Upgrades – Ferrari 360 F1 Modena

OBD2 Reader for DTC & Clutch/Gears

Sat, 30 May 2020 22:28:54 +0000

I tried/tested over half a dozen different apps and OBD2 readers, in hopes I’d find something to give me more access to the Ferrari systems other then the typical DTC (Diagnostic Trouble Codes). All but 1 gave me basically the same results, some worse in they didn’t map any of the error codes to Ferrari language.

But 1, the Autel AP200 OBD2 Scanner gave me access/information into all the CEL (Check Engine Light) stuff plus the shifting/gears and clutch of my Ferrari. This was some good information, and all could be exported via a PDF for future diagnosing or sharing with a local shop.

The clutch info included the PIS (which was very helpful for me) and the clutch wear, plus a lot of other things I didn’t fully understand.

I like that it let you know the miles traveled in each different gear, how many times each gear was used and a lot of other data, great for a data geek like myself. Things that you can tell from that data is has the Ferrari been city driven/lost of use in lower gears or highway driven, mainly high gear use. It also even tells you how many miles the car has traveled in neutral, this I guessing would let you know if someone excessively towed the Ferrari not on a flat bed.

So while a Ferrari SD2 is thousands of dollars, and only a handful of people have one, for <$70 via Amazon: amazon.com/dp/B07Y8K6XZF/ I was able to get a little more insight to my Ferrari.

Jump Starting a Ferrari the Safer Way

Sun, 31 May 2020 00:06:42 +0000

Even before I bought my Ferrari, I read stories saying don’t jump start a Ferrari, so yes I was worried. With all the stories out there, nobody 1st hand had any issues, but still was good to be careful. Once I got my Ferrari, read the manual and saw how they installed the battery, I fully understand how/why people could get into issue.

The battery is around a lot of other metal points, very easy for someone to short things out and the other battery charge point that is behind the drivers seat, while is much safer, due to the cut off switch doesn’t actually always get to the battery.

After a lot of research, I found that the safest way to jump start/start a Ferrari with a dead battery was to use a NOCO Genius G26000. As it was the only battery booster/chargers that had a unique feature a jump start option that quickly charges the battery, not actually using the NOCO for the boosting. I bought mine via Amazon on a special for <$200 but they’re normally around $300: amazon.com/dp/B004LX14Z2/

What it does is within 5 minutes will recharge your dead battery enough to start the car. Make sure you get the G26000 as to get enough power to start the car once recharged. So yes its not a clamp and clamp <1 minute a go, it takes 5 minutes and you’ll need a power outlet but its 100% safe way to start a dead Ferrari.

Here is how to use this to start a Ferrari:

1) I highly recommend putting the quick connect on your battery long before you ever need to use this, that way there isn’t any risk of shorting things out. If you don’t do this, then you’re risking a lot and adding lot of extra effort to unscrew the plate protecting the battery and using clamps.

2) Use the Ferrari power disconnect switch inside the hood. This ensures the power is only ever going to the battery and nothing with the car gets any of the power during its recharging.

3) Plug in the NOCO to the wall and the car, then push the Jump Charge button. Now if the battery is 100% flat without any voltage, you’ll have to hold this Jump Charge button for it to engage.

4) Then you wait the 5 minutes, during this time you’ll see on the NOCO the battery % grow from the 25% to 100%. This doesn’t mean your battery is at 100% at the end, just means the process is complete.

5) NOCO says if the 1st recharge isn’t enough to start the car, you can do the process again 1 more time. If you wanted to be 100% sure your Ferrari will start the 1st time you could simply just do another 5 minute Jump Charge cycle now, before even trying to start the car the 1st time. But there should be more then enough battery power just from the 1st charge.

6) You could now disconnect the NOCO but its not mandatory, as now the NOCO goes into trickle charger mode and won’t cause any issues.

7) Turn the power to the car back on via the battery disconnect switch in the hood and then you’re ready to start the car.

Now me, I travel with this NOCO at all time. It actually fit really nicely where the tire inflation kit/bag was, and to me I actually like the look of having a “genius” in the frunk.

F1 Relay/Upgraded Shifter

Sun, 31 May 2020 00:36:17 +0000

As the saying goes, its better to be safe then sorry, and that’s my driving force behind upgrading the F1 Relay on my 360. As its a weak point, that has failed many drivers over the years, as its a part that wears out. So for <$250 the piece of mind and geekiness of having a better F1 relay for me was well worth it.

The company that makes this is called Scud Ing Swiss and the product is bought via their site here: https://www.scuding.com/Shop/en/ecu-solutions/101-smart-emt-relay-ecu.html

Installation is <15 minutes, and you’ll just need a Philips screw driver and something to remove a nut of your choice to make ground connection. The only thing they didn’t add, which I wish they had, was double sided tape to secure the Smart eMT box. I added my own tape and attached it to the side of one of the fuse box covers.

Now you’re not going to be like “WOW” the car is so much faster, but for me, its the car is just that much more stable/secure in its operation. That for me is a nice feeling, car is fast enough as is

BTW I’m going to do another post soon on another part Scud Ing Swiss sells that I really feel is something that most Ferrari 360 owners should buy, that is their: Smart Turn Signal ECU. Just a quick summary on this, it allows you to tap the turn single stalk and do the lane change/automatically turns off the single lights after a set number of flashes. This for me drove me insane that the Ferrari didn’t have it, I’m on the highways a lot and find it so annoying to have to fully engage the stalk and then go back to turn if off once I’ve passed/changed lanes.

Cup Holder & Power Ports

Sun, 31 May 2020 00:59:20 +0000

Those Italians hadn’t planned for the American market, but thankfully Exotic Car Gear ( https://www.exoticcargear.com/product/cup-holder-insert/ ) adapted the ashtray spot to accommodate a cup holder for the 360. I think this was one of the 1st upgrades I did in the car, as my trips to 7-11 for a Slurpee just wouldn’t be possible without it.

The actual cup holder installs really easily, just 1 screw holds the ashtray in place. Then under the ashtray there is actually 2 power lines, 1 is always one and 1 is switched. This is actually helpful if you are trying to run some electronics like GPS or even a switched power line for an AMP.

There are a few things to note:

1) It comes in carbon fiber. This might be great if you have a lot of other upgraded parts to carbon fiber, but for me it looked really out of place. I have a photo of it in carbon below. It annoyed me, as looked clearly like an after thought/out of place. So I bought some matte black paint and covered all that carbon fiber up with something that looked more like a stock part.

2) These parts are hand made, mine didn’t really 100% fit the factory spot, in that it was a little small around a couple edges and short on 1 side. Again this upset me enough to do something, I ended up getting a sharpie and covering the spacing in black. This really made all the difference, now it really looks like part of the car. It would have been great if the part fit perfectly, but these changes worked.

3) The bottom of the cup holder just shows the screw and looked a little off, plus worried about slight spillage. So I spent $10 and bought a set of 4 (they don’t sell individuals) cup holder liners/coasters ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XBKHWX4/ ) and that really made a big difference. Not only does it hold the drinks a little better, it looks great and ensures moisture from the cups don’t lead down into the car.

Factory Speakers Upgraded with Focal’s

Sun, 31 May 2020 00:36:02 +0000

Yes the engine sounds great, but I wanted a little more out of the speakers also. Didn’t want to go and rebuild the entire cars stereo but I think upgrading the main speaker would help. Short answer, it did!

I ended up buying the EC 165 K from Focal ( https://www.focal.com/en/car-audio/car-audio-kits-solutions/elite/k2-power/coaxial-kits/ec-165-k ) which is a 6.5 speaker with a tweeter built into the center (coaxial style). Being what I could tell the best on the market speaker wise that would easily fit into the 360, seemed like a good choice.

There 1 modification needed to the stock door inset/skin. You’ll need to grind off about 1/4 inch from around the bottom of the skin around the factory speaker opening inside the door. This doesn’t effect anything in the door, but if you don’t do this, you can still install the speaker, it will just push out the door panel 1/4.

I also added dynamat onto the door skin and even bought a boom mat/speaker pocket. The boom mat was to ensure no water gets to the speaker and further finished look.

The factory speaker grill fits back onto the new speakers with 1 slight modification of removing part of the outer rim/between 2 screws, see photo below. With the factory speaker grill added back, honestly you can’t tell visually that the speaker has been upgraded.

Sound wise, even with the factory deck (which I plan on keeping) it sounds much much better. I’m not looking for thumping bass, but more mid and high range sound is very clearly there. I enjoy taking the Ferrari on longer road trips and having nicer audio is a welcomed upgrade.

I bought my Focal speakers via eBay shipped from the UK as was nearly half the cost as buying from a US retailer. The dynamat and boom mat both came from Amazon.

Becker/Factory Stereo Bluetooth Adapter

Sun, 31 May 2020 01:03:46 +0000

Many people change the factory system to an aftermarket stereo, but with most music originating on the phone, simply adding a Bluetooth connection to the factory system is a great option.

After I figured out how to easily add a backup camera and display (outside of needing a new deck/stereo I was very happy to try different Bluetooth options for the factory becker system. Most of the ones I tried did the simple things, in that it connected my phone with the car, but that was about it. Still needed to control everything either via the phone inputs or via an external remote.

I found that the Porsche owners (who also use becker radios) were using a system from Yatour. I bought one and happy to say it works perfectly on the Ferrari factory radios, cost was <$100 from Amazon: amazon.com/dp/B07D9JW6S1

It does give control of the music via the actual factory unit. You are able to control volume, pause, skip back/forward all from the decks buttons. Which is really convenient as being able intuitively tap the pause/mute button makes life so much easier. Then being able to change music, is really nice as feels very factory.

Further features that come with the Yatour that really set it apart are:

1) USB input/power output. The unit actually has a usb port, which can be used to wire connect a phone or another device, but it can also be used to power something. Early on I was using this to power my Garmin/backup camera system, made it nice to not have to figure out how to hire a switched power source.

2) Hands free microphone. This way you don’t have to worry about talking to someone via your phone in the pocket. While the microphone that comes with the system was ok, I didn’t want to clip to my visors so I bought one that I easily mounted under the dash area: amazon.com/dp/B0799PV4Y6

3) If you need it has a 3.5 audio input. This could be helpful if you have a GPS that doesn’t have bluetooth connection, and you want the audio to play via your stereo. Or if you have an old school audio source you want to connect, either-way its nice to have options.

4) While it didn’t come with one, it does accept a wired remote. I bought one via eBay for <$20 as couldn’t find it on Amazon. Just searched for Yatour Remote and found a few sellers in China. While its wired, it does have all the features you’d want included call answer button.

Installing this is really simple, you just need a specialized tool to remove the stereo/head-unit, which can be had on Amazon <$7: amazon.com/dp/B07QLYQRND the right tool is easy to spot out of all the others, as is the only one with a little hook/tip at the end of it. Also its really long, compared to most others. You just push these into the 2 slots at the bottom corners of the stereo and that releases it. Then you can pull on the tool or on the deck itself to pull it out of its slot.

Once the its out, at the back if you have the factory CD changer you’ll have something plugged into the spot you need to plug the Yatour into. Which is the top right corner, you’ll need to unplug the CD changer to use the Yatour. If you don’t have the CD changer, then you just plug in the yatour and then put the stereo back into its slot/spot in the dash. No needing any external power supply or any setup within the stereo.

Now I did do 1 more step/thing, as I wanted to have a more modern interface via the steering wheel. So I tried a few remotes that clip on the outside of the wheel, but it was annoying while turning and looking a little silly.

Then I found a remote from TUNAI that looked interesting, ordered it and was what I wanted. It has a nice tray that elastic band mounts to the wheel, which sits really nicely at the bottom of the wheel where their is the open metal between the airbag and wheel leather. Now its not a perfect factory look, but its really clean and I like it. It’s not the worlds cheapest bluetooth remote at just under $35 amazon.com/dp/B07JQ8Q6X6 but it does fit the car better then others that mount to the round part of the wheel.

Mount Front Plate without Bumper Holes

Sun, 31 May 2020 01:17:59 +0000

The 360 actually came with some space already allotted to a front license plate, but from the factory it didn’t come with the holes to mount it. Nor did mine come with the factory mounting bracket.

Hoped the Ferrari dealer would include it in the sale, but since I bought it from Ferrari Quebec, where they don’t have a front plate law, they didn’t provide it. But here in BC it’s the law and happy to comply.

I did some research and found that a BMW rear plate bracket would not only work it might even work far better then the Ferrari version. Plus it was <$10 via Amazon prime: amazon.com/dp/B07233KS7D/

I like the BMW one more because:
1) Its plastic, so no rush or metal to paint issues.
2) It has rubber pads on the backs of where the plate screws sit. Which is a big plus, as never have to worry about screws hitting the paint.
3) The large middle section makes it fit/form really nicely to the front of the 360.

To install it, I used Gorilla double sided tape to secure it.

Also I took out the 2 brass fitting from its middle section, they’re not needed and would just only add to possible metal to paint problems.

To give the plate an even better look I added a license plate frame, as the plate is slightly larger then the mount and with the frame it wraps to nicely around everything.

Bonus for me was the frame is carbon fiber, so at least my 360 has a little bit of carbon on it, have no intention of going full carbon fiber interior or engine bay, the frames is enough.