TLDRIn this video, the narrator recounts their experience with a cheap Ferrari California, which turned out to be a costly mistake. Despite initial appearances, the car had a faulty transmission that could cost up to $50,000 to repair. The narrator also highlights other minor issues like cosmetic damage and interior flaws, emphasizing the poor build quality for such an expensive car. They share their journey of diagnosing the problem, attempting a gearbox adaptation, and ultimately deciding to sell the car due to the high repair costs. The video serves as a cautionary tale about the hidden costs of owning a luxury car and the unreliability of certain Ferrari models.
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this noise supposedly cost $50,000 to
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fix and because of it I swear I'm never
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buying another cheap Ferrari even though
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I've had some success buying other
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bargain exotic and luxury brands with a
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little bit of DIY magic and intuition
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we've repaired and enjoyed Porsches
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Audi's and even a Bentley but when it
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comes to Ferraris either I'm really bad
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at picking them or they're just terrible
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at making them now I'm always looking
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for a deal so I tend to buy Rex
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literally and well that's an obvious
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problem but even in the cases where I've
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just bought a Ferrari that looks like it
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needs a little bit of paint and love
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usually they end up as a worst case
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scenario and that's exactly what
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happened when I picked up this drop top
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California even though it looked pretty
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amazing from just a few feet away the
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fact that the keys were falling apart
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should have been sign enough that I was
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getting myself into trouble again but I
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didn't think much of it because a lot of
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auction cars come with keys that look
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like they're occasionally used as a
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dog's chew toy it's even worse than this
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someone broke the flip up blade off so
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all I've got is this basic valet key
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here I had to get a replacement but of
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course I wasn't going to go to the
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dealership for that because you all know
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replacement keys at the dealership are a
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complete ripoff instead I went to car
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keys Express and ordered a snap key all
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it takes is to select your makeing model
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then pick the key most similar to yours
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I've got this four button one right here
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and last take a few pictures of the
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blade then car keys Express will ship
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you a freshly cut key along with an easy
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installer with the installer plugged
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into your car just open its app and it
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will take you step by step on how to
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sync your new key and once you follow
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these simple steps your key is ready to
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go and as easy as that we've got a fully
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functional replacement key for my new to
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me Camaro without leaving home and even
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better is that a snap key cost up to 75%
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less than what a replacement at the
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dealership would all you have to do is
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visit car keys Express by hitting my
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link down in the description and if
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you've got an extraordinary situation
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like maybe you lost your last set of
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keys they do offer onsite Solutions all
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you have to do is head on over to car
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keys Express now up until pretty recent
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the prices of these California were
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ridiculous they were regularly trading
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hands up to a 100 Grand with mediocre
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examples still fetching around 75,000
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bucks and this one looked pretty
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straightforward in its auction listing
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it didn't say that there was anything
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severely wrong with it just that it had
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some rock chips and curbed Wheels now I
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ended up with this Ferrari kind of on a
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coincidence and here's how that happens
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at the auction I put in a ton of proxy
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bids these are pre- bids that happen
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well in advance of the auction a lot of
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times days before they ever run through
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the block but when I put these in
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they're all super low balls so the
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chance of winning these cars is
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virtually 0% and even if you end up the
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high bidder at a really low price a lot
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of times the dealers will just take them
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and run them another day in hopes that
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they'll get more money so these lowball
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bids don't win your cars usually but
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what they do is they'll generate you a
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report and let you know hey you lost
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these cars today but here's what they
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sold for they'll give you the actual
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sale prices or tell you here's the high
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bid but it didn't sell it gives you a
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lot of great data to go off of that I
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take is real data because biders don't
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lie but book values a lot of times do so
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it just kind of lets me know what the
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market is for these cars I always
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thought that California was selling for
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way more than it's worth and like I said
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these cars are valued at this point in
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time somewhere between like 70 and
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$80,000 and just medium oer condition
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and on the day this auction came I
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wasn't there in person I wasn't
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participating online I just got a call
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from the auction to let me know they had
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saw I was a bidder on this car I wasn't
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even apparently the high bidder but they
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said the dealer wanted to get rid of it
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so bad that whatever my high bid was
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they were willing to sell it to me for
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now I put somewhere in the 50s at that
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point in time I didn't even remember
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what the number was but I'm like that
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car should cost like five figures more
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than I put in so I mean sure sure I kind
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of want it for that low price but how
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bad could it be the one huge advantage
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that I had is that I knew exactly where
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the car was because it was local to me
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and the pictures were in a lot of a
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dealership I'm very friendly with I've
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even shot a video there I told the
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auction representative I'm interested
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but I need a few hours to think about it
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so I'll call you back and I immediately
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got on the phone with my friend that
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worked at the dealership and asked him
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what's the scoop on this red California
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that you guys are wholesaling and so he
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found out all the information he could
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and he said look this car came in on
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trade cosmetically it's pretty rough for
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us and when he says for us they retail
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the highest and most pristine perfect
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exotic cars in the entire area so to me
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anything that's below perfect is
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probably still in pretty good shape
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especially when you consider what some
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of my Ferraris look like and he told me
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that the tech took it for a ride and he
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said the suspension was so shot between
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the Cosmetic stuff on it and the fact
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that the suspension needs to be
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completely replaced he's like we're not
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touching it it could come with more
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problems but it's a cheap price if you
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want it come down pick it up at a price
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like 20 plus thousand under retail how
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could I lose that night I went and
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picked up the new me California and
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hopped on the road and even though it
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came with the check engine light on it
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seemed to run and drive fine except that
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suspension it was really worn the sports
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car rode more like a lincol town car it
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was loose and floaty but then I heard a
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noise coming from the
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rear I immediately thought this noise
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might have been related to the Warren
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suspension it was pretty mild and didn't
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concern me but then I heard it
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again since this was my first time with
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the car and I had immediately felt this
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worn out suspension I figured that the
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noise went along with it and it was
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probably no big deal but as I continued
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down the road and heard it again I
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started paying a little bit more
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attention I turned the radio down
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because it was that subtle of a noise
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you wouldn't hear it with the radio on
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and then I was able to notice more of a
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pattern so if the car was in fifth gear
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and you were coming to like a red light
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and you started slowing down it had to
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be in fifth gear upon deceleration it
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would make this noise almost like a
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little Crunch and then if you stayed in
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fifth gear because the light then turned
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back to green quickly it would make the
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noise again so putting it in manual mode
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keeping at fifth gear decelerating and
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accelerating I could replicate this
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noise every single time time this was
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just so strange it wasn't making that
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noise while it was shifting in gear it
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wasn't making that noise the entire time
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while it was in fifth gear and it was
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shifting perfectly it was shifting
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quickly and it was accelerating just
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fine so I still wanted to believe that
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maybe it didn't have anything to do with
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the transmission maybe something was
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just rubbing up against something and
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that RPM in that gear was causing it and
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well that's quite a bit of wishful
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thinking the only way we're going to
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figure it out is by putting this thing
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up in the air and driving it and see if
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the noise
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[Music]
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remains all right I just unbolted the uh
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lower green Canan here and I'll show you
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what I found see that c someone Flex
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taped LED lights all along the bottom
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panel they're really tight I can't pull
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this out of the way cuz look being held
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on by the cord good news is there's like
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no fluid leaks this transmission is
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known to leak like right under the
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bottommost rear area when it has a
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problem and we don't seem to have that
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but the noise is obviously still happen
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and this freaking tape is really strong
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I want to know who makes this
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tape and I was really hoping to find a
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line or a heat shield rubbing up against
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another moving part but this noise is
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clearly coming from the inside the
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frontmost part of the gearbox and this
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is a huge problem because this specific
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transmission is known to have multiple
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very complex and expensive issues
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especially on the earlier versions in
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that California was one of the first
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cars to use use this gearbox it's made
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by gag and it's the seven-speed powers
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shift Ferrari has put it in almost all
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of their front and Mid Engine cars since
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the California it's also used in the
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latest million dooll 4D GT and a few of
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the Mercedes AMG models so basically
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every single car that uses this thing
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costs well in excess of 100 Grand and
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for that you would think it would be of
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decent quality but even low mileage
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Weekender cars are experiencing these
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problems and leave owners with huge shop
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bills and Ferrari has done little to
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help earlier on when an out of warranty
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customer would come in with a California
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that wouldn't shift or a 458 that was
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leaking hydraulic fluid Ferrari would
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tell them that they need a complete
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transmission replacement sometimes
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costing around
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$50,000 these problems became so
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prevalent that it was finally looked
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into by Ferrari and a few different
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service bulletins were released
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explaining how to repair the most common
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issues and since these were only service
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bulletins and not a recall again if you
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were out of warranty you were out of
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luck on the flip side Mercedes
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recognized these issues with the gearbox
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on the early AMG GT and offered a
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Goodwill extended warranty of 8 years on
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them so even though the typical Ferrari
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owner has Deep Pockets it might spend
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what I did on an entire used Ferrari for
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just a transmission replacement a lot of
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people were totally offended by
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Ferrari's $50,000 solution and that's
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open up the market for independent shops
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to fix these this business must be so
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lucrative for them everybody seems to be
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very tight lipped there's not a single
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DIY article I found online to do your
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own fix but there is one guy who's made
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some really good video videos on this
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specific gearbox his name is Micah and
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he goes by the Hollywood mechanic and he
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has one video outlining every single
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problem he's run into with this specific
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transmission and it's unbelievable
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things from Seals popping out of place
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to wires fraying and sensors failing
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it's clear that it's not one issue it
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could be a range of a million different
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things but the strangest part in our
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situation is that I've never once heard
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of just like a funny noise coming from
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the transmission usually what happens is
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that your car won't move or it will only
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move in a few gears and it's missing
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others and in a lot of cases you'll see
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a bunch of fluid seeping out from
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underneath it and ours is really clean
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there's no fluid not to mention our car
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has like around 40,000 mil on it so I
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figured that this gearbox repair
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replacement had already been done at
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least once so I did reach out to Micah
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and I asked his opinion on it and he
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told me that it's not a guarantee but
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there's a shot that we might be able to
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fix it just by running a gearbox
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adaptation now this is a really simple
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process all you do is plug a diagnostic
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reader hit a few buttons and run your
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adaptation basically I had to hold my
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foot on the brake and you'll see the
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RPMs fluctuate as the gearbox is trying
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to figure out what's going on it's
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probably very technical but I assume
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that it's reporting data back to its
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transmission computer so that it can
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operate properly while you're driving it
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it all seemed pretty quick and painless
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and well here's what happened so after
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doing our adaptation the gearbox warning
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light showed up there and uh it threw a
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couple fall codes in the transmission
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module so couldn't clear them that light
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will not go off until they're cleared
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but we haven't really driven it so let's
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go ahead and drive it now and see our
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noise goes away in fifth
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gear that's not good all right but here
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we're in fifth right now so I'm going to
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let off the
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gas I'm going do it again
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what the heck is going on okay so first
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off it didn't make the noise in fifth
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gear I decelerated and accelerated a
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couple times but I don't know if you
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guys noticed it seems like it's skipping
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some gears definitely skips second gear
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on I'm going to put it in
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uh manual mode
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here so if I downshift yeah you see it
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went from 7th to
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5th so right now we're in
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fifth I'm
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accelerating it would do it every single
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time so we eliminated our noise but we
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also
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eliminated sixth gear and second gear so
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hold I'm going to das
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downshift there's third going down
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another gear oh my
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goodness what a mess now that we have a
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couple gears missing we have the classic
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failed Ferrari get trag gearbox along
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with those missing gears came a few
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trouble codes and they pointed to the
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synchronizers now some of that video I
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showed you earlier from German Auto
13:37
House they had very similar trouble
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codes and they found all sorts of broken
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metal in their gearbox if I was able to
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even Source the parts to repair this
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gearbox things like shift forks and
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synchros uh I would imagine that the
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repair might even DIY cost me over
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$10,000 and I think the takeaway here
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isn't that I bought a cheap Ferrari and
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it came with cheap Ferrari problems I
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think it's that Ferrari started using
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this gearbox again I think with the
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California and they continue to put it
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in every single one of their cars and
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these failures were frequent all the way
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up until like the Ferrari 488 which came
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out eight model years later the fact
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that Mercedes uh issued a extended
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warranty on their AMG GTS when they
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started using this gearbox goes to show
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you that what one car company recognized
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a major issue and the other one put that
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issue
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on uh the car's owners which is well
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unacceptable in my opinion transmission
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issues aside this car had a lot of other
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problems but they were all pretty minor
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and would have made this car a very good
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project Ferrari because for what I paid
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for it around the price of what one of
14:45
those new Nissan Z's cost you've got a
14:46
convertible V8 Ferrari that sounded
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great and it felt pretty darn fast but
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uh I took note of some of those other
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things and I just want to go over them
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with you really quick now the exterior
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cosmetic condition I already showed you
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the rock chips and the curb Wheels but
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one of the funny things that you
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wouldn't see unless you took a close
15:04
look were the headlights they have these
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things that are called Jewels they go
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over the LEDs inside the headlights and
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they're known to just fall apart which
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is a testament to Ferrari's quality a
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$250,000 car has headlight pieces that
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fall apart internally uh Ferrari wants
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to sell you a whole new headlight you
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can basically disassemble it and glue
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back in place all the pieces because
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well they just fall right inside the
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headlight housing I don't know if you
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guys noticed but when I was driving at
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night the gauge cluster was all lit up
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except for the tack so the backlight for
15:37
the TAC was completely out you got to
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take the dashboard apart the dashboard
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needed a little bit of leathery trimming
15:44
anyway so again it would have been
15:46
something you could take to an
15:47
upholstery shop get done while it's out
15:50
fix your little light bulbs back there
15:52
but my God for a much more modern
15:54
Ferrari than what I'm used to these cars
15:56
are pretty poorly put together and this
15:58
is entire time I haven't even brought up
16:00
why the check engine light was on the
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dashboard which on the surface looked
16:04
like a crazy issue it had a crank cam
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correlation code which is exactly what
16:09
we went through on a Porsche Panamera
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recently we had to throw a whole new
16:13
timing kit on it now I don't think this
16:16
car needed a whole new timing kit and I
16:18
don't think it had a severe Timing
16:20
System issue they're just these
16:21
actuators that live under the valve
16:23
covers they break they known to break on
16:26
the Maseratis Ferrari stocks this part
16:29
which tells me that they're replacing
16:31
them all the time they're like 150 bucks
16:33
each it's a few hours on either side so
16:35
again it would made for a great project
16:37
car except for the whole transmission
16:40
situation I sent this car to auction
16:43
with a mechanical issue disclosure and
16:45
luckily I bought it right so I didn't
16:47
lose anything on it I literally broke
16:49
even and it sold very quickly goes to
16:51
show you people still want to live out
16:53
their dream of owning a cheap Ferrari
16:55
until they find out there is no such
16:57
thing now I hope you guys learned
16:59
something from this video if you did be
17:00
sure to give it a huge like and if
17:01
you're not already following me on
17:03
Instagram where I post new projects to
17:05
the channel before they go live here
17:07
well just follow me or hit the link down
17:09
in the description I can't thank each
17:10
and every one of you enough for watching
17:12
today and I'll catch you very soon
17:15
[Music]
17:29
he
