Help - 1987 Mondial 3.2 only fires on front bank of cylinders

Only firing on the front bank (5-6-7-8) of the engine. A friend and I went over the car today - suspected it was one of the coil packs so we took them off - cleaned them up and all the connections and switched the packs front to back and vice versa. No change in the problem, rear bank still will not fire, however the rear coil pack (the one not firing) get hot as you run the car while the front one stays cool.

I've read on some posts here that there is another circuit board and ECU in the rear trunk area some place, I've pulled back both sides of the rear panels inside and don't see anything that looks like it, where do I find it?

Also is there a good and reasonable source to get a full workshop manual for this car?

Any thoughts on where else to look are appreciated - was hoping to drive to work in the Ferrari for my birthday this Friday - looks like a no go.

 

There is general agreement around here that this exact (and I mean EXACT) same problem on my 84 308 is the fault of a bad crank sensor. It is a pretty simple repair so don't let the thought of it keep you up all night, like I almost did.

I went ahead and bought two new coils while I was at it last week. Bosch Red Supercoil. $29.95 each from Victoria British. New, epoxy filled and about 10,000 volts hotter than those little factory ones we have. Can't hurt.

 

Unfortunately, the 3.2 Mondial has the more modern ignition setup with only 2 flywheel sensors (one TDC sensor for both banks and one RPM sensor) so there isn't a separate TDC sensor for each bank to cause this problem like on your 308QV (see Fig 59 in the Mondial 3.2 US OM). The architecture in Fig 59 shows that the problem has to be with either the ECU itself, coil, coil wire, or dist cap/button/rotor to take out just one bank.

The SPC shows a "vertical" kind of mounting for the ECU, but not really where it is located. If you can, try following the O2 sensor wires and/or the thermocouple wires from the cat -- they both go to the ECU board.

 

Hey, Lenvo65, disregard my last post!

 

I'm pretty certain its not the coils themselves as switching the existing ones still left the rear bank out and the distributor cap and rotor look good so I guess I am left with the coil wire or ECU board. I need to track the ECU board down, any thoughts on how to check the coil wire? Can I check the resistance with a multimeter?

Also, do you know if the more current coils (Bosch Red Supercoils) that Dr Tommy recommended will work on a Mondial 3.2? If so I will order a pair as mine look original (20 yrs old).

 

Not sure how you changed the coils, but one item that has been known to fail is the small triangular coil controller on top of the 3.2 coil. While only available from Ferrari in conjunction with the coils, it is about a $70 Bosch part available at most good auto parts stores. If you also swapped these when you swapped the coils and the symptoms stayed the same, then they are probably ok.

Something to look at when you change the coil wire is the cap center electrode and spring, although not likely to cause an immediate total failure. You will have to remove it anyway to unscrew the setscrew holding in the coil wire from below, as the coil wire does not simply 'pull out' when you test or replace it.

With the single ECU, I've never heard of a single bank ignition be a primary ECU failure. Located in the port side forward wheel area, I would perhaps check the cleanliness of the contacts. I would agree that if you have one bank working, it is likely not the pick-ups - that would be weird.

Good luck and let us know. I personally had this happen three times (all coil failures) and went to a more reliable ignition system based on a Mallory unilite unit, Multiple Spark Discharge (MSD) and a hot coil. It was no fun driving the car that I loved not sure if the ignition would fail at any moment.

best

rt

 

Ignition module???

Try switching the ignition modules on top of the coil. Or did you do this when you "switched coils"?

When the module went out on my 87' 328...I could switch the lead from the module to the distributor and the mis-firing bank would move to the front from the rear indicating a bad ignition module.

...also there are several good websites with manuals available, however, I don't have the threads bookmarked on this computer. A search here should reveal them.

good luck.

 

This happened on my 83 QV Mondial. Fault turned out to be a Rotor. It looked fine but at the voltage they run at was just shorting the entire HT to the rear bank. I tracked it down basically the same way you are trying. Switched the coils, fault stayed with the rear bank. Switched rotors, fault moved to front bank.

 

After switching the whole coil modules and going through the rest of the ignition system I narrowed down my issue today to being a bad "power module" on top of the coil for the bank that does not fire. Does anyone know what the part number is for this and where I can buy one (or two). Also is there a replacement for the rubber boots that cover the wiring connected to these modules?

So far I have only seen the whole coil module for sale at Ricambi.

 

the original part number is probably the same as the 328 - magneti marelli BKL-3BA. It's molded into the plastic on top.

people have somehow matched this to parts from places like autozone, and I tried that route also for a quick fix.

A part was found that worked, but the voltages on the signals to/from the ignition ecu were way off (like 2x what they should be), so I bailed on that approach and got the marelli modules from GT car parts in arizona (623-780-2200).

I assume other places like rutlands or ricambi would have just the modules too.

you should clean off the old thermal paste/heat sink compound and apply a thin layer of new stuff when installing the new module. The standard compound found at computer stores for cpu heat sinks works fine.

the simple test for the modules is to just swap the cables between them. They are only mounted on top of the coils for heat sink reasons - all functionality is through the plug connector. You can swap the connectors without swapping the rest of the coil wires to see if the problem moves between banks.

 

I'm thinking of buying a Mondial 3.2 and I must say that you guys are scaring the cr*p out of me.

 

This problem took 3 hours of tracing and if I had started with the ignition module it would have been no more than 15 minutes. The part will be around $100 and I'll be back in great running order.

If you are expecting Honda or Toyota reliability then buy a Honda 2000 or an MR2

 

It's the labor of love we share.

 

After replacing the crank sensor at the 11 o'clock position with no improvement to one bank running erratically, I purchased a coil module from T Rutlands and replaced it (5 minutes) tonight. Car starts and runs perfect. Will change out plugs this weekend to Iridium NGK's to further sweeten up state of the engine tune. Going to Road Atlanta this weekend, gotta have the Mondial running right.....

Anyone need a "good used" crank sensor for your 328 or Mondial? Got one for sale cheap!

Mike