Every day tips for living with a 599

[cake eater]

ANOpax said:

For comparison, here’s the front discs on the F12. 15% worn at 27,000 miles. The ones which came off your 599 were shagged at c.35k miles (track use for sure) and even though you’ve tracked the new set, there’s no way that they look to be 80% worn.

Yeah, I agree, definitely not 80% worn.

No matter what Ferrari say

[ANOpax]

FF front disc at 35k miles. No idea what the recorded wear is.

[cake eater]

Hughesie said:

cake eater said:

So the F1 pump 'system' has been replaced and all fully operational now. It was the electric motor for the F1 pump that had failed but Ferrari don't replace individual parts or repair. I have asked to keep the old 'pump system' and I will look to get it repaired. They also replaced the relay.

Had mine replaced at 67k - did they just replace the pump or the whole thing, actuator as well ??

Invoice just says pump kit. Don't think it includes the actuator?

[cake eater]

ANOpax said:

FF front disc at 35k miles. No idea what the recorded wear is.

Looks to be about where mine were at the start of my ownership.

[ANOpax]

cake eater said:

Looks to be about where mine were at the start of my ownership.

Well, you’ve put an impressive number of miles on your car in a short space of time.

1. Goals

[Chrism355]

Im pretty sure the F1 pump is the same as used by Alpha Romeo, they sell just the electric pump on its own

[Boleros]

Chap on a track day at Castle Combe last week had one of his CCMs disintegrate, car (F430) was on 36k miles.

[cake eater]

Chrism355 said:

Im pretty sure the F1 pump is the same as used by Alpha Romeo, they sell just the electric pump on its own

Yes, it's the same
Unfortunately when stuck in Germany and no access to a mechanic I trust .....

[cake eater]

Boleros said:

Chap on a track day at Castle Combe last week had one of his CCMs disintegrate, car (F430) was on 36k miles.

I think Hughesie experienced the same thing. Hopefully everyone is okay, didn't happen at high speed and damage is limited.

Not uncommon and there's a bit of chat about it on ferrarichat saying it's related to the hub bolts becoming corroded and failure here becomes catastrophic. Think it's more an age, storage related thing than mileage. Ferrari chat explanation is very simplified



There's a very good post here on PH to give an idea of why they're critical.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

So much knowledge on PH,

[Cheburator mk2]

cake eater said:

Hughesie said:

cake eater said:

So the F1 pump 'system' has been replaced and all fully operational now. It was the electric motor for the F1 pump that had failed but Ferrari don't replace individual parts or repair. I have asked to keep the old 'pump system' and I will look to get it repaired. They also replaced the relay.

Had mine replaced at 67k - did they just replace the pump or the whole thing, actuator as well ??

Invoice just says pump kit. Don't think it includes the actuator?

The actuator fails a lot less frequently than the pump's electric motor. Just as well, given that an actuator is £7.2k from Eurospares, and on top there is a shed load of labour to bleed/calibrate the new unit...

P.S. I haven't forgotten your Q with regards to cooling the F1 fluid. My car also suffered with overheating F1 fluid while chasing a couple of Porsches in the Alps three weeks ago. As soon as I am back in the UK with it - hopefully this coming bank holiday weekend, I will start looking at a solution...

[Boleros]

cake eater said:

I think Hughesie experienced the same thing. Hopefully everyone is okay, didn't happen at high speed and damage is limited.

Not uncommon and there's a bit of chat about it on ferrarichat saying it's related to the hub bolts becoming corroded and failure here becomes catastrophic. Think it's more an age, storage related thing than mileage. Ferrari chat explanation is very simplified



There's a very good post here on PH to give an idea of why they're critical.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

So much knowledge on PH,

Cheers, have passed that on. He's mulling over whether to go to steels given the costs involved with replacing all four discs and pads (precautionary move).

This was the end result:



No humans were hurt.

[cake eater]

Cheburator mk2 said:

cake eater said:

Hughesie said:

cake eater said:

So the F1 pump 'system' has been replaced and all fully operational now. It was the electric motor for the F1 pump that had failed but Ferrari don't replace individual parts or repair. I have asked to keep the old 'pump system' and I will look to get it repaired. They also replaced the relay.

Had mine replaced at 67k - did they just replace the pump or the whole thing, actuator as well ??

Invoice just says pump kit. Don't think it includes the actuator?

The actuator fails a lot less frequently than the pump's electric motor. Just as well, given that an actuator is £7.2k from Eurospares, and on top there is a shed load of labour to bleed/calibrate the new unit...

P.S. I haven't forgotten your Q with regards to cooling the F1 fluid. My car also suffered with overheating F1 fluid while chasing a couple of Porsches in the Alps three weeks ago. As soon as I am back in the UK with it - hopefully this coming bank holiday weekend, I will start looking at a solution...

Almost everything as soon as you say Ferrari means 10k lighter. It's rather scary

PS I love chasing Porsches. Even better when they realise it's an expensive old donkey that's caught up with them

I've had a quick chat with Lee and Mark at MDL about options;
The GTO is supposed to have a bigger gearbox / differential cooler, but finding actual details is difficult to know how much bigger.
Changing the fluid. I have seen stuff about changing to a liqui moly product to reduce friction. MDL suggested changing to SRF with it's higher boiling point.

[cake eater]

Boleros said:

cake eater said:

I think Hughesie experienced the same thing. Hopefully everyone is okay, didn't happen at high speed and damage is limited.

Not uncommon and there's a bit of chat about it on ferrarichat saying it's related to the hub bolts becoming corroded and failure here becomes catastrophic. Think it's more an age, storage related thing than mileage. Ferrari chat explanation is very simplified



There's a very good post here on PH to give an idea of why they're critical.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

So much knowledge on PH,

Cheers, have passed that on. He's mulling over whether to go to steels given the costs involved with replacing all four discs and pads (precautionary move).

This was the end result:



No humans were hurt.

Glad to hear the damage was all mechanical. Very scary "what if...."

Have a chat with Lee at MDL Supercars, I believe he can get a very good price on OEM.
https://mdlsupercarsltd.co.uk/

I looked at going steels also, giro disc seems to be the supplier of choice on FerrariChat.
https://girodisc.com/ferrari-398mm-front-rotors/
But when I looked at the total cost, including import duty, it wasn't so far off the price MDL quoted me.

There's always surface transforms, they do a 430 Scuderia
https://www.surfacetransforms.com/product-finder/

And for me, best option is carbobrake.de

[Hughesie]

Boleros said:

Cheers, have passed that on. He's mulling over whether to go to steels given the costs involved with replacing all four discs and pads (precautionary move).

This was the end result:



No humans were hurt.

Yup, same thing as mine, been chatting to David over the last week.

[cake eater]

Collected the 599 today from Maranello Motors GmbH in Cologne



They had done a very nice job on the car, cleaning it etc. They'd also given me a new first aid kit.


But it really needs to be properly detailed again, the PPF removed and areas with a little corrosion touched up. The interior leather also needs a deep clean and treatment of some kind.
I also want to get it dry ice cleaned and then the underfloor protected with a Bilt Hamber product.
https://bilthamber.com/product/dynax-uc/

I had a quick look around the show room and garage.





There was a La Ferrari having something done to it.





The masochist in me like the engine/ transmission out and wonder what horrors the owners are going through


For some reason there's always a 296 in for electric system issues.

[cake eater]

I had a short chart with the service mechanic / engineer working on the La Ferrari about my braking issues.

He wanted to know it it happened only when the brakes were hot or all the time.
I said all the time but only during track work.
He said pistons / seal. Excessive disc movement. Brake fluid not so likely as it's all the time.
I explained I had had the calipers refurbished, tried different fluid and the discs were new. He was at a loss for a solution.

The service manager come to chat as well and told me they have a GTO owner who's done 25000km on track, drives at limit / hard / good driver and has never complained about the brakes.

It's strange because on the ramp the wheels on my car are difficult to turn by hand (pads are tight to the disc). This post on an elan forum makes me think I need to look at the pistons and seals again as well as get the GTO master cylinder and servo installed.
https://lotuselan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=42&am...

I also asked about getting more power out of the 599. I'd tried to speak with Edo-Competion but they're no longer trading. The Enzo mechanic mentioned there's room in the cams and variable valve timing but you are very limited with the GTB ECU as it will throw an engine warning light if the timing is changed too much. He said it's a very common reason on tuned cars for the check engine light..

[Hughesie]

Must be good to have it back !

[cake eater]

Hughesie said:

Must be good to have it back !

Hi Hughesie,

Yes, it's been great to get her back and drive a little. Just been getting back into the feel for her and adapting to the idiosyncrasies.

I was in the Dorint and coming out onto the main road there was YouTube videographer. So of course I wanted to show off a little.

So booted it.

The tyres spun up, traction kicked in and the car kangaroo'd down the road. I looked like a complete wally and obviously blamed Michelin for a set of Cup2s and Ferrari for rubbish traction control.



I'm going to be on that channel "idiots leaving car meets"

[cake eater]

Yesterday, after about an hour's drive I stop for lunch. I'm manoeuvring into a parking spot when she won't select reverse. Try to go back for first but all I have is a box of neutrals.

I'm dreading that the actuator has now failed. Switch off on. Get an electrical system failure warning on the dash but she goes in to first. Drive into a parking place and cycle through first neutral and reverse. All seems okay. Off on again and repeat. Same warning on the dash but I have a box of gears again.

Lunch forgotten I drive to 24/7 performance
https://www.247performance-parts.com/
to get a quote for a set of Nankag CR-S. At 1900 EUR I balk at replacing the nearly new Cup2s. After embarrassing me outside the Dorint maybe I should have

[cake eater]

This morning is a trip to http://www.special-brakes.de/ to collect a set of fronts pads from Freddy.

We spend an hour chatting about the 599, how she handles and what the braking is like. We look at the disk wear and there's a very obvious imbalance front to rear, with the rear like new. From memory this set of fronts is the third or fourth set to one rear.

Freddy recommends I change the rears to RSC2 / RSC3 but he needs to confirm as one compound is better for CCM that the other. This should better balance the braking, help the car be more stable into the corner and reduce the front wear rate.
Unfortunately he doesn't have a rear set in stock for me to try.

We discuss disc options; staying ceramic, OEM Vs CarboBrake or going to steel. Obviously cost / performance is a concern but Freddy reckons he can match CCM brake performance (not weight) with steels and a special pad. Will to think some more about it.

It's then off to see Richard at https://www.ringtoys.com/ to have them installed.
While bleeding the brakes a lot of air comes out of the right rear. Lee at MDL had previously noted the same and it's a possibility that there's a leak in the membrane/ diaphragm between the servo and master cylinder (not sure I have this explanation right in my head as to what's going on).



I also noticed that just one of the Titanium bolts has a little galling on the left rear. Richard cleans up the thread before everything is mounted back up.

All ready for a couple days with Scuderia-S7
We'll see how the tyres / car feels tomorrow