How can I tell, visually, if a 308/328 has had a 30k major service?

Let's say I'm looking at a 328. The owner is a great guy. I like him. The car looks, in general, good. He states that the owner before him did $10,000 worth of service: a major service, a clutch, and some other things.

The current owner moved, everything's a mess, and he can't find the records. This is in line with him in general, he's just not as analytical about the purchase, this was his first F-car, and he didn't really know the value.

I'm inclined to believe that the car was serviced. The important thing is, I've negotiated $3k off the asking price as my argument is that he can't document that major, so I'm going to have to do it. He's OK with that.

Thing is, I think the major HAS been done. In other words, I believe him.

I'm a pretty technical guy, done a lot of work on my old 308, but nothing too crazy engine-wise (I couldn't handle a clutch job, for example).


Here are my questions:

1. With a given car in front of me, is there a way to tell visually if a major service has been done? A major gets you new belts, [hopefully] new tensioner bearings, a/c alt w/o belts, valve cover gaskets, cam seals/orings, dist cub gaskets, etc. Any way to tell? This was 6k miles ago.

2. Same situation, but for the clutch. The car drives with a "tight," non-slipping clutch (and at 30k, that *probably* means in my experience the clutch has been replaced). Anyway to tell visually though? For example, is a replacement clutch kit different than how the factory one looked?

Thanks guys... I inspect the car tomorrow.

--Mike

 

Great tip, Malcom!

I guess I forgot to consider the brake fluid, becase it was crystal clear the whole time I owned my 308 (new when I got it, flushed it when I installed the rebuilt calipers, etc.).

No question, dark brake fluid means "I haven't been serviced!"

I was hoping maybe to tell by looking at the alternator belt. Another not so great test is, of course, the a/c, seeing as how it typically gets charged up during these services... We'll see if it blows cold.

 

Yep, I hear ya. I tracked down some serious records for my (now sold) 308! So I should be able to do that.

Thing is, the current owner I don't believe remembers the exact name of the shop, but knows it was a specialty Ferrari shop in the bay area. He also recalls that it wasn't a dealer. But the story all works out, the car would have needed a service to have been sold right at the time and miles he mentioned. He's just a personal owner, not in the business or anything. I seriously think he'll FIND the invoice when he unpacks etc., but for now I was just hoping to be able to tell if the car had any major work done to it, by inspecting the engine visually.

I also had the idea to check out the air filter. At 6,000 bay area miles it should be reasonably clean.

Also, California DMV is very good. They've got a clear, formal process to do "archive" records search, I can probably get a NAME and city of POs (but not addresses, unless it's warranted).


--Mike

 

Well I'm off to inspect--wish me luck!

--Mike

 

How about silicone residue by all of the seals?

 

Aww hell. Well, I negotiated a major service discount off of an already reasonable asking price, so we'll just do it.

The thing is, I'm pretty sure it's been done.

But, I'm going to DO IT AGAIN anyway. You're right, it needs to be documented.

Besides, EVERY OTHER SERVICE was done on time and stamped in the warranty book, no sense in stopping now, right? At 31,691 miles I'm hardly late. In any case, it's exactly 5 years and 6k miles, so that's my threshold for cambelts anyway.

And now... (Drumroll...) The first picture of my new 328... #73651. Here's the Engine bay!

 

Now that's a good thought... If the belts were timestamped, then, although you don't know for sure WHEN it service was done, you know that it was at least done AFTER the belts were manufactured...

If this is the case, this helps things a lot... You know, it's crazy, but the owners manual doesn't call to replace the cam belts until 52,500 miles! Even during the 30k, they only call for inspection.

I have stamps in the book for the 1,500mi, 7,500mi, 15,000mi, and 22,500mi services. I have records for a bunch of service, including 15,000mi and 22,500mi services (but not any other scheduled services).

The PO insists (and at this point, looking at the condition of the engine, I have *no* reason to not believe him) that a major servce was done at 25,000 miles. The cam belts would have been done then.

My guess is, this car either has the original factory cam belts, or it does not. If it does not, then the 30k was done (because I have nothing to show that they would have been changed otherwise).

It doesn't matter. The car's getting a 30k when it gets to me, anyway! I want the stamp in the warranty book, period .

--Mike