348 When does the insane maintenance cost end?

That’s not what is in the often quoted “major” service.

 

Every other 'major', I have every piece of rubber in the engine bay replaced.
Anything in questionable condition, that is hard to reach with the engine in the car, is also renewed.
I have even machined up a couple of small parts when Ferrari-tax seemed of questionable value.

Remember, a 'major' is your opportunity to drive the car for 3-6 years without _anything_ but fluid changes.
If you dilly-dally on what needs to be fixed/addressed, it will come back to bite you--and at a very inconvenient time.

Pretty much just like a real race car being driven in a real race attempting to win.

 

Right…as you say…”mostly includes”. That’s the thing Ferraris are not driven like Toyotas and they don’t have complete maintenance schedules and procedure for doing them. In that 25+ years and the fleet ages we learn more and do more in our majors. You can see that in the post archives on fchat. For example we talked about belt changes and almost never cam timing at the beginning of fchat. Timing for 90% was just matching lines. Later around the mid 90’s we see more posts about belt change with cam timing and Within the last 10 years more of us include fuel injector blue printing and service with major service. This evolution has occurred because we lack guidance from Ferrari and we have been figuring it out ourselves as needed.

 

Ferraris are different from other cars like Toyotas because maintenance occurs based on mileage milestones that are usually attained. On the other hand 95% of Ferraris never get the miles they time out. That’s how you get the controversy in the many belts threads of how many years until you have change belts. You can have a 70k mile 355 from 1996 and that’s a high mile car going on average 2500 per year!

 

I’ve spent a ton on maintenance and restoration over the past 36 months as I shared with you privately. I would say there are four factors at play, in order:

1) deferred maintenance
2) years sitting
3) 30+ year old components aging out
4) my perfectionism

I could have bought a 488, but I wanted a 348 Spider and I wanted it perfect.

 

The only reason these cars turn to lemons is because owners tend to do as little maintenance as possible between two engine out services, which necessarily turn out stupidly precisely because off all the little things that could have been fixed in between and allowed the keep the car in regular use, which is if paramount importance to keep it reliable. This is a vicious circle that can only turn into a virtuous circle if the cars are first driven regularly and then if the issues are fixed just as they come, rather than keep the cars rotting in a garage and get the financial time bomb to explode each time the engine out service bill is handed over. I can't see of another way to "devermin" these cars.

 

It's more than that. The best cars aren't just the best maintained with the thickest set of repair receipts. The best cars have well thought out service done with attention to detail. For example in timing your volvo the manual tells you to line up the marks and you are done. There was a time 95% of Ferrari guys just lined up the marks. Every thread on Fchat that talks about cam locks (and there is still a current thread on cam locks here right now) is lining up marks and often their own nail polish marks not even the ferrari marks on the cams! A small number of people are cam time with degree wheel everytime. Anyone who has used a degree wheel knows how easy it is to be "off the marks." There was a time during major services no thought was given to fuel injectors. Some would add a can of techron. The 348 was fraught with electrical gremlins before it left the factory. We used stablant-22 to clean electrical connectors in the 90's. Mixture control is important! How do we ensure the possibility of engineered mixture control? That's how we got beyond techron and into blue printing and servicing fuel injectors and re-pinning of electrical connectors. That's how the aftermarket took what Montezemolo called the worst car to come out of Maranello and make it the reliable 348 it is today. The OP's car can be saved. It just needs to get sorted from antenna to window motor.

 

Fumbled around seeing if anyone wanted to buy the car and after trying to sell it for over a month I sat down with it in my garage. Told it that I was going to take it with me to North Carolina and keep her forever even if she doesn't run because its my trophy. I'll master this car if its the last thing I do and I'll just drop the pennies into it as I have the time and the capital to do so. I can get a porsche 997 and it may drive better, but it doesn't sound as good as this does. I can get an Super-lite Coupe component car to build, but then it doesn't carry the ferrari badge. I can sell this car and may end up regretting it because it's my first supercar and I am very emotionally attached to her!

The car is old, maintenance was indefinitely deferred by previous owners and i'm picking up the slack on that. Will get a lift in my new houses's garage and do what I gotta do. With that said.. time to make a new thread about a new problem

 

I would get those torn boots looked at ASAP. Leaky header blowing hot exhaust gas onto them? That can get expensive very quickly.

 

Wow! There are lemons that just seem cursed. That's way beyond even 355 ownership with engine rebuild. Considering the cost of the car you could have a very nice 430 with money left over to take you wife on a nice vacation.

 

To very bluntly and directly answer your question in a way that I dont believe I saw yet, and for most who own a ferrari will disagree with because of paper trail is to do the work yourself. The parts cost is what it is and this forum is a great source of part replacement alternatives that will be much cheaper, but when you pay someone to work on a Ferrari you are paying top dollar.
I bought mine to drive, to enjoy, and for the experience. I am not saving my car for the next guy but making it mine.

 

What do you mean? We all agree that DIY is the way to own an old Ferrari.

 

exactly, diy as much as possible. When you dont need to pay for the hours, the parts purchasing becomes much more tolerable.

 

I have a similar era car (Lamborghini Diablo) that has required $70k in maintenance over an 11 year span (58% of what I paid). So there have been some trying times. But I never got to the point you seem to be at now. I would recommend you sell it for whatever you can get and resolve to get something else (newer) later, as I feel it will always be a mile until breakdown in your mind....not a good place to be, can't enjoy a car in those terms.

 

After DIYing some long standing problems for pennies on the dollar by myself I have some renewed confidence and the car is running pretty good at the moment. I'm beginning to turn a new page and just love it for what it is and not center my life around it as odd as that may sound. We'll see what 2025 has to offer with it and I'll do my best to enjoy it.

 

Update on this thread: Car has been running great since February and I've put around 800 miles on the car with no issues. Seems to be sorted!

 

Yay, you pushed thru! I think I might be there too — though my cam seals still leak.

 

Pushed through and have been doing my own work on it since now a shop isn't even an option for me! Had some small hiccups but nothing major. Will do some work on it this week to work out the common electrical gremlins that pop up from time to time. (Burnt AC wiring and a burnt fuse connector for the LH radiator fan). I've driven it once or twice a week for the past 4 or 5 months and have been having a good time with it.

 

Really happy for you that you are now enjoying the car. Sounds like your learning a lot about doing the maintenance yourself too which is great. Smiles for miles, sir.

 

I am new to 348 [ still have the carby Uber analog 208 ] .

The common things that go are well documented on here , thankfully there fixes .Well trodden paths .

I did prophylactically change the HVAC 30 amp fuse on mine move it a more accessible place under one of those inspection covers and fit a click type switch fuse . It’s been fine . But the OEM had burn / melt witness mark faults so “I headed it off from the pass “

I have also used Stabilent 30 on as many connections I can find in the engine compartment and every fuse / relay on the car .inc the HVAV unit miniature multi plugs .

Suspect your rad fans is either a poor contact / connector ……you just have to clean them up . Or the actual fan motors ( worn commutators ) leading to high resistance leading to excessive current draw leading to overheating of the wiring etc .
The latter is rarer than the former on Italian electrics in the 348 .

On the 308 fans it’s common for the motors to draw so much excessively high current to basically fry the whole fan electric system all the way to and including the fuse board . The fix is to completely re wire in higher grade wires and fuse holders ….so the aged motors can be fed higher current without the wires and associated paraphernalia etc getting hot . This mod had already been done .I have invoices from a F franchised dealer for this work . The OEM 308 fuse boards are legendary on here .

I don’t think it’s a auto go to thingy on 348 , they ( from my little time of ownership) ….the fans seem pretty ok as OEM .
Just cleaning up the connections of the paraphernalia in the circuits seems to be adequate. There will be exceptions, leading to replacing a motor .

The three fixes I have experienced with my 348 ( 94 MY )
1- Lumpy running and occasionally CAT light flickers with intermittent bank shut down . Diagnosis after swopping ignition parts - spark issues
Solution = fit iridium plugs - Result fixed .

2- E6 HVAC code . Diagnosis, the flap sat in the bottom of the box , = broken bush . First fix buy a hills brass bush . Result temp fix .
Problem reoccurring. Further investigation of the flap motor - diagnosis after dismantling the motor housing = busted gears .Fix replace the actuator and prophylactically took an angle grinder to the actual flap sides ( in a vice on the bench ) to trim off a few mm to the sides . As close observation of the movement elicited marks inside the plastic box where the flap was possibly jamming or at least scrapping thus increasing the effort / strain on the plastic gears , leading to excessive forces , leading to mashed gears .

The plastic box over time ( temp change etc ) has slightly distorted = flap jamming .

All fixed now .

3- Drivers window motor became intermittent then pack up in the down position.
Diagnostic, was to twiddle the umbilical. It worked . Diagnosis = loose wire in the door to jam plug .
Fix = peel back the rubber ( un screws ) to find the +ve power wire pulled out of the pin. Fix = reconnect .

There are many threads on here about brittle 348/355 door unbiblical connectors .

Indeed when I was last @ my Indy they had 355 in having the whole door unbiblical pin thing re pinned .
Interesting for those in the know the tech [ experienced Italian car sparky ) said the factory wiring diagrams they had the workshop manuals were pretty useless as the colours did not sync with the “ book “ they were having to trace and test each individual wire to find out exactly what it did .

Next door was an Aston Martin with a spaghetti of wires laid out in the trunk . I asked “ what’s the issue “ was told it was the boot release mechanism and crucially differing from the Ferrari the wiring diagrams were true and exact unlike the 355 s umbilical diagrams.
Just food for thought guys . ^ I mentioned this as I see a lot of threads on this 348/355 section of folks requesting wiring diagrams …..and posters kindly posting one .

 

My 348 Spider was the least cost ferrari i've ever owned. Not an issue in 6 years