F355 mantaining costs: are they so high?

Buddy if you are prepared to get your hands dirty these cars are ok my car has cost me $800 over three years to maintain and it's f1. Engine out this year which will include all belts rebuild water pump degree timing clean injectors and maybe a few other things $2500 to 3 k max!! Learn how to work on the car!! Also cross reference parts as anything that comes in a ferrari box is horrendously overpriced !

 

Alberto there is a thread in the sticky section for these questions. Many people get tired of repeating themselves time and time again. That being said some had valve guide issues, all have had oem header problems, some f1s have had pump problems, some have had steering rack problems, but remember this car is going on 20 years so are they really problems or just getting old. If you are mechanical at all the car won't cost you much but if you need to take it to the dealer to change brake pads it will definately cost you more that a 328. I have a f1 and as time goes on we are all learning about symptoms that are saving us money all the time, and it's only going to get better. I'm on my original f1 pump as well.

 

Exactly. I am of the same opinione. The f355 belts won't snap after 5 years. You can easiliy leave them in longer. The f355 even has belt tensioners so they are always kept under tension.

The cam timing might go off slightly which I doubt. In the worst case you loose 5 to 10 HP. Even that does not matter because there are other factors which cause more loss of power nobody talks about to replace every 5 years. like dirty injectors, o2 sensors, general wear of mech components etc.

 

Sounds like you have it covered, and yes they are fixed once properly fixed, you shouldn't have to do it again.

 

Bit late to the party, but this was something I posted not so long ago on another forum wrt 355 running costs:

*****

Since I seem to have been mentioned a bit in this thread already ref 355 servicing, I might as well chip in so you can have it from the horse's mouth!

About £3k on servicing/maintenance/consumables per year on average for 5k miles per year is what I estimated and pretty much what I ended up paying. BUT, bear in mind that a lot of it was done by a mechanic who only charges half (or now just over) what independent specialists charge for his labour rate, and only a third of main what dealers will do you for. Sooo, if you went to a specialist the whole time and they replaced a few bits that could have actually been repaired with a little extra effort, that increased labour rate and the added Ferrari tax for the parts, you could be knocking on the door of £4k per year. Equally, if you spannered a lot yourself, you might average out at £2k/year.

On top of that, you also want to have a a few more £k in reserve that while not expecting to have to spend it, you need to be able to throw at the car should something bigger go.

I'm sure there are many people out there who pay a lot less for their servicing on average, but sooner or later their luck (or the person who owns it next) will run out. Stuff gets old and/or wears out, there are no miracle cars that somehow have more durable/longer lasting parts.

IMHO, if I was to buy again and if you want to minimise your running costs on say a 355/360, you need to ignore mileage completely (buy cheap, sell cheap, buy expensive etc etc)) and instead go out and find the car with the biggest fistful of receipts you can find for mechanical work (mine had had £13k's worth from Rardley 2 years before I'd bought it), preferably including as many of the common issues as possible. Then get it inspected to check whether there are any imminent catastrophic failures in the offing. Then buy :smile: Anything that has only had scheduled servicing/maintenance done (say £1-1.5k per year) with no recent history of extras being done should be left well alone....think of it like a reverse slot machine that hasn't "paid out" yet.

*****

To which someone replied and I answered while quoting them:


*****

355spiderguy said:
"hold on a sec.... the car you bought had £13k of work done in the period before you bought it, then you spent a further near £9k on repairs, maintenance and servicing in your 32mths of ownership... why do you state to avoid a car that has only scheduled (ie the required servicing / maintenenace) of £1-1.5k a year?! your own advice shows you continued throwing fistfulls of money at the car that had already had fistfulls thrown at it..."

....and was I supposed to *not* service and maintain it by throwing "fistfulls" of cash at it? :hehe: Anyway, from memory, the £13k spent by the previous owner (who was a collector and had 13 Ferraris, including my 355 Spider, a 355 GTB and a 355 Challenge) included: major 31k service with engine out belt service, remove/repaint rocker covers, 4 new tyres, pads and discs all round, remove/repaint oil tank, refurb all 4 rims, all new wheel bolts (£30-ish each) rebuild a window mechanism , front respray and numerous other little bits....clearly he was a bit anal because as you can see nothing majorly wrong was corrected, but it all adds up. Between Fcar parts prices and £100/hr (inc VAT) for labour even at an indy, it doesn't take a lot to hit those sorts of numbers.

355spiderguy said:
"for example, after last years annual service which as stated before was £499 @ Ferrari Fort Kinnaird, i didn't feel the need to go and buy new manifolds etc due to the fact it wasn't required; i was advised both of the driveshaft boots were brittle and on the way out, and my rear tyres were wearing slightly uneven so a tracking was due; items i addressed....so you say avoid the likes of my car due to the fact i didn't need to spend £3k+ on the service and 'extras'?"

I'm not for a moment suggesting you should spend money for the hell of it, don't get me wrong. But you've kind of made my point. I don't know your car or what's been done recently or what mileage it is, but your next service or the one after *could* potentially require:

2 x manifolds (they're virtually consumables) = 2 x £1200 from Ferrari if memory serves
2 x driveshaft boots (inc labour) = £500+ at main dealer labour rates
2 x rear tyres = 2 x £250
an axle's worth of pads and discs = £500
major and belts service (labour inc) = £2500
labour for manifolds = 4hrs = £600
labour for pads/driscs = 1hr = £150

Now, clearly this is just an example, but a very realistic one for the OP. I make the above a total of nearly £7,500 from a main dealer (assuming cheaper than London labour rates!), from an indy using non Fcar parts where possible, it's prob still £5.5k+....and you haven't even fixed anything serious or done anything cosmetic!! Then there's all the other expensive things that go like cats, dampers, MAFS, ECUs, exhaust valve, radiator recores...the list goes on and they're all common. And we've not even looked at stone chip resprays, wheel refurbs and the like.

355spiderguy said:
"i think my F355 is in rude health at the moment and i'm not expecting any advisories at its service this year.in the last 7 years of ownership, i havn't skimped or dodged a bill; if something needs done, it gets done, if it doesn't...you get the drift. i certainly think its poor advice stating to avoid cars that have had the fortune ( or misfortune ) not to have fistfulls of money thrown at it..."

I'm not saying you've skimped on work/bills at all, but I completely disagree unfortunately. Like I said before, these things *will* come up as these cars are *all* old now. Just because they haven't happened to you yet is irrelevant, they will come up as so many others on here and people I know in person have seen them. If you're very lucky, you may have sold the car by the time they do. if you're a bit lucky, you may get just a trickle of one or 2 things per year rather than a big bang. If the next owner is lucky, you'll say have traded it for something else, he'll have bought it from a dealer and the dealer will get the bill. But if not, the new owner will have to pay it. There are no miracle "cheap 355s" out there when you actually use them unfortunately!

ETA: i think there was also a damper (about £1k plus labour if memory serves) replaced as part of the £13k work I mentioned

*****

Hope some of this is useful for you My 355 running cists can be seen here (along with those for other vehicles): Mario149's Profile

 

Is it true that the valves are not likely to be an issue at this point?

 

Subaru Forresters are nice and very safe!!!

 

Yes they are, two of my other cars are a Subaru Baja and an 82' BRAT. Love Subarus as much as Ferrari, and I love Ferrari.

My 355F1 went through a hickup with the motor mounts failing recently, it is a dumb design and that is why it failed. It is your classic rubber O but instead of being vertical it is horizontal and the motor's weight punches through it. Why not turn it 90deg like every other manufacturer on the planet. Would I get rid of this car, no.

 

Motor mounts on Porsche 911 are also horizontal. They don't break every 25Kmiles. Motor mount on the 328 are horizontal. They don't break.

 

It will average out to $100/mo in maintenance...prob is you might go 5yrs without spending a dime, then boom...$6000. They ARE reliable, if taken care of.

 

I own a 308 & 355. When I bought my 308, I was reading $3-$4K/yr for maintenance and folks adding only 3K miles/year. That was about right, though I put much more mileage on my car/yr.
I read the same things about the 355 when I bought her 2+ years ago. But then I was driving the 308 less, her costs decreased.


Sure, the engine out major is more. 308 is about $5K with incidentals. The 355 is about $7K

The 308 suffers from issues just as the 355 does.
The 308 is simpler to work on. But its parts are getting older. Rubber needs to be replaced. The 355 is just starting to hit that age.
Parts for the 355 are more expensive. One supplier for oil filters, two sources for (that I know of) for wires, etc. The 308 has lots of Bosch, and shares parts with Porsche, MB, etc. There's also (IMHO) lots more DIYers on the 308 forum.

 

Did Ferrari revise the 3-year interval up to 5?

 

No. Most just believe 4-5 is acceptable.

 

The interval is whatever you're comfortable with, ignoring the factory revision. 5 years is a good guide. I did 6.5 and everything was pretty much fine except for one fsctory tensioner bearing that failed early. Hill bearings cure that. It's good to check on the water pump every 5 years or so too. Doing majors less than 5 years is a waste of money unless you put on excessive miles or track the car often.

 

I agree, the belts are the least of the worries. It is all the other stuff.

Water Pump
Power steering pump
Alternator
Hoses
Cam seals
Valve cover gaskets
Tensioner bearings
etc....

I bet the belts would last 10 years....

 

More..I have seen 12 or 13. Mind you the hydraulic tensioners were rapping away pretty badly

 

So, now get that F355 car!