Ferrari 360 Leaking!

New member here! Just purchased a 2000 TDF blue Ferrari 360 F1. Have had it for 3 days and its been amazing. My first exotic and i'm in love

Anyways, on to my issue.

First two days were perfect, no leaks, noises or problems. After having a spirited drive last Saturday I parked it for about 15 minutes and when I pulled back there was about a 7 inch diameter puddle of some sort of oil coming from the right hand side. Engine, tranny and diff are all bone dry. Leak is definitely coming from right hand side near F1 pump and dripping down the plastic side near the right hand wheel well cover.

The thing thats confusing me is I smelled it and it smells identical to gear oil. I checked the F1 reservoir and that was at the proper level and it had a much thinner red fluid. This leak is as thick, greenish tint fluid with a strong smell of gear oil.

Brought it to a buddys shop, threw it on the lift and removed RH side engine cover panel, used cameras etc, and couldn't find a leak anywhere. Entire side wall is wet and I can see it dripping quite a bit, but cant pinpoint any leak.

Any ideas of where this could be coming from? Im bringing it back to the dealer next week to have it looked at but I wanted to hear some opinions on whats it might possibly be to help put my mind at ease or to give me ridiculous anxiety. Lets hope its the first one...

Is there anything routed to the right hand side that contains gear oil?

Thanks for anyones advice and input.

Ryan

 

Greenish (anti freeze) and gear oil could mean leak in heat exchanger....I would check that out.

 

I have attached some pictures to help give an idea of color and location of leak
Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Is this located on the right hand side of engine bay? I attached pictures of the leak to help show color and location

 

The exchanger is located "on top of the engine" sort of speak, from the back slightly left and towards firewall. Hard to see, but has coolant and gear oil lines/hoses running to and from, possible leaks from those .......go to service manual listed in the help section here or to Ricambi to see diagrams. If that is engine oil, and it is near rear aft of car, could be oil cooler mounted there.

 

I did see the oil cooler when I removed the right side cover. Looked in perfect condition and dry as a bone. Im convinced its gear oil based on smell I just cant find anything that shows gear oil being in that location.

 

Gear oil can also weep around the F1 actuator, mounted on the right side of gearbox.

 

Looks like power steering fluid too. Check reservoir for correct fill level and hoses below which could be loose. Could also explain why it's not leaking when not running. Good luck.

 

Just a question...

Do you have any idea how many miles was the car driven in the last year? How many miles total on the car?

These sort of issues tend to appear when a car isn't driven and then suddenly has some spirited driving.

So, if this might be the care, take it easy and let the car ease back into 'being driven' mode. Other such issues may arise in the near future.

 

in

The car has 28,100 miles on it and its been driven 300 miles in the last year, 250 of those miles have been from me in the last 4 days

The clutch,f1 pump, shift sensors, and 30,000 mile service was all completed 30 miles before my purchase. im really hoping a fitting or some connection just wasn't torqued down and is causing the leak.

Good thing is I plan on driving her, once I get the issue sorted.....

 

How have you checked the F1 reservoir level? It goes up and down with system pressure so the dipstick is useless.
With the ignition on and the pump finished priming the level should be just above the plate about half-way down the reservoir.
Are the sides of the reservoir damp? When it overflows it runs onto the heat shield above the RH tail pipes and onto the floor where you are seeing it. It can also pick up a lot of grime from behind the grit guards.

There is nothing else containing oil in that area......as above gear oil can leak out of the actuator switches but not the amount you are seeing and it would be towards the centerline. The color is the odd thing if your F1 oil is red ATF and that oil cooler further forward is for engine oil (check the big connectors on it are tight)
Does this oil smell like engine oil or cat pee? Cat pee is a sign it’s gear oil.

The only thing to be careful of is the underfloor can mean it runs out where it can rather than directly below the leak so I’d put it on a ramp if I was concerned and see if there is anything from underneath.

 

I had something similar, although my puddle was not as large. My diffuser was wet from oil, turned out to be a rear main seal. 2006 F430 F1 ~25k miles.

 

But that would be engine oil, not gearbox oil...

 

Thanks for the response.
I have checked the F1 pump reservoir and it is exactly where you say it should be.

The oil is definitely gear oil, i have a bottle from a previous car and compared the smell and its dead on.

It is dripping exactly where you say, onto the heat shield above RH tailpipes. Its more so dripping in between that, and the rear right wheel well cover. One thing to be noted is my car doesn't currently have the underfloor on the car, its open straight to the ground underneath. Leak is definitely coming from the general area around the f1 pump, just cant see anything....

Center-line of car is totally clean and dry with no signs of leaks whatsoever.

 

Did you try follow the lines to the transmission oil cooler?

 

I'm currently in China for work, ill be looking into the transmission cooler the second i get back to the states this thursday.

 

It looked like you were missing the undertray!

The cooler lines run down the LHS of the gearbox so it is unlikely to be those.

On the RHS of the gearbox there is only the F1 actuator and as that has been disturbed to fit new gear position switches I’d start there.
The switches should be sealed from the gearbox by an oil seal though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Hey Ryan, I'm sure you had this fixed. What was the source of the problem? Your receipts and full disclosure will help your sale for sure!

 

Yes this was fixed! It ended up being a leaking heat exchanger. The car was driven 6 miles from my house to the dealer that did the repair. Brand new heat exchanger was installed from Ricambi America, tranny flush and coolant flush was performed. I will upload receipts when i get home from work.