Trouble in F355 paradise, please help

Hi guys,

I need urgent help.
Last weekend I picked up de F355 spider from the UK and drove it home. The car run like a dream. Today I drove it another 150 miles to Ferrari for the homologation procedure.
After that I drove to a friend to show it and it was parked for about 30 minutes. When I wanted to leave the car did not start. The engine turns but does not fire up. (there is a strong fuel smell) We tried this for 30 minutes and decided to tow-start it. The car started right away.
Later tonight I wanted to take it for a test drive and drove to another friend. Again when I wanted to leave the car did not want to start. After several attempts and one very long startrun the engine fired up. The rpm is very irregular. Sometimes it jumps up to above 2500 rpm without touching the throttle. Just before I arrived back home the engine started to make a knocking sound and I have lost most of the power.
Back in the garage I checked all connectors and tried to reset the ecu by turning off the power. But again it does not want to start.

I need to bring the car in for a technical inspection in two days. Can you please help me what to look at? What could be wrong?

Thanks for your help.

Ton

 

this happened on mine.......it was a bad connection at the main shut off knob. I had some corrosion on the dial.
I put a new one in and I was good to go.

 

But in that case I would have no power right? The electricity is fine. The engine turns, but it does not fire up. Or do you mean a different main shut off knob?

 

I'm about 80% sure it's this.

1997 FERRARI F355 SPIDER 3.5L 3496cc V8 FI (X) DOHC : Fuel/Air : Fuel Injection Pressure Regulator. 175 bucks at Rock Auto.

Two of these. One on each side. Somewhat easy to change if you can fit into small places. I had the exact same thing happen. Fixed these and it was perfect. You can buy one and have a 50-50 chance. I lost that chance and it was the second one. Someone may have a way to test these.

 

Should it not run on one bank then? Or does it not fire up at all when one fails?

 

Sorry Tom........I missed the turn over bit.

 

These pesky 355's, they wont start, cracking headers, shifters breaking off in your hand while driving, Spider tops wont raise or lower, 5-figure F1 pumps... You shoulda had a 348!

 

I just assumed that the extra gas flooded one bank. The extra gas probably threw off all of the sensors and made it idle fast. Search through here and you will find a lot of stories about those pressure regulators going bad and the high rev, hard start and rough idle are all common.

 

Is your check engine light working? It should come on then turn off when you try to start the car. It's possible that whatever is causing your problem would set a code. You might try getting an OBDII reader and checking for codes.

Also, I have seen many posts saying to switch off the battery or disconnect the ECU to reset it. I have tried this and it doesn't seem to actually reset the ECU. In fact, I have two ECUs, so I have experimented with this. I can cause a code such as P1451 to appear in my ECU. Swap the ECUs and see no codes. Then put the original ECU back and the code is still there. It appears that the only way to truly reset the ECU is with the OBDII reader.

 

Not attempting to hijack...but I have had this code pop on my 355 a few times since I owned it. Once it was a blown fuse...the other 2 times there is nothing wrong with the secondary air pump.

Did you have a problem with this code specifically, too?

 

I can create it by disconnecting a cable. I think it was the cable to one of the Thermal ECUs, but I would have to look to verify.

 

When this happened to mine, it did not throw a code.

 

The check engine light is working. I will call Ferrari today and ask them for advice.
I am not a very technical person, so I have no clue what to do with the mentioned error codes. I guess Ferrari does (although they are 75 miles away from me).

Thanks for all the input guys. I will keep you updated.

T.

 

All the best! I'm not technical as well so no help, sorry.

 

They think that the crankshaft pulley might be loose. We will check that tomorrow.
Does that sound plausible?

 

Sounds odd

 

Maybe they mean crankshaft sensor? If so, it should throw a "check engine" light, and an OBDII code reader would confirm. Is your "check engine" light currently illuminated when the engine was/is running?

 

No, the light is not on.
He thinks it might be the crankshaft pulley because the car was serviced recently. They might not have tightened the pulley enough. I hope they will know more later today.

 

It's not the pulley.
Probably it is the crankshaft sensor. That is a big relief. We also found one of the spark plugs failing. We will stick a new sensor and set of new spark plugs and take it from there.
Thank you all very much for your input. It feels reassuring that I can always drop the question here to a crowd of very knowledgeable people.

 

Glad you're on to something. Don't forget to update the thread when you figure it out.

 

I picked up the car yesterday.
We replaced the crankshaft ingnition sensor and the spark plugs. The car started fine, and the engine sounds good. When it is hot it starts right up but then is a bit hesitant in revs. It is as if it is looking for the right fuel/air mixture. This continues for a few seconds and then the revs stabilize on 1000 rpm. Does this sound familiar? I also hear a light knocking sound when I am at the left side of the car. Probably this is normal, but I just never noticed. Am I getting paranoid?
The car drives fine, the engine sounds good and it revs up as it should. The only thing is that the exhaust "rumbles" a lot when I release the throttle.

Sorry if this all sounds a bit silly, but I am not a technical person at all. I am just someone who is very happy with his new machine, and was unpleasantly surprised by the recent trouble.

Would an ECU reset do anything in favour of this all?

 

If these symptoms are only when cold it could be your air pump- Quickest thing to check is the fuse in the passenger footwell for the air pump- factory is 15 amp but usually it's replaced with a 20 amp. When the air pump is on you know it- It's that awful metallic whine for the first 3-5 minutes.

In my search for a good 355 I don't think i started up a single car cold that was not a little bit lumpy and hesitant for a little bit... But with the air pump off the car runs very, very rich and can stall if you try and rev it.

 

It runs fine when cold. It feels like it runs a bit rich when it is hot.

 

Where are you getting your information from?

 

Indeed as I thought my thread regarding changing the electric motor had dispelled that myth.