Just Purchased My First Ferrari (2005 F430) Need Advice

1. oh, whenever you are making a pass or feel like wanna enjoy hearing the engine, downshift it by yourself. When coming to a complete stop, if you aren't trying to impress anyone or yourself, I would say leave it alone.

2. I have seen other ppl on the forum do, but honestly I don't give a damn. It's too much effort to put in N and put to drive again.

3. Your car's former owner can be donald trump or hillary clinton, but that doesnt do any justice to the overall condition. They could take care of it like a baby or treat it like a hoe. You just need to check out the CURRENT condition of everything.
For the clutch life span, everyone drives different so it's different. One of my clutch last 25k miles, and one of mine last 20k miles.

4. In 2005 may be fine to drive it in auto, fancy F1 gearbox with auto function. Not in 2016, hell no. You try it and you will know what's saying. Unless in heavy traffic which doing no more than 15mph.

5. Hmm, if you know how to drive a manual car, you should be able to get used to it very soon. If you never drive manual before, then you have to learn it.

6. I would do reverse just for the safety. My house has a long downhill driveway as well, I would never put in N.

7. It seems like you are way too much worrying about the clutch and running cost of it, if that's the case, make the car super clean, park it very hard, make sure always have the battery tender connected. Do not drive it! Because the car runs on the clutch.
OR, you can do it like many of us here, just enjoy it. When the time comes to pay for a new clutch, shop around, get a new clutch, and enjoy it more.

Hope it helps and congrats on your purchase.

 

Congrats on your 430!!!

I got a obd2 wifi reader off Amazon for around $20-30 and use the "Eobd-facile" iPhone app. Seems to be the consensus best app/option for iPhones. I paid for the upgrade of $15 and it's great.

 

My opinions:

1. By all means, do down shift when the opportunity presents it's self, obviously without aggression .
2. Not necessary, esp. if you plan on a short stops. Longer stops sure.
3. I do not think there is a clear rule of thumb , I have heard as low as 5,000 all the way up to 25,000 miles. I only owned my 430 for 6 months and 1k miles , it had 12k miles , the clutch was still good.
4. Auto mode or non-auto mode I do not think one will burn up the clutch more over the other
5. Probably videos, obv. do a search. But there was not a video with the car's documentation.
6. I would not intentionally roll in neutral for either reverse or forward. I think I read that aggressive throttle or challenging hills in reverse are a clutch eater.
7. Search through the 430 section here in F-Chat, you will learn a ton about your car.
If you have driven a manual transmission before then you will have an idea as to what the F1 tranny is doing and understand it's strong and weak points. If you have not, then be patient initially.
Keep the music down and listen for all the sounds your cars makes so to be prepared when one sound is off or if a new noise is present. It may save you a ton of money.

Good luck with you purchase, enjoy.

 

What a dumb comment. Wasting clutch has nothing to do with driving enjoyment. It doesn't make it go any faster by burning up clutch. In fact, slipping clutch (=wear) can only leads to heat build up.

 

Why ? It is either bad for clutch, you should shift into N. Or it doesn't matter, you don't need to shift into N. How does time duration has to do with it ? I've heard this a few times on FC, and don't quite understand it

 

At what point did I tell the op to waste clutch? Or what point you see I tell him to burn the clutch? Why you feel so offensive about it? LOL, you are one of the dumb **** to buy a car but can't enjoy it fully because worrying about the clutch the whole time during driving, isn't it? I'm just saying that op should enjoy the car.

 

OBD Fusion works well with elm327.


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Don't drive in stop and go traffic. Never get the car in a situation where you have to back up a hill. If hill is steeper it just won't go and eat the clutch. I drive in race mode as I've heard it is easier on clutch and the exhaust sounds better.


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^^^^^^^
This ! FWIW , I never used auto mode. Enjoy and keep an eye on the tach and change gears at your desire. Oh and post pics.

 

Rody,Rody, Rody,
+1 on all the great advice but...
We need more pictures, you can't ask questions about your new Ferrari without posting obligatory pics! It's one of our rules...
Just kidding of course, mostly.,more pics will be most appreciated.
And as the others have said, just enjoy her.


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I believe is the equivalent of having the clutch pressed all the way when you are waiting on a stop light in a manual car, if it is a short stop it might not be a problem but a longer wait is different.
I do not know about the 430 but the 360 will go to neutral after a long wait standing in first with the brake engaged.
If the computer does it is because waiting too long is not good I guess


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F1 tutorial video (360 though):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0mIWy_0hE0

 

A few things on your F430. First, reverse is much lower in the F430 than it is in the 360 or 575M, so using reverse is not as big a deal. Reversing up hills, though, usually gets you the smell of burned clutch lining because reverse is still pretty high compared to 1st. Not close to 2nd like the 360, but still pretty high. Out of your garage, which you say is slightly downhill, just use reverse like any other car. Will not hurt her.

Best advice for using her is to drive her exactly the same way you do a three pedal car, assuming you have done that. If you are a coast to a stop in neutral guy with three pedals, like I am, do that. If you downshift all the way down in a manual gearbox, do that. I never let my F1 system auto shift to 1st, or any gear, when coming to a stop. Do it yourself if you want to do that so she is not almost lugging when she downshifts. All those downshifts are extra cycles on the clutch and throw-out bearing. Remember that when you are stopped, even in neutral, the clutch is always open with F1, so there is no saving the throw-out bearing when stopped by using neutral, but I do it anyway. Our pros estimate the throw-out bearing sees three times as many cycles as a three pedal T/O bearing. Make sure you keep your foot on the brake in neutral, or she will not shift into gear. Most owners learn that the hard way.

Auto mode uses exactly the same algorithms as manual mode for shifting, so if you drive exactly the same way auto does in manual, no difference in clutch or T/O bearing wear. However, if you coast to a stop in neutral, you do reduce the number of clutch and T/O bearing cycles.

If you coast to a stop in neutral and the light changes, you can use either paddle to select a gear to continue. Either gives you the same gear. Very easy and simple to do. Guaranteed it will be too high a gear, so use the downshift paddle instead of the upshift paddle and be ready to instantly downshift again to get a usable gear for acceleration. Not exactly rocket science, and I should know.

Drive her like a three pedal and you will love her, drive her like an automatic and not so much.

So I disagree with much of what was written above, but have been driving F1 for 8 years as a daily driver, so have bit of experience. Projected life on my clutch is 62,000 miles in mixed city and freeway driving, and your F430 twin disc clutch is actually tougher than my single disc clutch.

Lots of old wives' tales about F1 out there, so it pays to know how it works and then drive her any way you want that you enjoy. Takes a while to learn to drive smoothly with F1, but a great pleasure once you get good at it.

 

+1, +1

You purchased the car to drive. No? All cars break down, have issues and will give you headaches... Ferraris might cost a little bit more. You already had a Maser and Flying Spur so you know what it takes to get them properly maintained.

Cars are meant to be driven. Ferrari is not an exception although there are lots of garage queens out there. Most of us here love driving the car, fixing the car and share new information with each other. I've learned so much about my car through F-Chat more than anything.

 

One last thing. Most F1 problems are caused by lack of maintenance. Ferrari's last F1 recommendation, for the 599, calls for changing the F1 fluid (requires bleeding the system and a self check) every 3 years. If I had just bought an F1 F430, I would have that done immediately because it may not have been done at all during the last 11 years. Ferrari neglected to recommend changing the F1 fluid in earlier F1 Ferraris, just like they neglected to do the same for coolant changes.