348 Reassurance please, higher mileage 348 SS

I've posted many threads already, and all responses have been helpful...

Recent convo with seasoned mechanic: he stated with a certain nonchalance that my 93' 348 with 60K+ miles was "uncharted territory" given the mileage...though he said it looks and drives amazing. Credit to the former owners who made it a labor of love, cosmetically and mechanically.

Assuming I do all the right things in a timely fashion, am I in "uncharted territory"? Even a handful of one line responses from The 348 Brotherhood would be nice!

Once again, 'thank you' to all the FChat members that have helped me out with issues, or have weighed in on matters. Cheers,

 

No lol...I almost bought that car when it was in VA. Drive it and keep up on maintenance and you are good to go.

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60k miles is a good start! Keep going. Keep enjoying. You have many years of fun ahead of you just keep up the maintenance and you will be fine. Once sorted the 348 is one Ferrari you can drive the doors off.

 

Ernie has almost 100K on his. There are many threads on high mileage cars out here. Lots og high mileage ones in Europe it seems. 70K is not unusual at all. The engines are very robust the issue is usually consumable things like check valves and solenoids and bushings and sensors of which I replaced almost all of them. You can replace them as they fail sure, but who wants a collapsed fuel tank because a $20 check valve failed and cels every 6 months when your 100 miles from home for example.

Maintain it and drive the doors off it!

 

Thx for your help w the audio again. So far so good. I can actually make calls and listen to my Spotify jams. Amazing.

 

93000km et top

 

Yes sir the Continental is the way to go, glad it worked out! That's gong in mine with some 6" woofers and a small 200W amp this spring when I do the new carpet and sound deadening.

just a few mileage threads...
https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/high-mileage-poll-over-75-000-miles-or-120-000-kilometers.399817/
https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/just-purchased-high-mileage-348.547625/
https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/who-has-the-highest-mileage-348-355.190574/

 

It never ceases to amaze me just how many people think a Ferrari engine will suddenly expire out the blue, once they get past 50,000miles!

The reality is, a properly serviced and properly cared for Ferrari should see 100,000 miles plus, without batting an eyelid.

By: "properly serviced", I mean, serviced on time, with quality parts, adjusted correctly, and with such things as timing belt tensioners and water-pumps checked on a regular basis, and replaced at the first sign of any issues.

By: "properly cared for", I mean used on a regular basis, rather than being parked up for months/years on end doing nothing, allowed to warm up gently, rather than being raced to the red-line from cold, allowed to cool down gently, rather than being instantly shut down from hot.

Yes Ferrari engines are more highly strung than most "domestic" car engines, yes Ferrari engines tend to need more servicing than "domestic" car engines, and yes Ferrari engines tend to get driven harder than most "domestic" car engines, but looked after properly, they're pretty robust.

Ferrari's general reputation for unreliable, fragile engines, that have a tendency to leak all over the place, and suffer other reliability issues, came into being mainly due to so many cars being parked up for months/years on end, with seals, O-rings and gaskets drying out, and then being brought out of storage, and driven as though they'd only been parked up ten minutes previously. Suddenly owners were bemoaning how their low mileage Ferrari lost it's oil on the highway, ran out of coolant and blew up, refused to run properly, and became unreliable.

The problems weren't really with the cars, it was with the owners, and how they treated the cars, but the reputation was made, and has stuck to this day!

Personally speaking, I'd take a well looked after, regularly used car with 50,000 + miles on the clock, over an unused, super-low mileage example, every time.

 

There are a lot of 50K cars not cared for. The trick is figuring out if it was cared for. Its a unicorn that has 50K miles with binder of paper work from s single owner for its life time. Most cars have little to nothing. One can gamble or one can do a leakdown regardless of miles.

 

I'd find a mechanic with a different mindset

 

That was my first thought, maybe uncharted territory for him.

However, it would be interesting to know exactly what he was eluding to. Maybe the trans on the early cars?

@rvp325, what year is your car?

 

Was he perhaps taking a bit of a jab at owners who do not drive their cars?


Mine has about 55K on the clock and it is seriously running better than it ever has...and it has always run really, really well! Had a few little tuning issues cleared up, threw it on the dyno, and now it's just stroooooong.

I've been waffling back and forth on selling, but I honestly think I'll end up letting my OCD run wild and clean up the little cosmetic issues that I have a tendency to magnify, do a major, and add a headers-back exhaust upgrade. It will pretty much be my perfect car when I'm done, I think. Mileage be dammed!

 

Place is out of control



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1993. Speciale.

 

I think I have a unicorn. Binder dating back to 1st owner. I’m keeping it going ...fingers

 

Nice to hear! speaking of "driving the doors off" the paneling after 25 years starting to warp and gets a bit "jiggly", I think you know what I mean. So, I will keep driving...but definitely gonna go easy with the doors!

 

Speaking of that Binder! I found this pic. When I signed the check and they handed me the keys, they also handed me this beast!
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1993, Serie Speciale: #55.

 

FYI, I have cut and cropped this response and having it FRAMED! Thank you, my man. Appreciate your thoughts, clearly from experience.

 

85k mi on mine. Street miles, canyon miles, track miles. Trip to redline every time the oil gets warm.

 

Damn right!

 

This. A million times this. 348's are great Ferrari's and as everyone on this thread has mentioned, if properly maintained are ridiculously reliable way past 60k miles. Drive the hell out of it and have fun!

 

Your mechanic I think doesn’t know much, have much experience or is fishing for work!

as everybody above has says; you have only just started!!!

mine has 66k miles on it, with about 5k miles already planned for next year!

 

Btw I called him and asked if he has the cam seal weep hole jig, you know the factory tool for every V8, 308, 328, 288, f40, 340 etc and he said "I have no idea what your talking about, what jig or what drilled holes or what tsb your referring too". Shrug.

 

Oh, let me clarify....I was NOT referring to New Vernon Coach, they are excellent. A totally different mechanic. As far as Steve not having the "cam seal weep hole jig", I have no bloody idea what that is, either! Guys @ New Vernon are excellent. As a matter of fact, they just did a complete brake job, rotors/pads, etc on my 348. Stops on a dime