Gransport Sport Button/ Skyhook Problem

Pgp340

New Member
Messages
17
Good evening. Hope someone has come across this problem before.

I have 2006 GS Spyder that has a few minor issues. One of these issues is a sport button which, activates the flap on the exhaust, improves the gear shifting but does absolutely nothing to tighten the suspension in normal driving or in cornering....I have no suspension light on the dash either.

I have taken the car to the Ferrari/ Maserati dealer and they could not find out what is wrong. I have a second suspension ECU and neither made a difference.

I also have an occasional vibration (at lower speeds, anything lower than 120 km/h) that is felt in the steering wheel but this may not be correlated.

The car has new wheels, tires are good, performed a wheel balancing twice in a month, and a wheel alignment and this has made no improvement.

Tonight after a lovely drive at 150 km/h...where she is soft but stable and not bouncy at all....I know what worn shocks feel like and I don't think this is the issue....I parked the car in the garage and measured the ride height.
To my surprise the car has the same height all around except on the rear right side which is 5 mm lower.

Now the questions are

  1. is it normal for one side to be lower than the rest when parked and turned off ?
  2. What happens to the skyhook system if one shock is not responding...does it operate the other shocks or does it go soft on all corners ?
  3. what would the expert suggest to check next ?

again the vibration may or may not be correlated so I don't want to confuse the issue...to me the ride height has to be a tell tale sign that something is wrong.


Really appreciate if someone can help.

Thanks
Paul
 

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philw696

Member
Messages
25,113
Right rear side broken coil spring ?
Also the side of the battery ?
Have you looked at the shocks are they skyhook ?
 

Rex B

Member
Messages
657
Hi

I have a GS spyder and the occasional vibration you have is probable just because its a spyder, mine is fine at higher speeds but I do get some small vibrations on some road surfaces. With regard to the suspension I would think it is quite easy for a car to have a 5mm right height difference these cars are now 15 years old, or as yours is left hand drive perhaps its been set up at sometime in the past so that it is level with the driver in the car. I would also suggest that you check that its has skyhook damper as some GS just has fixed rare shock absorbers

Rex B
 

Pgp340

New Member
Messages
17
Thanks for the feedback.
The odd thing is that it’s only the right rear wheel that is different from the other three.

I have tried disconnecting it and it does not give me a suspension error.
If I disconnect the ECU would the car ride hard ?

If one shock does not respond does the entire system stay soft ? If it was broken it would ride hard from what I read.
Even the Ferrari dealer can’t figure it out.

Can anyone help ?
 

TimR

Member
Messages
2,654
Several folk report that unplugging the Skyhook ECU does not result in an error code/warning...The car defaults to a hard setting however; as it would if it detected a failure somewhere in the system ( struts for example), I believe....
 

Oneball

Member
Messages
11,071
Here’s a thought; maybe the sport button isn’t sending a signal to the suspension ecu, it’d be interesting to see how the skyhook vs non-skyhook button is wired.
 

Pgp340

New Member
Messages
17
Hi

I have a GS spyder and the occasional vibration you have is probable just because its a spyder, mine is fine at higher speeds but I do get some small vibrations on some road surfaces. With regard to the suspension I would think it is quite easy for a car to have a 5mm right height difference these cars are now 15 years old, or as yours is left hand drive perhaps its been set up at sometime in the past so that it is level with the driver in the car. I would also suggest that you check that its has skyhook damper as some GS just has fixed rare shock absorbers

Rex B

I took the wheels off and found that someone did not install the ball joint properly and the nuts holding the top ball joint to the upper control arm and chewed up and they are at different distances....makes me think its installed badly and crooked. I tighten the bolts and its now better but wont last long. ball joint on order....will wait patiently then install a new one then get an alignment.
 

tulit

Member
Messages
110
I took the wheels off and found that someone did not install the ball joint properly and the nuts holding the top ball joint to the upper control arm and chewed up and they are at different distances....makes me think its installed badly and crooked. I tighten the bolts and its now better but wont last long. ball joint on order....will wait patiently then install a new one then get an alignment.

Do you have a photo? Curious to clarify what you are describing?