New F430 owner as of last night.....need help!!!

First, I'll start by saying I am humbled and proud to be part of this group. Every owner here knows the feeling of their first Ferrari and I am truly happy for everyone here that gets to enjoy this experience. For me this really is a dream come true.

Ever since I was a kid I've always wanted a 911 Turbo and a Ferrari GTO/Testarossa then a F355 and F430 after they came out. I checked the 911 off the list many years ago when older air cooled 930's we're at the bottom (bought a '79 930 at $25k with 50k miles back in the early 2000's). There really is a reason why they label this car a widow maker. It was squirrelly to say the least at anything more than half throttle but was a fun experience.

Fast forward to last night and I had an F430 coming off the truck. I'll do full pics, video, etc. in the coming weeks but right now I'm stuck. The car comes off the trailer perfectly fine. We do the walk around at 920pm and everything looked and sounded great. The transport company takes pics from all angles, we go through them and I sign off on taking delivery. He jumps in the truck and leaves for his next stop.

At this point we take a couple pictures with my son in the car. Turn the key, hit the start and the car fires right up. After a little warm up I click it into first, easy on the throttle and away we go. I make it to the end of the street and approach a large court and begin to turn left. As soon as the wheel turns I feel a thump, after a full rotation again, and again, and again, on the passenger front wheel. I thought maybe I picked up a bolt in the tire as there are quite a few houses on our street still being built so I pulled right back into the garage and parked it. This whole drive was 0.5 miles or less.

After a sleepless night I get up, watch a video on where the jack points are on the car, and proceed to lift her up after chocking the driver side's rear wheel. I pull the passenger front wheel off and everything to my untrained eyes look normal. It is on aftermarket wheels and my only thought after the fact is the front passenger wheel could be missing the hub centric ring. Of course I forgot to check this morning when the wheel was off being in a bit of a rush before work. I've attached a few pics with hopes that one of you experienced F430 owners will confirm everything looks normal. I plan on putting the stock wheels back on this afternoon and taking it for a spin to see if that resolves the issue.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I'm very excited to begin this new journey of Ferrari ownership. Once she's up and running I just need to avoid all the construction debris on my street! If anyone is in the Lakewood Ranch/Sarasota/Bradenton area let me know.

Thank you,

Jeremy
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Not a lot to go on here, are you sure it just wasn't the tires skipping on kind of some loose surface?. I mean that's common on all vehicles during a low speed turn.

I don't think a hubcentric ring would cause this kind of issue, typically they will just have a vibration at high speed because it's not 100% fully centered.

Maybe some more details would help, like what the funk sounded like, could you feel in the steering wheel, it didn't sound like it was coming from the front end, that sounds like something from the rear end etc

If it's more of just a sound, it may be a defect in the tires.
What specs are your rims and tires? If they're too big or the offsets wrong, you could be hearing the tire touch the fender liner, or if you are on any kind of articulation like a ramp, an improperly sized wheel could actually grab the fender lip

 

Congrats on the car, she's a beauty! based on the pics you are showing, don't see any issues, but those close-ups don't tell much. as per the above post, need more info

I don't think these give you that much, but I just did some work and cleaning on mine, so have some pics handy

You can also go to Eurospares website and they have complete assembly diagrams, just select your vehicle

Just a thought, those wheels look larger than 19's and your clearance is very tight compared to an OEM setup, is it possible something is rubbing or hiting when you turn in? Seems like a very likely possibility

My car is lowered an inch and on 19's and I have way more space than you, you're really tight in that wheel well, hopefully that's all it is


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Did you try to touch the front fenders in the inside upper part? Maybe an "oversized" tire or with a wrong offset is touching and warping the "lip" in the inside of the fender expecially when the steering wheel is on a "full lock".
360, for example, has this "feature" even with "stock" wheels and tires.

 

Old hard tires with a flat spot?

 

It's the turn in that sounds like maybe rubbing, those are at least 20's, and looks to be lowered 2" maybe, and if they are extra wide as well, which they prob are if they're 20's

I don't see how he would not rub or hit on turning in to the wheel well

 

If I had to guess, I’d say it’s the aftermarket wheel setup causing issues. Just a guess though, not a lot to go on. I’d do the wheel swap and see what happens.

 

@jtr2212 did you/can you check in with the previous owner and ask if they had any rubbing or clearance issues in the front?

 

sorry to hear about the scare. i hope you sort it out and enjoy your car!

 

Has to be tires rubbing during turning

 

@colorfull you have the cleanest fender wells/suspension I’ve ever seen. What do you use to clean in there?

To the OP, congrats, she’s a stunner. Try swapping on the oem wheels and see if you experience the same sound. If yes, it’s something suspension related. If no, then it’s likely aftermarket wheel related (to wide/low offet, or that combined with too low on the front suspension). Let us know what you find.

On the first test drive of my car the front passenger suspension made an audible clunk on a tight left hand turn. I believe it’s the ball joint, which will be changed out shortly.

 

First, congrats on your F430. Nice color combo! I second the comment that it cannot be a hub center ring. I also second the comment it could be a flat spot on the tire. I doubt it's the overall wheel/tire size because you'd have the issue on both sides. Finally, check to see if tire is rubbing.

 

I don't want to trump the OPs thread here, so quick response and a pull over to another thread on the topic

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/posts/149104843/

I'm learning from the best! @AandSC , he manages to keep his car in way better than new condition. Glad to hear I'm making progress, thank you. For that area, I have at this point a dozen or so products that I use.

Bear in mind, it only looks THIS clean right after you do it, drive it for a while, have to clean it again.

Simple green 50% diluted
Sonax rubber treatment for anything that flexes, wires, etc
Back to black for hard plastic
Liquid rubber for repairing seals
Tesa tape for redoing original tape
Griots engine cleaner for greasy spots
Tri nova for protecting and shine
Latest discovery, baking soda/hydrogen peroxide slurry on calipers, the only thing that gets them looking new, messy but damn effective
'BLACK STUFF' Brand name, for darkening greyed items like exposed radiator in the nostrils
Harbor freight giant cotton swab bag of various sizes
Cheapo disposable cotton towels
Boeshield T-9 for protecting bare metal
Silver and black touch up paint for protection and cosmetic
Malco duplex heavy duty cleaning wipes, durable, very good cleaner and handy to use
3M scrub sponges for metal surfaces like linkage bars
Wire brush for metal that is tarnishing or rusted (GASP - but my car has never had a proper cleaning so there was some)
Plastic bristle brush for more sensitive surfaces

 

Thank you! This is very helpful.

 

Thank you for all of the replies. It has been a hectic day in the office so I am just getting around to checking the post. All of the insight and opinions are great. @colorfull - thank you sharing the pics. The comment about a flat spot could be the case. I could feel a little vibration through the steering wheel going straight but magnified greatly when turning left on the front passenger side. I have an Audi that I daily that is lowered and it has been known to rub the fender liners on occasion. This was definitely not that. I plan on leaving the office in about an hour to go home and swap all four wheels with the stock ones. I'll see if the sticker is on the Advan wheels and will post the specs. I may also need to raise the front end up an inch or so as well. Hopefully the stock wheels resolve the issue. I will report back later.

Thank you all for the ideas and comments, it is very much appreciated.

 

I used to have pirellis that would vibrate really bad until they were warm. They were a little old too but if it sat for a while and was flat in one spot it could be the tires need to warm up


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Jack up both sides of the front of your car to get both front wheels off the ground.

Then turn the steering wheel all the way to the left and try to spin both front tires. Then all the way to the right and do the same.



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The front tires may spin freely because there is no load on them, but this is a good place to start.


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A bit of a cluster here but let me start with the comments above. I like the idea of getting both front wheels up in the air and will try to get to that tomorrow.

After work I jacked up the passenger side of the car again, took the front and rear passenger side wheels off to replace with stockers. When lining the stock wheels up I realized the aftermarket lug nuts were about an inch short. I didn't want the car in the air without wheels so I re-bolted the aftermarket wheels back on and called the seller.

Ended up finding the factory lug nuts in the frunk and started the process over again. Got both passenger wheels back off and started lining up the stock front wheel. Rookie mistake, this is the point I grabbed the stock lug nut and realized it's freakin' huge. The largest socket I have is 19mm and these lugs have to be at least 20mm - 22mm. I put the black wheels back on for the 3rd time today and called it quits. I'll pick up the correct socket size tomorrow and try fitting the stock wheels again after work.

The saga continues.....

 

IF it was a thump as the wheel turns, once per rotation; it is not rubbing. Rubbing will..... rub. something else is happening.

Your car is heavily dropped also, so issues will happen with those big wheels... put stock back and see what gives. I suspect the suspension might need a full alignment ...

 

Does this happen just on turns or rolling straight as well?

 

Alright gang, stock wheels are back on and the car drives beautifully. Clearly the offset, tire size, lowered front end combo wasn't working. There are no offsets listed on the Advan wheels but they are decently flush.

The weird part of the initial voyage was when I turned around in the court (turning left) it felt like the thump/thud would also shift the car a tad bit to the right. I wonder if that tire is flat spotted. After running my hand over the tire as didn't feel anything. It is a Michelin Pilot 4 Sport so I guess it's possible.

The Advan wheels look quite a bit better in my opinion so I wonder if raising the front a bit and downsizing from 245/35/20 to 235035/20 would eliminate the issue. Guess I won't know until I try it.

Thanks everyone for the help. I'm looking forward to putting some miles on this beauty.

 

Sounds like you found it! I was going to agree with everyone else. My guess would be tire rubbing.

 

If you start looking into changing tire sizes keep in mind that the Ediff likes to maintain a similar front to rear diameter ratio as stock (I believe stock is around 6.5% difference front to rear). Just something to keep in mind. I’m by no means an expert on 20f/20r setups.

 

Yes 6.46%

To the op, a:
225/35/19 (stock) is 25.2"
245/35/20 (yours) is 26.8"
Waaayy to big
235/30/20 is much closer depending on your rear size at 25.6"

I'm running a 19/20" set up with the exact same height tires as stock and save f/r ratio as stock... No issues, no weird noises etc