Chris, Now you are talking! Did you power off the battery switch first? Great work and that answers what I thought but did not have the chance to get to!
I wanted to report back after doing this mod myself just now. Wow, it's fantastic! Took about 30 minutes. I'll post some of the photos I snapped also. Chris Lee's posts above were great, a huge help... thanks a lot for the great run down Chris I had given up hope for my alarm - that is until running across this thread tonight. I had forgotten about it actually. The funny thing was just the other day, the alarm remote was pissing me off because I was practically standing right next to the car and had to push it a couple of times. It's really annoying to start to walk away from the car, go to set the alarm and then have to walk back a few feet and hold the button down. And forget about doing the alarm from more than about 10 to 15 feet away. With my Infiniti, I can work the alarm from I think about 75 miles away, but not the 360 Anyway, to make a long story short, I took off the cover behind the driver's seat and found the alarm box using Chris' photos. I didn't go so far as to remove the entire box. I just killed the power to the car, took the cover off, then removed the four bolts holding the metal panel to the body. That was enough to allow me to reach back there and pull out the alarm antenna with my fingers. Once I had done that, it was an easy matter to re-route it. I ended up using the little black sticky stuff that Ferrari uses to hold stuff down on the car as you can see. I ran it in the same direction Chris did and used two spots of that rubber sticky stuff to hold the antenna in place. It came out great. After replacing the cover and turning the power back on, I tested it from about 40 feet away. Worked first time! Nice and responsive. I will test it from a further distance tomorrow and as I drive the car, but even 40 feet is amazing compared to what it was previously (like I say, it seemed like about 8 to 10 feet max). Certainly a nice upgrade to the car. Having the antenna sandwiched between two metal plates definitely wasn't helping the reception, that's for sure. Attached are some photos of the area before I sealed it back up. Ray Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Ray, You ran it across the top of the relays? Looks great. Good job. Chris & Ray get the kudos of the month award!
Thanks Greg! Yeah, if you look closely at that photo (the close up shot), you can see there is a little hole formed by the plastic that part that you can thread the wire through. It's a natrual path for the antenna once you pull it out. There isn't really any other good area. It also keeps it away from any of the metal parts also. I looked for other areas, but that path seemed perfect and kept the antenna away from any other metal parts of the car. As mentioned, I also used some of that sticky rubber stuff Ferrari uses to tack it in place so it wouldn't bounce around, etc. It's not actually on the relay per se, but more on the bracket part right behind it kinda. Ray BTW, I'm attaching the full size image in a Word document in case you want to see more detail. I took the original photo at 2MP, but had to reduce it to 800x600 to meet ferrarichat photo requirements. If you open the MS Word file below, it has the fill size image placed in there. You may be able to see a little more detail . Image Unavailable, Please Login
update: I tested the alarm tonight from maybe 55 or 60 feet away (I parked the car at my gf's place, then ran clear down to the corner and tested the alarm from there). Sure enough, it worked on the first try! It's amazing how relocating the antenna has made such a huge difference. If I have some free time, I may get out a tape measure and test the alarm from 75 or 100 feet. BTW, testing was done with me down the street, looking back toward the front of the car. I'm not sure what the max distance is, but based on my test tonight, the alarm will at least operate from a distance 2x farther away than you would normally need to work it. Needless to say, I'm thrilled with the results. Kudos to Chris again for the clear write up and putting us all on the right path Ray
I did it too, and I'm am soooo happy now The Spider has a good number more wires crossing over that case then you guys had in your pics, but I was still able to remove the bolts, raise the cover just enough to see the red antenna wire and coax it out the side, then bolt the cover back down. I took the opportunity while I was at it to put some padding between the bolt heads and the wires since I'm fanatic about not liking areas where wires or tubing can rub raw against metal edges. And, I tighted the battery connections as they were no longer virgin-tight. Works great! Thanks very much for researching this and posting the solution. Lou
Thanks for the kind words guys. Ray, nice job on your clean write-up and run down. It’s a very simple mod and costs nothing, yet a huge improvement can be achieved. The question is how much does the short range of the remote bother you…. I am pretty sure it does not bother a lot of us, but it sure did enough for me to act on it ;-) PS. Kill the main power sw before do this. The plate does not have to come off completely. I only did to take pictures to show things clearly.
Thanks! It did bug me, so I was very happy to run across this thread again and make the changes. Being able to work the alarm from over 10 feet is like having a whole new car Ray
Well, with an interest to follow through on this modification, with the weather in the low 80's, and with most house projects completed (nag factor overcome), I decided to go for it! I removed the 5 screws holding the fabric panel, undid the 3-10mm bolts and the 1-13mm bolt, but I was not able to pull the metal panel completely towards the front of the vehicle w/o disturbing wiring or pulling the 3 connectors to fully see in there. So, I carefully reached in behind the panel and felt the loose antenna wire. I pulled it out carefully towards the passenger side, and it came w/o any resistance. I stretched it over the three plasic covers, turned the power back on, stepped about 30+' from the car and gave it a try. Bingo. It works great. The antenna was not held in place with goo as Ray indicated, so I fed it through the three clips holding the fuse covers. I then was able to extend the red antenna cable about another 2"-3" beyond those fuse covers. It definitely works, and it definitely makes a big difference. I'd encourage everyone to do it. I did not have my camera with me, and since so many pictures have already been taken, I did not think I would be adding much to this thread by adding additional pictures. Once again great thanks and appreciation to the all the wizards who came up with this remedy. Chris, you did a fine job with your field investigations.
Thanks for resurrecting this thread. I have been bugged by the totally non-responsive alarm since I got the car, but never thought to do a search. I'll try to do this soon also. The more minor irritants I can eliminate in my life, the better! Quick power shut-off switch is up front under the hood, right? I will otherwise RTFM (to avoid the flamimg), but I figured somene would be able to confirm off the top of their head.
Guys, for the idiots amongst us, which metal section is this all behind, is it the grey section behind the black positive terminal? If I kill the power from the trunk no chance of a shock hey? Is the wire obvious? This distance thing doesn't bother me hugely but might be nice to do it when I get a chance. Cheers
under the front hood - when standing in front of the car, it's on the passenger side - it's a little black knob. Turn it and that will cut power. Look at posts #49 through 55 on this thread here: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=111841&page=3 that should help. If the power is cut off, you should be okay as far as being shocked. The panel is behind the driver's seat. Remove the cover back there, then you will see something like you see in post #53 on this thread. There are two grey panels - the one on the right side (when looking at things) is the one where the antenna is. It's the larger of the two. If you look at post #53 and the photos I put up there, you can see the red antenna and how it has been moved to thread through the stuff on the other grey panel. Post #50 from nt6d shows the back of that panel and how the antenna is. You don't need to remove the whole thing.. you just need to pull the antenna carefully and it will pull away from the inside (the free end is just held to the inside of the panel with some sticky rubber). Give it a pull carefully and it should come loose - just make sure you aren't pulling on the side that goes into the module! Then attach the free end like I did (or however you like) so it's no longer behind the metal panel and you are all set. Ray
Yea, this worked great. In my car the alarm antenna was yellow not read as in the pictures. I installed the pigtail for a battery tender at the same time.
Does this also apply to the 430 alarm? It is also VERY short range. I noticed people talking about 'notorious' problems with the 360 alarm. What are they?
Phenominal thread - thanks for the great info. The alarm on my 360 works much better! Anyone know if and how this can be done on a 575M?
to answer my own question, and in the great American tradition of try first - read later, I took the cover off behind the seat and no alarm ECU, so I dug out the workshop manual on the F430, and the alarm ECU is behind the pedals. I am not as motivated at 11:30 at night to pull that cover off because of the body contortions to do so, so I will get around to it one day. Sure would like that alarm to work for more than 5 feet! However, the pics in the manual do not show an antenna that is similar to the pics you guys have shown. But the problem must be similar.
The Antenna is directional, did you attempt any other experiments on orientation? Vertical, or forward than lateral ?
Want to know an easier way touch the key fob against the side of your head and press ..your body becomes a super transponder... easily works from over 40ft away try it .
the problem isn't in the transmitter, it's that the antenna on the receiver for the 360 is in a bad location and blocked by a lot of metal in the car. Ray
hey this is a great solution to the inconveniently short range of the remote. If you have a small flashlight handy you can just reach in behind the metal panel and grasp the red antennae and it slides right out! You can just see the red wire when looking in from the passenger seat side looking toward the driver's door. So after removing the carpeted shelf cover you don't have to undo anything else!
Thanks to all who contributed to this thread - just performed this fix to my 2000 360M and its made a fair distance to the usability of the remote. For info, I have a UK car and the ANT wire was initially black then seemed to be joined to a yellow extension - see pic....oddly enough theres no sign of anyone tampering, looks like that was done at the factory - maybe a last minute change in the factory? The hardest part of the job was getting the plate bolted back down without misthreading the screws! All in took 30 minutes - an excellent mod!
