Hello there, friends. I have posted this elsewhere because I am a bit concerned about what is going on, and any little help will mean a lot to me. The thing is that a couple of days ago my car (360 F1 spider 2003) had the "slow down" light on for like half a minute (about 5 min after filling the tank) then it went completely. However, after a few miles, the "check engine" yellow light came off and it's been on since. This morning I went to the car, started it (it was very cold) and a warning message saying the was no ASR flashed for a second, then the engine started revving itself for like one minute, on and off every other second, like if I were pressing the throttle but I wasn't touching it at all, and it's clearly not a case of sticky throttle. Of course I am talking about low revs. After waiting for like 10 minutes to warm the engine I could drive off, although the engine light is still on. Also, lots of smoke, but looked like white and not blue, not completely sure, I will check tomorrow when starting. So maybe this is a stupid question but it's my first Ferrari...is this normal when the car is so cold? I know how to do the ECU restart, I haven't done it yet to check if the light disappears...but if not I will take the car to the garage, but first I'd like to know if this engine kind of "revving" itself is a normal thing. Thanks for your help!
It's not unusual for these engines to run a little unevenly on cold start up. Your slow down light is probably reflective of a common problem whereby one of the heat sensors in the Cat (thermocouples) or the little ECU which monitors their output is going faulty. If you search in this TQ&A section for SDECU (Slow Down ECU) you#ll find plenty of info. I'd suggest you turn off the power over night and re-set the ECU (observing start up and re-learn procedure) and see does the lamp go out. If you have an OBD reader it would be better to read the error code before doing this. Sounds like the smoke is just condensation on cold start up. You've a learning curve ahead of you but the answers are all here on the forum. Best.
Thais FerrariDublin, thanks a lot. The car has just come back from a full SD2/3 diagnose the day before this happened (reason why the car was at the garage is because these symptoms started to appear like 10 days ago). They did reset everything and gave me a report telling me that everything, including engine, cats and sensors...was fine. After driving a few miles these warning lights came on again, and then this morning this thing with the engine revving up and down. I had read a lot of useful info about these warning lights, but anything related to this up-and-down revving when idle. I will reset the ECU properly (I have been reading the proper steps and re-learning, also the garage already told me to do it when this started to happen), and keep an eye on it. No idea why the ASR warning comes on like 50% of the times when starting though. Thanks once again friend!
No worries! My ASR also light comes on briefly as part of the start up process. When you talk about the revving up and down problem, are we talking about fluctuations between circa 900 rpm and maybe 1100? That would be nothing to be too concerned about and is relatively common. If we're talking about more than that it could be of concern. Can you advise? Did the tech give you the codes or the causes of the codes read and re-set? If so can you post?
Thanks once again. The revs come up to in between 1000rpm and 2000rpm. I have also noticed that a couple of times,when stationary (i.e. traffic lights), the revs don't come down all the way to 0 but they stay on the region of 1500rpm, only a couple of times today. And when starting the car this morning, was a rhythmic up and down, constant, non stop for a couple of minutes, like if I were pressing the throttle slightly once per second and then letting it go each time. The tech gave me a paper with all the results from the SD2 diagnostic tool. To me it looks like Chinese, to be fair. If you tell me where and what to look for, I can get back to you tomorrow (I have got these codes at the garage). Cheers!
As high as 2000 sounds unusual for the typcial "rev hunting" when cold. When you describe 1500 at lights, I'm assuming you're talking about a fully warmed engine. If so that should not be happening. The kind of error code information you're looking for would be things like P0305, P1151 etc. If you can't identify the codes on the report you might be able to upload a scan copy or photograph. I'm not that familiar with the SD2/3 reports but there will be others here with more knowledge to assist I'm sure.
No, unfortunately I don't have those reports, I have only got all the SD2 reports... And yes, I meant when the engine is warm (although the oil temp was extremely low) a couple of times the revs doesn't go down to zero when static, they stay running on like 1500rpm. Once again, thank you so much for your help
Is there a reason you don't just take it back to whoever did the diagnostic testing and tell them to try again? I assume the testing wasn't free. Perhaps the problem didn't occur while they had the car and now it's more continuous.
Hi friend, No reason, and probably I will. The only thing is that the garage is like more than 2 hours away from home and they have yo arrange car collection, so I was trying to avoid it...only if possible. Like I said all these signs already appeared and they said everything was absolutely fine, but after having the car back...there you go again. So I thought maybe asking here before sending the car to the garage again... But I understand you, of course, and I guess it's the only way to go now.
hi there, I have reset the ECU today, left the engine idle for like 10 minutes then like 40 min driving. No warning lights, all cleared so far. However I have been able to record the start up process. Here you can see (I am not revving the engine at all, my feet are away from the throttle), what is exactly doing when starting in the morning, with the engine very cold. New Videos - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting Apart from this, the run was smooth enough and fine for the whole 40 minutes. Only thing is that, even when the engine was completely warm (so the oil temp), the revs never came back to 0 when stopping (ie traffic lights), they are all the time in 1000rpm, don't know if that is normal, but they never go down that. Please tell me your thoughts!!
The video link didn't work for me. This is the second time in this thread you have mentioned the car not returning to 0...What do you mean by that ? The car idles at 1050+/- and will not go to 0 until you shut it down. I am assuming I am confusing by your comments and you are not really expecting to go to 0 at idle at stop lights etc. Mike
I couldn't find your video, but the bottom right video on page 8 sure got my attention! I agree with Mike. Your comments are confusing. It sounds like you want the car to stall at every stop light. Is that correct? Your car should be at ~1,050 rpm's when idling as Mike stated.
If I am understanding you correctly (I also have 360 stick) Your tach should read 1000-1050 at idle...at stop light etc. Only goes to 0 when engine off. Good luck.
Make sure the floor mat is not pushing on the gas, my 360 did it last weekend pulled the mat back and problem solved
Sorry friends for wasting your time, the video is (requires flash9, so no iPads or mobile devices): Video - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting The mats are not interfering at all, I am not ousting the throttle. This happened after the ECU Reset, but I did this reset because the same thing (not that bad though) had already happened before. Please tell me your thoughts Thanks
It ain't right but it doesn't sound terminal either. It's a relatively severe case of "hunting" which could be caused by any number of things. A good, old fashioned, Italian Tune-Up could work wonders. After that, one might start to look at sticky injectors (and run a bottle or two of techron or equivalent through), maybe MAFs, maybe temperature senders, maybe plugs, maybe coil packs, maybe intake leaks. Personally I'd be pretty upset to have my car diagnosed to be 100% fine by a dealer or mechanic if they/he witnessed poor cold running like that.
That's definitely not normal! I'm thinking air/fuel related. It seems like the computer is getting a bad reading, then over compensating with a burst of fuel, then repeating over and over. Once the engine is in closed loop (warmed up) it seems to stop. I'm thinking MAF sensor issues. When the engine is cold, it uses info mainly from the MAF sensors. Once warmed it mainly uses info from the O2 sensors. If it fixes when warmed up, that would be the reason that I'm leaning towards MAF sensors being bad (or hopefully dirty) or a bad connection to them. Your car has a pretty severe reaction for just a dirty sensor, but obviously it's better to start with a cheap easy fix. If it's determined to be the MAF sensor(s), I would clean them first just to see if it helps.
Hi friends, Thanks for your answers. I do definitely think there is something not quite right. I have to say though that this morning when I started the car, everything was normal. It didn't happen this time, maybe the ECU reset helped? Apart from that, when the engine was idle, warming up, the Slow Down message appeared again, flashing for like 20 seconds, then it went. Check engine light is still off. I don't know what to think about this but MAF sensors makes sense to me, yes. I also sent the video to another garage and a guy called me telling me that regarding the video this could be caused by sensors or regarding the smoke, even a leak. I am taking the car to that garage (Ferrari Leeds) for them to do an inspection. I have just bought the car and I need that piece of mind, I know I am paying basically for a second opinion but the day before this video was taken, the other garage told me everything was absolutely fine after diagnosing the whole engine, cats.... I will report you in due course, then! Thanks once again
Please do get back to us when you have an answer. I'm very curious about this one (I'm sure others are as well).
Thank you all. Unfortunately we won't have an answer soon. Finally the Ferrari dealership is going to pick the car up next week (if I can sort the dates out), and then we may have an answer. I have to say two things though: since the ECU reset when the video was taken, it hasn't happened again. Any explanation for that? However the check engine light came back the day after, is now on at all times. Engine at the minute drives and sounds fine, absolutely fine...so we'll see. I am going to try and check tomorrow which error code is the engine check light related to. Once again, thanks for your help!!
Ok, I have read the OBD-II codes today, and there are (of course) two faults: P1125 and P1123...both related to the fuel mix, and according to the Internet P1125 is mostly caused by faulty MAF sensors or exhaust leakage, while P1123 is mostly caused by the latter...so both may be causing the problem, although I agree with the technician that it may be a leakage... Will keep you all posted!
Hmmm that is right, that is another option according to a quick google search I hope the technician can find what is wrong with the car though
