AVH failure resulting in locked brakes

I’m not sure that Ferrari owners are afraid to complain about their cars.

I’m not sure that Ferrari behaves any worse than the other car complaines either. I might argue that Ferrari may be better than a company like Mercedes or Porsche in terms of responding to after market complaints.

Of course your personal experience explains your opinion.

What is the best way for owners to voice their aftermarket issues?
And how effective is FChat, in this regard? One starts a thread. The thread dies off, unless there are many many posters who report their similar experience. Sometimes people conduct a poll. These threads usually die after a week or two for the same reason.

Perhaps we owners should write a letter to Ferrari corporate stating that we want the company to investigate more thoroughly brake problems and fix the problems once and foreall, rather than just sweep them under the rug.

Somehow, I still believe that unless owners place driving as the top priority, and put miles on their cars, Ferrari has the ability to remain dispassionate, take the easy way out, and handle the after market problems by paying off the few cases which go to litigation.

Used Ferrari’s are attractive to the next owner if they have the fewest number of miles. Anything over 3,000 miles is considered to be high mileage and undesirable. Some ‘used Ferrari’s’ still have the factory gas in the tank. I saw a ‘used Car’ the other day which still had the factory protective panel plastic. It was several years old and likely had never been driven. My point here is that if more owners drove the cars, the hidden issues would come to light and Ferrari would understand the scope of these problems. IMO software/switch glitches are solvable.

 

Ferrari took my complete brake system apart 5 times all 4 corners, weighed, cleaned, sanded pads, etc. Claims all normal. They ended up replacing all 4 brake pads...even though they said there was no wear issues. The issue went away for a bit. But returned.

 

Ive been searching this model-specific section for dirt on the 488 and 458. Im about 1-2 years from a 458 if all works well. Anyways, I really like what you mentioned about registering VINs. Another way to handle this might be is to have some kind of sticky... or sub section that maybe lists or lumps common problems that come up here. If something occurs frequently enough and there is way to prevent old threads from disappearing to the bottom of the thread list. Unfortunately, this probably wouldnt be an automated process and would require human (moderator) input and therefore would be even more work for them. Also, im not sure if this opens any legal risks. Ferrari, unlike Toyota, Ford, and even Porsche/Mercedes is unique in being an established car maker but with very low volume and with cars that get very low use... this naturally would seem to mask the effects of any defects in design compared to mainstream brands... it just takes way too long to acrue sufficient data and they may not even be collecting this information to begin with. Maybe a group like fchat is in a position to help advocate for consumers as well as help the manufacturer make a better product.

Im very sorry to hear about this experience. Having a 488 and being on fchat i imagine that you really enjoyed the brand and this experience seems to have completely soured that experience. I really hope i dont have the same experience.

Sent from my SM-N920V using FerrariChat.com mobile app

 

Do you think your problem may have been due to a warped or defective caliper. I believe that the 488 uses a skeltonized caliper in order to save weight.

Or do you have other suspicions?

Also you mentioned that your car caught on fire. Was this before the brake issues? Do you think the fire may have damaged parts such as sensors/wiring/ECUs which could have caused your brake problems?

 

Further to the point is to figure out what truly was the cause of your parking brake malfunction. If your premise about this being a widespread flaw is true , then solving this will achieve your goal.

 

My thoughts are this.

I personally believe the rotors were warped, both front rotors, the rotational noise I don't think would be caused by electronics.

I think the brake failure I had was electronic in nature as I would describe it as when you over stop something and the ABS comes on but it was like the ABS came on but didn't pulsate. The fire certainly could have caused that issue.

Ferrari as you can imagine after the fire likely just plugged in their code reader and if it checked out moved on. I can tell you when the fire happened the electrical noises (clicking from relays, systems trying to come on and off, etc) was wild and I felt from go the car would never be right again.

Keep in mind this "fire" was very small, it was basically a module on top of the battery that controls the trickle charger connection shorted out, emploding the battery and the cars ground was melted for some part of the run of wire. The car drove fine as Ferrari had me drive it to my business for loading.

 

I think writing a letter to Brembo and Ferrari would be a good thing. You can explain what you are doing about it. That may get their attention.

 

I think writing a letter to Brembo and Ferrari would be a good thing. You can explain what you are doing about it. That may get their attention.

 

Ferrari doesn't automatically begin an investigation into design flaws due to isolated lemon car cases. I doubt any manufacturer does so unless there is a fatality and probably not until there are a string of cases.

Perhaps I misunderstand your lawsuit. Did you allege that this was a design flaw that affects all modern Ferraris?
What proof was presented other than your car? I thought you only proved that your car met the lemon law.

The good news is that there is continual development in technology. That means things get better with subsequent models and not worse.

 

Complicated problems! Maybe as you suggest, the electrical wiring/ electronics were heat damaged, and that led to brake malfunction which produced excessive heat build-up and damage to the system.

 

An overview of the Brembo technology

the parking brake design is an all new unit (first generation )

https://www.brembo.com/en/company/news/brembo-braking-system-for-the-ferrari-488-spider

 

There are plenty of 488s which have 2-3000 miles which was the same mileage as your car which had multiple parking brake lock ups.

So you should have no problem collecting tons of similar complaints if your premise that his is a design deft affecting all the modern Ferrari’s.

Post your feedback!

Be the smartest guy in the room!

 

Ok you are pretty bitter about your experience with Ferrari. And then your McLaren ownership experience (2 cars) was awful too.

So what is going to be your next sports car?

 

I’ve followed this thread with great interest and regret to see it devolve into unnecessary and counterproductive discourse.

 

There was no heat from fire if that is what you mean. The "fire" was barely enough to char 2 brackets at the battery. The damage IMO was as I discovered the car as it was happening (the alarm went off and it wasn't even armed), all the cars systems where rapidly coming off and on and relays clicking like crazy. So I assume voltage and the wrong voltage at that was going wild as the cars main ground was melting due to the faulted trickle charger ecu/board on top of the battery area.

 

At least you were there to intervene. Was the trickle charger plugged in and attempting to charge at the time? How did you manage the emergency?

 

The 459 and 488 use different brake systems. Both are made by Brembo, but they are significantly different.

Asd far as the 458, I've not heard of the rear parking brake suddenly locking-up during driving. I've had no brake issues in my 2014 458 spider which has 101,000 miles. I replaced the front pads, but the rotors were still good. Eventually Ill need to change the rear pads and when the fronts need another change the rotors will be replaced as well. So the advantage of the CC brakes is greater longevity compared to steel. However, this comes at a cost because rotor replacement is very expensive. If you track the car, this is an issue. Steel rotors are affordable to replace.

If I experience rear parking brake lock up while driving, Ill certainly follow up on it.

 

The charger was not plugged in at the time, that was what was the most confusing about it. The car had been driven either earlier that day or maybe the day before. The Alarm on the car went off at 3-4am on a Sunday morning and I rushed to the garage figuring someone was breaking into it, but as I got to the car I realized I didn't even arm the alarm to start with. So I knew something was up right away. When I got to the car the power to the car actually died and the alarm got quiet unit all you heard was relays and clicking and such as I was approaching it. I thought hmm maybe the battery **** the bed so I plugged in the trickle charger and the relays and clicking just got a little more frequent so I unplugged that and thought id plug in my full battery charger to the actual battery, so I opened the battery compartment and immediately saw the issues and knew there was no reason to do anything but wait to call Ferrari in the AM.

The fire was already over by then and again was very brief situation but could have went much worse. My house could have burnt down. Our bed room is just 20-30ft from the garage. Who's to say what might have happened.

Ferrari came for the car quick after telling me to charge the battery in full and drive it from my home to shop. Which the car seemed OK on that drive minus about 100 warnings on the dash coming and going. They had the car a month to basically replace a length of wire, battery, and a bracket above the battery that was burnt. Other than the lead service guy I never heard so much as a "I am sorry".

Ferrari doesn't' care about me. Ferrari probably doesn't care about much of anyone really.

When my brakes failed I should ahve just sued them or lemon lawed the car. It had already spent 90 days in service of the 9-10 months of ownership to that point and another brake fix would have put it in to another month I bet. The brake issue scared me so bad I wanted it out of my garage out of my life and I took a big loss on trade to get rid of it.