Hi all...Firstly, thanks to all who helped me with my sticky (petrol door release) situation the other day, you know who you are. Right then, this is weird. My car was supplied with a new C/belt and service and I was advised to take it easy whilst the new belts 'bedded down'...Don't know if that's got anything to do with the problem, but here's a description: Every so often (usually after I've been travelling for a while at low revs) I loose power response...Not totally, but I'll push the throttle down, the revs climb very very slowly but the car won't go anywhere, well no faster than 30 mph...I then pullover, turn the engine off for a minute...Turn her back on, and it's like there was never a problem, the car behaves fine. A friend of mine suggested that I'm not driving the car right (which is possible as I'm a noob)...He said if you let the oil pressure get too low (by not keeping the revs high enough), that may be the cause. ...I'm not so sure...Gasket??? Failing Cylinder bank??? (god help me if that's the case)...Anybody come across this before? Thanks Mark
Your friend is a funny guy. This feel likes a 'slow down' issue to me. Does your car have the factory cats in it mate?? Is your car a Euro or US Spider? Do you see any "slow down" warning lights on the dash when this happens?
I know what you mean about my friend...He's had 8 TVR's though, so I usually give him the benefit of the doubt I have indeed seen the slowdown light 5/8ths. Didn't think about that, er, what does it mean? M
Simply put, it means that half of your engine is shutting down, and you're driving on the other half. Mike in Kuwait
Just spoken to my local Ferrari Mechanic (Stratstone), who tells me it's likely that my cat ECU's are wet??? He said either seal them, replace them or get Hyperflows. Hmmmmmmm, Capristo stage 3 then.
Further explanation is that your exhaust ECU is reading (usually falsely) that the catalytic converter is overheating and is shutting that side of the engine down to prevent additional heat in the cat system. Often times it is from corrosion in the contact area of the plug for the exhaust ecu, less often from a failed catalytic converter. You can get test pipes to replace the catalytic converters while they are being tested / repaired and simply disconnect the exhaust ECU while the test pipes are in. BT
Ahhhhhhhhhhh, there we go. Just had to remind ya eh? The "slow down" lights mean that your cat convertors are getting too hot. The exhaust ecu's are what usually play up. An easy way to check is to swap them over, from left to right. Or just disconnect the exhaust ecu's all together.
Errrr. yep, sommat like that! Only on page 7 of the operators manual. A steep learning curve???? For sure.
Yep I just replaced one on a friends car. It looks like the epoxy looses adhesion to the plastic case allowing moisture to get in. Not a bad idea for all 348 owners to wipe some silcone RTV around that area. You can do it without removing them from the car. I would take Paps' advice and swap them from side to side. If the problem persists on the same bank you probably have a O2 sensor issue. If the problem goes over to the 1-4 bank you need to replace that cat ECU. Both slow down lights should come on momentarily with the key on. If they don't it's another sign that something is not right with one of the cat ecu's. Do your check engine lights ever come on?
My slow down lights never come on at start up, only check engine lights...Is that normal? Its a 94' spider...
