All, I'm in the process of restoring the front suspension on my '87 328. I got the drivers side apart last night and it appears that my forks are the original 4mm size. I'm going to swing by Silicon Valley Ferrari next week and see if they pull up my VIN and confirm. My question to you all is, if they have not been replaced, do I need to purchase the updated ones or will Ferrari replace them (at not cost) per the recall? I suspect I need to purchase them. Thank you. Craig
The 2 sources of information whose opinion do not count? This forum and the dealer. Armed with your VIN contact Ferrari North America directly. Any other efforts are a total waste of time.
Important update to this thread. As it turns out, the dealer in this case Ferrari Silicon Valley, were extremely helpful. I walked in with a zip lock bag full of my forks. I plead my case and after checking to see if there was still an open recall on my VIN (which there was), they told me they would be happy to perform the service and replace them (at no charger to me) with one small caveat, they had to be on the car. So, after my front end suspension restoration is done, I'll be driving it in just to have them replace what I had in a baggie. I'm sure they make more money doing it their way. Either way, they could not have been any nicer or more helpful. Craig
Glad that it has all worked out for you. So to help future search results, can you please post some pics of what this is all about? As a non-328 owner, this whole issue comes as news to me. Thanks - DM
Its not a matter of profit its about Federal law and warranty fraud. The recall can only legally be done by factory authorized people and the warrant claim can only be filed for a complete job.
328 had different front suspension geometry from 308. The front suspension lower control arm forks that attach the arms to the frame were left unchanged from 308 and additional stress from the geometry change was breaking them. They redesigned the forks and recalled the early ones.
Here's a copy of the (F self-reported) Recall Campaign 146 if you'd like to read about it. IMO, F sugar-coated it a little to claim that it was only a problem if there was undetected damage after an accident rather than just being under-designed for the new 328 suspension as Brian indicated.
They always do that. When they did the 3rd or so recall for fuel hoses on 355 they claimed it was due to independent garages putting the coolant hose clamps on wrong and cutting through the fuel hoses. It was the way Ferrari assembled the cars. The 1st recall was to flip the hose clamp over????? On a hose that is removed every service. By the 3rd recall and many fires and at least one law suit for severe burns they finally fixed the problem.
I have a complete maintenance history for mine, but this replacement is not listed. I ask the question to the Belgian importer. I wonder if I'll get an answer? Strange, my car is from 1986, but according to the chassis numbers above it is a 1987?
"Model Year" is/was a US required thing -- and that Recall 146 is a US document covering US version 328. Most countries did eventually adopt the same "Model Year" concept, but, for some non-US version cars, the "year" gets listed in their paperwork as when the paperwork was filed/created in that country. You can try decoding your VIN here, but not all non-US F VINs contain a model year (and the 10th digit is just a "0"): https://www.red-headed.com/vin.html
The "fork" is the bracket that connects inboard lower A-arm bushings to the frame. Maybe a better English language technical description, rather than "fork", would be "lower A-arm mounting bracket".
