslo to Nice. My 2002 Maserati 4200 was even Worse. It took about 1,6 liter per 10 km. at only 140. I sold it because it was not a good car for driving long trips. And that car had revs way too high to be comfortable at 160 kph. cruising. The new Ferraris are a bit like that with their seven gears! I don’t know if it would be possible to change the gears to meget this or not.... Anybody here that could tell me?

Thanks!

 

Hi Erik,
I just found this file on another thread. It looks like the 550 and Enzo have the tallest 5th and 6th gears among the Ferraris.

 

The Enzo, 575M, 612, and 599 share a lot of transaxle parts

 

Thank you Jim! I tried to send them an email, but I got it back and it was not possible to get into their website. Are they out of business? It looks like the DB9 has even lower ratio than the 575, probably because it only revs to 6000. Anybody know if the 550 and 575 have the same ratio? In these combined differential/gearbox units, are there a separate ratio for the «differential part» of it? I remember the Maserati Biturbo 2,0 had final drive ratio (differential) of 1:3,77 but the 2,8 liter had 1:3,31 and had lower rpms. On my 550, I think all gears are a bit too low, so to change the differential gear would be better than just 6th gear.

 

To change the differential ratio, you would need to change the ring gear and pinion. The pinion is part of the lay shaft, see #10. Curious whether the 1:3.31 pair from the Maserati would fit.
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This!!!
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The Maserati diff I referred to was a late 80-ies «Ranger» diff and not a transxle diff, so will never fit for sure. I remember this very well because I bought two Maseratis the same day. One 2,0 V6 biturbo and one 2,8 V6 biturbo. The to cars were day and night. The 2,8 was a lot better and clearly the highway long distance runner!

 

Perfect for top speed. It is still accellerating at 320 on the speedo. Sorry I did not mean to hijack the thread but when speaking of 6th gear... my box have never been rebuild as far as I know and the oil changes have not always been done by the book...
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550 and 575M have the same gear ratios.

 

I have researched this a bit more, and a pioneer in differential development www.colotti.com have made a side in their web site with he 550, but I can’t find anything on it. I wonder if they can supply anything.. I have sent the an e-mail and await their reply.

 

Why about the 456 and 456M ? From what I remember, on my first few kilometers of driving with my 550 I noticed that the revs were higher than on the 456M I had two years befor the 550. I wondered if someone had put a wrong ratio differential in my new 550.... Could you please check that Taz if you have the information? Would be great to know if I could simply install a 456M differential and the «problem» is solved! I contacted a workshop in Modena today and they said that the pinion and crown gears had to be made at a possibly very high price. Any idea if a 456/456M box would be a direct bolt in alternative?