Urgent help with SD3 machine. Dealer says can't read max revs, etc.

Hi gang. Don't remember where I saw a printout from an SD3 machine with maximum revs during the life of the car, as well as max coolant temp, max oil temp, and a ton of other parameters I'm not that concerned about. That's the main reason why I wanted a Ferrari dealer to inspect the car. But really wanted the max revs since car is a manual, and nobody knows anything about this car for the first 5K miles.

Is there a 'secret' menu that needs to be opened? And yes, tech said he hooked it up to the dash port. By the way, car has an aftermarket battery, and had misfire codes on all cylinders, plus a low voltage code. He said that was normal, and that maybe the battery change erase all previous history.

Any info would be greatly appreciated. Car is there and I need to make a decision quickly before owner takes car away and cost me a lot more to transport. Many thanks.
JC

 

from a Ferrari tech in England;


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07 Feb 2011
+0 GMT 18:35

Hi Mike,

A US Spec car? Not yours I assume. OK well without an F1 gearbox you are unable to read alot of these parameters due to the fact a manual car has no gearbox ECU. The max engine revs are not, to my knowledge, stored within the cars engine ECU's. I would imagine if it is anywhere it would be within the dash ecu (Node Ouadro Strumenti/NQS).

This is all I can think of but to be honest, I'm not even sure it exists. Maybe on US cars.

Sorry I couldn't help more








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Thanks a million man; greatly appreciate it. So they were right after all. Oh well. Hope nothing happened. Didn't like several things found, so time to negotiate with buyer. Am waiting on interpretation of a '65535% wear condition' on the brakes, when tech put '10' ths on all 4 brakes' condition. Also ash tray doesn't open, which need that fixed to be able to use radar detector, plus 1 wheel is damaged, and rear diffuser is scraped as well. Many thanks again. It's kind of unnerving buying these cars for the first time, and people like you make it a lot easier. Take care.

 

Hi,

I'm the guy who sent the email to Mike in response to your original question. Im sitting here with him so thought i woruld give you a reply.
First, my pleasure to help, if it assists your puchase in anyway, then i will consider it my good deed done.
With the brakes showing 65535% worn, this is ofcourse an error on the SD3. The system would need to be updated to read the cars NQS (Dash ecu that brake wear is stored in). Is the F430 2008+? If so the SD3 is trying to read an ECU it thinks is older. Please note, the carbon ceramic discs are the only type that can be read with the SD3, steel are a physical measurement.
The ash tray, glove box and rear diffuser is nothing to be too concerned about, but the scraped rear diffuser would suggest either hard driving over rough surfaces, or a poor recovery in the past, eitherway, ensure all other mechanicals (including clutch, again a visual check on manual) are OK.

Hope I helped.

 

At least in the 360, the rear diffuser scrape could also be from backing up into a parking space and hitting one of those cement end caps....I hit one very lightly last year backing into a space, and luckily didn't scrape it at all. Now I'm more careful if I have to back into a parking spot.

 

That's right, all such parameters are stored in the Dashboard ECU. Any SD3 or the new SDX can read out these values (Parameters Selection Menu). Key must be in On position and car must be static.

Stef

 

You helped me a lot; thanks again. And car is an '06 430 spider with all options (except F1, because I wanted 6MT), by the way.

There was something wrong with the SD3 as the report was full of weird values and descriptions: Number of brake disc replacements on front axle: 255. Run at the first, second, and third brake replacements on front axle: 16,777,215 Km. Wear condition at the first, second, and third brake replacement on front axle: 65535%. Ha ha. Very informative, huh?

Anyway, the wheel damage was inflicted by the owner's driver when pulling out of the trailer, and the diffuser damage apparently by a lift or something like that; it's minimal, and under the car by the rear tires, so impossible to see unless deep under the car. Dealer is going to touch it up. And owner is going to pay for dealer to refinish the wheel. Damage was minimal as well. Driver's door has a touched-up ding on the edge, but it's not noticeable unless looking for it. I can live with that. The only area I was a bit disappointed was the driver's seat wear, but owner says it has none. Pictures from the dealer says otherwise, but I reserve judgment until I see it. I can always get it redyed in that small area, I guess. That, along with worn tires, is considered normal wear and tear, so no big deal. Wish everybody was like me, who levers himself in and out of sports cars, without touching the seat bolsters at all. Oh well. Other than that, front bumper has no scrapes at all, and car has no dings or scratches.

Here a few pics (some from the inspection; some from the owner):
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These numbers are actually not weird in the context of computers, which are based on the binary system. 255 is simply the maximum value a byte can hold, just like the number 9 is highest single digit in the decimal system. 65,535 is the biggest number for two bytes (think 99 in the decimal system) and 16,777,215 is the maximum three byte value.

Now why two bytes were allocated to hold a percentage, which cannot exceed 100, definitely is weird. Perhaps one is supposed to read that value with fractions. Anyway, probably what this all means is that either the car's ECU didn't have the data or the SD3 device couldn't read it, so the system gives you these unmistakable max values instead. It makes sense if you think about it, you wouldn't want zeros for example as those would be harder to differentiate from actual values.

Now the real question is, why was the data not available? Did it somehow get reset? Is any special setup required to get the data? I recently received a similar SD3 readout on a car i was going to buy. I passed for another reason, but would like to know how to get this data when the next car comes around.

 

Likely the dash has had a voltage spike where someone jump started the car when the battery was flat. Seen stuff like this a million times. People still carry on jump starting them....

 

Yup.


We spent $8000 of someones money because of a jumped battery.

Cooked a lot of stuff.

 

I can't understand why anyone would even consider doing it. Still, keeps us busy, eh?

 

Thanks guys. The funny thing is the SD3 report on the current values (throttle position sensor, battery voltage, engine temperature, and about 25 more parameters) shows actual figures. But the history is all whacko.

Well, first surprise. Car was supposed to come with both a $4K (according to owner) Fabspeed muffler, plus stock one as well, and just got an email from the owner who said he 'forgot' this car doesn't have the Fabspeed muffler, so he's just sending the stock pipes with the valves. Of course I believed him and already sent the money. Will think how much of a stink to make since I'm screwed, but man, I HATE deceiving people. He's also supposed to pay for the damaged wheel, so we'll see about that as well. Of course he didn't offer to refund me anything (typical of that kind of guy). What would you do? Just pray that I don't find any more surprises, but if FNE did a good job, I shouldn't. Take care gang.