360 fuel sending unit replacement

My 360 has that problem where the gas gauge only read 3/4 full when the tank is filled up completely. In speaking with FNA and Ferrari dealers, I am told it's the sending unit (not sure if there are two units or just one). Anyway, my question is this: has anyone replaced this themselves? And if not, has anyone gotten it replaced without charge? The Ferrari dealers say it's not covered under any sort of recall, etc, but it seems that since the car was shipped with a defective fuel gauge, perhaps it might fall under some sort of emission warranty or something.

Anyone have any info either way? My life won't come to an end if I have to pay out of pocket to fix it (or fix it myself), but naturally it would be nice if Ferrari paid to fix some of these things that you assume should work on the car.

If anyone has any details on DIY replacement or what's involved, or anything that would be great. Or any experience with getting the dealer to cover the tab. Thanks!

Ray

 

okay, that sounds good... does anyone have a link handy?

Ray

 

Do you happen to recall what was done? I am not sure if it's a software issue or an actual sending unit issue. I have a call into FNA, but am still waiting to hear back.

Ray

 

Yeah, FNA called me back and gave me the same sort of run around with the "was it documented". Hey dude, it doesn't freaking work and you built the car Anyway, do you happen to know if the issue is the sending unit itself or a software problem? I could have sworn someone at FNA told me it was a software issue, but don't quote me on that.

I'm guessing it's something with the arm in the tank. I checked the shop manual and it doesn't look like it's fun to gain access to that. I haven't checked the car yet. Perhaps removing the engine bay panel will show where it is.

If I wanted to fix it myself, is it just a matter of swaping a new sending unit/pump assembly into the tank or what?

BTW, Ferrari of SF quoted me ~ $1800 for the job.

Ray

 

I'm about ready to get in there and start bending things

Okay, I found a photo of the 360 with the engine panels removed. I think I see where the top of the pump assembly is. It appears the float is on the left side tank. I can tell already this isn't going to be a fun job...

 

So what exactly is required to do this yourself. If Ferrari charges $1800, that means it's really a 2 hour job for anyone else. So the problem is the sending unit arm or what? Or do you have to get a whole new updated pump with a new arm and float?

And then what.. you have to set the level manually? Why don't you just bolt it in and go? Is there some sort of adjustment you have to fiddle around with or what?

Ray

 

What is the adjustment process? You take the sending unit out, then do what? Adjust the arm? Bend it? What.

Am I correct that it does require a new sending unit, or is it possible to take the existing one and bend something and/or make an adjustment?

Ray

 

I spoke with FNA today and they indicated that you can replace just the arm (the sending unit). I've ordered the part and will effect the repair. I'll keep everyone posted as to the final results

Ray

BTW, I noticed my fuel gauge has a different picture/look than my friend's 360. Mind says "unleaded fuel only" across the bottom and the gas pump pic is on the right. On my friend's car, it's just bars and no wording. Is there some way to push some buttons and change the view or is this just a change ferrari made between model years 2001 and 2002 or something?

 

Okay, it's finally done! I just finished installing the new sending unit in the fuel tank on my 2001 360. I started around 11:00 pm and finished at 4:15 am - so about 5 hour job. I haven't replaced the engine compartment panel/drip rail yet, because I want to drive the car and double check for leaks, etc - so that will add 20 minutes to the total job time.

I have taken a lot of photos of the job and will upload them later. I'm going to run down to the gas station in a little bit here and fill up the tank. Hopefully it will read correctly. According to FNA, if you just switch the sending unit to the new arm style and make sure you get the parts back in the exact same alignment, then it should work fine the first time. So we'll see. Whatever it reads, that's going to be what I live with more than likely, because that is not a fun job.

After doing the job myself, there are a few tips (which I will post when I upload the photos) that may help other people if they after attempt this job themselves. If I had it to do again, I think I could probably shorten the time down to 3 to 4 hours if required.

Anyway, as Brian says, it's not fun. It's not the most difficult job in the world as far as automotive work goes, but it's rather tedious and you have to work slowly and in a tight area (and sort of upside down).

After filling up the tank, I'll post a full write up with photos and tips, etc. Thanks to everyone for their help, especially Brian. If this fixes the fuel gauge problem on my car, then it will mark the final "thing needing to be fixed" on my 360 since I purchased it

More to come...

Ray

 

Yes, it's working perfectly! I'm about to post the follow up with photos

I've always been a night owl. I sleep when I'm tired. These days, I've been getting to bed around 7 am and getting up around 4 pm - crazy I know, but I enjoy playing on the computer at night

Ray

 

Okay, just got back from the gas station. The car took 21.x gallons of gas.

Here is how it went:

So when I fired up the car (after putting everything back together), the gauge read exactly where it did when I took the old sending unit out. So that was a good sign. I fired up the car and woke everyone for half a city block up - then headed down town to get some gas. I took my halon fire extinguisher with me just in case!

At first (one block down the street), I thought gas was spraying inside the engine compartment. False alarm: it turned out I drove by someone watering their lawn and the drops were on the outside of the glass. Phew! I thought for a second I had sprung a leak on a fuel line

At the gas station, I filled up the tank and topped it off as much as I could. Got in the car, turned the key to 'on' and sure enough, it showed full! Success!!!

Okay, so here is the run down. Plus, I have a bunch of photos to post. First a few tips and comments:

This job is not super hard, but you need to go slow and know what you are doing. Unless you do a lot of work on cars, I would suggest hiring a shop to do this. Also, working around gas is a little un-nerving if you have never done it before. Since gas will tend to spill here and there while doing this job, make absolutely sure the motor and exhaust system are ice cold. Also, make sure to have plenty of paper towels handy.

You'll need Ferrari part # 194140, which is the updated sending unit and arm. On the older 360's, the sending unit arm has a round float. To correct the "only showing 3/4 full" problem, you need to order part # 194140, which has the cylinder float and a slightly different bend. I got mine from:

http://www.eurospares.co.uk

I forget the cost, but it wasn't much. Maybe $100 or $200 or something. You can probably also get it from http://www.ricambiamerica.com (just search the part # above and/or give them a call).

You will also need a strap wrench and some decent tools.

FIRST - you are going to need to drive the car and use up most all of the gas in the tanks. When the big orange/red fuel indicator comes on (where the ASR icon is), you still have 5 gallons to go. So you need to drive until the last bar of the gas gauge starts to flash. This means you have about 2.5 gallons left. Once the bar starts flashing, you should have about 3 or 4 inches of gas in the bottom of the tank. That should be about right.

*** IMPORTANT: Before working on the car (especially when gas is involved), ALWAYS CUT THE POWER to the car by turning off the master battery switch under the front hood (in the luggage compartment) ***

Okay, once the power is turned off, you'll need to remove the gas strut on the left side of the engine compartment. Just take a flat little screw driver and pull the clip away from the plastic a bit (you'll see the clip where it attaches to the ball) - you don't need to remove the clip. Just pull it up about 1/8" or 3/16" and the strut should pop right off. You'll need to support the engine lid with something, since the remaining strut can't support the lid.

Next, remove the allen head screws that hold the engine panel / drip rail on. Once those are all removed, you can lift the engine panel / drip rail out. Note that the screws may have blue thread lock on them, so they come out a bit rough. Also, the two on the bottom (across from the plenum covers) have nuts on the back that can slip and fall - so be careful with those two. The rest have nuts that are welded in place, etc.

Once all that is done, and you remove the panel, you can see the stuff behind it. Now is a good time to take a rag or a brush, etc. and clean the dust and dirt off the gas tank where you will be working. Since you have to remove a bunch of stuff, you don't want debris falling into the gas tank.

You'll see the big white ring nut that holds the left side fuel pump in place. The sending unit is hanging off the inside of the bottom of the pump. The fuel pump assembly is long and it's sort of spring loaded. So when you release it, it will want to pop up about 3 inches. However, even after you remove the large white plastic ring, not much will give. You have to remove the ring however, in order to access the 8mm bolts that hold down the flange to the tank.

Ferrari sells a tool to remove this ring, but who knows how much that costs. For $9.99 I found a strap wrench at the hardware store that worked fine. Before moving the ring, mark where it is set (see photos) - this will help you when it comes time to re-tighten everything. You also want to mark an index mark showing the relation between the top white plastic part and the aluminum flange. This is important when it comes time to reassemble everything, since you don't have much leeway when it comes to getting the angle correct (if you get the angle messed up, the arm for the sending unit could be pinched and/or out of alignment.

Before you can gain access to the 8mm nuts, you'll need to unhook several hoses, as well as the wiring harness to the pump assembly. If you look, there are two orange round things that go into the tank. If you turn those, you can unhook them and pull them straight up. It only takes about 1/4 turn or so and they should release. Release the other end of the hose (mark everything so you know what goes back where) and remove the one near the back of the car. On the one that is more to the front, you can just pop the orange thing out, then push the hose out of the way (you don't need to unhook the other near the window).

There are also two round modules or something back towards the back of the car (under the ledge), which each sit in a rubber housing that slides onto some little metal clips on the frame. If you push the rubber part, you can get them off the metal clips and push them out of the way. There is also a big hose that slides onto an aluminum fitting that you will need to unhook and push out of the way.

On my car, there were two wire ties holding some of the harness. Cut the wire tires so you can get that wire out of the way. Once you've done all this, you can unhook the wiring harness that goes to the pump assembly. There is a yellow safety clip.. push that out first. Then the harness will snap off like normal (there is a little black clip you have to lift up).

Keep in mind that the hose which runs to the top of the white plastic part is your feed to the fuel rail. As such, when you remove it, it will probably drip gas all over the place - have some paper towels ready. Also, after you unhook this, keep it above the level of the fuel rail, or it will syphon gas back out.

Once you have everything out of the way, then you need to remove the sound deadening pad above the area where you are working (see photos). There are 3 black "screw in" washer things that hold this in place. Just be careful not to drop them. Unscrew those and coax the padding out.

** NOTE: removing the padding is very important, because you need that extra 3/4 inch of clearance in order to work the pump assembly up and out of the tank. If you don't remove the pad, it's nearly impossible to get the pump assembly out of the tank.

Okay, once everything is clear, you can start to remove the 8mm bolts that ring the flange and secure it to the gas tank. Keep in mind that the pump assembly is spring loaded, so there is upward pressure on this flange. As you get to the final couple of bolts, be careful, since the flange will want to pop up. Once you remove the final couple of bolts, the flange should pop up... watch the O-ring, so it doesn't fall into the tank / down the assembly. You should be able to work it up and around and take it completely off (if you can removed a woman's bra with one hand, you'll be fine

Okay, now the tricky part. The pump assembly sits in a cup that is down inside the tank. Also, the sending arm is hinged and pointing back toward the rear of the car (it sort of moves up and down in the same plane as the face of the side of the car). To make matters worse, the sending arm rides up and down in a slot (about 1 inch wide) inside the tank. It's sort of a baffle affair. So in order to remove the pump assembly, you need to come up and also guide the sending unit arm out of its slot. It's not pretty, but twist and turn a little bit. If you can get the aluminum flange (the one with all the bolt holes in it) to pop off the white plastic part (it's on there with a black gasket), that will help. If those two come apart, then you can twist the flange out of the way and stick your arm down into the tank to help work things up and out. I had to be a little rough with things to get it out, but don't go crazy. Also, once you get things free, try to dump some of the gas out of the bucket on the bottom of the pump assembly before you bring it clear out. Have a lot of paper towels ready to absorb the gas either way.

Once you get the pump assembly out, you will be able to see the sending unit. It slides onto the pump assembly and is held in place by two plastic press clips (look closely and you can see them). Just depress them and the whole thing should slide right out. Now you can slide the new sending unit (part # 194140) into place. You'll also need to run the wires to the underside of the assembly. I just slid the old ones out and ran the new wires (from the new sending unit) under the wire ties that were already there without cutting anything. To detach the electrical clip where it attaches, there is a little tab that sticks up.. just push on that and slide it the contact off.

** NOTE: the two red leads from the new sending unit are separated by a small piece of plastic. Make sure you push the leads on far enough so they aren't able to touch each other (in other words, so the plastic between them and is keeping them isolated). The last thing you want is a short inside your fuel tank - so pay attention to what the heck you are doing. While electrical wires can be submerged in gas without any problem, electrical arcing will cause bad bad things to happen. Make sure your connections are secure.

The arm for the new sending unit has a bend in it. You'll want to make sure the angle of the bend is 97 degrees. It should come from the factory like this, but you don't want to find out that it was bent in shipping to 85 degrees after you install it. Just look to see if it's slightly more than 90 degrees, as 7 degrees is difficult to see given the length of the arm.

Once you have the new sending unit installed and wired up to your pump assembly, it's time to re-install. Assembly is very straight forward. It's basically just the reverse of taking everything off and goes very fast.

When you install the pump assembly, keep in mind it must sit in the cup at the bottom of the tank. You also want to make sure not to bend anything during installation. It's easier to guide things in when you are installing stuff (as opposed to when you are trying to get the pump assembly out), since you can see where the sending unit arm is as it goes in. This is also where your index marks you made come in very handy - they allow you to get the sending unit arm in the proper alignment again. Nevertheless, when you are installing the assembly, it helps to get your arm down in the tank and make sure the sending unit arm is in the slot where it rides and that the float has gotten into the 1 inch wide slot inside the tank.

Once you get everything set in place, you should be able to make final adjustments and push the white plastic part down into the aluminum flange. Don't install the big white ring yet, since you have to install the bolts that hold the flange to the tank before this is put back on. A helpful tip here is to put anti-seize on the 8mm bolts, since this will make re-torquing them much smoother. Keep in mind these are only 8mm bolts, so you don't need to go crazy when you tighten them down. Also, they thread into aluminum, so take it easy. BTW, don't forget to re-install the O-ring that goes between the tank and the flange.

*** TIP: Once you have everything lined up, you can verify that the sending unit arm is in the proper position and working by looking through the small hole near the back of the tank (this is the hole where you removed the orange thing that has a hose on it). Take a flash light and shine down in there, you should be able to see the arm in its slot. You should also be able to use a long wooden dowel (1/4" diameter or so) to reach down into the tank and lift the sending unit arm up and down. Use the dowel to verify the sending unit arm has no problem moving up and down and make sure it doesn't hit anything and/or that it is not pinched in any way inside the tank. Once you verify this, then finish re-torquing the 8mm bolts to secure the flange to the tank. After that is done, you can re-install the large white plastic ring that holds down the pump assembly into the tank. Make sure all your index marks are aligned, then use the strap wrench to tighten the ring back so the marks line up (see photos). After this, verify again that the sending unit arm is not pinched on the inside of the tank and moves freely.

From there, just reconnect all the hoses and the wiring harness. Make sure the connections are tight. Reinstall the sound deadening pad and install the 3 plastic nut/washers that hold it in place.

At this point, you should be able to turn the power back on to the car and verify that everything is working. If everything went well, the gas gauge should read approximately where it did when you started the job. Re-install the gas strut for now and start the car up and check for leaks. If everything looks okay (I still would suggest having a fire extinguisher handy), then you can head to the gas station and fill up the tank.

If everything worked as it did in my case, then your gas gauge should read full for the first time since the car was built Once you confirm that all the hoses are dry and there is no gas smell and/or leaking, you can reinstall the engine compartment cover/drip rail.

That's about it. In my case, I'm also going to drive the car until the gauge reads about half full and fill up again - just to verify that the car takes about 12 gallons of gas (the fuel tank size is 24.7 gallons total) when the gas gauge shows half full..

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me know and/or post here. Again, a big thanks to Brian, as well as FNA, for all the help with this. I tell ya, seeing that gas gauge read properly for the first time was awesome. I just sat at the gas station for about 3 minutes taking pictures of it and smiling

Speaking of pictures, following are some of the more helpful photos I snapped while doing the job. If you do this job yourself, go slowly and don't rush. If you take your time, it will come out great in the end.

Ray

 

BTW, here is a handy page from the parts manual. This is the page I used as a reference when doing this job on my car.
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