Question for 360 guys about majors.

belts and go, according to my manual (written by Ferrari) its certain fluids every year, oil and brake fluid by memory, a few more every other year, add transmission, differential, cooling by my memory, and pollen filter and belts every three years. There is no such thing as a"major" defined in the manual. Lately even dealers are stretching the belts. I read a post by a F-car tech that said tensoners (sp) need not be replaced with belts if they are not exhibiting problems. He claimed they were designed to rattle when worn so the driver could notice - and it seemed to ring true to me. When I bought my car I paid for a PPI from an independent dealer and he reviewed the service records and said it seemed that the service was overdone. That brought me down to earth a bit.

That said, it is never a good idea to defer service on an F-car, mainly because pent up service items can amount to major money pretty quickly.

All this assumes typical mileage where time limits trump miles. I think you need new spark plugs when you turn over 50,000 miles

 

I hear what your saying... My dealer recommends seals at the belt change. Seals, when you think about it add very little to the job. You don't have to change them, but I would hate to see one leak between the belt changes. The techs would then have to get back into everything again and possibly the t belts would require a change again. These are high revving engines and oil could really make a mess under those timing covers. I don't risk it. But I do understand your point...

 

My last major was in nov 2011 with apx 6700 miles..I could go till next spring but decided to go now..Braden here on long island is doing mine thursday..heres the list of what they are doing on major..Of course while the car is up they will inspect everything..Dan at Braden is great..
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My inclination on the cam seals is if they don't leak, pass on them ... once.

 

Wow, according to the estimate, they require you to bring the car in with a full tank of gas but then they also bill you for the fuel they use during a 50mile dyno test and a 10 mile test drive. Surely they don't mean that, do they?

 

Braden is AWESOME...What a great, detailed service. They do the plugs as part of their "major" (many do not, or its extra) they also do a detail. They also included covered transport! And a dyno report.

They rock. $4000 for that is very good. The plugs would be around $400-600 installed in addition to most majors, and the detail is worth $200 I'd guess. So, they are apples-to-apples with most major definitions at around $3300 or less. That is a very fair price.

Thanks for posting this...it demystifies the "major" definition a lot.

 

It never ceases to amaze me that Ferrari dealers charge $32 each for spark plus when they are around $15 at any auto parts store. I guess the extra is for the box with the prancing horse. My dealer wanted $650 to change the plugs.
Alan

 

Even given the $32/each marked-up price, that's still only $256 on parts. Where do the extra $400 go? Surely they can't charge more than one hour of labor to do this? It took me 45 mins and I'm very slow...

 

I did my belts last year because of cam seal leaks, they were only 2 years old. Doing the seals while doing the belts is cheap insurance, I don't understand why the previous owner didnt do it but its done now.

 

Does anyone know what the part number is for these cam seals?

 

On the sheet where is the -

2 x Cam gasket
4 x Cam seal

When refereed to this diagram
http://www.eurospares.co.uk/partTable.asp?M=1&Mo=687&A=1&B=40541&S=

Thanks

 

You need to look again..3rd and 4th items specifically state cam seals and gaskets..farther down are cam cover gaskets as well..these guys are meticulous and complete...

 

what is the labor time to replace the cam seals, i believe the cam shafts need to be removed?

 

Yes they do remove them and inspect. Don't know that specific $$$ but its all aprt of major so I dont really care..I will inspect everything in person when they have everything disassebled as these huys are totally transparent which is great.

 

Do Ferrari cam seals go bad because of something inherent to the engine design, or is it mostly a function of low mileage and seals going dry?

 

I like Brandon and used them often. They even saved me money by advising against work, but replacing spark plugs at 6.700 miles? Some of those other items I would agree to if there was a problem, but would not do as a matter of course. For example, why replace a cam cover gasket if it is not leaking?

 

Spark plugs replacement because its cheap and car has 10,000 miles..
If your replacing cam seals you have to remove cam cover so replace cam cover gasket

 

And because they are 8 years old and do a lot of sitting around with less than 1000 miles of usage each year.

 

plugs arent 8 years old as this car had two previous majors performed by ferrari before this one now..thats 3 majors in 10 years..and both majors done by ferrari previously they did plugs , belts , fluids etc but I looked at work sheets and nowhere did it say cam seals replaced so I would think its due not to mention the tensioners which are definetly due..

 

Well that IS a lot of plug changes then...most majors I've seen don't include them by default. I did mine in the CS at age 7 because I couldn't find a record of them being changed...every ~3 years and couple of thousand miles is likely unneeded...

Misplaced priorities in those prior majors to do plugs but not tensioners IMHO.

 

agree totally...

 

+1. Tensioners are more important. But don't overlook the plugs. They are not likely to be worn out in three years but it's important to remove them anyway, else they freeze in place due to the steel to aluminum contact. If you remove them, you may as well replace them with new.

A number of 360 owners are reporting heat exchanger failures. I think this may be due to not sufficiently frequent coolant changes, but it could be just time. The early 2000s cars are now over ten years old. Swapping out the exchanger is not cheap but probably better than ruining your transmission due to fluid contamination.

 

assuming your doing a belt service, how long does it take additionally to replace the cam seals?