Stradale : Check Engine System Failure

I haven't experienced such, thankfully. (sound of knocking on wood)

Typically, though, the check engine light is associated with the emissions systems... often its a out of whack sensor... probably no big deal, but you need to take it into the dealer. They should handle it under warranty.

 

To clarify, I haven't experienced what you described... but I did get the light once. I was showing my wife the car. She wanted to see how to start it... so she turned off the car and immediately turned it back on and started it. Light on. Then I remembered that you're not supposed to turn the car back on until after all the electronics turn off following shutdown. So, we turned off the car... let it sit for 2 minutes... re-started... has been fine ever since.

 

The CEL indicates an emission or an ignition/injection fault

First thing to do is to check if the gas filler cap is screwed on tight – the system does a tank leakage test (mandated by OBDII) and will generate a check engine if the leakage exceeds a threshold, i.e. fuel vapor can get out

360’s are sensitive to misfire detection especially at startup, however the error should disappear after you re-start the car - doesn't look like your problem

don't push the accelerator before the Check OK signal because it goes through a self-calibrating phase - not sure when this problem will surface

Power loss means that the ECU has switched into engine protection mode which indicates a more significant problem, e.g. danger of cat overheating because of unburned (not ignited) fuel/air mixture say due to an air leakage after the MAF sensor

you should let the dealer read the error code

 

Got my CS 2 weeks ago.

No warning light of that type so far (KNOCK WOOD...GIVE ME SOME SALT)

Only 200 miles.

Let us know what the dealer tells you.

 

I have about 650 KM's ... no lights

 

I know a car this happened on - not mine, but a demonstration car the dealer has. Sarah went for a drive in this car before I got mine. She got in, turned the ignition on and immediately stabbed at the start button. Two things happened here, firstly she didn't wait for the igition checks to all complete and secondly the engine didn't actually start with the first quick press of the starter. She then pressed the starter a second time, starting the engine and went for a drive. During this drive the check engine light illuminated but didn't seem to affect the car in any way. As far as I am aware, and having talked to the dealer about this, this was the only time this happened.

 

Chris, sorry you had this problem. Went to FMoW to pick up my extra set of wheels and, on the way out, saw your car coming in. Glad to hear it's turned out all right. Hope to see you out on the road,

Will

 

Glad you got that sorted Chris- sounds pretty straightforward. It's the other bit of your post that gets me though- you're going to do without your car, for a week, because of a windshield wiper fluid level sensor ??? Unless that screws up other systems, this should be a 'fix it the next time it's in' job surely.

Kevin

 

hmmmm. i had two 2002 360F1 modenas and both of them had constant problems with the "check engine" light coming on...and staying on. the cars both ran perfectly, but the CEL was annoying. i took both cars to the dealer numerous times. they could never find any reason why the CEL came on. they did explain that there was a "ground problem" that caused the light to come on. they fixed the ground numerous times, but the CEL would come back on within a few days every time. ferrari was aware of this problem. they ultimately tracked the problem down to a software issue within the ECU. in 2002 this CEL problem happened on a significant percentage of modenas. they ultimately had to replace my ECUs with 2003 ECUs which finally solved the problem completely.

now i have two stradales and so far no CEL problems. but hearing that ferrari told you it was a "ground problem" makes me nervous because this is what they told me and that wasn't the problem in my case. if the ground isn't the problem then the CEL will likely come on again within a couple of days. please keep us posted.

 

mine never went into "protection mode". the cars always ran perfectly even with the CEL light on. but ferrari told me that some conditions that cause the CEL to come on "could" be serious so they always wanted to check the car out. but my problem was a software glitch in the 2002 ECUs. i actually spoke to the engineer at ferrari who was responsible for isolating and solving the problem. he told me that once they finally pin pointed the problem they decided the ebst solution was to replace the ECUs with 2003 ECUs. they did this to my cars and it solved the problem completely. i had to live with CEL light on on both cars for months before they solved the problem. that's why hearing your CEL story brings back nightmares BUT it is certainly possible that it could be a grounding problem so with any luck they fixed the problem for you. since there are quite a few stradales out there already and nobosy else is reporting this problem it's probably a one off problem that they can fix easily. don't worry, but keep your eye on it