355 Road Handling...

Im qurious to hear about your 355:s. How do they handle on the road?

I know that these cars are "tricky" to drive, but in some way my -95 feels like a kangaruu on the road... The wheel alignment has not been set correct in a couple of years, as far as i know, but it feels extremely rough and wild when pushing it. When throttled hard, i get the feeling that the rear end wants to break out(Not wheelspin though, hehe..), and this tells me that the bushings in the rear frame must be replaced, but im unsure. It also throws the front from side to side(more than normal) when accelerating hard, or when the road is just a little uneaven... Yes, the tires are brand new, Yokohama:s 235-35-19 in front, and 295-30-19 at the rear.

You really have to work hard with the car to be able to drive it safely, it feels sometimes.

Anyone recognise this kind of "bad handling" ? Anyone changed the factory wheel alignment specs for better handling? More negative camber maybe?

If i need to change the bushings, wich i am planing to do this winter when i take the engine out, can i get some better bushings from somewhere?

What are the symptoms if one coilover/electrical shock has broken bad?

Anyone tuned the original electrical damping, maybe opened the shocks and re-schimsed them with good results?

Any other ideas?

Regards, Kimmo / Sweden.

 

You obviously have non-stock wheels, so be sure they are properly balanced. And get a good alignment. My car is rock solid at go-to-jail speeds.

 

Seriously, somethings not right with the car. You need to have a very experianced Ferrari mechanic check the car for any defects or set up problems. The problems you are having, are NOT normal at all. I would just hate to see ya get hurt if something was not set up right with your ride.


Darrell.

 

What he said.

I suspect with the wider-than-stock tires you now have more grip than the suspension was designed to handle, plus the car's 13 years old so the bushings may need replacing, as you noted.

 

sounds like your absorbers may be due for a change. I have recently done mine and the car feels good again. Had similar feel to yours before this.

 

Nice 1st post.

Only took you 4 years to get it out.

You should post more often tuneman.

 

Thats what I would do........if you havent already done it Kimmo.

 

The first thing I do when I get a car is replace all fluids, install new brake pads, new tires and have a four wheel alignment done by Johnsons Alignment in Torrance, wether it needs it or not. If there are any worn parts they get replaced at that time. It takes a big variable off the table.

 

I have a set of HRE with 255/30/18 fronts and 295 rears and the car handles and brakes great. Somethin wrong with your alingment.

 

Is there snow on the ground yet in Sweden?

 

Yes and the ice bears are now walking the streets ;-) No seriously today we had about 18 degrees C (64 F) So there is still time to drive our Ferraris, at least here in Gothenburg

 

L O L* Snow? Hell, i drive a 355, i dont need any snow to drift/fly around...

And - its a bit far for me to drive to Johnsons Alignment in Torrance, just to get the chassies aligned ;O

Seriously, this issue is not in the wheels/Rims. They are perfectly balanced, with brand new Yokohama Advan Sport. I have driven several cars with 18, 19, 20, 22 inch wheels and never had any problems(Only with a Bmw Z4, wich had the originally mounted 18 inch non flat´s, they really sucked...) Allthough im well aware of the thing with bigger/wider rims/tires, and the problems this can give a car.

My 355 also has the 30 k major done last winter, so most things are checked for only a while ago. By the way it also has new brakepads and rotors, so this is definetely not the question here. More likely it has with the shocks to do, or the alignment is really wrong. Maybe the bushings are bad too - maybe all these things together makes my car go like a kangaroo on the road. Im still gonna take the engine out this winter and check everything, so i will replace ALL the bushings in front and rear just to be sure. Also i will get thicker adjustable roll/sway-bars(dont know wich name is correct here) with knifes and uniballs, to get the handling improved. The question is also, is it worth to replace these original electric shocks/coilovers with a aftermarket product maybe? Anyone done this? I have very good contact with a Swedish Tuning-company, that makes specially designed coilovers for WRC-cars, STCC-cars, Track-cars and Rallycross-cars, so they can do some serious coilovers(with reservoars) to my car, with either 40 or 50 mm pistons... I had this kind of "legs" on my Supercharged Bmw earlier, and God - they were really something. Very expensive though, but it will definately be worth it again i belive. But, has anyone done this change from the original coilovers to some others..? If so, did the suspension light come on or?

I also have ordered some alignment schims/washers from Daniel at Ricambi, so i will start with a serious wheel alignment, maybe next week or so. Anyone who has done any changes to the Ferrari 355 alignment parameters, to get better/more aggressive characteristics on his car? How did you set it up? More negative camber? Caster? Toe-in? Thankful for advice if so...

tuneman: - Please let me know more about the way your car handled before the schockabsorber-change you did...

Anyone changed the original bushings to better/stiffer ones? Where to get these?

Regards, Kimmo

 

Kimmo,

Alignment for sure! Depends on your driving style and how you plan to use the car for the most part. I usually set up the car to work best for the driver and his skill level. Most all of the setups I have done have been with 18" wheels. sounds like you might be needing a little mre frontal downforce. you can drop the nose of the car to achive this. I usually lower the suspension, front and rear, as low as the owner will permit me to. I almost always stay with stock caster, increase camber on all 4 corners and adjust front and rear toe according to drivers skill and input. Sounds to me like you have excessive toe out on the rear and the front sounds like it's far off the mark too. I recommend going with a front challenge sway bar and staying with the stock rear bar. Tire pressure is a factor too.

Shocks are suspect and should be inspected for leaks and dyno tested. Bilstein can rebuild and revalve them for you. Or you could say screw it and buy this DMS system from me!! http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/FERRARI-355-SUSPENSION-SHOCKS-SPRINGS-NEW-DMS-RACE_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742Q2em153Q2el1262QQcategoryZ33590QQihZ007QQitemZ170246540738 When a 355 is set up correctly, it is one of the most fun cars you will ever drive!


Adam

 

I own a 348, and am not real familiar with a 355. But isn't it also possible that one or more electric shock actuators have failed, or are not adjusting to match the others? Perhaps even the suspension ECU or one or more bad ECU to shock cables? At least I believe 355s have a suspension ECU. I tend to agree with getting the car to someone who can check these things out... and can also change alignment if it's as simple as that. Just some thoughts... like I say.. I'm not a 355 expert at all. I'm sure you'll be much happier once you have it sorted

 

Also using Yokohama on my car for the first time but on 18s and the original tyre sizes. Thought it may have been problems from the tyre change as had a friend with a 348 with similar problems and he tried everything including shocks and ended selling the car in the end.

Car just felt loose of late. When through fast corners, the rear felt like it would step out on me and felt plenty of uneven roll with the body. Even on braking something was not right. I normally run the car pretty hard on the road during our drives. Out over where I am now, in the far east, speed restriction isnt a problem! I would say I would run at 85% of what the car and I can do but of late was just doing 70% or less. Did not feel comfortable running much over 200km, when in the past would easily do 240-250 without hesitation.

Though have not been out on a real hard drive to test it out so far, my initial thoughts are that the change in absorbers have corrected things. I did use a suspension tester to note that the absorbers were weak and fading and the pressure in them where unequal before I went about replacing them. Ie One side would be weaker than the other.

Given that I have owned also a 355 challenge before and had the chance to convert that into road use in the UK some years back, and that I recall recently changing one axle of the absorbers here on my current car, I decided to look for options and have gone for some after market absorbers recommended by my workshop here who has tested and had good feedback from these absorbers that they had replaced for a few customers. They were done by some racing outfit locally.

I dont have the option of the hard or soft setting anymore but to be honest I didnt feel much difference on my current spider. Hence also for now dont have to worry about leaking absorbers damaging the actuators.

Hope info helps.

 

Kimmo
I did some work on my car a while ago and documented it in this thread. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=172287

ferrari.ace: About the challenge sway bar. How com you recommend only changing the front and not rear? I am planing to change sway bars this winter and got a little curious about your advice...

 

Oh thats very dangerous. We have bevear walking our streets.
Your allignment and camber need to be set up. The springs on the 355 will last for ever.

 

DON T FORGET , if you have "a wrong ground clearance",you ll have consequently a wrong alligment(even if you make the good allignment numbers) .
The first thing "to adjust before" making an alignment is "the ground clearance front & rear" because numbers are differents.

 

Johan6504: - Nice thread... Eller ska man säga, bra info i den tråden..?

Sorry guys, the Swedlanguage broke through...

Kimmo...