Are 355's really this problematic?

Sounds like the car has been neglected a bit even though the 355 usually suck but never that bad.

Now the 348 is what you should be looking at there is a mans Ferrari...

 

One can only assume that a rental F355 has gone to hell and back!!

You can imagine how it has been driven.

Had mine for 3 years and no problems at all. Just got back from a drive and the car is brilliant.

 

You experianced first hand the reason that a Cheap Ferrari looks better in the neighbors driveway.

All common issues fairly easily addressed if there was an incentive to do so. None of this is normal as you were told. The climate control system is great on the 355, when properly setup the engines are seamless with no CEL's and will self adjust from sea level to 13K feet without a hickup and if the top hasnt been used as a trampoline in the past these too are fairly reliable and easily repaired.

As said before, its a rental car. Dont judge the model on this car!

 

Not if taken care of.
Sounds like you rented a piece of ****e

 

Like Dave said, it sounds like you rented a neglected car. The AC/Heating system in my car work perfect. I have had my car for about 7 months now, and have put on it about 2000 miles and it runs perfect. Never seen the CEL light yet. Have not had a single issue in the car beyond a common sticky throttle that has been taken care of by simply cleaning a part. Mine is a Berlinetta so I cannot comment on a spyder top. No rattling noises at all, and a great pleasure to drive. Again, do not judge the 355 from the one you drove.

 

Not to question your competence, but I just would like to ask: when trying to put the heat on, were you aware that the little "STOP" button needed to be depressed (i.e., popped "out" rather than popped "in")? With it at the "in" position, all you get is unrefined outside air.

The 355 is an outstanding vehicle that works very well when taken care of. There is no justification for the problems that you experienced except that the car was a car that was neglected.

 

No disrespect to Status intended, but re your check engine light and hesitation, their advice is a load of BS. The 355 will run just fine on 87 octane gas. Elevation? That's a new excuse. No, the problem is almost certainly related to the notorious ECU failure, common to 348s and 355s. There are a pair of them, one for each bank of the motor. They tend to develop cracks from heat and flexing; when they do, water gets into them and they can short (bad design re locating their mounting positions). When that happens, one bank can shut down intermittently, which can cause half your engine to stop working so the car sounds horrible and drives like a Geo Metro. Continued operation in this mode can cause a lot of damage. Cure is to replace the ECU. Part is expensive but takes all of 3 minutes to do it. Some have had luck sealing the cracks; can't hurt to give it a try.

Re the heat, I've never heard of this problem. The A/C works surprisingly well, considering it's an Italian car; when the A/C goes out, it's typically because it needs a charge. I've never heard of anyone having a problem generating heat. Agree with 348sstb, did you check the "stop" button positioning? To someone new to Ferraris, it can certainly be confusing.

As for the 355 top - yes, that actually IS a common issue, mostly with the seat potentiometer, there are many threads on this topic.

Hope this helps in your decision making.

vty,

--Dennis

 

A fuse on the back console between the seats has popped, common thing.

 

Interesting note on 95 355's. You can pick up all the codes through the onboard computer. I believe this isn't true of later years. This would be the least expensive way to diagnose code problems. There are many posts on this. Wound up prematurely changing ECU's when it was a faulty contact in one of the harnesses. The faulty contact problem is fairly common to a number of Ferrari's. I've had years of enjoyment with this 355. Just requires a little TLC. Neglected rental cars shouldn't color ones opinion on the car.
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+1 I have enjoyed 1.5 yrs of trouble free ownership, approx 5K miles. I bought a well sorted out car and had a PPI done. I could not be happier with the purchase! Find the right one and you will be grinning ear to ear!!
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It is probably not a good idea to use a rental agency as a barometer for exotic car ownership, as you no doubt learned. Better to find an enthusiast owner who will be happy to take you for a drive and walk you through the ownership experience. All these items appear to me to be based on neglect and lack of proper maintenance as well as ignorance on the part of the rental agency.

First, the 355 is more complicated than the 348 in terms of more systems that can go wrong and usually do. Second, the 1995 model is probably the least fussy of the 355's. Third, the Spiders are probably the most complicated of the 355's due to the automatic tops. Our 348's are manual and far less complex, not to menton much easier to maintain.

Still, a properly maintanined car would have left you with an ethereal experience, not the niggling host of issues you had.

 

When in Vegas several years ago I thought to rent a 355 for a day, run up to Hoover as well, but a good read of the materials indicated that driving it any harder than 1/10th would result in tripping a governor of some sort (so, "thanks, but no thanks"), could your CEL issue have been evidence of some incredibly crude governor system?

 

Why? (I'm going to get flamed for this question)

 

That is a COOL pic man!!

 

There is a dude every weekend in that same curve on Mullholland hwy in Malibu taking pics of cars and bikes. He then sells them online:

www.Rockstorephotos.com

I have purchased a couple...he is cool!!

 

Sweet! Great idea!

 

No flame, dude. For the US only, the '95's are OBD1 and Motronic 2.7 cars. Not as complex due to emissions.

 

I have driven from my house (5000 feet MSL) to the local mountain crest (10670 feet MSL) with no engine missing or CEL. I say "bad gas" not "low octane gas" is the culprit.

I drove mine to work this morning. It was 35 degrees (F) and I had the top down. The heater in mine is great -- It was blowing hot air in minutes. It's at least as good as the one in my Corvette but the Corvette also has the seat heater which makes cold, top-down trips a little more bearable.

This can happen but is usually easily remedied. I think that someone has already mentioned the seat poteniometer and that's probably what it is, although I thought you got a single warning beep or continuous beeping if the seats did not make it into the top-lowering position. Does anyone else remember that?

The other maintenance issue with the F355 top is that it must routinely be topped off with hydraulic oil. How often depends on who you ask but the answer is usually in the 6 months to 18 months range. I know that when the hydraulic oil is low you get seats-move-forward-but-continuous-beeping because it happened to me once.

I'm guessing poorly maintained rental. It's possible that someone put low quality gas (not necessarily low octane) in it to make it miss. If it ever happens to you again, I would suggest dumping a bottle of STP Gas Treatment or HEET into the tank to try to isolate the water in the gas. The power top issue is likely a minor, easily fixed item. The heater could have been broken for years and nobody would ever notice it in Phoenix.

Wallace

 

Still driving mine almost daily in the 35F weather, runs great. Heater is plenty hot once she's warmed up (yes, makes sure the 'stop' button isn't pressed).

 

By not pressed do you mean "up"

The A/C works when the button is "down".....correct?

 

Nope - button down means 'stop' - it's lit up green meaning 'stop' is active, which is a crazy Italian way of saying the A/C is not on. For it to work the button should be 'up', light off (at least on the 355).

 

[email protected]st seems Polish........ makes sense now though

Thanks