512M ENGINE MISS

As I was reading your post, the first thing I thought to ask was if you washed the car. It sounds like your on the right track. Hope it's that simple.

 

Yep clean those plug journals out carefully and check all leads.

 

It's not simple.....

Did you notice that the revcounter (in a split second) went back to zero and than came back to normal ?

 

Dear Ferraristi,

On the 512TR and 512M, the computer shuts off the corresponding bank when the "slow down" light comes on.

Perhaps water has gotten into the thermocouple ecu or your cat is plugged creating higher temps which triggered the slow-down light which in turn shut the bank off.

Your analysis should center around the slow down light.


Shamile

Freeze....Miami Vice !

 

I think that when the car was driven after the wash, the engine heat lets evaporate all resisdue water in the back....

It could be an injection problem or electrical problem.

In my case I believe that a sensor finds too much unburnt fuel in exhaust at low revs (<3000) as I sometimes still have in the 512TR.

Check emissions in bank1 and bank2 and compare... and let us know please.

 

Please, 512TR drivers.... give us some feedback.

There are many (or at least some) of you out there with almost the same problem I heared....

 

Not sure if it could help,I had similar problem with my 87 TR after cleaning the engine bay. When the engine warm-up, the distributor cap gets some condensation and the car will not run good at a higher RPM. I also had similar problem recently on the Diablo washing the outside of the car and some water gets in the vents and distributor cap is also gets lot of condensation. I just clean the dist. and rotor and the car run fine. Hope this could help you.

 

Thanx for your reply Junior !

I am sure this will stimulate TR drivers to clean these parts.

In the 512TR, the Factory put a completely different ignition system...

We are looking for 512TR drivers who may have had the same symptoms as described above to learn from them too !

 

The problem is in the thermocouple ECU, located under the rear quarter over the wheel well.
They all eventually go bad (sooner if you spray them with water). First, disconnect the thermocouple to ecu connection and dry it out, then reassemble with dielectric grease. Check to see if problem goes away. Do the same with the ecu to main harness connector.
Finally, disconnect the ecu from main harness. I disconnected the ecu to main harness connector on my '94 512TR and the problem was solved (of course, I don't have cats anymore, so no worries about cat overheating).

If you are Shamileon in nature, try swapping the opposite side ECU and see if the light goes out. If so, be prepared to bow (bend over) before the F-pimp. New thermocouple ecu's ain't cheap. A better fix is to remove the cats and install test pipes (probably cheaper, too). The 512TR fuel injection will compensate for the increased flow, and the sound is F-1 like.

Hope this helps.

 

Mel....

not that it will be any help... but when i had my 93 512 TR, the same thing occasionally happened to me.

that is, cruising along on the fwy (at steady RPM), or even just some times hard on the accelerator, the car would suddenly start to cough and miss..... the slow down 1-6 would come on. The Tack would momentarily drop to "0". I would engage clutch and rev the motor a couple times it seemed to clear its throat...and all was back to normal.

Having said that, it was the most annoying thing!!! I always felt the car may let me down at some point on a long drive...(never did).

I resolved the issue....by selling the car!!! bought my Stradale back...never had a check engine light come on in that!! I just felt more secure in a 10 year newer car...but God D**n that TR was gorgeous!! and i must say...i do miss it!! Oh how i wish i could justify 2 F-cars to the wife.....NOT!!!!

 

Well those Bosch plug wires really are not that good and cost over $5000 for a new set IF you can get them. And the Champion plugs were the first thing we put in the garbage can at the dealer. They caused more driveability complaints than all other causes put together. Even Ferrari told us to use NGK.

 

Exactly what I experience now.................!

But I adore my car.... can not part with it.

It seems a really big problem in teh 512TR and 512M; why do I not tead this here....

Are we ashame to tell others ? (and sell the car? = a good option but please NO !).

So thanx for all input upto now; we are really interested in solving our problem and keep the car !

For one thing: I replaced the two sensors at BDP (thread somewhere) and the problem was almost away....

Please, 512TR drivers and F professors, help us out !

 

Great work ! Please keep us informend !

Please also read: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=243022 and http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=237716&highlight=misfire

Gr from Mel in NL .

 

If your connectors dont solve the problem, you may need to go back to the spark plug holes. You mentioned you vacuumed them out. This may not have been enough. I would recommend pulling the wires loose from both ends, remove plug extentions ( if they are used) and use compressed air to completely blow everything 1000% dry on both the coilpack and plug side. I have run into it before after washing down an engine after performing a repair. It wont miss right away, but after it gets hot, it misses its butt off. If you really want to see which is the offending cylinder a hand held ociloscope (I cant spell) will show a bad wave form for the bad cylinder. But I know most folks dont have acess to one.

 

Dear Ferraristi,

Do the plugs issues apply to the Testarossa as well?

I've read many threads on plugs but really couldn't get a straight answer on WHY the other plugs were better and what specific improvement they made than the OEM champions.....which I use and replace once a year.


Shamile

Freeze....Miami Vice !

 

This problem arose on my Boxer BBi, and may not apply at all to the M, but I plead with you to remove the distributor cap and remove all of the green, swamp-like stuff you are likely to find in there. I would occasionally wash the car (most often simply wipe it down). Over the period of 1 year I noticed power down a bit, but then it simply began to run rough, and I had to keep revs up to get off the line. I was about to attack the fuel injection, but first decided to clean contacts in the distributor cap. As I removed it I ran to get a tetnus shot. The muck that was growing in there was amazing. Green, copper oxidation and humidity. You could have grown H1N1 in there.

Anyway, I dried it out, gently bead blasted all of the copper contacts, sprayed the inside with carb cleaner, buttoned it back up and the car ran like new. I couldn't believe how much power had been lost during the past year, and as it came on gradually I didn't even notice.

CHECK OUT YOUR DISTRIBUTOR CAP (if you haven't already done so, and if the M has one).

Jim S.

 

Champion spark plug technology has not progressed since the 50's. Ferrari had a contract with them since about that time but they have been known for many years to be causing problems in the cars and even the crooked purchasing department in Maranello could no longer defend against all the warranty costs they were causing. The most ardent Koolaid drinkers in Maranello finally gave in and Ferrari has not installed them for years.

Do yourself a favor, install a set of NGK's and throw away your spark plug socket. If they do not last between 30,000 and 60,000 miles you have another problem.

 

Remove the distributor cap and clean it.

Jim S.

 

He's not going to get off that easily Jim -- his 512M doesn't have a distributor.

 

Dear Ferraristi,

I've been patiently waiting for someone to post the obvious.


Oh.....and no, a 512TR doesn't have a distributer either....coil packs


Shamile

Freeze.....Miami Vice!

 

Steve- thanks for pointing out this out. I feared that my comments were out of context should this model not have a distributor. Would have made life easy.

Shamile - what are friend's for but to shoot them down when they're wrong? Why wait patiently....you should have piled on.

Great win by the Hurricanes.....!

Jim S.

 

I recently washed the engine bay, and dorve away from the car wash when the light for cylinder 7-12 warning light came on, i opened the rear lid and the exhaust was red hot.
I stopeed for 30 min and drove very slowly home, and it was aholiday season so I let the car stand for a day before starting it again and same problem. After a week I restarted it and all was ok, I went to Ferrari and they said it happens some times. They left it at that.
Maybe not such a good idea to wash the engine bay, maybe do it when you service the car with ferrari, so if anything happens they have the blame.
I am not a mechanic, but its is very irritating when such a thing happens.
So from now i dont wash that engine bay.
Good luck
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