Wires to nowhere?

I was looking around my engine compartment earlier today and noticed a quick disconnect not connected to anything. Right next to it was another one. The first one I noticed was red, the second green and their apparent counterparts are close. The car runs, but the passenger (right hand) side is puttering a bit. I'm getting ready to go out to sea pretty soon and will be gone for a couple months, so I haven't broken the exhaust apart to check the pre-cats after the ignition coil went bad, so I'm pretty sure that's why. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=226649

Anyway, I took a couple pictures that may help identify what they're for. I'm just wondering if I should be concerned as to there being disconnected wires.
Thank you,
-Olin
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Uh -Oh

 

Those are connectors for the cat temp sensors that some rocket scientist disconnected. It is usually done because the car has an issue causing the lights to come on and rather that fix it they are just disconnected. Catalytic converter damage is often the end result.

We see it all the time in cars that are new to this shop and have not had good quality service.

 

Uh-Oh? Damn. Hearing what I would consider an expert say "Uh-Oh" reminds me of when a doctor says either "You will experience moderate pain," or "This is going to hurt... A lot..."
To put things into perspective, I was in a car accident years back in my '68 Triumph Spitfire and the rear window exploded inward at me. The window seal held some shards of glass and slapped me in the back of the neck, leaving some sweet gaping gashes and a bunch of glass behind. Later that night in the ER, the doctor guy left to find a horse hair brush and the nurse got one of those plastic bristled fingernail brush things and said, "You may feel a slight amount of pain" as he started deeply scrubbing into the back of my neck to clean out all the glass. I just about passed out from this "slight pain." The nurse was a guy, by the way. I'm still a little pissed off at the whole male nurse concept. For some reason pain just seems to so much more innocent when it comes from an attractive young woman with a small and soothing voice. It's easier to let a woman stab me with things, to. That one may just be personal preference though, I'm not sure. Sorry, I got off on a completely random rant. Back to the matter at hand.
Does Uh-Oh mean my car is going to explode at its next convenient opportunity?

By the way, I forgot to mention that the wires were not quite as obvious as they are in the picture. They were tucked in a bit, but I moved them so they could become slightly more photogenic.

 

Would they have been disconnected because the cats have been replaced with test pipes? I don't have any cats, but I do have pre-cats, and one of them had a fire in it a couple weeks back. I think it may have melted it a little bit, but I haven't taken it off yet to check. Should I worry about reconnecting them, or tuck them away back in their little hole they were hiding in?

Thank you,
-Olin

 

Without Cats and pre-cats there shouldn't be any reason to have those boxes hooked up(Rifledriver can chime in here). Get rid of your pre-cats and put on the hyperflows. With that being said, the test pipes should have come with the portals to hook up all the sensors as the factory would have had it.

 

The "Uh-Oh" was a poor attempt at humor.

A) I'm no expert.
B) I know the configuration of your exhaust system (before you bought it).
Last I saw your car it was running a Tubi with test pipes and the O2 sensors were hooked up. The OEM headers and pre-cats were still on the car but I have no idea what condition they were in (or if they were gutted). Seeing as you have melted one of your pre-cats you might as well pull both and go to after market "Y" pipes.(Ask Rifledriver about those)
C) IIRC (per the previous owner) the main Cats were shot (guts were disintegrated) when removed for installation of the Tubi. The main Cat issue could be the reason why the sensor wires were unplugged in the first place

 

I thought it was funny. I also thought it would be entertaining to go with it. Everybody likes to have the image of a car exploding, even if it is a Ferrari, pass through their head every now and again. Anyway, it's still got the Tubi and test pipes. It looks as though the O2 sensors are still connected and the OEM headers and pre-cats are on it. I'll take care of that when I get back in a couple months. Wait a minute... How do you know my car? Do I know you? Do you know Robert? Are engine compartments just that different? You have the same birthday as my dad and a stripper friend of mine, and I'm pretty sure you're not my dad... Do you know my dad?

 

Olin - the original configuration incorporated heat sensors on the cats that, when hot, would light up a slow-down light on your dash. This "fault" came about owing to failure of ignition to one of the 6-cylinder banks (left or right). Hence, raw fuel would be pouring into the cat and burning there. The cat would glow red hot, and hence the risk of fire.

However, this was a rare occurence, and most often recognized by other symptoms, such as diminshed power or rough running. The astute driver would slow down and check it out before the light came on.

Much more common was failure of the temperature sending unit(s). This led to intermittent illumination of the Slow-Down-Cylinders 1-6 or Slow-Down-Cylinders 7-12 light(s). This drove many of us crazy, albeit it did confirm that the lights on the dash were working correctly. Many disconnected the sending unit to rid themselves of the obnoxious light glowing on the dash. The sending units are no longer available.

Jim S.

 

I could not disagree more. Overheating cats come from any number of running problems. In fact he has one right now or his precat would not have overheated. Cats overheat from incorrectly timed cams, bad sparkplugs, bad sparkplug wires, bad distributor caps, incorrect operation of the fuel injection, incorrect operation of the O2 sensor system.

In 99% of the cases when a cat overheats it is from a running problem that is minor enough that the driver has no awareness it is happening.

A good, proper running Ferrari is already running the cats so hot they are very near their maximum temp in many operating modes. A slight problem of almost any kind is enough to destroy them.

 

Brian is correct in everything he said. But... They could have been removed because they malfunctioned and the previous owner decided to disconnect then rather then pay the stupid amount of money Ferrari wanted for replacement units.

I have recently located 2 units for a customer, and after informing him of the price...he is gong to live with the light. This could have been the situation with the previous owner of your car.

Test your cats with an infrared temp gauge, and check the emissions of the car with a 4 gas analyzer, before and after the cats. Hell even go as far to remove them a check them. You don't want a melt down of these units. Not only are they costly, but serious engine damage can result.

 

A) You don't know me
B) Yes, I know Robert. We live about 30 miles apart.
C) I helped Robert do the axle boots on your car. (I hope they are still holding up)
D) US spec TR engine compartments should be relatively the same with some assorted differences from 84 to 91
E) I'm not your dad and definitely NOT your stripper friend.(but I DO accept tips)
F) I haven't met your Dad................... yet.

 

The Main Cats are no longer on the car. Are you suggesting he do this with the pre-cats?

 

I guess I've been told! The verbal equivalent of a 2" by 4" across the side of the head. I deserved it.

Jim S.

 

At this point I'm getting confused. Since I have no cats and am going to replace the pre-cats with test pipes, should these wires be connected or should I tuck them back into their hole?

"Cats overheat from incorrectly timed cams, bad sparkplugs, bad sparkplug wires, bad distributor caps, incorrect operation of the fuel injection, incorrect operation of the O2 sensor system."

Is there any particularly easy way to determine what was going on to cause the glowing pre-cat? My car seemed to be running just fine, them I heard a noise that sounded like I ran over something metal and it felt like I had a flat tire. I pulled over and the tires were fine, but the RH exhaust was puttering a bit. Being on the highway, I attempted to drive home. The car was weak, then I saw some glowing embers in the air behind me, so I pulled over again and turned the car off this time. I popped the hood and the RH pre-cat was glowing. After calling around a little bit it was determined that I could safely drive home, which I did. The pre-cat was fine when I got home, but the RH ignition coil module had failed. I got a new one and the RH exhaust is still puttering, which is when I noticed the disconnected wires. If these wires were still connected, would an issue have presented itself prior to the pre-cats glowing?

 

"In 99% of the cases when a cat overheats it is from a running problem that is minor enough that the driver has no awareness it is happening." Rifledriver - Brian

Saltie - you are rather astute. I guess you fall into the 1% that recognize that something is amiss and that you should pulll over.

Jim S.

 

I don't know if astute is the completely correct word there. I'd go with educated. I thought I had a flat tire. Last time I had a flat tire in that car, I thought I could limp to the end of the tunnel I was driving in. The next thing I knew, the tire came off the rim and caused me to kiss the sidewalk in the tunnel. It took nine months to get my car back, but they did mostly good work. There's a little hologramming in the paint, but I can take care of that after it's completely cured. And the driver's side running board is gloss black (body color) and the passenger's side is flat black. The bigger pain in the ass was it being determined to be an at-fault collision with the sidewalk, eventually leading to Geico telling me to look for business elsewhere. Thanks, though.

 

By your statement you still have precats. Cats are cats, doesn't matter where they are mounted.

Even if you were to decide to remove the cats and be done with it you should still fix whatever is causing the overheat.

Cat overheating is caused by one thing and one thing only, unburned fuel going out the tail pipe. There is a very simple math equation....Unburned fuel = horsepower loss.

It really is that simple.


Why drive a Ferrari and throw away horsepower?

 

Could be but he still has a cat overheating. Also about 3 out of 4 TR's we get in here as new clients or for PPI's have disconnected or missing cat temp ecu's. It has become so common we started to do a precat inspection on every TR on its first visit. 90% of those with non functioning or ignored sporatic slow down lights have destroyed precats. My storage area has a big pile of them I was going to have rebuilt before they made it illegal.
Convert the car to later ECU's. They are more reasonably priced.

Infared temp gauges tell you very little about the temp of the cat matrix which is all that really counts. The exhaust needs to be measured precat by someone who knows what they are doing. And the cats need to be inspected for damage.

 

Just found out the the cat ecu's are the same units used on the Lamborghini Diablo, they are still available through Lambo, though no dealer that I spoke to stocks them.

 

So if you dumped the cats and pre cats in favor of hollowed out pipes/test pipes(hyperflows), would you still need the ecu's to be working/hooked up?