the Ferrari market watch thread

It was raced - that kind of shortens the life a bit.

 

Ah that makes a little more sense.

https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/details/1997-ferrari-f355-berlinetta-manual/SSE-AD-12212983
Nice yellow number here

 

Really? By whom and how often?

 

Tell you later

 

Anybody who says that the f129 engine has any more issues on average than other Ferrari's built in that era is either simply ignorant or has a particular axe to grind. They come from a different time and need to be considered as such.

Fact is they certainly are "expensive" to maintain, but other than the over-hyped valve guides, the engine internals are generally as reliable if not more reliable than other cars of that era.

Where the f355 gets a bad reputation is in the maintenance costs, which is well deserved when you compare them to the costs of modern F cars.

Most of the issues with f355's come from issues in the ancillaries (and there's a LOT of recurring issues there). Alternators blow frequently due to high engine bay temperatures, exhaust manifolds fail because they were made too thin, cats fail, subframes had bad welds. Parts for some of the cars, particularly the earlier cars with Teves ABS can be hard to come by and are very expensive.

I certainly wouldn't own one if you expect them to be as reliable and cheap to maintain as a modern car, but in fairness I've had a lot more problems with my brand new Corolla than I have my f355 in the last year.

If you can find a well maintained f355 that's had all the usual stuff that fails sorted out, I'd wager they'd be a very reliable car for many years - and all those issues are a small price to pay for what is in my opinion, one of the best of the classic F cars.

 

You're full of it.

Pick the owner.



Sig www.pless.com.au/mechanics.htm

 

Barred and polished. Only a wax to go.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Sig www.pless.com.au/mechanics.htm

 

Thanks for helping out the curious non owner [emoji106]

 

Nice! What wax will you use?

 

I notice you've put your post in 'Market' thread......is that next on the agenda?

 

Yes.

Sig www.pless.com.au/mechanics.htm

 

$50K?

 

What? After that Polish?

Sig www.pless.com.au/mechanics.htm

 

That’s what Wes wishes for.


Silly signature here to annoy KIAI

 

Only if you throw in your bar...................

 

Nothing I have said is untrue, at least in my personal experience.

I have all the receipts, and mileage dating back to the car's delivery date in 1995 to back up my claims. The engine has never been opened, but has had a ****load of things repaired otherwise. These cars aren't reliable by modern standards, but they're no worse than other F cars of the era.

Oh the other thing I forgot to mention is the rear flying butresses have a tendancy to seperate from the body and need repairing. Mine was done in 2006 and has been ok since then.

 

There's certainly a fair amount of inherent faults in the 355 but as far as the engine goes, I'm pretty sure the valve guides were the only real hiccup with that engine? Manifolds were a problem right through to the 430, but if you replaced them with aftermarket versions, you didn't have any further problems. Things like the CAT ecu's are easily replaceable now too. I havn't owned mine long enough to see what the reliability is like, but if it's anything like the 456, as you said once the problems have been sorted, it should be very reliable. Time will tell for me.

 

Yep pretty much. Alternators are something that will always be an issue though, thanks to the heat in the engine bay. I'm not sure if a challenge grill will help at all, but I'm keeping mine stock as I prefer the look.

3 alternators on mine in 25 years. Headers didn't last long (20,000kms) and were replaced with after market.

 

I've replaced 2x alternators, neither fault of the car
I've replaced the air-con compressor
I've replaced the water pump , but that was at a major where the engine is out so a good time to do it
I've replaced the headers with Fabspeed that were ceramic coated to cut down heat in the engine bay
I've replaced the underneath aerodynamic trays with CF instead of the fubreglass
I've replaced the windscreen after a crack developed (genuine Ferrari unit )
I've replaced the accelerator cable
I've replaced the big bearing in the pumpkin ($1000)
I've replaced the clutch plate (didn't need to but I had it all apart )
I've had all injectors cleaned and tested for fuel flow

I think it has been pretty reliable in the near nine years I've owned it and it only left me stranded on the way back from Adelaide due to a tyre blowout (there are no spares)

Enjoyment factor over the 308GT4 and 308QV is mainly due to the fact the car rarely bottoms out and it is easily the lowest car I've owned

I'm getting a lot of stuff done this year before I put it in storage for a couple of years while I travel around Oz

 

If you put the latest Japanese alternator in there is no issue and as I said, I do a LOT of kms

Gizzi put the correct alternator in mine and the only reason I needed to change it again was because the main oil line broke at Wakefield when I broke the engine mounts that allowed the engine to move which broke the oil line ($800) and the oil leaked onto the alternator and killed it

$450 later all good

 

Ceramic coat the headers and put a challenge grille in, looks better and allows more heat out

The ceramic coating makes a WORLD of difference .... I can put my hand within an inch of the headers after a big run , couldn't do that before

 

Was the accelerator cable hard to change?


Silly signature here to annoy KIAI

 

Stop it

 

Good luck with this:
https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/details/1981-ferrari-308-gtbi-manual/SSE-AD-12210214/?Cr=11

 

Sounds good. I'm getting a major done later this year so that'll be a good time to look into it. I'll pass on the challenge grill though, I really do like the look of the stock rear end.

Thanks for the tip on the alternator. Got a link to a source for one? I was going to get one from Superformance along with a bunch of other stuff for the major?

Oh yes I also have to replace my A/C compressor (It's actually on order as we speak). The old one got a very slow leak where the gas would leak out over a period of approximately 9 months.. I'm really particular so I wanted to get it sorted (again during the major).