'98 F355 Spider Left Turn Indicator Problem

The parts are from Superformance, Maurice, but I don't know where they got them from.

They didn't have official Ferrari packaging, but had the following label:

http://www.iinet.net.au/[email protected]/FerrariF355Spider/SideLampLabel.JPG

Cheers
Ian.

 

I think I've solved the problem ..... if it ONLY happens when you use the left turn indicator, only turn right!! ......... a bit like where NASA had to invent a pen that wrote upside down and the Russians used a crayon principle

Sometimes the answer is staring you in the face

 

Superformance mainly supply pattern parts.I don't think the part you have is OEM going by the package.
I've used Superformance in the past and haven't had any problems with them but the parts weren't OEM.

 

A study was undertaken regarding courier/delivery services and fuel consumption in Australia (I recall). If you design a route which uses more left turns than right, you save fuel.

I just need to figure out how to transfer the fault to the right, and one day I'll be able to afford genuine Ferrari parts

 

Superformance confirmed today that other purchasers have had problems with the sidelights and have offered a refund.

Thinking aloud... I wonder if other Ferrari parts suppliers offer lights from the same manufacturer.

Or can you shave rubber parts with a lathe or something similar? I want this mod to look professional

 

Update: I was able to rob parts of the old and combine them with the new. I now have a left side indicator with new internals. This didn't help my turn indicator problem, though.

Oddly, I can reproduce the turn indicator problem with the car in the garage (engine off, ignition ON) with..

1) left turn selected
2) brake pedal pushed
3) reverse selected

If either the brake is released OR reverse deselected the turn flash rate goes back to normal.

Faulty common earth? Shorted wires?

 

Well, after 2 months of pulling my car to pieces trying to find the cause of the fast flashing for my left hand turn indicators (and flashing brake/reversing lights)... I think I've finally found the most likely cause.... an improperly secured earth bolt for the rear left hand side of the car. Not only was it not tight, it had some sort of sticky paper under the head. I'm pretty sure this will be the cause, but I'm still putting my car back together. The earth is located just above the outboard supporting bolt for the left hand radiator (painted black on a black surface for easier identification). The location and function of the earth probably explain why the problem only surfaced when the car had warmed up. It's also the earth for the following systems, so it's good I found it.

Radiator fan
Petrol filler flap release solenoid
LH rear suspension actuator
Thermocouple ECU
Engine cover closed switch

Anyway, it was quite an adventure.. Along the way, I ...

1) Found the location of the hazard flasher relay (although replacing that made my problem worse)
2) Found some corroded side repeater lamp holders and cracked lenses (replaced)
3) Redrew the entire lighting system schematic to make it more user-friendly
http://www.iinet.net.au/[email protected]/FerrariF355Spider/FerrariF3551994LightingDiagram.gif
4) Discovered features on the car I never knew about
5) Found some cracked electrical plugs on the front light assembly harness (harness replaced)
6) Found a blown diode in the Hazard switch (part of the circuit which makes the switch flash when the Hazard switch is on). Diode replaced.
7) Found the harnesses for the console switches mixed up (The rear fog light activated the door locks, etc)
8) Found some cracked plastic parts under the gearshift/switch panel (parts ordered)
9) Found some wire harnesses in the cabin which needed rewrapping (Tesa cloth tape applied, although it isn't the stickiest of tapes... unwraps itself from small wiring harnesses after an hour or two).
10) Found that the front left hand wheel arch gravel guard was incorrectly fitted and the right hand wheel arch gravel guard was the wrong part (seems I have two left hand guards)
11) Found a leaky clutch/brake fluid reservoir (fix in progress)
12) Found that some idiot has Araldited the upper front luggage liner to the luggage compartment, making it impossible to remove the luggage liner in one piece for easy maintenance.
13) Found the windscreen wiper intermittency control box (attached to the right hand bonnet release latch)
14) Found my passenger footwell relay panel fitted upside down (an Australian car thing?)
15) Watch this space...

A (potentially) zero dollar fix ended up costing me thousand$
The experience... priceless

Cheers
Ian.

 

Refer post #3, I suggested an earth issue, but in saying that it could have been anywhere.

I have had this issue in other cars over the years and it always came down to a poor earth and this is one of the key protocols of aircraft bonding so as to eliminate potential differences throughout the frame and this applies to cars , boats (to a lesser degree depending on construction materials) and any other mechanical/electrical product.

I had an IBM mainframe at National Mutual in Sydney that would crash whenever the monorail would pass by the window, pulled all the frame to pieces, earthed the entire frame to all the individual components and then had a new earth installed for the building, costs a bit to do that but the machine never fell over again and up until that point the previous engineers had changed everything in the system.

I hope you put a star washer under the bolt at the earthing point as that helps maintain a good earth

 

Understood, John... I tried my best to find the earths for the system, which even involved pulling the wheel arch liner to pieces (I though the earth for the side repeater might be there, but it isn't). I tried to follow the harness for rear lights a few times... It just seemed to get fatter and fatter (all with black plastic covering) until it disappeared into the left hand front corner of the engine bay. It must double back somewhere, to the earth.



On the "up" side, at least this earth is visible with the right light and angle (standing on your head). The one on the right side can only be found by touch (or perhaps when the engine is out). If anyone knows where particular earths are, please let me know and I'll add them to my diagrams. I've only spotted 4 so far. One near the luggage compartment relay panel, one on the engine and the two mentioned.

Thanks for the tip about the star washer. I'm never sure whether to fit one or not. They seem to cause corrosion on some cars (because they dig into the galvanised surfaces).

Thanks again.

Cheers
Ian

P.S. Regarding aircraft components... At least they have station numbers, waterlines, etc to help you figure out where the parts are. The Ferrari manuals are hopeless in this respect

 

Well done on persevering with it Ian, I admire people who do their own work on these cars because as you state, it's not easy with the documentation supplied.

I've done a lot of work on the 3 cars I've owned and tracking down the cause of some of the problems is not easy in the electrical issues .

 

If you look at the (6) in brackets on the one on the left and (4) on the one on the right, that indicators how many bulbs.

 

My relay has (4), but I have 6 lights and it works properly. There may be other factors at play here. The lights on my wheel arches are not 21 watts.

And my lights are still working after 7 years

 

Hi Everyone,
New to this forum and recently purchased a clean 99 355 F1 Spyder. It’s a 27,000 mile car that sat for almost a year prior to my acquiring it. I noticed I kept blowing a fuse in the footwell. A very short while later…a poof of smoke emanating from behind the passenger footwell fuse panel. A 10 amp fuse literally melted in position. I later lost oil pressure, fuel tach and speedo gauges and a few more. I traced the problem to the front compartment under that fuse box. The harness melted 7 wires. This harness tucks into the fender through a hole. I put it on a jack stand, removed the wheel and removed the fender well liner. I found it, pulled it out to overlay new wire. Once spliced i found the green and white striped wire to be the culprit and that one is burnt further down the loom.. My only question is the where does the rest of that front driver side harness lead. I followed it to what seemed like the dashboard cluster which i removed but it’s seems to lead somewhere else. Any info appreciated. I have a BMW trained master certified automative electrician helping me. I have a 5.2 Bosch. He was able to tell from the brake booster in ten seconds. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Please see provided photos.
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My best guess is that the green/white wire in that melted mess goes to the Suspension Vertical Acceleration sensor mounted to the front bumper. Bumper removal is required to replace the sensor (if it's damaged). There has been a case of one of these sensors shorting out, blowing the Instrument/AC fuse (#24 on your car). This fuse is literally attached to dozens of items (including the roof). It would be one of the hardest wiring networks to diagnose.

Here's a diagram showing the suspension system:

https://www.dropbox.com/t/nOV33RYeHs4uAlY3

Link expires in 6 days.

It shows the green/white (VB) wire going through the fusebox to the sensor.

The harness coming from the frunk fusebox shown in your photo most likely feeds the whole front of the car (aka harness #1):

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Acceleration sensors and wiring harness shown here:

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Good luck!

(EDIT: Sorry, it's been a while since I've looked at the frunk area. Is the melted harness going forward or aft of the fusebox. If it's going aft, it's obviously going back into the cabin to the fusebox).

Splices in that line, however, will be branching out all over the car (instrument panel, roof ECU, engine sensors, etc). The green/white wires can be found in numerous wiring diagrams.

 

A good sign that the fuse has blown (on a Spider) is the sounding of the roof warning buzzer (even with the roof latched closed).

P.S. Welcome to FChat, Dan. Are you in Australia? I'm mostly found on the 348/355 forum if you have further questions. I don't come to the Aussie forum too often.

 

Hi, it’s definitely leading aft into the cabin. There was a poof of white smoke that came from the fuse box prior to this. I found the source in the frunk under the fuse box, I removed and disconnected the fuse box and pulled the harness out with connectors attached. I traced the wires back to all clean wiring but the green/white is fried clean through. I’m looking for where the harness goes at the firewall. I removed the gauge cluster and looked under the dash. Trying to trace it back to the footwell fuse box. The answer surely lies there. I’ll send more photos. Thank you very much for your help. It seems you’re the guru of all things 355. Grateful

 

Noted. I think I've gone down this path before, but had no luck. Also, my car is a RHD, so there will be differences (shorter harness).

I doubt you'll be able to trace the wiring. It will simply go into bigger and bigger harnesses. I think your only option will be to repair it where it is damaged or else pull the whole cabin to pieces. Are you expecting further damage upstream?

A search of the harness part number may lead you to photos of a used harness. That will give you some idea of how big the harness is.

(EDIT: The item number in the parts catalogue is 006 "dashboard connection cables", but there are dozens of different 006's, depending on gearbox type, spider/non-spider, country, LHD/RHD, etc)

Here's some examples of dashboard connection cables...

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/123184193995

https://www.ebay.com/itm/253886581582

 

Hi, I’m located in Miami, not in Australia. Although I’ve visited. Quite nice there.

 

I'm guessing that the frunk relay/fuse panel connectors are in the top left hand of this photo:

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Not sure where the passenger footwell relay panel connectors are in the photo.

I assume the door connectors are in the bottom corners.

 

Correct, it is number 6 in the catalog. I have looked at photos. I was hoping to find a sub connector for the front harness as I see them sold separately from the main harness. Why would the front cables be available individually. This was the question that drove me this far. There must be a way to replace/repair the without an engine out maneuver. I’ll probably have to take the dash apart. It has to go somewhere.

 

Yes. That sure looks like what I pulled out from under the frunk fuse panel. Where it leads inside the car is what I’d like to know.

 

Well, there are no inline connectors. Ultimately, the green/white wire in that harness will end up at the passenger relay panel (fuse 24), but somewhere in that mess of wires will be at least two massive green/white wire splices. The spliced wires will feed many branches of the harness.

Here's the instrument diagram for an F1 Spider (USA):

https://www.dropbox.com/t/NqlPPHnbeAbaDBqA

See splices 30019 and 30020. Note that not all of the branches of the splices are shown in this diagram. You'd have to look at other diagrams (HVAC, Suspension, Roof, etc). (EDIT: the frunk fusebox is not shown in that diagram. Some of the frunk wiring is spliced into splice 30019).

 

If you do find those major splices (after you pull the car to pieces), please let me know where they are (on a LHD car).

Are there any other wires damaged near the burnt wiring near the frunk relay panel? The green/white wire goes through the white relay panel plug shown in the harness photo. i.e. plug "I". The white plug harness carries:

3 wires for the suspension system
7 wires for lighting (with lots and lots of splices). Some wires involve the Immobiliser system.
1 wire for the horn