458 Small oil leak at differential

Dear members,

Here in Chile I'm in the process of buying a 2012 458 with 30,000km. However, there's a small oil leak at the differential. It's my first Ferrari so I want to make sure I'm not doing a rookie mistake in the process.

I agreed with the seller that several issues are done before the purchase, such as the PPI at the local dealer (done), fixing the AC (result of the PPI - done), new tires (MPS4S - done), weighing of the brake discs (done), paint corrections (in process) and fixing this oil leak at the differential (see photo).

According to the only local Ferrari dealer the oil leak is small and not an urgent issue to be fixed. Still, during the negotiation I preferred it to be fixed to be sure of all the costs.

So the local dealer quotes the repair at US$ 4,600 (of which $1,000 are parts). However, the local dealer took already more than a month for the above mentioned and the parts for the leak haven't even arrived to Chile, so who knows when this will be fixed, might even slip into next year... In order to speed things up, the seller (a local exotic car dealership with a good reputation) offered me to fix the leak with a gearbox expert he knows well and who has worked on AMGs, GT3s etc. He can order the parts from a contact at Ferrari USA and is estimating the costs at around US$ 3,400.

I'm inclined to go with the "independent gearbox expert" because he would provide the same guarantee as the Ferrari dealer, charge less, would probably do a better job (the local Ferrari dealer's mechanics seem very junior, Ferrari has officially started in 2011 in Chile) and be faster.

How would you decide and why? Is the leakage something easy to fix? While at the differential, is it worth taking care of something else?

Would be happy to hear your advice, thanks!

Best, Julian
Image Unavailable, Please Login