Cam variators Quattroporte HELP!

Hi everyone, I would appreciate anyone's experience and or knowledge on this.

I recently purchased my first Maser, a 2006 Maserati QP Sport GT and I love it. I did my diligence (I thought) and made sure all of the necessary service and updates were completed, new clutch, torque tube, and most importantly, cam variators. In 2010 and roughly 20K miles ago, Ferrari Maserati San Francisco did The variator service and was paid by MNA to do it as a warranty claim, in other words, previous owner to me didn't pay for it. I'm thinking, great, I don't have to worry about those as I know how expensive they are. About three weeks after owning my car, the dreaded CEL comes on. It's on for the variators.

I make an appointment at FM of San Francisco and drop my car off. Three weeks later (yesterday) they call me and tell me that MNA will not cover the repair and they won't either because what they did in 2010 were the acutuators, not the variator update and the repair is North of $13K to do the proper update, they say they will accommodate me as they feel for my position and do it for $7300.

Obviously I am not happy with this result, I am thinking of contacting MNA myself and see if I can get anywhere. It seems that a company that has had such a history with these on both sides of the Italian fence (they did it as a recall on my 360) would be willing to pay for at least the labor if not all of this well known issue with their product, especially with the upcoming release of the Ghibli and the expansion of their product line and market share.

I thank you all in advance for your insight.

 

So you've got paperwork of a warranty claim for variator service, which never happened? they now realised that they did an actuator service instead?

 

No, the repair order specifies "variator actuators" I didn't realize there was a difference.

 

If there was no formal recall then I'm afraid you're stuck. Good luck there

 

Sorry to hear about this. At least the dealer seems to be waiving a bunch of the cost...

Can anyone tell me if this happens on GranSports?

 

Evidently this is a rare issue on dry sump cars, they are much more common in the automatics which all had wet sumps. Maserati of North America warrantied the actuators as an apparent band aid on my car, very unfortunate for me, and it will be a costly lesson.

 

Does any one know what specifically fails in the torque tube? Is it repairable or do you really have to buy a new one? My tube seems to be making a loud rotational chirping sound, found a little rust on the transmission end of the tube, and a little looseness on the input collar of the torque tube, but no indication of damage. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

 

I would call John Heim at San Francisco Motorsports in San Rafael. He used to be the top wrench at FoSF, and is a really good guy, i would get quote from them before proceeding with FoSF.

 

Thank you. Will do.