Can I chime in here with a related problem with my AC? I have mine set to auto/auto, and sometimes I get no fan, which only then works when I manually put the fan at speed 4. Put it back to auto, works fine, but again occasionally the fan will stop. Putting it back to 4, to get the fan to start again, then auto, works but sometimes it'll happily sit like that all day, other times stop the fan after a short time. Any ideas?
Tip to reinstall. Rub a little bit of silicone grease on the sides of the solenoid in order to easily slide it past the hose that's in the way.
I have to admit that removing the part is a pain in the back. Access to bolts is just impossible!!! After a few hours of fight, you win. But what a pain!!
Hi Stefano. I reply to your old post here. Hope it is ok.i also had to replace my AC compressor in Modena.... just curious! How did the engine temp go while driving in that heat? I have a 550 aswell, and it is overheating. So I will put in 575 cooling fan and the shroud around the fans. A 575 unit will cover the complete area of the radiator, but a 550 one will only cover about 70-80% of the radiator.
Erik- Remember, the 575M also has a different impeller than the 550 and a smaller pulley for a few more revs on the pump.
Mine does not overheat, it reaches maybe 100C in slow traffic and hot days (and AC on). Things have improved a lot by lowering the antifreeze concentration to 30% and by having the radiator fins cleaned with steam every 3 years or so. I'm sure the 575's shroud would also make a big difference. The 575's pump pulley is smaller because the engine idles slower, consequently the impeller has added vanes to avoid cavitation at high revs. We don't need this on the 550, the bigger shroud should be enough I think! Stefano
575Ms do not overheat at low speeds in general, so I think it is a combination of all three changes plus one more. 575M impeller will not fit the 550 pump without modification, though. 575M also has different fans. Mine stabilizes at about 88C/190F when stationary in traffic on a hot day. Plenty of those in the high desert.
I'm contemplating getting the 575 shroud and maybe the fans as well this winter. My 550 settles at around 190F, maybe 195F as long as the outside temperature is below 90F, but if it gets really hot (for Toronto), and I have to sit in traffic, the temp climbs to around 210-220. The magic outside temperature seems to be 93F. Once it hits passes 93 (according to the display in the dash), my coolant temp starts to creep up but only when sitting in traffic. It never seems to go any higher than 220, not even a couple of days this summer when it was 99F out and I had to sit in afternoon traffic with the AC on full, 220F was still the max it climbed to, and as soon as I start moving more than 30MPH, it drops back down below 190F very quickly, so I'm thinking it has to be lack of air flow through the rad when not moving. Even during a track day when it was probably 90F+ outside and running on the track for about 20mins with the engine between 4000-7000 rpm most of the time, the temp still didn't go above 200F, it's only when I stop moving that it starts to creeps up. Note that I have replaced all my hoses, I change my coolant every winter (Zero G05), both fans work and all three sensors are new. I'm hoping the 575 shroud forces just enough extra air through the rad at standstill. This is not an issue for me most of the time, but I'd like to not to have to think about it all if possible.
In moderately hot weather I was having severe overheating on my 550 - 3/4 of the gauge. I noticed that the foam around the shroud was missing. This was allowing the air to leak around the edges of the shroud. Since the stock foam pieces are unobtainium, I got some foam with sticky back tape from the hardware store and put that all the way around. Since I have had a world of worry with my fuse board, I wired up a set of external relays to run the fans. The relays on the fuse board trigger the external relays. When I first tested this, I immediately noticed a load on the battery that wasn't there before, and the fans seem to run faster (louder). This means that there was resistance on the fuse board that prevented all of the voltage getting to the fans. This also means that the resistance was causing heating of the fuse board, too. Now the temperature doesn't go above 200 deg. F on the hottest day.
That is VERY interesting. When i left my 550 for a full service and asked them to take the radiator out for a full outside clean, i was quite sure the problem would be not that much present when I came to test the car. But when I did, the car was overheating like crazy. Even more than before I left it in for service. The workshop had pressure cleaned the radiator from the outside (while still in the car) with water just like I had done myself without success! Instead of talking it out! I made a quite clear comment on this, and their answer was to bleed one more time... Obviously, they had not test driven the car like I asked them to do. Remember, this was just on the test drive at about 27 degrees C while I was in the area with my BMW. Later when I came to pick up the car, it was even warmer. It still overheated some during afternoon Modena traffic, but I had to get along and we went to France.... i noticed that the fans were not at all loud. I am used to be able to hear the fans on my previous cars and the 456M. A few times, the car just ran on 6 cylinders and I wiggled the relays to the Motronic and all 12 cylinders came back. But during this, I noticed that the fuse board was very hot. Not at all a good start of a long journey! On the way back to Norway and Sweden, I wanted to go to Paris. That is the most stupid idea of my life, nearly trashing my V12. At highway speeds, the car was working perfectly. I had about 300 one time and the coolant temp was just fine at about 70-80 degrees C. But when arriving Paris, the temp outside was around 33 deg C which is normal on a good summer day. The problem in Paris is that if you go into town, the traffic won’t let you out. I wanted to find a place to wash the car and take some great photos. Forget it. Not one single carwash except machine wash which is out of the question! After struggling for more than an houre in a caotic war against small small city cars racing like mice, I decided to just get the hell out of there. I had FULL heat on and the fan on 4. After two houres we finally managed to get to more normal speeds after being stick in the worst traffic jam of my life. My dog almost collapsed. I think we had about 60-70 Degernes inside the car for a very long time. The needle struggled to stay off of the red zone. Luckily the car ran on all 12 cylinders during this, but when I came home and it still was 30+ deg, the car a few times started running on half the engine. Again, the fusebox was really hot. I even got the low oil pressure warning light at idle, so I had to keep the revs at 1200+ while one foot on the clutch and the other on the brake. I could not turn the engine off either as that would stop the circulation and possible totally damage the engine. All this after a service at Modena’s biggest Ferrari workshop for many thousands of Euros! Where they have the same heat. Now when it is more like 13 deg C in Norway, the fans are much louder and I never have any overheating problems. This leads me to think that there is so much resistance in the thin wiring and the fuse box itself that there must be a real bottle neck there aswell. I will definately do a lot to the cooling system of the car this winter, now when I have it back home in my own garage! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
There was so much heat that the paint on the hood cracked at the edges. The 550 has a really really hot engine compartment. I was worrying that the battery also might get a damage or melt, but the battery does not show any sign of damage believe it or not. Now I have an additional battery in the spare tire compartment to have a backup solution if for some reason there is a problem with the main battery. Also great when leaving the car with the alarm on for longer periods of time. With the Windows all the way up in the seals. I will have a main switch inside the car to be able to add more power in the event of a situation where you need it. Also one descreet outside small switch to parallell switch the batteries if the main battery is out of power and you need to open the car with the fob instead of tearing the windows out of the seals. One thing is that there is no where for the heat to escape. I should have run with the hood partly open to let the heat come out, but how good does that look like with a Ferrari? The hood should have had vents on top for the air to escape easily. Hest go up, not backwards and out the side vents in the fenders. The 599 GTO has that!! Big Mercedes S-class cars also has that.... there is a reason for it.The AC also blows not at all sufficient cold even if my AC compressor was brand new from the Ferrari workshop. I believe it is because the condenser in front of the radiator does not get enough air flow. Really annoying. As far as I understand, there is nothing wrong with my radiator. It just can’t get enough air to cool it down. A new rad is 3.000 euros, and I do not pay that just to discover that the problem will continue! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I had the same experience after a service in Modena, the temp needle reaching the 3/4 line in only 27C weather. I still think the technicians there are very competent. They test drive every car, but it is a short drive and they rarely hit traffic. I bet the problem we had is the formation of an air pocket in the water collector under the plenum. The day after the service the car was back to normal, probably because the air pocket expanded as the water cooled, and found its way to the nourice. I never again had problems several services after that, all in Modena. Stefano
I like the guys working there. But when I was charged 10 houres of labour to fit a Quicksilver X-pipe because it did not fit perfectly, it gets a bit stiff. I asked for a thorough radiator out cleaning, but got the same as I can do with my own pressure cleaner. The AC radiator cover most of the area of the engine’s radiator so it is impossible to rinse it without taking one of them out. And spent three houres changing the rear brake pads. I know, because I was waiting while they did the job...
Which of the two workshops was that? North or south side of the Via Emilia? I go to the good old one on the south side!
Thread revival! Just looking at doing this on a 550 and cannot figure out how to access the top screw, even based on the help earlier in this thread. Does anyone have any more tips or a more detailed guide please? Thanks
You’ve tried the tool shown in this thread? Have you removed the glovebox? Are you intending to replace components inside the fan speed regulator or replacing the entire unit? Some folks have resorted to breaking off the top mounting tab, but considering the rarity of the regulator, check on availability first.
Hi, Glovebox out. Bought a similar tool and can't even find the angle to engage the screw. I was planning on replacing the components as new units appear to be very hard to find.
Sorry, no idea what’s going on. Worst case scenario is the dash having to come out, but persistence sometimes works or a fresh pair of hands. There are times I’ve spent ages unsuccessfully trying to do something and came back the next day and finished the job in minutes… or a fellow worker has taken over and finished the job easily (different hand size or strength). Can you squeeze a smartphone in the gap and take a photo of the area to see what might be going on?
I know what you're saying. I did walk away and went back later, with some different tools and ideas and got the bottom screw out relatively quickly. I've attached a picture of what I'm looking at. That wrapped ducting basically prevents easy access. I did buy a driver similar to the one above but I haven't managed to engage that upper screw. Obviously I want to avoid dash out if at all possible! Image Unavailable, Please Login
My car is RHD but the position is the same for a LHD drive. What I did ( and I think this is the only way without removing the dash) is remove the lower screw, remove the connectors, then lever the unit until you snap the upper tab. Pull the unit out and then remove the residual tab fragment and screw. I did however have a new replacement unit and was happy to bin the old one. The new unit then goes in, I had a helper with small hands and we just managed to secure the top screw. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I just googled that part number in the pics and it was used in Rover cars too, so you might find one other than Ferrari
The Rover items are just as hard to find. That’s why there is a company in England who specialises in repairing them. Having said that, it seems that the company is hard to contact: https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/blower-resistor-issues-help-on-discontinued-part.644678/ It seems several owners have had to resort to the break-the-tab-off method. I recommend JB Weld to repair the broken tab.
F-Chatter @m.stojanovic (Miro) on the F348/F355 sub-forum has been updating the fan speed regulators on the F348/F355. If no luck with Technozen (in the link above), Miro may be able to help with V12 car regulator repair. https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/posts/146969330/
