Grounding F550

I guys !

I guess roads in england aren't really that great : over the months I've found myself grounding the car a few times. An I even don't have the fiorano pack so the car is normal height. When this happens I am typically going extra slowly but still....
It's often the front but sometime also between the wheels (middle of the car)

Its an heart ache every time !!!

Few questions :
Is the underside of the car well protected ?
Does this happen to other 550 owners as well ?

 

Sadly this is the weak point of the 550. I've just finished a rally (http://ect.thelows.org/) where two Manranellos - a 575 and 550 - both cracked the oil pressure sensor. This is right in the middle of the car. The 575 had to retire as it dropped all of its oil. Luckily I only cracked the housing and had a slow oil leak.

There's very little you can do to avoid this or protect the underside. So you just have to be extra careful when driving over pot holes or dips.

Last year, I drove over a protruding manhole which hit the radiator and oil cooler - that cracked both and required a replacement radiator!

Oh well - it's the price you pay for driving your 550 everywhere.

 

Do be careful. One of our own on the NYTS forum had a similar situation, in that he hit a rock which cracked the oil sensor unit, which is partially exposed at the bottom of the car. He didn't realize it at first, and drove the car for a few more miles, only realizing what had happened till the oil pressure gauge starting going through the roof and smoke started coming out the back. The engine effectively seized, and he had to get a completely new one replaced - an exercise that cost about $62K (or thereabouts). Fortunately, he had an FNA warranty covering this.

I could easily see the oil sensor getting cracked by going over a pothole wrong. Seems to be a design fault on the 550's. :-(

Drive carefully!

 

It is compounded by the poor quality 1st design motor mounts. When they sag it puts the oil sender about 1/2 inch above the sway bar. Flex the bar up going over something and it will break the sender off.

Also if you look under the car on the left front portion of the belly pan the point that it rubs going in and out of driveways is the coolant drain portion of the radiator. On early cars that was designed differently and many of those break the bottom tank of the rad. On the other side (right) at about the same place is a rub point where the A/C hoses are routed UNDER the rad mount. Silly design to say the least. Many 550's have worn the A/C hoses clean clear through. The bad part about that is that the hoses are long enough to route them out of harms way, the factory just couldn't be bothered.

 

Interesting observations Brian, and probably a great idea to check visually yourself, when doing a walk-around and/or a PPI.

As a point of clarification on the "incident" I mentioned in the earlier post, the rock hit the sway bar, which flexed and broke the sender off, just as Brian had noted was possible.

 

As a point of referance look at where the oil pan passes over the rack. Most cars I see the pan is just resting on the rack. There should be a 1/2 inch or more room there. Same applies to 456.

 

When I was looking at 550's earlier this year, I found damage to the belly pan on all but two cars that I looked at. In the middle of the front pan there are louvers in the belly pan and two cars had huge sections tore out from grounding. I don;t know how to protect the car other than being careful and going slow over the hazards that will bottom out the car.

 

Two choices

A, be very, very careful

B, install a big time lift kit and bolt some KC Hi Lites on the roof, Dick Cepak tires ought to finish it off.