Hi everybody, just purchased my first Ferrari, and I have a cold start problem. After that the car is beautiful. I made a clip of it. I did my research, and found two possible causes, maf or vacuum related, but I want you guys to lend me your expertise on the matter... Oh, and if the battery is disconnected, it takes longer to normalize, left it connected and it only lasted as long as you see in the clipm Any help would be greatly appreciated.
First, what year is your 348, i.e. is it Motronic 2.5 or 2.7? If you are not sure, provide a picture of one of your Idle Control Valves. If 2.7, the valve should look like this: Image Unavailable, Please Login
Next is for you to verify that you have two Idle Control Valves under the intake plenum which look like what the following diagram and picture show. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login These are bimetal type air valves that should be open when cold and they slowly close as the bimetal is heated up by an internal electric heater (the power to the heater is supplied when the ignition is "on"). The heater is low power and, together with the bimetal actuator, it is designed to gradually close the valve as the engine warms-up. However, this type of idle valve is only able to "approximately" maintain the idle speed during the warm-up phase, and it is not as effective and accurate as the idle valve on the 2.7. It is also known to be unreliable, i.e. not very long lasting. Once you verify that you have this type of idle valves, I suggest you take them out and inspect as they could easily be the culprit in your case (may not be open when cold). The hose on your picture below that I have marked with a red line probably goes to your RH valve. The bad news is that (if you need to replace them) the price of this valve is €786 at Eurospares. The same type (identical look) idle valve was used on some BMWs and Volvos of the 80's. However, the valves are not all the same but tuned to the engine cc and to how fast (or slow) the engine warms up. Perhaps the Volvo valves (if still available), used on 2 or 2.3 Lit engines, could be used on the 348 but they may not control the idle as well as the original ones. Anyhow, let us know what you actually have under the intake plenum (look from the back). Image Unavailable, Please Login These are the idle valves for other cars that are potential candidates to be tried on the 348 (I do not know if still available): Image Unavailable, Please Login
Thanks for the tip, it seems that yes, I have the 1500 euro pair of ICVs... i can see 16218 on them. Is there an easy way to get them out, or do I have to take the plenums off? i saw a thread where a member cleaned the icv, although I believe it was the later, single 2.7 version. Is there a chance these ICVs can also be cleaned, and hopefuly restored to working order? Image Unavailable, Please Login
It looks like you would have to remove the plenum as the valves are bolted to the coolant transfer housing (see diagram above). Nothing much shown on your picture but I believe you have recognised the valves. Once you remove them, you should check if you can see through the valve ports. When the valves are cold, you should be able to see a somewhat irregular shape opening when looking into one of the ports. If you do not see any opening, it may be because the valves are gummed-up or because they are faulty. If you see accumulated gum, you may try to clean it out with some cleaning spray. Don't try to poke through because the opening control disc (the "guillotine") is plastic and rather delicate. The chances to fix these valves by cleaning are rather small as the usual problem is some internal failure. If you see the opening in the valve (should be fairly large when cold), you can test its operation by connecting it to 12V supply and verify whether the opening is slowly closing. It may take about 5 minutes or so. The cylindrical part of the valve should get warm during the process.
Look under the bell housing “pumpkin” of the clutch/flywheel and see if there is any signs of oil/greese. There is a perforated screen bolted to the bottom of it.
No oil/grease under the clutch I did an experiment, I left the ignition on for 35-40 min before first start, and it made a clear improvement. Still a bit rough, but defientely better. Will do a 1 hour ignition on before start tomorrow, and record the start. Can the connectors be unclipped without removing the intake manifold? It would be so cool if the issue is poor electricsl contact... solent22?
changed in 2023. Was also thinking fuel filters, but there are three reasons I don't believe them to be the culprit: - only at first start, the colder the weather, the worse it is and vice-versa - if I let the ignition on for a considerable amount of time, symptoms become greatly alleviated - it only happens at the first start when cold, car has full power after that - high 5s-low 6s 0-100. I think if the filter would have trouble providing fuel for idle, it would be nigh on impossible to get fuel for max power. However this is just my reasoning, I am always open at the possibility I may be wrong; thank you everybody for trying to help
