Put 100 miles on my 348 today.

Difficult hot starts are often a result of a problem with the flywheel. Have you read up on this?

Do you have either of these symptoms?:
1) Evidence of fluid leakage from the perforated panel on the bottom of the clutch housing.
2) Distinctive rattling noise from the engine area when shutting off the engine.

If so, there may be a flywheel rebuild/repack in your future.

 

Long drives are great... I put ~170 miles on my '79 308GT4 last weekend, and it was so worth it. Packed a picnic lunch in a cooler, grabbed some towels, and the wife, myself, and even our golden retriever piled in and drove down to Carmel! Great drive, great time...and the wife was impressed that I let Spencer (dog) ride in the FCar.

I figure, the damn car is 27 years old, it has 79k miles on it, and is a great driver - not a concourse winner - so why the hell not?! The article in Forza several months back about the guy in Europe who drives a 250GTO daily and takes his dog everywhere with him kind of puts things in perspective. If he does it, there's no damn way I shouldn't!

 

I was coming back from a wedding in upstate New York, and a guy was driving his F40 and his dog was sitting next to him. I thought that was awesome! The cars were meant to be driven!

 

Hello Michael,

All the 348's I owned or drove had the same issue with the slow down lights coming on periodically, that's a common ECU problem I believe, there are a ton of threads on this site about ECU's, I personally never did anything and just continued to drive the cars, and never had any problems. In fact, Evan just turned off the dash light on my other 348 as he said it was a false sensor issue. If half of the engine shuts down, shut it off and start it again. It did that one day for about 5 or 6 times, and never again after that. That's one of the quirks the 348 has, but overall it outweighs the fun you get driving one in my opinion.
On the hot start issue, I never had a problem with the 348, but I remember having that problem with a 308 GTSI but I don't remember what Evan did to fix it. I would ask him, he may know what that is if you call him.

Stephane
Scaledetails


Stephane

 

Is the oil leak, by chance, on the right/front side of the engine? Leaky cam seal would be my guess. Mine does it too, but I've determined it's really just an auxiliary form of rust protection for the underbody.

(Seriously, during the 30K you can slow it down with new seals and o-rings. Although I have ZERO experience with it, ferrarioldman and friends will tell you about a Ferrari TSB that entailed drilling a small weep hole to permanently solve the problem)

While the slow down light might not be unusual among Fchatters, it is not supposed to come on. My guess would be a crapped out exhaust ECU. Do some "search" on Fchat, you can swap these things from side to side and see if the problem moves from bank 1/4 to 5/8. If so, that's likely your culprit. If the problem remains on the same side, then there's a whole different kettle of fish to examine.

I'm with Miltonian... hot start IS a clutch issue. It can be temporarily addressed by depressing the clutch when starting... note the word "temporary". I'm in the same poop-pile; and my car has the twin-disc clutch so I'm NOT anxious to crack open the pumpkin. (Err.... I mean, I'm not anxious for Sport Auto to crack open the pumpkin)

 

I agree with what the rest of the guys have said. Dan is right, you should push the clutch in when you are starting the car, and you should check the condition of the flywheel. Do a search of the archives and you'll find loads of useful info.

 

I had a hot start issue with my car - wouldn't even turn over. I have a '94 spider with the battery up front, and apparently there is some kind of voltage drop issue...my mechanic recognized the problem, installed a relay back near the engine and it has been perfect ever since.

I can email my guy if you like and get the details - in my case it wasn't a clutch/flywheel issue.

Cheers
Kevin

 

I had the slow down 1/4 issue a few times. I have been testing my stock catalytic converters for a few months, and have disconnected the exhaust ECUs so the light does not come on. If you leave them connected and the slow down light comes on for an extended period, the engine management will shut down half the engine. Ferrari348turbo is selling his fuel management system, and I am buying one of his exhaust ECUs. You might want to buy the other.
BT

 

Ahhhh.....just uncovered that little jewel being unplugged myself. Does the Tubi and Hypercat installs cause or exasberate the issue?