Have we destroyed the 355?

Excuse me for asking if this is fogging a dead horse, but what exactly are the problems with 355's ?

 

They used to be fantastic ferraris 12 years ago, and then came the internet and Fchat
And before all you posters who pride your self in stating the obvious, I was making a joke.

 

I fell in love with the styling when I first saw one. Still, I think is has one of the best rear ends ever. A pic of mine being delivered below.
There are three cars that taught be the difference between high maintenance and unreliable: A chevy Vega that was going to wear the cylinders no matter what you did or how often you changed the oil. Early 2.7 911's that had block and stud issues no matter what you did. And the 355 that had a raft of issues no matter what you did. I could accept the engine out service going in. It was a known. The valves and other issues just didn't work for me and fell into the category of bad and unreliable design. Hard to imagine in the 90's they couldn't get guides right.

Still loved the car though. It just fit and felt like the right size. Tubi on it and it sounded the best. I bought it from one of the best guys I've ever known, a true gentleman. I sold it to a fantastic guy and still feel bad about it. I sold it in the "if it doesn't need guides now it never will phase" and it turned out it needed guides like all of them.

I wouldn't call my ownership a mistake as I met some great people and enjoyed the car but I would say it affirmed some key tenets I already knew. It's hard to out run weak design. The picture makes me miss the car though. Sick I know.
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Obviously we have different eyes. I don't see the comparison between the 288 and the 355. The 288 has flared fenders. The 355 is just wider in the rear than front. It's a wedge looking at it from the top, and if you take the top off, it's a wedge from the side as well (obvious on a spider). See for your self. Also, on the 308 pictures, imagine the side view has the euro spoiler and the front has the driving lights below the bumper. Not that any of this matters. The two cars mark very different times in Ferrari's history and while I really like my 355, it's just a car to me. I really don't have the kind of enthusiasm for the cars that came after the 308 as I do for those which came before. I just can't afford anything that came before the 308.
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Too many to list. Then you have the spider...

 

Are those red seats, or are those just red seat covers?

 

The silky factory covers. Interior was tan.

 

Excellent idea! The problem is every time an owner posts positives about their 355 there are a ton of non-owners countering it to the point that the owners get fed up and stop posting.

I think the most important thing for any 355 owner or future 355 owner is to ensure the headers and cats were replaced before they deteriorated. If that was done then the potential costly bottom end type problems should not occur.

The top end repairs if done as part of the major service are not that expensive and a top end rebuild on any high performing small cubic size engine is a common thing. I have (just sold it actually) a 1995 Porsche 993, it has a 3.6L engine. It and many others 993's have had top end rebuilds due to valve guides needing replacement, so as you can see its not just limited to the 355. I sold my 1995 993 for more then I paid for it back in 2005 even though the 993 has the reputation for needing a top end rebuild, go figure ahe

 

C6 Z06's have similar valve guide issues, my buddy just had his heads done (with under 30k miles on the car). Still, it's not ideal on any car.

 

Thanks for adding that data point.

 

Too many to list? Not really. Please point out any others or correct me if I'm wrong, but the major issues (somewhat) unique to the 355 are:

Valve guides - 456's have the same problem, costs $8-12k to fix depending on who does the work and whether it's done during a major. Once replaced with sintered steel or manganese bronze, they don't appear to fail again.
Clutch issues - up to $4k if you have to do the whole shebang, which is unlikely. There are three different issues that can happen (besides it just wearing out). The triple seals can leak and contaminate the disc. The dual mass flywheel can leak and contaminate the disc. The throwout bearing can fail. As long as you do not warp the pressure plate and flywheel by driving around on a contaminated or slipping clutch, none of the failures should be over $2k. If you warp the pressure plate and flywheel, you'll have to get the pressure plate replaced ($1200 with disc) and the flywheel resurfaced along with labor to change everything out and whatever caused the warpage.
headers/cats - $5k, not really unique, but more common than other models. If you let the headers go long enough, it can cause bottom end damage which is $8k for a good used motor or rebuild yours for $10-15k

Those are the "major" (expensive) issues, the rest are fairly minor and happen on most 20 year old cars and Ferraris in particular. The only 355 unique issue on that list I can think of that is not shared with any other model is the flywheel grease leaking. All others are seen in at least one other or multiple other Ferrari models. There are other minor issues, but who cares tbh. Any 10+ year old car will have minor issues, and they're not very expensive to fix or purely cosmetic in nature.

 

Summarized here and attached:

Ferrari 355 Buyer's Guide - Home
View attachment Ferrari F355 Buyer's Guide.pdf

 

They all have the same body curve as I stated in the post above. See crappy mock up pic:
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There is some good news in that they are SD2 so there are a lot of good independents that can work on them vs the later SD3 cars. Many of the good techs have not made the SD3 investment so you have fewer service options on the 430's.

 

Dave,

what I said was:

My statement is quite accurate (IMO). See how the curve of the body is integrated with the air duct in the door. You know I love the 355. It was the first F car since the 308 that I had any attraction to. It is stunningly beautiful but artistically I just find the 308 superior. Nothing will convince me otherwise. The F355 excels in many areas where the 308 does not. Even in its day the performance of the 308 was nothing to get excited about. My 69 Z28 would blow it off the road.
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That's all a good mechanic can do. You get all your state certs or ASE quals all your doing on the job is reading the book on that car and doing what it says to do.

Same thing on aircraft I am a FAA licensed aircraft mechanic. I can work on any airplane because I have shown I know how to read publications and how follow directions. I have a basic knowledge of aircraft how they work and how to fix them having the required years of experience working on aircraft. Then I took 3 tests and then a oral and practical test and bam I get a license saying I can work on airplanes unsupervised!



Auto mechanics are basically the same as far as training goes lots of hands on and they are all basically the same idea you just need to learn the factory specs and directions for the car your working on. And the. You can take the ASE tests which are a huge *****.

 

A Ferrari may be the same as other cars in many ways, turning a bolt may be the same as on a Ford. The shop I take my car to has expertise that you don't get unless you've worked on a Ferrari before though. For example... where to go to get parts that are no longer available, where to find the best price on parts, which parts of the car are prone to failure and need inspection, etc...

 

That is a false statement and that is the type of fear mongering that was the genesis of this thread to begin with

The issues or potential issues that may be unique the 355 over any other 20 year old car revolve around the top end of the engine, specifically valve guides.

There is also a premature header failure that seems to be something that most have to deal with

The rest of the car, in my opinion is no more needy in terms of care than any other high performance or even routine performance 20 year old car that you dote over. I own a spider and the top works fine. It is a quirky mechanical design but it's all fixable if it becomes problematic. Not a deal breaker

Cv boots, suspension bushings, shock rebuilld, clutch in my opinion are not unique 355 issues and will need to be addressed by most at some point. Not a deal breaker either.

Stickies and leather warping and shrinkage. All in your face at purchase. Not a hidden time bomb

Anythjng else?

The big fear is the valves and or bottom end damage that may happen if a valve situation isn't remedied.

The valves are not done on my car but I will probably do them on the next major just because. I am going to do compression checks regularly and take action if necessary.

F1 may have unique issues but again you have a choice upfront on that. I chose manual to eliminate problem and I have been told changing the clutch on my car is one of the easiest clutch jobs out there.

That is a decent synopsis of the potential issues.

Stop the fear mongering and just educate the uninformed in a clear way please.

 

So, you guys are doing valve jobs as a precautionary measure?

 

Amen!

 

+1

 

I have not heard of anyone doing that. When they start going bad and the car starts burning oil that is when most take action I believe. Mine were done under warranty when the car only had 15k miles on it. Definitely not done as a precaution because Ferrari eats the cost on warranty repairs.

 

I wouldn't, you're not going to damage the engine unless it's bad enough that the motor no longer runs on all cylinders. I would run a compression check at major time and if an issue crops up, fix it then, otherwise keep going. The bottom end damage is due to leaky headers, not the valve guides.

 

Mine were done when a misfire was detected. Turns out it was a bad injector, but that's another story....

 

I have zero intention of ever doing that. While I do agree it's a good idea to address some items when a motor is out, this is one I won't do unless it's needed.