Ferrari Carbon Fiber rims

Personally I would ignore them and their software updates and just run them.

I mean sure, yes the MOI and weight on the CF rims might be slightly less - so what. Probably just weight differences between brands of tires is more. I say install them and run them as is.

I had CF wheels on my sport bike and while yes they did make a difference, it was rather mild. Mostly it reduces felt bumps. On a car that weighs 3800 lbs (or whatever), I don't think CF vs. forged aluminum is gonna make a big enough difference to the electronics to have any significant impact on much. Maybe the active suspension might function slightly different, but I kinda doubt it will be enough to cause a major impact. What's the weight difference per wheel?

Just my 2 cents

Ray

 

I would not bother. Many people run aftermarket wheels on the car which are lighter than stock with no updates.

 

Respect for buying the CF wheels. I’ll be interested to see how you get on with them, the look is great and I’m interested in how durable they prove to be.

And I thought I was brave installing titanium wheel bolts on my F8 Spider!!

 

My dealer told me that the cars with CF wheels have temperature failsafes to guard against the wheels getting too hot (which can be a contributing factor leading to failure). It may be that the software change is to enable those temperature failsafes for safety.

But I have no idea what I'm talking about and don't own CF wheels.

 

Carbon fiber wheels are actually surprisingly durable.. just don't push them beyond their yield point CF isn't about that plastic life.

Ray

 

So you mean the wheels have a temperature sensor??

 

I believe the sensor is in the hub, but yes, that’s what I was told. My dealer said that with the CF wheels you can get a “stop driving” annunciator on the dash if the measured temps reach a danger threshold and the CF wheels are vulnerable to failure if you run them outside their safe operating temperature.

Just to be clear, I have no idea what I’m talking about and I’m an idiot, but that’s what I was told by my service advisor as I was messing around with a bare CF wheel that was on display in the service department while waiting for my car.

The bare wheel is crazy light without a tire mounted on it. I do know that much for sure. I see the appeal.

 

As long as you aren't planning on entering the 24 hours of le mans, I think monitoring the temp of your CF wheels is probably pretty low on the list.

Ray

 

I was just offering an alternative explanation as to why there might be re-coding required. I'm not sure it's simply a matter of wheel weights as others speculated in the thread. I think there are at least a few plausible circumstances beyond endurance racing where an owner might regret bypassing a factory safety measure in their road car.

That is of course assuming my second-hand and unsupported theory is correct.

 

Never hurts to double check. I'd be curious to know what the situation is as well. Monitoring the temp of each CF wheel would require a specific transmitter for each wheel (unless the ECU is just extrapolating data from the already present air temp sensor for the tire pressure monitoring system or something).

It's worth nothing, however, that when installing CF wheels yourself (or having a 3rd party shop do it, etc.) you do wanna be careful about not having any sort of aluminum in direct contact with the carbon fiber structure of the wheel (for example, aluminum valve stems). Aluminum and CF can setup galvanic corrosion if you aren't careful and heat can exacerbate this reaction in some situations. I don't know what material the valve stems are made from on your wheels (or if they are isolated with rubber sealing washers), but it's something to be aware of.

Ray

 

Are you planning to just use the wheels on the street or track? if street, I would not worry about any temps...

 

Again, I am just relaying what my service advisor told me. Take it or leave it. If correct, it does mean that Ferrari were worried enough about it to develop a temperature monitoring system for the street. There's a visible insulation coating on the inside of the barrel as well on the factory CF wheels.

 

I think - as Ferrari eludes to in the link below - the biggest concern might be possible high temperatures being generated via the brake rotors during track use and/or racing, given the rather close proximity of the brake rotor to the CF wheel itself.

https://www.ferrari.com/en-EN/magazine/articles/ferrari-flying-on-carbon-fibre-wheels

Ray

 

I looked up the schematic for the Pista wheels on line. I didn't see any sort of additional temp sensors, so my guess would be that they are updating the software to monitor the temperature data already being provided by the Huf TPMS sensor. It would be interesting to know the threshold they trigger a warning at and what the message on the dash says exactly.

Ray

 

I am not denying any of that. I simply asked if you are going to use the car on the street or track, not what the dealer said.

I know the coating you are talking about, other brands of CF wheels do that too. I sell CF wheels. The Ferrari carbon wheels are made by Carbon Revolution, https://www.carbonrev.com/ same company who makes the CF wheels for Ford GT, Mustang, Corvette etc... Maybe you should reach out to them and ask your question, surely they will know more about the wheels they make than anyone.