"Gutted" - my 355 story

Maybe you could tell us all how you would test an SDECU and guarantee its function good.

 

The answer is water. The new owner just learned something. These cars not even the 328 or 550 do water well. They never have and never will until they hire some Japanese to fix their electrical systems. They use Bosch which works fine on BMW's but Ferrari must buy the seconds. Open up any connector and you are just about guaranteed to fine dirt in there. Water and Ferrari electronics is a big NO especially big rains! You pretty much have to start by drying out the whole car and cleaning every connector. Then deal with any remaining ghosts. Bypassing the SDECU is a good way to test that system. Search it we got a couple of giant threads on it

 

Thanks for all the advice, everyone. I think the last comment is spot on, it was the water issue and I'm learning huge amounts about the car on the fly. I've now spoken to two top indies here in the UK (the car is currently with the second one) at length and they both have said that the car was safe to drive at lower speeds with the light blinking (and I pulled over and called the indie to ask the question right away).

They've also both said that the 355 doesn't like heavy rain, and to be fair to me and the indie who did the work, we've had the wettest January and February here in the UK for the last 250 years, and I had no choice as I needed to get it home to the garage and can't take multiple days off of work hoping for a dry one.

I'm reasonably handy with a wrench, the first indie is a long way away, and the units are dead easy to switch, so that wasn't a big deal to me.

Anyway, should have a prognosis back soon, am hoping it just needs a good drying! Thanks again for the advice, much appreciated from everyone. Ben

 

I hope you're able to get this problem solved easily.

 

After my major I had a few drops of oil on the garage floor. I mentioned it to the shop that performed the major, and the very next day... A SUNDAY...I had 2 techs and a flatbed at my house looking for the problem and ready to transport the car back to the shop if need be. The techs found the issue and corrected it within half hour, but were ready to take the car back and fix it for free if that had to be done...

That is the way a reputable shop should operate....
none of this "we'll send u some parts to try and hopefully that fixed the issue" bs...

 

This is the UK, customer service is non-existent...

 

God...this all sounds like a nightmare...

 

You think it's bad in haggis land. Come to west Australia for a holiday piss poor service and 5 times more expensive !!!

 

For those of you who are US-based and have commented that I should be harder on the indie, this is your answer. I can see your point and right now I wish I was in the US...but good luck getting someone to do that over here. If I had raised a big enough stink I'm sure they would have come to pick the car up, but that would have cost me a lot more £££s unless the issue was specifically traced to something they did or should have done but didn't (there assuming for the sake of argument that they would admit to what they found being their fault).

As it turns out it is looking like the primary culprit is the wet, in which case I would have had to pay them mega to tow the car, then I would have had to go back to them to pick the car up and go through the same long drive to get it home. And take another day off of work. Given that you cannot predict the weather at the best of times in the UK, and now is certainly not the best of times (it rains alot in the winter here but I've never seen anything like what is going on this year), I'm not too keen on that drive again any time soon.

Should be getting full report back today. Thanks again for the advice from everyone.

 

Keep us posted and good luck.

 

I don't see how anyone can hold the indie responsible. They did what they were supposed to, no? Would the indie be responsible if you drove the car home in perfect weather and the clutch failed? They were not working on the clutch. Seems to me this is either weather related of a failure unrelated to what the indie did. I can understand that, regardless of the type of car, if something that was newly serviced fails, resulting in an oil leak, like a bad seal, then the service center should stand by their work, and most do. But I don't see the point of jumping on the service center if it's an unrelated failure.

 

Agreed! The voice of reason. It is funny around here the expectations for service and PPI's but they want both at Walmart prices.

 

I had a few gremlins after my last major, which I just expect as par for the course. On a car this old, unless you want to replace EVERYTHING, there will be a regular appearance of stuff to fix. With all the moving and shifting of the car that occurs during the major, and the typically increased use of the car once you get it back, things are bound to crop up.

After my last major, I had a few brittle connectors that gave up, a hose that split (new water pump volume pushed that over the edge), an exhaust ECU issue also (cracked solder joint, by the way), and several other minor problems that would have happened eventually whether I had the service or not. My independent also pointed out several other issues on the horizon that I should be prepared for, which I really appreciated.

Here's a fun story for you. This is going to sound like a joke, but I swear on my life it happened just as described:

One of the first commutes after my car was back, it started pouring down rain 5 minutes into a 20 minute drive home-- one of those sudden and freak Florida tropical downpours. Throw on the targa top, then start the car back up. No problem... except now, my A/C control decided to go into "gates of hell" mode-- full blast, heater door open, no way to shut it off, or turn on my A/C to defrost the foggy windows. It's a flaky connection somewhere, and normally not an issue since I have the top off all the time.

Today, however, I had hastily thrown the top on and it was pouring. To make matters worse, I had been working on the AMP connectors for the door wiring over the weekend, and in the process, broke the main ground wire. Although new connectors were on the way, I had no way to roll the windows down. Breaking that wire has the fun side effect of making neither window control work.

So there I am, in my Ferrari, glass fogged up, sweating to death, windows up and I kid you not.. the pin that attaches the lower arm to my driver's side wiper blade suddenly snaps off, which causes that one windshield wiper to flail about like a Jack Russell terrier having a seizure.

Pouring rain, heat blasting, windows up, soaked in sweat, targa top impersonating Niagra falls, and one windshield wiper spinning like a pinwheel. One of the few times in my life I have been so mad I just started laughing.

In any case, while disappointing, don't get too discouraged. These are older cars, and stuff WILL happen eventually. The good news is that most of it has happened to everyone else too, and once you get it sorted, you won't have to worry about it again for a long time.

 

Na, you gotta blame the mechanic for this one...

But, joking aside, your coolant hose that split, your mechanic at the last service should have suggested to you that 10+ years old coolant hoses should be changed out. If he did, and you did not agree, well he did his job.

 

JohnC

You made me laugh.

We have to be mad to love these beauties.

Italians and electricals....why can't they bullet proof this stuff already?

Oh...I forgot...it rarely rains in Italy.

 

The hose itself wasn't that old. I think it may have had a manufacturing defect, or just simply was a freak thing. It split on the side, not OEM, and not a typical failure-- "@#$ happens, as they say.

 

Hence the budget pricing. I checked a few and found generally rates for labour are 50% at an Indie vs. main dealership (Sytner in particular). Thank our plethora of law school grads for our system and costs..........