Ok got home about a hour ago and have been trouble shooting a bit. Went for a short drive. About 10 miles, took around 30 minutes. Car was warmed up before starting.

Drive was through fairly busy city streets. Come to a red light after playing around and going from 4th gear to 1st quickly. I come to the light and pop it into neutral as I will be waiting.

About 10 seconds later the slow down light comes on (in amber not red), I try and go to first and nada...

Shut it off, wait 30 seconds, restart and back into 1st just fine.

Car was just serviced at 15,000 miles. I now have 17,500. At 15,000 clutch was reported to have right at 50% life remaining.

I have had the light pop on one other time, it was after doing the same. After hitting heavy traffic for a hour or so, accelerated for a bit and had to rapidly de-cellerate and went from 6th to 2nd quickly. Light came on but no gear sticking.


Ideas? I am thinking overheated clutch?

Chris, I'm not an expert on 430's nor even an owner (I have a 550), but the Slowdown warning is a system I'm somewhat familiar with from the 550. It's signaling that your catalytic converters are overheating.......or it thinks they're overheating.

It should be investigated - ignore it at your peril as overheating cats have caused fires in the past.

Someone with an SDx or Leonardo should be able to plug the diagnostic computer into your system and read the true EGT leaving the cats and tell you whether the alarm is real or not. From what you've described, it sounds as though it's real.

Having said that, Ferrari's "Slowdown ECU's" have been notoriously unreliable and various parties (myself included) have come up with alternatives to the OEM system. Some simply bypass the system, but if you're still running cats on your car, this is a very dangerous thing to do as you'll have no warning, and no protection against an overheating cat.

Oh goodness, well thank you kindly for being the bearer of bad news!

I will call the dealership tomorrow and get it looked at! I am assuming that it is still ok to drive once it cools down?

Still running cats, no adjustments have been made to the car except for what I believe they called "opening the exhaust valves"?

Two plastic tubes were disconnected and sealed off. Apparently it gives it more air so louder at lower RPMs?

Chris- The fix is likely much cheaper than having F1 or clutch work done, so not as bad as you thought.

Go through all those symbols in your owners manual so you know what they mean, or at least have an idea of what systems are affected. If you have a soft copy of your OM from ferraridatabase.com, you can load it on whatever portable device you use for easy access.

Chris, if the slow-down warning is Amber, it indicates you have a temporary differential malfunction.

Interesting Stef; that'll teach me to give advise on one model based on what I know from another!

Thanks for the clarification.

Just got back from dealership,

Apparently it has to do with the F1 pump loosing pressure during rapid up or down shift successions. Something with a solenoid leaking.

Thankfully extended warranty will cover it, unfortunately apparently the company Ferrari outsources to manufacture the solenoids is having an issue right now and it might be 2-4 weeks as the current batch is bad.

Thankfully completely drivable though as long as I let it downshift on its own.

Just got it fixed, apparently just loose bleeder screws in the gear box letting small amounts of air in.

Much happier and a much cheaper fix!

Yes, that's a common problem often overlooked by tech's so your guys sound like they know what they are doing! There are 3 screws located under the actuator that work loose and cause this issue. Also, early 430's where fitted with the same pump as the 360, which couldn't manage the extra load of the e-diff system on top of the f1 so often failed. Early cars can be retro-fitted with the later pump, and 360's can be updated using the later 430 pump with small alterations to the valve block bracket and feed pipe...

Hi,

I'm shopping for a used F430. In what model year did they introduce the improved pump?

Thx,
Cincy