Hi All, I am in need of some assistance from the collective knowledge of this forum. A few days ago I started my 360 for the first time in 3 months to hear a grinding noise from the drive belt area of the engine. Hoping that the noise was me being paranoid and that it would clear after a few minutes, i left the car ticking over and warming on my drive. Sadly the noise didn't go away. The car has now been moved to a local specialist to investigate the noise & they have advised they have found play with one of the driving pulleys. This means the front timing cover needs to be removed for the bearings to be replaced. See video below for the issue: https://youtube.com/shorts/9mny9baJPCM?feature=share I've spoken to two specialists regarding this & had varying information on the work that needs to be done to rectify the problem. The first has advised the cover cannot be removed without the engine being taken out of the car. The second is saying they're confident that they can change the bearings without the engine in situ. However, they won't 100% commit to this being achievable. Has anyone on here had this bearing fail before & can you advise what needed to be done to replace them.
The procedure is fully described in the Workshop manual with the engine in the car. Looks fairly straight forward and not very difficult but I have never done one myself in a 360. Working through the engine access panel is a royal pain, no matter what you are doing, so maybe your mechanics would rather take the engine out to save their backs and avoid the cramped up hassle. Rather have you walk away than doing the job in the car?
I cannot imagine any experienced Ferrari mechanic who cannot answer that with direct knowledge. Are you sure you want them working on it? Thats really not meant in jest. Yes. It is easily done in the car. Even Ray Charles could have seen that.
WOW! That is serious! You should never see that kind of play. The seal is probably also bad. You should do some research on your own. It does look like that housing could be removed with the engine in the car and the bearing in the housing replaced. I would definitely do both sides and the seals of course! I don't know if there is also a bearing in the block that should be replaced too. Those turn at half the crank speed, seems strange it failed.
Very unusual. I have had a few clients with more than 100,000 miles on 360s and I have never seen one wear out lower cam drive bearings. I am very suspicious of the belts being over tightened. Removing the bearings needs to be done with caution. Their support in the cover is fragile and easily broken.
Thanks all for taking the time to respond. I must admit i did wonder if this was a result of the belts being over tightened. They were changed last summer & it feels rather coincidental that this issue has arisen only a few hundred miles afterwards. The first specialist did the belts, so i couldn't see much point asking him. The second said they appeared correctly tensioned before he removed them to check the bearing and shot the video. The car has 34000 miles on it, so not a high mileage example & I'm surprised they've gone. I definitely have more confidence in the second shop working on the car, they've maintained it for years but are a little further for me to travel to. I wish I had them do the belts now. They're the ones who say they think they can get the cover off without the need for the engine to come out. They've done the job on older Ferraris but haven't yet done it on a 360.
