Apparently I was really lucky!!

Took my 02 360 for it's major service belt's etc.
The garage rang me up to say the cam belt tensioner had broken, and I was very lucky that it had not slipped and blown the engine up.

I have a couple of questions to the well informed on here:

1 Is this common in Ferrari 360's
2 Are there any signs noise's that would make you aware this was the case, (I have only had 1 Ferrari this is it), no extra noise since I bought it.
3 Could the garage have damaged the tensioner whilst removing it. (specialist Ferrari garage tho!)

I suppose I'am just wondering how long I have been running around with it like this, but I would assume that's like asking how long is a piece of string, something I will never know.

The belt is due year wise, but not miles, 26k on clock. Car is still in garage being worked on.

Any help/advice much appreciated Steve..

 

Can they email you a pic of the broken part?
Most Ferrari shops photograph work fairly often for various reasons and should have camera etc.
A pic is worth a thousand words etc and posting some would help garner informed comment I'd think.

 

Usually it's the bearing inside of the tensioner that would fail. I say you were lucky that they spot it it. The unit itself is a simple mechanism and should be easy to install and if the belt was fine then you're in good shape.

 

Well as regards a picture, I'm not sure as yet, because I just gave them the go ahead to do the job, new belts and they reckon they discovered the belt tensioner broken not sure how, I have taken there word it was broken and I had been running around with it broken, I expect to pick it up this week so, I may call in earlier to see if I can get a pic.

Thanks a good idea though, I agree.

 

Thanks like as posted I don't really know what I'am looking at as yet, not seen it, but as you say it's probably the bearing.
Will post more info when I have it, I was told the belt would have been flapping around..and very lucky it didn't slip.

 

I am sure that they will replace the belt since this is a major service. I am glad that they dug in there and found the problem. I think you should walk into the shop with a box of chocolate

 

Just to give you an idea what this thing looks like (I stole the picture from another post in here). It's the roller with the inner blue ring.
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I can't speak for Ferrari shops on that side of the pond, but in the 'States, whenever an auto shop in general immediately decides that a car they've not seen before needs belt idlers or brake rotors, it sets my "spidey senses" tingling. Shops in New England, especially, had a reputation for diagnosing work the car didn't really need.

For 15 years, half the shops that looked at the Celica AllTrac wanted to replace the belt tensioners and/or brake rotors. In 15 years, I never replaced either. (At only 8:1, the 3sGTE is not an interference engine.)

On the other hand, I thought servicing the tensioner was standard practice when replacing the belts on a Ferrari.
(Ferrari's *are* interference engines, so a little extra on the belt service is cheap insurance.)

 

Actually on 360's the I've seen the body of the tensioner break. The bearing was fine.

 

I've never heard of this being a common problem on 360's, but I can tell you one way to gain some piece of mind from this event....install these! http://www.ricambiamerica.com/product_info.php?cPath=600_519&products_id=224307 I have the 355 version on my car.

 

Thats not the 360 failure mode.

It is the body of the tensioner itself that breaks. It is not visible in the pictures. There is an updated tensioner available and your shop should have insured that your car was so equipped on your first visit there. It is also something that can be seen from the bottom without removal of the belt cover if you know what you are looking for.

On road cars when the tensioner breaks it rotates on the remaining mounting bolt and leans against the air conditioning compressor. It will usually stay that way and run fine.

On the Challenge cars without an A/C compressor it was a sure engine blow up.

 

Thanks ..

Ahh well yes it's added another £1000.00 approx!! to the job. LOL "spidey senses" mine too, they have worked on the car before, for the previous owner, but not me

In fairness I do believe the garage, or I'm gullible, but I do see where you are coming from thanks.

 

Thank's, I tend to agree this will be the case, as the garage stated the belt would have been flapping around, hence me bieng lucky.

 

You guys are all talking about tensioner BEARINGS.

The problem on 360 is the tensioner.

It is a distinctly different part.

If your knowledge base is a 328 you should study up on a 360 before trying to offer advice.

 

Noted! Can you give us a lead to try to understand the difference between those tensioners?

 

Curious if the 360 tensioner is dynamic, or fixed.

 

Brian- So which part is failing on this drawing from Ricambi's online catalog? The tensioner, 24?

Taz
Terry Phillips
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It is dynamic but fails structurally.
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Ouch! I see the break where the mounting is, is that correct?

 

Yes. Wow.

 

Brian- Thanks. Cannot get much plainer than that. Do you think Ferrari planned it so the A/C compressor would catch it? Had to laugh out loud when I typed that.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Looks like the same type tensioner our son had on his Mazda.

Does this tensioner (in updated form) work any better than the static type on the 308?

 

The actual tensioner works a bit like a hydraulic lifter. It is intended to allow better for block thermal expansion and belt stretch. Neither were a problem on 308/328 but then those motors didn't see 8500 rpm regularly and they didn't spin up as fast except in race form. Race belts get changed like underware so in a street motor? Who knows. Personally I think there is a healthy dose of fixing what ain't broken.

 

I don't think so or they would have put a dummy of some type on the Challenge cars.

For a while those things were taking out motors like crazy.

 

Brian- Your avatar reminded me of a story. I had a Monday morning meeting in LA and flew on a late Sunday night flight on Delta connecting out of Salt Lake City to LA. Turned out the the Sundance Film Festival had just ended, so Mickey Rooney, Nick Nolte, and my seatmate, Neve Campbell (a real hardship there, she was 23 at the time) were on their way back to LA. Nick had a bit to drink on the flight, looked just like your avatar, and told us a war story.

He had been paid to attend a film festival in France, but said he drank red wine continuously the whole way over on the flight and barely made it to his hotel. He was so wasted, he never made it to the film festival, but luckily, still had his return tickets and just flew home with nearly the same results. He was bit of wild man back then, right after the 48 hr sequel came out. Do not know if he ever changed.

Great avatar. Ever been to France?

Taz
Terry Phillips