Official "All the strange things that my F1 equipped Ferrari has done to me" thread

WHATS THE DEAL...MY '05 360 OCCASIONALLY WHEN SHIFTING UP GO INTO NEUTRAL...AND THERE I AM COASTING DOWN THE HWY TILL I HIT THE LEVER AGAIN AND THEN IT GOES INTO 6TH GEAR...THEN I DOWN SHIFT TO AN APPROPRIATE GEAR...IT SEEMS LIKE IT ONLY HAPPENS WHEN I HAVE BEEN DRIVING IN STOP AND GO TRAFFIC. GETTING TIRED OF IT NOT GOING INTO GEAR....

 

Dropping into neutral while upshifting is a pretty universally a sign that the clutch has worn out. Sounds like it's time for a new clutch.

 

When I first bought my car 5 years ago, I would get a transmission light every now and then for no reason. The car seemed to shift fine, and the light would go away on it's own after a few minutes (I think I had to make a complete stop). After looking at the shop manual and figuring out how the system works, I decided that it may be a flakey brake light switch. After 2 separate mechanics told me that it can't be that, I had it hooked up to a SD2 which revealed no problem! Out of frustration, I decided to try the brake switch anyway, since it was only ~$40. Sure enough, I have not had the issue in the past 4 years!!!

 

My 360 F1 scared the crap out of me when it wouldn't downshift from 6th heading into a corner going reasonable fast. Was a bad sensor that took $$$ and time to find. The other strange thing it did to me was it sent me out to buy a manual 430. All good now.

 

After backing out of my garage and then heading out the driveway (frontways), I got the dreaded red flashing F1. Turned car off and on, no further dash lights, drove to dinner with no issues. After dinner, car cold again, backing out it sounded like a metal on metal crunch (I thought i hit something in the dark at first). I put her in first to leave and about 150ft later I got the red F1 flash. Dealer diagnosed bad solenoid and pressure sensor. All it took was $4k and a week in service to rectify things. If you let them, these cars can drive you nuts.

 

I hadn't owned my car one month (used with 12k miles on her). Car would slip out of gear and go into Neutral. Had to start her in 2nd gear because 1st wasn't an option. Amazingly was able to do a few good pulls in the car with friends only to find car ppping out of gear back to Neutral more frequently.

Took car to reputable repair shop and when they took a look at the clutch and showed me 98% wear and asked me, "How the Hell did you get the car here?!!" At that moment I knew I was f_cked. I felt my wallet getting lighter. New clutch and new flywheel (no one mills fly wheels anymore) and $6.5k later I was good to go.

 

+1

 

Just so I understand, the strange thing it did was have a worn out clutch?

 

My first 360 was an F1. Even with the CS TCU, it was problematic. Spent months chasing down a transmission light that could never be replicated. I'd be cruising down the highway and it wouldn't go shift up or down, just neutral. Or I'd be pulling out of my parking garage, go to shift and same thing...

After months and months and a few grand here and there - it was a faulty clutch position sensor. It hadn't gone completely bad, and was working most of the time, making it impossible to diagnose and leaving me on a tow truck twice.

Sold the car, bought a manual and haven't looked back. Now I love my car and it's been so much nicer to live with.

 

Just bought my ‘01 360 Spider with the F1 back in September. This car has been enormously problematic.

The first issue that involved the F1 transmission was actually caused by running out of gas. The sender float in the gas tank got stuck, and so the car was reading half a tank of fuel when I ran out. As the engine starved, the F1 system detected an issue and went into a panic mode, causing rapid downshifts, which blew the F1 pump. I wasn’t aware the car ran out of gas, but just saw the F1 light come on and the car fail to start. While this isn’t an actual issue with the F1 system, it was interesting that running out of fuel could set off a chain of events that blows the F1 pump.

Today, after getting my car back from service for a month, the car did something weird. I started it up and tried to put it into gear, but it wouldn’t shift. The F1 light was not illuminated at this time. I tried to shift a few times, pulled both paddles, and nothing. I shut the car down and started it up a minute later, and still no shifting. Then, after a few minutes of researching while the car was running, I pulled the right paddle and it shifted into gear. It worked perfectly fine all the way home.

Tonight, I went out to dinner, and on the way home, all of a sudden the F1 light started flashing while driving in third gear. I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to shift, but didn’t try to change my gear yet. Thankfully I had enough speed to coast off the road and safely into a parking lot. The car would not shift, once I came to a stop it put me in neutral and that was the end of it. I tried to cycle the power on the car, and even tried to hit the kill switch for a few minutes. Still nothing. I ended up getting it towed a mile home (for $300), and will need to get it to the shop tomorrow or Monday.

I suspect my latest/current issue is related to what seemed like a random brake switch fault that was cleared out Wednesday night (after lots of testing), but I suspect that’s the cause. I also noticed that the little reverse switch isn’t quite as springy… if I pull it up, it will stay up, it doesn’t cleanly glide back down into place. So it could be something with that as well.

All in all, the F1 system is really stressing me out. I really would love it if it was more reliable and less finicky, but this car has stranded me a few times, and nearly stranded me a few more (luck stepping in and allowing me to limp home).

I see so many people on the forums claiming to have had no issues with the F1 system and I’m certainly happy for them, and wish I could join them in their success, but unfortunately all it has done is cause me lots of pain and expense. Lately I have zero confidence in my car.

 

Hadn't driven it in a few weeks. When I went to start it, it didn't start the first time I pushed the start button. Without cycling the key I pushed the start button again and the car fired to life. I was about 1/4 mile from home when the car decided it should stop being a car. The clutch would not engage and any shifts would cause the RPM's to spike to about 6 or 7k and only go about 4 mph. I limped home, panicked, contemplated how much a manual conversion would cost me, googled everything, spent 2 hours on the phone with @flash32 (who is an absolute legend BTW) and finally determined that it was because I didn't cycle the key after the first crank-no-start. Car has been flawless since.