HELP! Perplexing Maserati Engine Problem

At least under California law, you should get a brand new 2005. I think the rule is that you have to take it in 3 times for the same problem, and if they cannot solve it, they have to take the car back, or give you a new one. Look up your local lemon laws.
The dealer should take care of this. A lot of times, they will send a regional master level tech if the local guys cannot find anything. As in:
"Hi, I am Fabrizio, they call me "The Cleaner". I can solve any OBDII fault and troubleshoot any electrical short. Now...get out of my way while I open my briefcase"

 

Yes, I have the same problem with my OBDII light on my 2004 Coupe Cambiocorsa. My light has come on probably 4 or 5 times. Twice I have had it reset with an Actron diagnostic instrument, which said that I had multiple cylinder misfires. The other 2 times it has mysteriously gone off on its own. I have noticed that the car performs a lot better when the light is off. I have not had a chance to have the dealer look at the problem (I also use FMoW, but live 2 hours away). I was planning on doing that in the spring when I get the 6000 mile service completed. Let's see if anyone else has any experince with this problem. Good luck.
Tony

 

04Cambio,

I remember you mentioning the problem some time ago. Fortunately, I've not seen that symptom on our 2002 Spyder CC.

This sure sounds like an electrical connector problem. Do either of you remember any circumstances that may have triggered the problem - going over a set of railroad tracks, hitting a bad bump, etc.?

My Corvette started throwing a PCM Memory Failure code intermittantly. Traced that back to a connector problem when I noticed it always happened after a hard jolt to the suspension.

If no correlation to suspension jolts, how about something related to heat cycling. Does the problem seem to happen in the first 5-10 minutes of driving the car?

I have the Factory Service Manuals for the Corvette. I'll take a look at troubleshooting sequence for "Multiple Cylinder Misfires" OBDII codes and see if there's anything interesting.

 

i'm currently in litigation with an unnamed manufacture in regardds to a similiar problem, engine missfire. they tried unsuccesfully to fix it for 7months, 3 of them straight. it has been almost 2yrs and the trial is still 4mnths away, lemon law cases are a big pain in the ass.
as a side note i had told them it was probably a sticking valve, the ypromptly ignored me and moved on with all the diagnostic electronic crap they cram under the hood these days. just after i filed with my attorney i had to go let the dealer know to stop all work, a master tech that had just been flown infrom the mother land was excited to tell me that it was a "sticking valve" a scored lifter was intermitantly holding the valve open. however due to the timing this was never logged and the manufacture claims it is normal, even though the car won't pass smog.
tirade over...

 

Loose gas cap leaking air into fuel system.

 

^^^ Try Napolis's suggestion

I am from a state where you can't fill your own car with gas, and service people generally never tighten Ferrari fuel caps enough, causing this same problem.

 

I don't know about Washington DC but here in California consumers are protected under a lemon law. And I understand it applies within the first owner and warranty period that if a car fails for the same reason three times and you have given the manufacturer/dealer the opportunity to fix it and they cannot fix it they should buy it back and/or replace it. I would get rid of the car!

 

You could or you could tighten the gas cap properly which will fix the problem.

 

Sage words from the man...but I personaly like idea of a new Maserati every few months

 

You have got to be sh!tt!ng me. Are you sh!tt!ng me?

 

It's the same down in Oregon.

 

[THREAD HIJACK IN PROGRESS] That is crazy. What is the reasoning? Do the gas station attendants unions have mob ties or a great lobbyist or what?

 

I've lived in 5 different states and the first time I encountered this was in New Jersey. I thought it was strange that I couldn't fill my own tank. I believe it's a law in Jersey. The law does provide more jobs and as far as I know it didn't raise the cost of gas that much (if any). I remeber paying $1.39 a gallon vs $2.00 I was paying in California. After a while I really liked not having to pump my own gas. See, Jersey has weather. It's cold. It rains and snows. It was nice not having to get out of the car.

 

If this car was new when you purchased it, there may be some info provided on the lemon law in your state. (Fill out your profile)

Further, I just saw a news story on "lemon laws" and the most important information they provided was you need to contact the manufacturer not the dealer. Some people have fallen through the cracks on this loop hole.

 

Thanks for all the advice. Nice little side-thread, also. I'll try the gas cap idea. That would be nice if it were something as simple as that.

Brad, I did have a bad pothole incident before this all started. But, I don't think that the light came immediately on at the time. Luckily, my rim didn't get bent. The only correlation that I have noticed is that it seems to occur when I push the accelerator hard, which could actually back up the gas cap hypothesis as the fuel pump could suck air into the fuel line. As it is getting cold here, and my car is in hibernation, it may be a while before I get to test the theory.

Tony

 

Had the same problem on my '02 Spyder. My dealer said that a lot of 02's had this problem because often the metal gas cap sometimes doesn't screw back properly. In the new models he said they corrected this problem with easier to screw back plastic caps.

The leak in the gas cap caused the OBDI light to come on. He replaced my gas cap and told me to be careful when screwing the gas cap back on after I fill up my gas tank.

Cheers,

Dietrich

 

All right, so it sounds like it is the gas cap. Are there any permanent problems because of this? Is there any damage to the car? Thanks.
Tony

 

The new gas cap fixed the problem with the OBDI light permanently (at least so far). All other problems, e.g., headlight washer cap fell off (twice already), flat on tire, were not related to the gas cap/OBDI light issue.

- Dietrich

 

FYI, the gas cap doesn't throw misfire codes or cause the engine to run rough but running low on fuel will.

Larry

 

But if it allows air to be sucked in, it will

 

Air leaking through the gas cap will set one or more evap system codes (usually a major leak). Air sucked into one of the fuel pumps will cause a brief misfire and often times sets multiple misfire codes.

Actually, these cars throw misfire codes very easily but that was not the original complaint on this thread. I was just offering a bit of a clarification. The original complaint on this thread was far more complicated than either low fuel or a loose gas cap and is not very likely to be diagnosed over the internet.

Larry

 

gas caps are rated for pressure not vacum, a leak in the gas cap is from fuel vapor excaping into the attmosphere not from air getting pulled into the tank. if air gets sucked into the fuel pump you'll get a vapor lock and the engine will stall. you can drive all day long with no cap and the engine will run fine. getting air into a fuel line is not from leaving the cap off, it's from using all your gas and not filling back up.

a misfire is indeed just that, that cylinder did not fire it missed. this can be a for a variety of reasons mostly due to electronic malfunction. on a rare occurance it'll be due to a valve misbehaving.