Engine Control Failure on FF

At a little over 31,000 miles I got an engine control failure. The FF continues to run well but will go to the dealer Monday. So I put my snow tires on my California today since the snow and ice continues here in NW Ohio.

More news on what is wrong with it when it gets back from MAG.

Rick

 

Thanks all. It went to MAG today. Over the weekend I disconnected the battery to reboot and it still failed after I reprogrammed the date/time. It ran OK, seemed to not be power limited at all although hard to tell on salt covered roads with SottoZero's. Hopefully I will know tomorrow.

I must say its traction is far better than my California with its SottoZero's although the rears on it are a bit worn .

Rick

 

Thermostat failed. There are three in North America so MAG will have one by Wednesday. I'm guessing I will get the FF back by Thursday . More news at eleven. It is interesting because I never saw water or oil temperatures too high nor too low.

Rick

 

MAG = Midwestern Auto Group in Dublin Ohio, near Columbus, central Ohio. I am near Toledo, northwest Ohio.

Yes, after starting the FF it does its engine check thing for 20 or 30 seconds then the Engine Control System Failure appears in large non-flashing letters. After that the engine graphic appears at the bottom of the left display. There were absolutely no other symptoms. Warm up seemed normal, and temps were always in the normal range.

I'll be getting more details from their Ferrari mechanic. Dan has been great at giving me as much detail as possible because he knows my interest in the engineering behind the scenes.

 

The thermostat should arrive at the dealer today over a week from Italy! With all of the snow it has been difficult being relegated down to a lowly California . The Cali performs well in the snow even though the rear tires are a bit worn but no V12 sound! Hopefully the FF comes home Friday. I will give more details when I hear from the mechanic.

Looking at Ricambi America http://www.ricambiamerica.com/parts_catalogs.php?M=FE&P=&V=diag&I=114519 the thermostat appears rather complex, priced at $700. And it looks like it allows water to flow throughout the engine bypassing the radiators when it is not up to temperature. Pretty cool compared to any other thermostat I have ever seen that simply blocks all water flow.

Rick

 

My FF should be here by noon today. The failure mode actually happened when the engine was cold, in the heated garage cold anyway. So somehow it detected a problem. It seemed to heat up just as quickly as normal, and temps never got higher than normal. Possibly a sensor issue. The good news is in researching it the engineering behind it keeping water flowing even if the engine is still cold is very cool.

Rick

 

The thermostat was generating a code for some reason. That code was cleared by the dealer and it immediately failed again. It always failed on startup, not while running down the road. Temperatures (which I always monitor) never strayed away from normal so who knows what failure actually happened within the thermostat but it continued to function normally. They put a new thermostat in it yesterday along with additional coolant and all is well. They also checked the system for air and other things as noted in the repair bill but found nothing and after all of that testing went for the entire thermostat.

One more time I am VERY happy with the service at Midwestern Auto Group in Dublin Ohio. They not only do the job right but keep me informed on what is going on and details about the job. In a previous life about 50 years ago I did my own engine swaps, transmission swaps and repairs, etc. and remain very interested in the design of the cars that I drive.

Rick