Hi everyone, 348ts, 93. I just went for a drive and stopped after about half an hour to fuel up and now won't start. So here I am stranded in a Shell petrol station. Dash electrics are all ok, but no turn over at all. Normally starts perfectly every time. Anything I can try? Thanks.
That sucks. Could be a bad starter. Wait for it to cool. I'm sure another fchater with more knowledge will chime in shortly. Good luck
Thanks, it happened about 6 months ago, very similar and started after a couple of hours without me doing anything. When you say let it cool down do you mean the starter may be too hot? Is that a common problem? Many thanks.
Back when I had my 348, it seemed to be a fairly common problem for 348's to show the "no crank" symptom, mostly on hot starts. It was due to a voltage drop in the ignition switch, and was cured with the addition of a circuit relay. I'm sure old threads are in the archives. I'm assuming that you don't have a faulty immobilizer/security system. For now, you can try this. Make absolutely certain that the shift lever is in neutral (very important for your safety!). Turn the igniton key to the run position. Open the engine lid, reach down to the starter, and find the two wire posts. Remove the smaller wire, which just pushes onto its terminal, and then jump between the two terminals with a metal contact, like a screwdriver blade. It won't shock you, but it will scare you when the starter engages and the engine fires up. Push the signal wire back onto its terminal, and off you go. Hopefully. Report back.
Open the bonnet, find a small black round multi pin connector at the left side (looking from the back) just under where the bonnet closes, twist and pull it out, push and twist in, in, out, in out and try to start the car.
Thanks Jeff, Being a novice here I have attached a photo I just took. Please correct me if I'm wrong. You can see the starter on the right, the yellow bolt looks to be the positive connection? Right next to it on the left is a black corrugated type plastic wire that has a spade connection which goes just under the yellow bolt. To clarify.. do you mean I should disconnect the small spade connector and bridge the connection between the yellow bolt and the body of where the spade connects onto? By the way the starter feels cool now, been here one and a half hours! Thanks. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Peter: I THINK that looks right. I'll attach a drawing. The bigger wires go directly to the battery, so that yellow nut is "hot". The smaller wire goes to the ignition switch, and it isn't attached with a nut, just a push-on spade terminal. You DON'T want to let a jumper go from that hot terminal to ground, just to the terminal that will be open after you pull off the smaller wire. It should crank right over while the jumper is in contact, and stop when you pull the contact away. Again, the key has to be in the "run" position for it to fire, and the shifter MUST be in neutral for everyone's safety! Image Unavailable, Please Login
Amazing. It started, do I reconnect the small spade wire while it's running? Or leave it hanging? I'm 3 miles from home and don't want to turn it off again? Incredible, thanks a million!
Hoo-rah! The small wire has current only when the key is turned to the "start" position, so you can safely push it back on while the engine is running. Next step: find/repair/bypass the voltage drop in the starter circuit. I did a whole thread about that, it's in the archives. The voltage drop wasn't particularly significant, maybe from 12.5 to something like 11.5, but the starter absolutely refused to crank over unless it was getting FULL voltage from the ignition switch. Fixed it myself for less than $20, as I recall.
Absolutely amazing! I'm so grateful! You can't imagine being in the gas station for 2 hours and so many people coming up and paying compliments etc but I wouldn't dare say I had broken down. I owe you! Do you remember what your fix was? I'm home now and can't stop laughing. What an amazing forum and thank you to all that replied. Peter
One of the great advantages 99% of people have forgotten is you can push start a manual tranny car. Google "bump starting" a car.
Glad it started. It happened to me in the Porsche it ended up being the starter. Hopefully, it'll be an easy fix.
Take a look in the Mondial forum, just had a discussion of installing the WR-1 Bosch relay kit, with diagrams. Around $20 or less. Regards, Jerry
Glad you got it going again, Peter. This place is great! I recently had a no-start in my 348, but fortunately it was at home in the garage. Checked the voltage at the solenoid activator wire (the one you disconnected) and found it to be 12.2 volts. I was convinced that the solenoid was bad, since 12 volts is plenty to activate any normal starter. Did some searching here and ran across a post stating that the solenoid will not activate if it sees less than 12.2 volts (again, far more than the minimum in other cars). Mine is a Nippondenso starter, so can't blame that particular "feature" on the Italians, but in any case charging the battery fixed the problem. It's possible that your solenoid is beginning to fail, but it sounds more like a low voltage problem. Check your battery and charging system to make certain they're in good shape. Also, many here recommend installing a relay between the activator wire and the starter solenoid. There is an excellent post in this section describing the procedure. The part number for the relay kit is Bosch WR1-- it's intended to serve the same purpose on a Porsche 914. HTH.
Thanks Mike that really does help. I've read about tip Bosch starter relay kit before and will look into it. Does anyone know if the starter solenoid can be replaced just on its own without having to change the whole starter? Mine is also Nippondenso.
Thinking back on this... I had forgotten that when this problem first showed up on my 348, I installed a remote starter button inside the car, in the place formerly occupied by the cigarette lighter, under the ashtray cover. I ran it that way for a couple of years, I believe, before switching over to the new relay system. I would turn the key on, put the shifter into neutral, and push the button to start. It worked every time and people thought it looked "cool" to start it that way. This was with a power source that did NOT run through the normal ignition switch, but directly from battery power.
Mike Voltage is different than Current (Amps) The purpose of the Hot Start Relay circuit is to have direct current that can overcome the resistance caused by heat in the solenoid winding
Yup the 348 is such a great piece of electrical engineering that we forgot over all these years we solved all these problems in the aftermarket. We fixed Ferrari's POS to be one of the most reliable Ferraris today.
Resistance drops voltage. If the ignition switch, or any of the wiring leading from it to the starter, is resistive, the solenoid may not see enough voltage to actuate, seeing as how the 348 solenoid is apparently pickier about voltage than every other solenoid on every other car on the planet.
