355 F355 Steering Got Heavy/PS Not Working

Hi all,

I'm new here! Just became a 355 owner this week after 20 years of wishing/praying . I guess I should have expected to be dealing with mechanical issues from day 1! When out for a drive, the power steering seems to have just completely gone away. Noticed that steering felt very heavy when turning left from a complete stop at an intersection. Upon more driving was clear that power steering is either mostly gone or completely gone. Car came out of a major belt service right before I bought it (less than 50 miles put on car since the service, which was completed 1 month before car delivered to me, and the guy/shop who did the service was super meticulous/well respected - though unfortunately it was done on east coast and I'm in CA where I had car delivered), where they replaced all fluids including PS fluid. I checked the fluid myself and it did seem to need a little top up which I did, but didn't improve the issue. It's a 96 spider, 6 speed manual. Best place to have car taken to be serviced is ~40 miles from me so would appreciate any thoughts/suggestions on what to do before taking it in. Funnily enough, when I drove the car for the first few times I recognized what many others have said about the power steering feel on this car - overly assisted and more of a light/feathery feel. So I definitely noticed when it went out.

 

Check the belt, most likely threw the belt or the tensioner wasn't properly tightened. Driver's side of the engine right at the top.

 

Thank you! Will check out and report back. By belt do you mean the power steering pump belt?

 

Also be sure to check the fluid, and make sure you don't see any leaking on the ground.

 

Yes, the pump belt.

 

I have had a PAS drive belt fail on my 355. It can happen. In my case it was also straight after a major, brand new belt. I never got to the bottom of why it failed, the remnants of the belt were still in the engine bay on the under tray, but a 4cm section of the belt was completely missing and I never found it. I put a new belt on and it was all good.

If it is the PAS belt in your case then you can replace it with the motor in situ, but you need to get the water pump belt off first which is a bit of a drag, but it is doable.

The PAS belt is the smaller/rearmost belt in the pictures.
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Thanks, I checked fluid and it seemed a tad low so I topped it up just a little but in hindsight I'm realizing it was probably fine and may need to even take some out from the top-up job I did. No liquids of any kind on the garage floor so there doesn't seem to be a leak of any kind. I'm hoping it's the belt. Will report back after I get back to the car (I keep it in the country and back up there on Thurs).

 

This is super helpful, especially the pic. Will report back!

 

Belt tension and adjustment information is in the Owner's Manual...


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You can also use the gates belt tension app on your phone. Per Ratarossa, who measured belt tension with the factory tool and then with the app, here are the belt tension readings:
Download the FREE 'Gates' app on your smartphone from APP or Play Store
Alternator/Waterpump: 120Hz
A.C Compressor: 164hz
PAS: 263hz

 

Ok, so you were right on the money. PAS belt came loose and looks damaged now so will need to be replaced. Because I'm neither (a) super handy nor (b) have a lift at home I'm going to have this done by local Ferrari shop. Any ideas on how much this should cost? I.e. typical number of hours required to do this?

 

About an hour. From memory, you have to drop the engine belly pan and diffusers, remove the water pump/alt belt, then install the new ps belt, reinstall the wp/alt belt, tension them, reinstall the engine belly pan and diffusers, done.

 

Ok, so does $1,900 for total all-in cost of repair sound way too high then? That's what I'm being quoted at...

 

Yes, that sounds way high to me.

 

if the belt is there , is it tight? If that all looks good note the ps fluid level. Jack front of car up wheels off ground. Car in neutral parking brake on start car turn steering wheel lock to lock 5 times. Check fluid level add as needed. This helps bleed out system. If no change and fluid level same there is another fault

 

Ok yeah let me push them on that. Need to get a lift installed in my garage

 

For $1900 you should just get a lift in the garage and do it yourself. It takes more than an hour because you have to get to the top of the engine so some disassembly is going to be required but $1900 is so out of line.

1. Remove bottom pan
2. Un-tension and remove alternator / water pump belt from below
3. Remove engine lid, so you can crawl into the engine bay on top of the engine
4. Remove air filter housings
5. Drain coolant, remove coolant reservoir
6. Drain power steering reservoir and remove it
7. Disconnect fuel distribution block and swing it out of the way

now crawl into the engine bay on top of the engine, and ...

8. Clean off the belt pieces and install a new belt, tension appropriately
9. Reverse steps 7-2
10. Refill coolant, refill power steering fluid
11. Fire up engine check for leaks, squeaks, etc.
12. Reinstall bottom panel

It would be fair to pay 3 hours and $300 of parts at a dealer. So, $1,000- $1200.

 

Ah, didn't think about the fuel distribution block as mine is a 2.7, but yeah $1900 is still way out of line.

 

Thanks you guys this is all super helpful. When I called the mechanic they were actually pretty up front/honest and said that they provided estimate having never actually done the repair this way (they haven't had a PAS belt go out on an F355...have replaced tons of them as part of belt service when engine out but techs there haven't had to replace one w/ engine in), and then made clear that they're going to do this as efficiently as possible and will only charge me for actual time it takes and hopeful it doesn't take more than an hour or two. Will update once done.

 

Final update here - the mechanic said that the lock nut and bolt for adjusting the belt tension was completely missing/gone - so the belt was putting too much tension on the pulley until it just shredded and then came off. Mechanic thought that reason for the nut/bolt coming off was that they weren't properly tightened back during major service when belt tension was done (bit of a bummer that the service was done on the east coast because ordinarily would have just taken the car back to them and had them fix w/o charging me for it). Work did come out to nearly $1,900 but that's because work took them more like 4 hrs and rates here (San Francisco) are high. I should note that I probably could have shopped around to find another Ferrari mechanic at a better rate but I took to where I did because of both convenience (keep the car in the country, major hassle to drive it a lot farther for cheaper work) and also service ratings. Car is driving great and I made up for lost time by putting like 200 miles on it in the last 4 days!