360 spider roof crunch

[spice]

first day with my 360 spider and the damn roof crunched and caught the body work, much to the credit of Merenello car was collected and is being repaird, apperently i acticated the roof at below five degrees and the fluid was cold ? very dubios, any one experienced the same ?? GUTTED

[bund]

spice said:

first day with my 360 spider and the damn roof crunched and caught the body work, much to the credit of Merenello car was collected and is being repaird, apperently i acticated the roof at below five degrees and the fluid was cold ? very dubios, any one experienced the same ?? GUTTED

Why was you taking the roof down with the temp below 5 degrees?

[dazren]

bund said:

Why was you taking the roof down with the temp below 5 degrees?

Why not? I've driven an SL merc with the roof down around the Alps at temps below 5 degrees C, granted with he heating on. Why shouldn't a Ferrari be able to do this.

[Jonny5]

-3 last night , and took the roof down on the porsche (to reverse down the drive) - no probs there either.

[rmfa30]

spice said:

first day with my 360 spider and the damn roof crunched and caught the body work, much to the credit of Merenello car was collected and is being repaird, apperently i acticated the roof at below five degrees and the fluid was cold ? very dubios, any one experienced the same ?? GUTTED

It's Quite true - roof hydraulics dont work, so never operate the roof mechanism at low temps!

[spice]

i was only going to moove the car 10 ft into the garage, wanted to show it off to wife and kids with the roof down doh!, althougth i used to enjoy driving my Griff in the winter with the roof down (no mechanics to go wrong either)

[David A]

bund said:

spice said:

first day with my 360 spider and the damn roof crunched and caught the body work, much to the credit of Merenello car was collected and is being repaird, apperently i acticated the roof at below five degrees and the fluid was cold ? very dubios, any one experienced the same ?? GUTTED

Why was you taking the roof down with the temp below 5 degrees?

Yeah why not? To be fair I don't put the roof down if its wet or frozen but if its cold and dry then fine. Thats what heaters, heated seats and wooly hats are for.

Dave

[bund]

David A said:

bund said:

spice said:

first day with my 360 spider and the damn roof crunched and caught the body work, much to the credit of Merenello car was collected and is being repaird, apperently i acticated the roof at below five degrees and the fluid was cold ? very dubios, any one experienced the same ?? GUTTED

Why was you taking the roof down with the temp below 5 degrees?

Yeah why not? To be fair I don't put the roof down if its wet or frozen but if its cold and dry then fine. Thats what heaters, heated seats and wooly hats are for.

Dave

We might have to agree to disagree on this one.

I thought wooly hats were for keeping your head warm when its cold outside but you might be onto something. Maybe Porsche and Ferrari could start selling them to go with there cabs.... I dont care about posing in a cab im more into keeping warm but David had mentioned he was only backing out of his drive to show the wife and kids and wasnt off posing in the middle of winter.

As for thats what heated seats and heaters are for, i take it you only have them in coupes if you cant afford the cab and you want all the windows down.........Got ya...

[David A]

bund said:

David A said:

bund said:

spice said:

first day with my 360 spider and the damn roof crunched and caught the body work, much to the credit of Merenello car was collected and is being repaird, apperently i acticated the roof at below five degrees and the fluid was cold ? very dubios, any one experienced the same ?? GUTTED

Why was you taking the roof down with the temp below 5 degrees?

Yeah why not? To be fair I don't put the roof down if its wet or frozen but if its cold and dry then fine. Thats what heaters, heated seats and wooly hats are for.

Dave

We might have to agree to disagree on this one.

I thought wooly hats were for keeping your head warm when its cold outside but you might be onto something. Maybe Porsche and Ferrari could start selling them to go with there cabs.... I dont care about posing in a cab im more into keeping warm but David had mentioned he was only backing out of his drive to show the wife and kids and wasnt off posing in the middle of winter.

As for thats what heated seats and heaters are for, i take it you only have them in coupes if you cant afford the cab and you want all the windows down.........Got ya...

Agree to disagree then. To put it another way - I love driving with the roof down. Its a different experience to driving with the roof up. A cool clear night roof down, twist roads = great fun. Sunny day, aircon on!! roof down = great too (also = sunburnt head for us baldys)

Anyway I'd have bought a coupe if I wanted to drive with the roof more up than down

Cheers
Dave

[bund]

David A said:

bund said:

David A said:

bund said:

spice said:

first day with my 360 spider and the damn roof crunched and caught the body work, much to the credit of Merenello car was collected and is being repaird, apperently i acticated the roof at below five degrees and the fluid was cold ? very dubios, any one experienced the same ?? GUTTED

Why was you taking the roof down with the temp below 5 degrees?

Yeah why not? To be fair I don't put the roof down if its wet or frozen but if its cold and dry then fine. Thats what heaters, heated seats and wooly hats are for.

Dave

We might have to agree to disagree on this one.

I thought wooly hats were for keeping your head warm when its cold outside but you might be onto something. Maybe Porsche and Ferrari could start selling them to go with there cabs.... I dont care about posing in a cab im more into keeping warm but David had mentioned he was only backing out of his drive to show the wife and kids and wasnt off posing in the middle of winter.

As for thats what heated seats and heaters are for, i take it you only have them in coupes if you cant afford the cab and you want all the windows down.........Got ya...

Agree to disagree then. To put it another way - I love driving with the roof down. Its a different experience to driving with the roof up. A cool clear night roof down, twist roads = great fun. Sunny day, aircon on!! roof down = great too (also = sunburnt head for us baldys)

Anyway I'd have bought a coupe if I wanted to drive with the roof more up than down

Cheers
Dave

Fair point, I also love driving with the roof down but it has to be a nice day for me.

Plus maybe the bird has finally driven it into me not to drive in the cold with the roof down. You know what birds are like...... GOD.....SH!T.... it might be errr hrrrr happening.... corrrrr i sound like im under the thumb....

[alc]

Agreed - drove the Murci roadster yesterday with roof off - as long as it's not raining, heat on, lovely drive. Mind you, don't have to worry about the mechanics of the roof!!!

[spice]

ever tried driving with it half way up half way down ? i got a cab (which looses its lines with the roof up) cos i want to drive it with the roof down (what lines then eh!)even on cold clear days. wasn't really going to use it for the next few weeks anyway, if it was a mechanical fault im glad it has hapend now and not in the summer, she will be back soon

[David A]

Out of interest - what happened exactly. Did it just smack into the body work?

[spice]

hi dave, well when i tried to lower it all seemed well but the cone part of the flap panel didnt seem to locate correctly behind the passenger, i should have got out to look, but i thought i would close it again and it would reset , pressed button, panel raised,roof came over, panel went down fins went down and cauught the cone part of panel on the passenger side just where the fin hinges, the panel was up by about 1 inch, so it jammed and scratched panel, just beeping

[murph7355]

Driving a roofless car in winter is about the best time to do it. The air feels much crisper and fresher and you come back with a great glow after a spirited drive.

Also, are you not meant to drive your Ferrari at all in the cold then? The brakes, after all, are hydraulic. If you have an F1 transmission, that's hydraulic too. And plenty of other bits of the car have fluid going through pipes under pressure.

Can they not put decent fluid in the system to ensure it'll function OK in cold weather? And from the sound of the problem, part of the hydraulics obviously worked OK for the roof to hit the body, so why didn't the other bits work?

Finally, if they must develop shite house hydraulic systems for their soft tops, and there are restrictions to when it can be used, why not equip your 120k motor vehicle with sensors to prevent piss poor engineering standards ever becoming a problem.

Hope you get your car sorted.

PS You don't have this problem with a proper roof

[spice]

gonna take at least another two weeks, want to put it to the vote, should i reject the car ????

[LotusJas]

dazren said:

bund said:

Why was you taking the roof down with the temp below 5 degrees?

Why not? I've driven an SL merc with the roof down around the Alps at temps below 5 degrees C, granted with he heating on. Why shouldn't a Ferrari be able to do this.

I agree, and take my Ferrari out in sunny but cold weather with the roof down too Never had a problem ..... mind you it is the 100% reliable roof mechanism as fitted to the 348 Spider

[jhoneyball]

i used to love driving my sl500 in the winter

the only time i wouldnt operate the fabric roof was if it was icey. Ice in the roof fabric causes the fabric to stretch if you fold it. So I was advise to warm the car first, warm the interior, and then move the roof

[RobDickinson]

On a 100k car I'd expect if there was a problem then it should well have a temp sensor to stop you using it rather than breaking.

[BobM]

I've seen nothing in the manual about not using the roof in cold temps so maybe this is an isolated incident.

I had a great topless drive yesterday, 135 miles with only the last 5 on motorway