Awhile back I posted on Maserati Life that I had a creaking, squeaking noise coming from my guage cluster. I took it to Desert European and they said it was $735 to fix as I am out of warranty, but had I been in warranty it was a Bulletin that was a free fix...

Fast forward a few weeks later Karen Hayes, the Consumer Affairs Manager from Maserati North America sends me a PM and says that she would be happy to fix the problem for free. All I had to do was show up at a dealership and meet with Eric Deck, the Technical Field Manager and he would have the dealership fix.

So, today I went to Beverly Hills Ferrari/Maserati and they fixed it. No more creaking!

And Eric was cool enough to take me for a ride in my car down PCH and show me the wonders on the Duoselect and how intuitive it really is. He threw it into reverse at 70MPH and ...nothing happened! Then tried to downshift into first gear at 70MPH... it won't do it! I was sweating and at that point turned up the AC.

A couple other things he showed me is that in "Manual" without "Sport" on the F1 transmission will shift at redline automatically. In "Sport" the harder you press on the gas while shifting, the faster the shift happens. Also, he told me that about 90% of the clutch wear comes from 1st gear engaging. So for those that are replacing clutches every 10K miles, you need to be gentle when starting and not "stab" the throttle. Thats what wears it as well as Reverse or up hills. He had a customer that had 120,000 miles on the same clutch!!

Some say the Duoselect is "problematic," but its the same gearbox as a Ferrari F430 according to Eric. I have never heard a F430 driver tell me the F1 transmission is "problematic." So I think it all comes down to driving styles. Anyway, I'm really happy with how Maserati takes care of its customers.

 

Damn I had the squeaking on my 07 that was still in warranty, coulda had it fixed.

Oh well, sold now

 

I love mine too and it is good to learn more about the trans. I have numerous Porsches and Audis but the Maserati is unique, beautiful and a blast to drive.

 

Thumbs up to Maserati NM. They have been absoutely great to deal with.

Perhaps it is because it is a low-production car, but they REALLY take care of their owners and are very responsive.

Glad to hear they took care of you. Did they have to replace the gauge cluster or just tighten some things up?

 

I think they replaced the housing and then put felt washers on the mounts. Real quiet like now.