Just experienced this today on my F430 ... Was driving the car (maybe around 45 minutes), lots of heavy traffic, stop & go, etc. I was almost home at a red light on 1st gear. When it was time to shift into 2nd gear, pulled in on the paddle and it would not switch to second. Tried it 3/4 times but it wouldn't switch gears. I saw a light come on the dash but it dissappeared. Panicked a little and I pushed the AUTO button. It worked perfectly fine and automatically shifted gears till I got home. I never had this happen before. I don't think it is clutch wear as the clutch was replaced with less than 1000 miles on the new clutch. Any ideas before I send it in for service?
The same thing happened to me about 6 months ago. I pulled over....restarted the car and it drove fine the rest of the trip. This has not happened again.
i have had something simular and I thought it was ecu related. Was at a light sitting in neutral, break on and tried to shift into first. nothing.. hit paddle again a couple of times and then after about a delay of 5 seconds, it went into second. I was then able to go down into first and take off. It was like the ecu was busy and it kicked in after a short while.. Just a like PC would do
That has nothing to do with the ECU. When you are sitting at a light in neutral and pull the right lever to engage 1 st gear and nothing happens for some seconds this is because the gear-wheels are stuck in a certain position. When you drive a manual this happens very seldom but it happens. You usually go back to neutral and engage the clutch so that the gear wheels move and you are able to engage first gear. The same may happens with the F1 system. When two gear-wheels are stuck the F1 systems tries to engage first gear but cannot because the gear-wheels are stuck. The systems tries several times and after a couple of seconds it just engages second gear. I drive a 575M F1 and this happens very seldom (maybe once per 2000 miles or so). Nothing to worry, but it is no fun when the light turns green and the cars behind you start honking. Markus
+1 I never had it happen to me, but since it's a manual transmission it's bound to happen. Sometimes going to reverse, then back to 1st helps.
Ro I have some experience with the F1 transmission. Not from a mechanics perspective but from a drivers perspective (I did about 100 000 km with F1 transmissions). If this just happened once I would forget about it and not worry any further. If it happens again I would visit my mechanic so he can readout the ECU to see what happened. The symptoms you described sound a bit strange but I also had situations in the past where I did not understand what the F1 system was doing. BTW: If the car switches to neutral while driving (I know this was not your problem) this is usually a problem of too less pressure of the F1 pump. Maybe also of a worn clutch but I never experienced the latter and had two completely worn clutches in different cars with F1 transmissions. Markus
Markus, you're so correct ... Been driving the car ever since and hasn't happened again. Driving perfectly fine!
