Buying 2010 458- Info on DCT Issues / Any Symptoms

Hi Tarek, good morning.

Here are my humble 2 cents:

First, you’re absolutely right: potencial DCT failures are not in any way exclusive to pre-2012 458s, not even to exclusive to 458s, not even exclusive to V8 Ferraris. I’ve seen Californias, post 2012 458s, FFs and even one F12 with the same problems.

1) The chronic problems you described with respect to the 355/360/F430 platforms are a question of WHEN, not IF. The DCT problems some owners and models have encountered are, in a nutshell and in my very humble experience, an IF, not a WHEN.

In fact, most polls here and elsewhere show exactly the opposite: the vast majority of owners haven’t had any issues regarding the DCT transmission whatsoever, regardless of mileage or year of manufacture. But failures can and do occur, in any model/brand of car, due to a variety of variables: maintenance, use of the car, luck, etc.

It’s human nature I guess: if out of 200 458s, 1 has a problem, then the whole focus becomes the failure of that one car, not the sturdiness and reliability of the other 199.

Should you buy a 458 from a reputed independent or an official dealer, with maintenance history from day one and conduct a thorough and professional PPI, my guess is you’ll be 99.9% safe, the remaining 0.01% being purely academic.

Modern Ferraris, namely in comparison with the F430 and older, are more powerful and complex, but also more reliable and easy to maintain.

2) Not to my knowledge, because as mentioned before, it’s not a chronic, common and widespread occurrence . Nevertheless, jerkiness is never a good sign, except in low speed, city, bumper to bumper traffic, in which it’s pratically unavoidable and not a defect, just the nature of the beast.

3) The way I am as an owner, who has bought and sell his fair share of Ferraris, it’s simple: papers, or it didn’t happen. Full, bulletproof maintenance history or I walk away, period. Simply because there is no shortage of careful owners who documented everything, or properly sorted cars that never needed transmission repairs (the very vast majority!).

I’d recommend checking for the car’s history at an official dealer through the car’s VIN. If you were buying the car from an official dealer, I wouldn’t be worried, as they’d put all the paperwork from their system forward and vouch for the car. Once you aren’t, I’d go the extra mile to be cautious.

4) I’d humbly recommend checking the state of the carbon ceramic brakes. Designed to last a lifetime, they are expensive to replace and you might need to, if;

a) Car has been tracked heavily (wear and heat being the enemies of durability and longevity)

b) Someone sprayed chemicals to clean the tyres or rims, namely when brakes were still reasonably hot, thus contaminating the surface, which will result in less stopping power, vibrations and ultra fast brake pad wear.

Off the top of my head, that’s it.

With respect to the “engageness” and thrills the 458 has to offer you, namely compared to a 360, I will let you be the judge of that after a couple of days

Hope I’ve managed to address your concerns. I’m sure more knowledgeable feedback than mine will come shortly from other members. Feel free to ask away, as we’ll be more than happy to help.

Kind regards,

Nuno.

 

I agree with Nuno. The potential for DCT failure is there with any car equipped with one. Most common failure if that happens is sensor failure. Early on, Getrag would not allow repairs, so it was a $30k replacement.

But now it’s still a costly repair, but to swap out an internal sensor is more like $10k. So just put some money aside and if it ever happens, you can cover it. Most wont fail, so you’re likely to be ahead with the savings.

The brake rotors can only be checked by removing and weighing them. They have a minimum weight stamped into them. The reason for this is that carbon ceramic rotors often don’t show any wear like iron rotors. Instead, they go away by the carbon vaporizing, but look fine. In normal driving, this happens so slowly that the rotors can go 100k miles before needing replacement. Tracking the car, depending on the track, can involve so much heavy braking that the elevated temperatures will vaporize the rotors much more quickly. 458s may not show signs of track use if they are detailed carefully (they are very robust!), so you have to weigh the rotors when doing a PPI. Make sure the PPI you get includes that service and get the tech to write down the weights for you.


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Two more but perhaps limited issues : door air bags going off after going over a severe bump in the road and brake failures. While brake failures are rare it nevertheless has been reported by a few people here. In one case with deadly consequences according to the 458 owner in a thread in the 458 section.

 

That’s wonderful news! Enjoy in good health. Wish you many miles of happiness behind the wheel!

Kind regards,

Nuno.

 

Forgot to mention you’ve bought a pre-2012 458, which means lots of backfire on deceleration, which in turn means tons of fun.

Kind regards,

Nuno.

 

Good luck with the 458/360 decision! I still have my gated 360 spider and have no intention of selling it!


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Nice to read a sensible and well thought out reply to the op.

 

Congrats on the car. You can always call Ferrari of SF or wherever and ask for service. They can usually check the VIN#. In my experience, they are usually pretty helpful as far as what has been done and/or any records, etc.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, both the engine and gearbox are serialized aren't they? I know the engine is. You might be able to research what serial # gearbox was original to the car? Just an idea. There might also be some indication in the software, as I think the ECU keeps track of time in each gear as well as the wear on both clutches. If a new gearbox was installed at some point, I would think there would have to have been some indication of it in the car's history. If it was done via a dealer, I think they would have to not only reset things in the software but also log a record of it.

Ray