355 Owner ................. Further thoughts
Discussion
Hi Guys, just a follow on from my other post really, was going to title the post 2nd thoughts but that would be a bit missleading.
So had the car 5 weeks yesterday, have done the normal trips to friends and family just to get there and come back again just for the drive, one decent sunday morning blast, and last weekend our annual Le Touquet weekend with Porsche Club France which was a 300 mile or so round trip so slowly getting to grips with the car and its personality etc.
When I bought the car or very soon after I could see it had a few little things that needed doing, as mentioned in my first post after an 8 hour trip home after I collected the car we came to a standstill on the M25 for the tunnel, gauges all slowly went north and oil south and I began to panic so turned the car off, we got going again and gauges slowly went back to what I deem normal which is dead center (could someone confirm please) .
Next morning a good look round and checking levels found that I ended up putting half a gallon of water and and 2 litres ish of oil in the car,further investigation of the service history showed an advisory of corrosion to the radiators, they appear not to have been replaced so I decided to give them a good inspection, they are not the best but could find no sign of water leaks anywhere (have checked garage floor)so seems functionally ok, I did however find that the offside electric fan did not appear to be working whilst the nearside was fine, stripped out the inner wheel arch to gain access and powered up the fan and all was well, I checked the fuse and relay to find fuse had blown, swapped fusses and relays around replaced etc and seems to be working fine now, both fans appear to kick in at 190c, interestingly enough if I turn car off after a long run (or when at 190)when I turn ignition only back on only the nearside fan works, start the car and both fans spin up, Is that normal can someone confirm ? seems unusual to me.
So French trip looming, I noticed one front tyre on wear bars and other whilst ok tread wise was cracked, obviously I noted this (wear) at purchase but decided although I could do without cost at present best to replace, ebay suggested pirelli pzero's were around £110 plus postage, so with those numbers in mind contacted my local tyre man I always use and he quoted me £115 plus vat fitted at home, as I would have paid him to fit it anything from ebay made sense to pay a few quid extra and keep him sweet, job done came to £276.
Car has a Ferrari 360 head unit fitted, looks nice but cd not working, will investigate over winter maybe but I wanted to connect up my ipod somehow, bit of research on ebay and found a Becker unit and lead that plugs into the back of the headset where the cd changer would normally go, couldnt get to work at first as I have no owners manual for the head unit (anyone with a 360 reading that could loan me the book to copy I would appreciate) but sorted in the end after pressing numerous buttons etc.
5am start last saturday as we had to be at the hotel in france for breakfast meet before the run, have known all the guys for 10 years or more now and was looking forward to seeing there faces when I turned up in a ferrari for a porsche weekend !!
Leaving home first thoughts as ever are what utter crap roads we have in this country, car is awful even I note with front dampers replaced, cant make my mind up if the electric suspension switch actually does something or not, sometimes I think yes sometimes no, maybe it makes no difference and its just mind over matter type thing.
Cruises nice at 85mph,something to note Eurotunnel now appear to put all low cars on with the vans to ensure you dont clip the narrow lane kerbs on the train (the van train is wider).
Into france and there autoroutes put our motorways to shame, even there country lanes ride better than our A roads, where did it all go wrong ?.
Club members reacted as expected, only Paul the english would do and get away with turning up in a ferrari ! was informed anyone else would have been turned away ... they love me.
So to the ride out, I really cant get to grips with this throttle, i said before its heavy but worse than that it has really long travel, I would say double that of a 911 or seems that way, I think its not helped by the fact that the 911 makes its power a lot lower down the rev range whilst the 355 is all top end, very easy as I said before to kid yourself that the car is a not very quick, you really have to floor it and wring its neck to get it to go, and then jesus it does, just im not used to doing that.
Does anyone know of any quick action throttle set up for the 355 ?
Flying around, stop start, car likes a drink for sure, suprisingly good on a sensible run as reported last post.
Heating and cooling system seems utter rubbish, would concede that the air con wants gassing or may not be working but even the fan on full gives about as much blow as .... well you know, anyway can anyone confirm that even on full you dont get a great deal of air movement as in blow from the vents ?
Spent most of the weekend too warm in the car even with the windows down to listen to the soundtrack, have wired exhaust valve to open all the time and its not bad, not exactly what I want but will do for now, will look out on ebay for a used system over winter or if anyone has or knows of a tubi or caprissto going up for sale please contact me, not sure I can bring myself to spend £2.5k on an exhaust however good they sound, I notice nouvolarri have them around £800 here, and someone in the states has at around £500 plus taxes etc so similar money, looking maybe to the states idea just to be different to the rest of you, if I dont like I can sell easy enough I guess.
Car needs an annual service just to keep the book up to date but this can wait or will have to until Nov / Dec time just so I can get a 2011 stamp in the book.
Not sure who to use at the moment, Foskers are 5 mins up the road and KHPC 40 mins or so away.
Foskers makes sense but never seem to get any warmth when I go in there although I have never bought anything from them, and hear that they are expensive for an indie.
KHPC in maidstone get very good reviews,and seem good value and service.
On a seperate subject slightly, I visited them before I bought my car for a general chat and look around the cars, asked the salesman (the younger bloke)if he had anything within my budget to be told no and you will find it difficult to find one at that level, he tried to sell me one approx 10k over my budget but had to walk away before I did anything silly, anyway, me and my lad had a ride out and ended up at KHPC just for a general look at something Ferrari really and Foskers shut on saturday pm, no agenda other than a look in the workshop maybe and guesstimate as to forthcoming service bill.
Same salesman from before came over to me as I got out of the car, expecting the normal should have bought from us, its falling appart b
kss you normally have to deal with I was totally suprissed, I have to say great respect for the guy and the professional attitude he displayed,spent a good 20mins looking all over the car (like he would if he was going to buy it)and at the end shook my hand and said well done youve got yourself a great little car, sorry we couldnt help with a sale but maybe next time eh. Kind of took me by suprise to be honest, such a professional approach and genuine interest in the car that you dont see much these days, that 20mins may well have earned him a sale of a 360 CS or 430 Scud one day, and more than likely a service contract.
Whilst saying nice things, Marenello, I have just got the paperwork back for my private plate, thought it would be nice to get a set of plates made, tax disc holder, and rear window sticker from the original importer, I ordered them from Steve in the stores at about 11am on thursday, didnt dare ask the price, arrived next day at a cost of £39 all in, again wonderfull service that you dont get much these days.
Plates duly cut down and fitted yesterday to the car, 3 or 4 hour job most spent cleaning the old number plate stickers off but job done and looks nice. I may put a small bike one on the front, standard does not look right to me for the car.
On the lookout for a genuine cover.
Thinking what 360 or 430 challenge wheels would look like in graphite on the car.
Need to fit my battery trickle charger for the winter.
Hoping roads will have dried up in an hour or so to test drive the new number plates :-)
Still open the garage door and see this thing of beauty sitting there and it's mine ! ..... love it.
Regards
So had the car 5 weeks yesterday, have done the normal trips to friends and family just to get there and come back again just for the drive, one decent sunday morning blast, and last weekend our annual Le Touquet weekend with Porsche Club France which was a 300 mile or so round trip so slowly getting to grips with the car and its personality etc.
When I bought the car or very soon after I could see it had a few little things that needed doing, as mentioned in my first post after an 8 hour trip home after I collected the car we came to a standstill on the M25 for the tunnel, gauges all slowly went north and oil south and I began to panic so turned the car off, we got going again and gauges slowly went back to what I deem normal which is dead center (could someone confirm please) .
Next morning a good look round and checking levels found that I ended up putting half a gallon of water and and 2 litres ish of oil in the car,further investigation of the service history showed an advisory of corrosion to the radiators, they appear not to have been replaced so I decided to give them a good inspection, they are not the best but could find no sign of water leaks anywhere (have checked garage floor)so seems functionally ok, I did however find that the offside electric fan did not appear to be working whilst the nearside was fine, stripped out the inner wheel arch to gain access and powered up the fan and all was well, I checked the fuse and relay to find fuse had blown, swapped fusses and relays around replaced etc and seems to be working fine now, both fans appear to kick in at 190c, interestingly enough if I turn car off after a long run (or when at 190)when I turn ignition only back on only the nearside fan works, start the car and both fans spin up, Is that normal can someone confirm ? seems unusual to me.
So French trip looming, I noticed one front tyre on wear bars and other whilst ok tread wise was cracked, obviously I noted this (wear) at purchase but decided although I could do without cost at present best to replace, ebay suggested pirelli pzero's were around £110 plus postage, so with those numbers in mind contacted my local tyre man I always use and he quoted me £115 plus vat fitted at home, as I would have paid him to fit it anything from ebay made sense to pay a few quid extra and keep him sweet, job done came to £276.
Car has a Ferrari 360 head unit fitted, looks nice but cd not working, will investigate over winter maybe but I wanted to connect up my ipod somehow, bit of research on ebay and found a Becker unit and lead that plugs into the back of the headset where the cd changer would normally go, couldnt get to work at first as I have no owners manual for the head unit (anyone with a 360 reading that could loan me the book to copy I would appreciate) but sorted in the end after pressing numerous buttons etc.
5am start last saturday as we had to be at the hotel in france for breakfast meet before the run, have known all the guys for 10 years or more now and was looking forward to seeing there faces when I turned up in a ferrari for a porsche weekend !!
Leaving home first thoughts as ever are what utter crap roads we have in this country, car is awful even I note with front dampers replaced, cant make my mind up if the electric suspension switch actually does something or not, sometimes I think yes sometimes no, maybe it makes no difference and its just mind over matter type thing.
Cruises nice at 85mph,something to note Eurotunnel now appear to put all low cars on with the vans to ensure you dont clip the narrow lane kerbs on the train (the van train is wider).
Into france and there autoroutes put our motorways to shame, even there country lanes ride better than our A roads, where did it all go wrong ?.
Club members reacted as expected, only Paul the english would do and get away with turning up in a ferrari ! was informed anyone else would have been turned away ... they love me.
So to the ride out, I really cant get to grips with this throttle, i said before its heavy but worse than that it has really long travel, I would say double that of a 911 or seems that way, I think its not helped by the fact that the 911 makes its power a lot lower down the rev range whilst the 355 is all top end, very easy as I said before to kid yourself that the car is a not very quick, you really have to floor it and wring its neck to get it to go, and then jesus it does, just im not used to doing that.
Does anyone know of any quick action throttle set up for the 355 ?
Flying around, stop start, car likes a drink for sure, suprisingly good on a sensible run as reported last post.
Heating and cooling system seems utter rubbish, would concede that the air con wants gassing or may not be working but even the fan on full gives about as much blow as .... well you know, anyway can anyone confirm that even on full you dont get a great deal of air movement as in blow from the vents ?
Spent most of the weekend too warm in the car even with the windows down to listen to the soundtrack, have wired exhaust valve to open all the time and its not bad, not exactly what I want but will do for now, will look out on ebay for a used system over winter or if anyone has or knows of a tubi or caprissto going up for sale please contact me, not sure I can bring myself to spend £2.5k on an exhaust however good they sound, I notice nouvolarri have them around £800 here, and someone in the states has at around £500 plus taxes etc so similar money, looking maybe to the states idea just to be different to the rest of you, if I dont like I can sell easy enough I guess.
Car needs an annual service just to keep the book up to date but this can wait or will have to until Nov / Dec time just so I can get a 2011 stamp in the book.
Not sure who to use at the moment, Foskers are 5 mins up the road and KHPC 40 mins or so away.
Foskers makes sense but never seem to get any warmth when I go in there although I have never bought anything from them, and hear that they are expensive for an indie.
KHPC in maidstone get very good reviews,and seem good value and service.
On a seperate subject slightly, I visited them before I bought my car for a general chat and look around the cars, asked the salesman (the younger bloke)if he had anything within my budget to be told no and you will find it difficult to find one at that level, he tried to sell me one approx 10k over my budget but had to walk away before I did anything silly, anyway, me and my lad had a ride out and ended up at KHPC just for a general look at something Ferrari really and Foskers shut on saturday pm, no agenda other than a look in the workshop maybe and guesstimate as to forthcoming service bill.
Same salesman from before came over to me as I got out of the car, expecting the normal should have bought from us, its falling appart b
kss you normally have to deal with I was totally suprissed, I have to say great respect for the guy and the professional attitude he displayed,spent a good 20mins looking all over the car (like he would if he was going to buy it)and at the end shook my hand and said well done youve got yourself a great little car, sorry we couldnt help with a sale but maybe next time eh. Kind of took me by suprise to be honest, such a professional approach and genuine interest in the car that you dont see much these days, that 20mins may well have earned him a sale of a 360 CS or 430 Scud one day, and more than likely a service contract.Whilst saying nice things, Marenello, I have just got the paperwork back for my private plate, thought it would be nice to get a set of plates made, tax disc holder, and rear window sticker from the original importer, I ordered them from Steve in the stores at about 11am on thursday, didnt dare ask the price, arrived next day at a cost of £39 all in, again wonderfull service that you dont get much these days.
Plates duly cut down and fitted yesterday to the car, 3 or 4 hour job most spent cleaning the old number plate stickers off but job done and looks nice. I may put a small bike one on the front, standard does not look right to me for the car.
On the lookout for a genuine cover.
Thinking what 360 or 430 challenge wheels would look like in graphite on the car.
Need to fit my battery trickle charger for the winter.
Hoping roads will have dried up in an hour or so to test drive the new number plates :-)
Still open the garage door and see this thing of beauty sitting there and it's mine ! ..... love it.
Regards
Your radiator fan problem sounds peculiar but may well be an idiosyncrasy of the set up. Someone more knowledgeable will confirm I'm sure.
It's nice to hear a follow up report one month in that goes into some depth of the highs and the odd low from someon who's clearly very enthusiastic about their car.
I'm sure if you did a few paragraphs every other month, you'd get quite a following.
It's nice to hear a follow up report one month in that goes into some depth of the highs and the odd low from someon who's clearly very enthusiastic about their car.
I'm sure if you did a few paragraphs every other month, you'd get quite a following.
Forgot to mention above ..
Drivers seat bolster looking a little sad, have fed with leather care to make supple again before some kind of reconditioning.
Have a mate that runs an E type restoration bussiness who owes me the sale of a car so this will probably be 1st port of call.
Does anyone happen to know what Recaro seat the 355 carbons are based on ?
Drivers seat bolster looking a little sad, have fed with leather care to make supple again before some kind of reconditioning.
Have a mate that runs an E type restoration bussiness who owes me the sale of a car so this will probably be 1st port of call.
Does anyone happen to know what Recaro seat the 355 carbons are based on ?
Congratulations on your purchase, sounds like you are using it as you should! 
Firstly oil level. Being a dry sump system the level should be checked with the engine fully warmed up and preferable running although you can stop it and check quickly. If you do it cold the level can look too low and you can easily add too much.
The temperature gauges do vary more than other cars I have driven and according to other people it's normal. They shouldn't spend too much time in the top half though, if they do then it's usually the fans that are at fault.
Oil pressure can sink lower than looks comfortably right when warm and at idle, again it's normal, however the oil pressure light shouldn't come on.
I seem to remember the fans don't kick in together, one side has the oil cooler so will kick in at a higher temperature, can someone else confirm?
There was a big discussion on fans on Fchat awhile back which suggested the standard spec fans were not the best, good make (Spal) but not ideal for the environment they are in so don't last as long as they ideally should. If they need replacing get them from a Spal supplier and save on Ferrari tax, I have a link somewhere for the suggested Spal replacement.
The AC and interior blowers are not the best but should blow cold. It will struggle on hot days. Bear in mind the AC has to be disconnected and then refilled every time the cambelt is changed so you can use that timescale to gauge if there is a possible problem.
As for an exhaust I have a spare used Quicksilver sat in the garage but having said that if I was you I would wait for a Tubi Evo or Capristo to turn up second hand if you don't want to pay new money. I picked up a Tubi Evo for less than half the new price that had only covered a few thousands miles (I would have preferred a Capristo).
If you are going for a Tubi then make sure it's an Evo version as it has the separate pipe routes right through the box to the tips like the Capristo.
Sort the bypass valve too, wiring it open is not a proper solution. If it's failed though it's certainly better to wire it open than leave it shut. Capristo do a valve that will fail safe in the open position unlike the standard item.
Don't bother with a genuine cover, you can get a better quality multi-layered cover for less or similar money. Check out Covercraft covers.
The only trouble with a cover is you can't easily enjoy it's curves while it's sat in the garage
Firstly oil level. Being a dry sump system the level should be checked with the engine fully warmed up and preferable running although you can stop it and check quickly. If you do it cold the level can look too low and you can easily add too much.
The temperature gauges do vary more than other cars I have driven and according to other people it's normal. They shouldn't spend too much time in the top half though, if they do then it's usually the fans that are at fault.
Oil pressure can sink lower than looks comfortably right when warm and at idle, again it's normal, however the oil pressure light shouldn't come on.
I seem to remember the fans don't kick in together, one side has the oil cooler so will kick in at a higher temperature, can someone else confirm?
There was a big discussion on fans on Fchat awhile back which suggested the standard spec fans were not the best, good make (Spal) but not ideal for the environment they are in so don't last as long as they ideally should. If they need replacing get them from a Spal supplier and save on Ferrari tax, I have a link somewhere for the suggested Spal replacement.
The AC and interior blowers are not the best but should blow cold. It will struggle on hot days. Bear in mind the AC has to be disconnected and then refilled every time the cambelt is changed so you can use that timescale to gauge if there is a possible problem.
As for an exhaust I have a spare used Quicksilver sat in the garage but having said that if I was you I would wait for a Tubi Evo or Capristo to turn up second hand if you don't want to pay new money. I picked up a Tubi Evo for less than half the new price that had only covered a few thousands miles (I would have preferred a Capristo).
If you are going for a Tubi then make sure it's an Evo version as it has the separate pipe routes right through the box to the tips like the Capristo.
Sort the bypass valve too, wiring it open is not a proper solution. If it's failed though it's certainly better to wire it open than leave it shut. Capristo do a valve that will fail safe in the open position unlike the standard item.
Don't bother with a genuine cover, you can get a better quality multi-layered cover for less or similar money. Check out Covercraft covers.
The only trouble with a cover is you can't easily enjoy it's curves while it's sat in the garage
Having owned mine for over 3 years now and doing a lot of my own work and lots of long drives:
1. Covers often come up on ebay, Just keep your eyes peeled.
2. They're old cars so the rads will probably need to be sorted sooner than later. The good news is that they are fairly straight forward to remove and that they can be recored rather than replaced.
3. On the fans, the nearside fan is driven by water temp, however the offside fan is actually driven by oil temp, so if your oil temps are ok, then it may not engage.
4. My aircon is icy cold and the fans blow more than well, so there may be an issue there, likely blocked filters which have never been changed (despite service history)
Happy to help with anything else I can, feel free to PM me. Can also highly recommend a good place for servicing in London
1. Covers often come up on ebay, Just keep your eyes peeled.
2. They're old cars so the rads will probably need to be sorted sooner than later. The good news is that they are fairly straight forward to remove and that they can be recored rather than replaced.
3. On the fans, the nearside fan is driven by water temp, however the offside fan is actually driven by oil temp, so if your oil temps are ok, then it may not engage.
4. My aircon is icy cold and the fans blow more than well, so there may be an issue there, likely blocked filters which have never been changed (despite service history)
Happy to help with anything else I can, feel free to PM me. Can also highly recommend a good place for servicing in London
For the air con, my 348 blows ice cold air - better than my 996 turbo in fact. Fan speed is a little pathetic, but adequate if you wind it up - and the air is cold enough that I usually reduce it to very low speed pretty quickly anyway. So I'd expect 355 air con to be similar if not better.
Thanks for all the answers guys, I forgot an important paragraph.
Whilst waiting for the Eurotunnel home we had best part of a 45.minute wait with the car ticking over all the time, all temperatures seemed fine and it gave it a really good test with no dramas.
One other funny thing, oil pressure normally runs straight up, can't remember numbers to be honest, coming home going up a long steepish hill pressure Rose on the gauge to 3/4 level, normal or just part of the character ?
Whilst waiting for the Eurotunnel home we had best part of a 45.minute wait with the car ticking over all the time, all temperatures seemed fine and it gave it a really good test with no dramas.
One other funny thing, oil pressure normally runs straight up, can't remember numbers to be honest, coming home going up a long steepish hill pressure Rose on the gauge to 3/4 level, normal or just part of the character ?
davek_964 said:
Surely oil pressure depends on a combination of oil temp + engine speed?
When cold, pressure will be higher, and higher revs (which is probably the case when going up hill) means it will be higher. This is normal in any car that has a pressure display.
Yes agreed, car however was at normal operating temperature after a good run up the M20 on the way home, gauge has never been passed dead center, (not stupid enought to try when cold), then suddenly on a long uphillnot going to silly gauge decides to read far more than it ever has, would indicate either faulty gauge or sender maybe, unless they all do it hence my question.When cold, pressure will be higher, and higher revs (which is probably the case when going up hill) means it will be higher. This is normal in any car that has a pressure display.
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