Sorry to bother you guys again, but I have a rather paculiar problem. My 348 starts all days without hesitation as long as it is reasonable cold. When I have been driving for three hours or so and everything is warm and I turn it off, it does not start for 15 minutes or so. The starter does not move, just like it is dead. However it works perfect again after a while. A thermal problem if you ask me. What to do?? Buy a new starter??
Usually it's just a bad connection to the starter (aggravated by heat). Sometimes it's a bad starter solenoid, and other times it's a battery with a failed internal cell (or poor ground), or in some instances it's a failure in the ignition key circuit under your steering column...to explain when the starter doesn't engage/turn at all. A quick search on FerrariChat will turn up lots of threds on the subject, as will The348.com .
The early year 348s have a bullet style connector that is located up under the air box. The problem with the connector is that it doesn't make a very tight connection. It is also a pain in the butt to get to with the air box bolted down, but you can get to it. It is held in place by a clip that is welded to the subframe. The next time you are having the problem try popping the bullet connector out of the clip unplug it, plug it back together, and see what that does. The best thing to do, if you have the bullet style connector, is to replace it with a solid cable, from the battery to the starter. That will get rid of the problem, because there will be no break in the path of the power from the battery to the starter. In the mean time, to patch the problem, you can try using zip ties to hold the plastic clips down, in an attemp to keep the connectors held together tighter. But as I said the best thing to do is just replace the bullet connectors with a solid cable.
