F1 light blinking on dash?

I have had this problem 3 times with my 355 F1. However, the major difference is that I have no problems getting mine into gear or shifting gears. All three times it happened while I was driving. No problems changing gears or engaging reverse as I pulled over into a parking lot twice to check it.

Took it to the Ferrari dealer, hooked up the SD computer and the dealer said that there was nothing abnormal in the reading.

Kinda weird, though!

 

If you over fill your Tranny fluid it would came out anyway and you will notice the spill at the floor. Very important when you check the oil level at the canister the system needs to be warm but engine off and the key needs to be at second position. Very important to know is, did you change the ATF? If you did what oil did you used? I recomend the Redline fluid.
One more question, does the pump sounds when you open the door?

 

It sound like a gear actuator. Maybe Brian can comment more about this.

 

Rifledriver

 

After one hour reading here is what the manual has to say to your situation;
Hydraulic Power
Sings of possible problems
• The gearbox warning lights continues to flash
• The electric pump is not properly activated
• The system does not shift gears

Components involved
• Battery knife involved
• TCU
• Electric pump relay and 30A fuse
• Electric pump
• Pressure sensor
• Hydraulic circuit
• Power u nit and actuators

Practical checks
• Bt means by the Ferrari tester, check that the lines pressure between 42 and 60bar
• If the pressure indicator is below 42bar, check that the electric pumps feature 12V battery using the 30A fuse and the RLE relay controlled by the 31 ECU.
• If the electric pump is working properly and the pressure do not rise, check the pressure transducer of if there is any hydraulic leakage, including the screws using for draining the hydraulic actuator system and the oil lever at the tank.

When everything is working properly
• The electric pump must be activated only when the pressure drops below of 42 bars and it must be deactivated when it reached 60bar (display on Ferrari tester)
• The electric pump activation time during normal operation must exceed 4/ 5 seconds and the deactivation time must not be shorted than 8/10 seconds, the gear actuation is below described.

Notes:
If the car is not started even if the starter motor works and not request for motor stop it is stored by the engine ECU, this means that the problem is not caused by the gear shift system.


I hope this works and good luck!!

 

I wasn't aware that if it blinked continuously that the system had low pressure.

My light came on and stayed on for 3-4 mins. But again, even when the light was on I could shift through all the gears while driving and stopped (including reverse) without any problems.

Again, SD showed no abnormalities so there wasn't anything I could do to fix it.

Sorry I can't be of more assistance.

 

IMO you have a bad pressure problem. Something is wrong with your oil pressure at high rpm. You should check the line pressure sensor located at the power unit. use a thread here were a member used a battery to test his pump and read what are the voltage output in that pump. The worst ecenario is changing that power unit or the pump. Try to test everything before you decide to change those components.

Take the car to the dealer If you don't found anything. Here are several threads regarding that F1 system. Now you wonder why the big part of the members here prefer a manual trany instead an F1.

 

I've got the blinking light issue, although it only happened once, and you seem to have researched this better than most. I'm trying to check the fluid level in the F1 system and have the back cover off the engine bay, have found the small round canister that holds the fluid, but don't know how to check the level. Is that something you can instruct me on?

Thanks.

 

Ok, Here is a print screen from the manual regarding on how you can check your F1 oil. Send me your email and I can send you the owners manuals since it only size 12megas.

I hope this helps you!
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BTW, I had an F1 failure light. After much wrangling, fluid replacement, etc. I figured out it was the reverse switch that was not returning on its own very well. But if I push it forward it stays put and all is well. Just an FYI.

 

I have had a problem with a 1999 F355 F1 I just bought with 32000 miles. When I drive hard and close to redline the speedo stops working and the F1 light comes on and stays on and I cant shift out of the gear its in. I stop check fluid its fine. Wait a minute and it goes away and shift fine. Whats the deal?

 

1999 355 F1 with 12,000 miles, After having my transmission sensor replaced as it had a broken wire and the Transmission light was solid red and would only go in 1st or 2nd, it worked fine for about a week. Now when its cold, I turn the key and the transmission light flashes 8 or 9 times and it wont shift to neutral. After it stops blinking, it pops into neutral fine. When I go for a spin, stop the car and start again, ie: warm, light doesn't flash and it pops right into neutral. No issue with the transmission light while driving. Ferrari dealer that dropped the tranny and replaced oil and sensor inexplicably doesn't know what it could be?

 

Thats normal the pump is priming and will not shift if the light is flashing until it stops.If the car is sitting still it will only get 1 and 2 gear and reverse if it's running,But if the car is shut off you should get all your gears. And the dealer could'nt tell you that?

 

That procedure has been superseded. The new procedure requires an L shaped suction pipe that rests on the screen in the reservoir to remove any excess fluid -- in other words the correct level is with the fluid level with the screen. I guess you could look in there with a mirror to see where the level is.
Alan

 

Is there any F1 fault that you guys can think of that would randomly illuminate the F1 error light (sometimes steady, other times flash) all while not losing any drivability whatsoever?

My car had the error light come on about 4 or 5 times in the past year and a half of ownership, but twice in the past week or so. I started getting a little concerned because of the frequency of occurrence lately. I would love to fix the problem, but I spoke to a mechanic who says that there is not much that they can do until the light stays on. My light has gone on for a split second all the way up to approximately 5 minutes. It always goes off eventually, and there is never any shifting issues even while the light is illuminated. I was suspecting that I had a weak pump because I thought that it was running longer than usual when I open the drivers door. I timed it, and it ran for exactly 9.5 seconds. From the research I've done, I think it is within normal specs. Plus, anyone that had the light illuminate caused by a failing pump, also had shifting issues or the gear box dropping into neutral.
What part can I check/test/replace that would illuminate the light and not affect the shifting of gears at all?
Are there any not so obvious things that can cause these symptoms, like bad ground connections, bad battery, bad F1 relay etc.? I'm leaning towards the F1 pump, but I think I'm just wasting money because when they go bad the shifting is typically affected as well.
If anyone had the same symptoms, how did you fix it?

 

Yes, a leak.

On my car the light came on regularly for the last year and half, at least once a day I would see that light flash usually more than once. Dealer hooked it up to the SD2 twice and never found a problem, when I got my exhaust swapped out the shop found a F1 leak, they fixed it and no more light now. The leak was super tiny, I never had to add fluid (but I suspect the dealer did as part of the annual) and it was enough to cause the light. The car shifted fine, never missed a shift.

Dealer talked about F1 bleed screws maybe working loose and causing a loss of pressure, dealer talked about my pump going out. NOT my dealer fixed it as part of installing the exhaust.

 

Every 2 to 3 gear changes, the pump runs for about 3 seconds. Is that within normal spec?

When changing gears rapidly, and continuing even after the pump kicks on, the gear changes continued without a problem. There was no error light and the pump kept up perfectly to the gear change demands. I have to assume that it is not a pressure issue because if it was, I think that rapidly changing gears would cause the error light to trigger, wouldn't it? I also think that it wouldn't be a leak, if it was a leak wouldn't I have an issue every time I drove it? In my case, I can go 1,000 miles between error lights sometimes. It only happened about 4 or 5 times in a year and a half, that's why it's so confusing to me.