I am the proud owner of a piece of Ferrari analyzing equipment, but what exactly does it do? Is it for checking the vescovini's, or for checking the thermocouples, or for checking the ECU? It is not complete, what I am missing is the connection to the thermocouple, or am I missing the connection to the vescovini? (type "c"). Anybody seen/worked with this before? Thanks. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Wow. I had no idea that existed. Very cool. Other than it being a custom Ferrari piece it cant be anything more than a DVOM with custom input adaptors. It appears that they have custom pigtails to plug in the SDECU directly and Thermocouples. All of this analysis can be done with a conventional DVOM but I do like style.
It came without the connecting pieces, but the manual shows all kind of connecting cables, which puzzles me a bit. If it is for the vescovini, one cable would suffice (I assume all models have the same vesco connectors) Why all these different possible connectors for just one function... On the internet there is no info available about this piece, apart from taht it is digitek made, just like the SD-1 etc. On the back of the manual it says that is a thermocouple simulator, so I assume it is for checking the vescovini, not the thermocouples. In fact the manual says it all, I just have sit down and try to understand the functions I guess. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Looking at the pics in the instruction manual, B looks the TC on most modern era cars, C looks like the SDECU on 355/360s. Under the piece in your pic I see reference to potentiometer and I can't read the others. Can you post a pic of that page? I still think it is just a custom made DVOM that using the correct connectors, takes the homework out of which pins to probe or leads to tap.
Reading the description it appears to read thermocouple temperature or simulate thermocouple temperature unless I am missing something.
Ferrari made a lot of useless diagnostic tools and forced them down the throats of the dealers at highly inflated prices. That is just one. Ferrari decided we needed a tool to properly diagnose the cat overheat warning system not believing that the components really were that bad and we must be improperly diagnosing them. I think we all played with it once or twice when they came out then put them in the very bottom, back corner of a cabinet where they belonged. We were replacing so many cat temp ecus under warranty once on a trip to the factory for school one of the guys said we should look for the wherehouse where they were storing all the warranty returns for them. We all decided it would need to be a bigger building than what was currently on the property.
Yes, I meant both, not one or the other. I meant to write it in a way that it could only do one at a time (assuming, not sure).
here you are! the watch has nothing to do with it of course, but dresses up the pic nicely Image Unavailable, Please Login
So, is it any good to chase SDL's? Apart from a cool piece to have (my opinion, of course, but you can call it worthless junk as well I don't mind)
It is not worthless, just redundant and you're missing key parts. I advocate tapping or probing the outputs of the sdecu s to determine the voltage they are sending to the motronics using a DVOM. This device does just that without having to tap or probe the connector. You would need the missing harnesses though. As I said above, all of this can be accomplished with a DVOM though.
It would seem the simulation feature could be valuable and not something that could be done with a volt meter... If you don't want it, let me know I love useless tools in my tool box
I bought it to be a piece of mancave interior, but with the idea that it might help me with a SDL on my 355 as well. But if I get bored with it I will let you know.
After a few beers in your man cave, you can tell your friends it does all sorts of things ..... It won't actually do
Why bother with any of it. If you have a slow down light and the motor is running well you have a bad ecu. I can change an ecu faster than I can find and hook up the tool unless of course your goal is to run up the clients bill.
...but don't touch it! If you turn it on, things will happen in places you can't see. Satellites will link up. Red lights will flash on a control room board somewhere. Ships at sea will sound alarms. Subs will dive. BTW, did it come with the code?
That and the warehouse comment are great/funny This tool reminds me of the "battery tender" that came with my 360- a big brick of a thing that would be useful as ballast on a ship perhaps...I simply used (and still use) Deltran Battery Tenders for my cars- cheaper, easier to use (and probably a lot more reliable than the brick Ferrari supplied my car with!) Ferrari probably came out with a diagnosis unit to test the accuracy of the diagnosis units used to test the ECUs on even calendar days vs. the set used for odd calendar days
No but they did force us to buy a $10,000 torque wrench that did the same thing as my $200 Snap On Tech Wrench. The difference was the Italian tool had pre programmed torque settings incorrectly programmed so it destroyed expensive fasteners. And people wonder why it costs so much to get a Ferrari fixed. I am so glad I don't have to deal with them anymore.
Well, the thermo couple itself can be bad as well, and I already replaced a ecu. Still a SDL, so it would be nice if this solar eclipse equalizer can help me find out if it is the ecu or the thermocouple. And yes there are several ways of finding out. And no, I am my only client so I do not bill myself.
It will be a very useful tool if you find/make adapter wires/connectors for connecting the Thermocouple to the gadget and connecting the gadget to the SDECU's thermocouple input. You will be able to, within minutes, determine whether the problem is with the Thermocouple or the SDECU. You can simulate the SDL flashing, the SDL constant and the bank shut-down and verify that these events occur at the correct exhaust (simulated) temperatures.
But if I understand correctly, the tool came with an universal k type thermocouple itself. So testing on a car would require replacing the thermocouple of the tested side with the test-thermo couple, am I correct?
I would think so as a room temp TC isn't going to help diagnose anything. You could make up all of the ancillary pieces you need there with a little investigative work.