Great example of why I do my own service !!!!!

You tellem skipp. Same reason i do mine. I dont always blame the owners of the shops either they sometimes do not know. You should let them know at least.

Be nice. Rubb your ears and say woooosaaaa. Like in bad boys movie.

 

I hate having to bring my cars in when I don't have time to do it myself.

 

The underpanel and bumper has to come off to do a proper service and get to the gearbox screen. I've seen "dealer serviced" cars where that time-consuming step had apparently been skipped. Don't be fooled into thinking that a million $ building with a big sign guarantees that someone knows what they're doing.

Ferrari also neglected to include a change interval for coolant so it's possible that it's ancient (and corrosive) as well. I recommend annual coolant and gearbox oil changes, especially after seeing what happens when the heat exchanger (common to 355 & 360 models) fails.

 

Was it filled with silicone. Mine was when I pulled it.

 

You said it was contracted out by a dealer to another business for the service?

That is very common and reflects far more on the seller than the service facility. They want the cheapest possible job so as not to cut into the profit and typically misrepresent the actual service done. Micromanagement of every step is the norm and cheap, cheap, cheap are the guiding principals. That is why I do not and will not have a business relationship with a car dealer. It is also why I suggest strongly not to get servicing built into a purchase deal.

 

You should tell us who the dealer is. You change gear oil every year no matter the miles?

 

Seems strange to me that the gear oil was black. I've never encountered that in a trans or rear end. I've been told that black gear oil indicates engine oil (or other contaminate?) getting into the gear box. Can that happen on a 348/355? I know it can on a 3x8 when the shift shaft seal between engine sump and gear box fails.

 

Not really.... I suppose anything is possible, but I wouldn't believe it.

 

Engine oil can certainly get into the gearbox. I had a rear main seal failure and no oil leak. Engine oil went low, trans overfilled and leaking from vent. My indy put dye in engine oil after changing both and dye showed up in trans. Rear seal was bad.

 

That was what I was thinking for a 355, but wasn't sure. From my experience if the trans oil was black when drained I would suspect such a leak.

 

Id love to see a photo of the oil just to see how bad it was.

Could it be contaminated? Sure but as said earlier someone with a rear main leak can leak into the gear box, the gear box only has a big oring to seal that huge hole in the trans, It will catch oil with no problem in that situation.

There is no secret that plenty of business with cars are more than happy to charge you for a service IE service records yet nothing was ever done!

One reason I don't put to much trust in service records they can be pencil whipped as I like to call it.

 

I just drained the diff fluid on my wife's 130k mile X5 and it looked like golden honey still. Almost same results from the ZF 5 speed transmission in my M3 with 150k miles. I've never encountered a gearbox or diff with truly "dirty" looking fluids before and I've had many vehicles and most of them between 100k-300k where there is more wear present.

Combustion in an ICE causes the dirty oil look, otherwise engine oil would visually look the same after a full cycle. Not discrediting or anything, but that just sounds off.

 

+1, exactly my experiences with 50 years of motoring.

 

its a shame but the moral of this story is to do the service yourself if your able.