Now, just as a curtesy. Ferrari said in the Owner's Manual and WSM of what the MIN level of coolant is but it says nowhere nor mentioned of what the MAX is? Sorft of. So I was curious and after solving the problem with overheating because of the low coolant, I kept adding gradually coolant to the expansion tank to find of where the MAX will be? So the answer is the MAX is a little bit above in the filler cap tunnel. More than that I have had added 1/2 of a tunnel and that extra she had pushed out. Interesting to see the designers had made the expansion tank with the hump with the calculated volume of the airbag used to expand the coolant during the engine warming and heating up to the calculated air pressure that builds up for the coolant fluid expansion. This, no MAX marks needed, just fill it up to the top! Brillant! P.S. I thought for a long time the V12 is the main Ferrari passenger line - because Enzo once said: "I've married the V12 and I'll never divorce it". But, I've read earlier this year that their mail passenger product line is the mid-engine actually. Thus, the 355 is their pride and what then done best for 95-99. And I can tell! Image Unavailable, Please Login
I had some small coolant leaking at front of engine i could not trace, at fist ignored it and just filled it up but the temp was always slightly above the middle mark. Later on i fixed the leak and the temp gage is just slight below middle mark or just spot on middle as it should be. So the reasons can be many, in your case you have such large offset from mid mark i would suspect an aging thermostat that needs to be replaced.
Please read my thread again that I replaced the thermostat. In my case it was the idiot mechanic at my local dealership who just put the coolant to the cold car after the major engine service few years ago and they gave the car to me because when I received the car back I had checked everything and the coolant was that low in the expansion tank so I trusted the dealership which turned out they are fools. It wasn't that hot in the Summer since until this year.
My coolant leak was because the tank had some small micro crack around the output, i filled the tank at home and watched it leak extremely slow underneath causing a large pool over a week under the car.
When your coolant is low it's not "variances"; when you stand still there is less upcoming air to cool down the radiators with less coolant so the temp rises, when you drive the upcoming air + fans cool it down.
It could only be caused by a faulty or tired thermostat, yes new ones happens to fail also, or a faulty temperature sensor.
The news for you it's not. My old thermostat again if you read my thread again was good. The temp sensor when loosing sensivity showing LESS temp, not GREATER.
