New (to me) 2005 F430 F1 Issues- need help

I have a 2005 F430 with an F1 that was bought a couple weeks ago 18k miles and about 70% clutch life left. I bought it from Lamborghini Palm Beach thinking I could rely on their assessment of the car so I didn’t travel down from CT to drive it (first blunder). On the first day I received it I took the car out for a 20-30 minute “Spirited” drive and then tried Auto mode and the acceleration was extremely flat and had prolonged shifts (almost seems to deaccelerate before shifting). At one point is became so sluggish that I thought it was going to stall and the F1 warning light came on and the car shifted into neutral (not sure what color light and was not flashing). The car would not allow me to shift out of neutral. Eventually I tried shutting the car off and restarted it and was able to get it into first and drive home on manual mode. During the ride home it seems like the gear indicator was out of sync with the actual gear I was in and a slowdown warning light came on.

Sent it to Miller Motor Cars last week and they said no codes were thrown in the system and no issues from their inspection, they drove it twice for at least 20 minutes and couldn’t replicate the problem-not sure what conditions they drove it under. Picked it up Saturday got stuck in stop and go traffic where I’m sure the car was heating up. The car was fine initially (was shifting- not in auto mode) but after 20-30 minutes it didn’t seem to want to down shift or upshift. Sometimes it would go other times it would sit in neutral. I had the yellow slow down light come up at times. When I finally got about 1 ½ hrs into the ride home traffic opened up however I was never able to get it into 6th. I would shift up and the rpms would drop for a few seconds then they would go back up and the gear would stay in 5th. When I got off the highway and on a short side road I was able to shift up and down the lower gears that I was having trouble with before (didn’t get a chance to try for 6th). I’m wondering if it worked again because the open road allowed things to cool down and in stop and go the pump motor heats up and causes problems.
After spending almost 3k on unrelated stuff I don’t want to waste another day and the money and figured maybe it’s something I could do myself. I’ve read things about the F1 pump motor and relay replacement (500+50 for the relay), clutch sensor/gearbox sensor (550 on ebay), and the upper gearbox electromagnetic sensor (120 on ebay). I know the pump motor is do it yourself work- are the sensors? Could it just be the pump relay? It seems like it would be cheaper to replace all of these myself than getting just one replaced at a dealer. Any thoughts as to the issue? Could any of these occur without throwing and leaving a code in their diagnostic system? I’ve also heard about issues with clutch position sensors and speed sensors also- I can’t figure it out.
Note: There was no warranty with the car but LPB hinted at the fact they would try to work something out with me once solved. The problem is that I just dropped the money to get the car, had one repair bill and don’t want it to cost me another 20k in hopeful/test solutions to solve the issue to get 50% back if I’m lucky from the LPB when I could buy the parts for a fraction of the cost of my 50% share and do it myself (if I could diagnose the problem. I have to call both the dealer and the repair shop today. Thanks for your help.

 

Thanks for the reply. I believe miller motor cars checked the fluid level and will double check with them. I also forgot to mention that there is no clutch slippage once in gear.

 

Thank you very much for the comments. I was envisioning frequent trips like that to the dealer with no solutions. Since its such an effort to get to my closest dealer I think I am going to change the pump motor, relay, and maybe the switch you mention (if I can) for good measure. I agree that throwing parts isn't always the way to go but if there are easy DIY jobs that will save me some money and lots of long dealer trips its worth a try - if anything it eliminates possibilities. Thanks again!