After six months in the garage ( as I do every year), my 550 performed great in a 30 mile trip today. A few minutes after I parked it at home I switched the engine on again and the trouble started: The engine did not run normally. It was not a smooth normal sound, and it was a weak sound. I switched off and on again and the problem was the same. After one or two more tries the engine would not even start. A couple of hours later the engine did start almost perfectly, took the car for a short drive and it ran fine. A few minutes later a similar problem happened. It would start with a weak engine sound and then die on me. It would not start if I tried again. A few hours later it did not start normally, but after a couple of tries it did with an almost normal sound. After I switched off and tried to start the same problem, engine running weak and then dying. The battery was fully charged and does not seem to be the problem. Additionally, I connected a CTEK charger to the battery when the problem started. Any idea of what is wrong? Thanks.
I would search "hot start" on this sub-forum. You should get plenty of hits. e.g. https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/456-will-not-start-when-engine-is-hot-need-urgent-help.312104/ Unfortunately, there can be many reasons.
I tried a cold start, and the problem is the same. It did start at the second try, but weak and uneven firing. No error messages on the dash. I do get Check OK and Check Engine goes off after the car starts.
Sounds like it might be dripping/dirty injectors. Gasoline had all dried up on your first start after 6 months. For a cheap fix, try some Techron concentrate in the fuel tank. If that helps, you may need to have the injectors cleaned and resealed.
When you say “would not start”, do you mean the starter didn’t crank at all or did you mean it had a strong crank, but no firing? You’re getting some strange symptoms. It worked perfectly for one drive after a long period of inactivity (At least your fuel is not stale). Of course, that doesn’t exclude a sudden fuel supply issue. Check your fuel pump fuses to see if there are any signs of melting. Make sure your fuel pump relays are seated properly. Note that some engine faults do not generate a check engine light. You may still have codes that may help with diagnosis.
When I say it would not start I mean that the engine would not fire. The starter does crank. Today it started, weakly, but it did. I took it for a small drive, (and it ran fine), to the nearby local (not Ferrari) mechanics. In my experience, even without using stabilizer, an inactivity period of 6 months or even longer, has never given me stale fuel problems on any of my cars. I believe the fuel chemistry has not changed.
The local mechanics confirms that there is no fuel supply at start when the engine is hot. None of the two fuel supply hoses receives fuel. I did search for "hot start" in this sub-forum, but there seem to be indeed many possible reasons for the problem.
Easy thing to check is the fuel filters, which may be clogged with rubber from the fuel pump supports.
The gasoline from the station that I always use is Premium Unleaded (95 RON) with 4% ethanol content. That is not much, correct? If so, it is not likely to be the issue. Correct?
That narrows down the possibilities. Pump failure is relatively common, but having both fail at the same time is bad luck. Do you know where the inertia switch is in the engine bay? This has the potential to take out both pumps. There is a method of bypassing the switch, but give it good push to see if anything changes. The inertia switch provides an earth for the left and right fuel pump relay coils. The relays and fuses are in the passenger footwell. There is a YouTube video on the bypass method: In theory, the inertia switch should put on the hazard lights, too, but electrics don't always work the way they are supposed to on these cars. Some folks report their hazard lights come on, but their fuel pumps don't cut out. My car ran rather roughly after 4 months of storage, but the fuel may have been quite old to begin with. New fuel helped. Your car seemed to run fine, initially though, so I guess that eliminates bad fuel. That would also seem to eliminate blocked filters, but it may have taken time for the rubber to make its way to the filters. Inactivity does take a toll on the pumps and bad pumps put stresses on the electrics. That's why I suggested looking the fuseholders. Bad pumps have also been known to take out fuseboards if you don't fix them quickly.
Any ethanol destroys the rubber in our cars. Not sure about where you live but here only Chevron 94 and Shell V power have no ethanol
I am in the UK, most fuel here is E5 or E10. But, I will, from now on, use for long term storage UK’s only ethanol-free fuels, Esso Synergy Supreme+ Unleaded 97 and Synergy Supreme+ 99. Thanks.
The problem has been identified. It is indeed the pumps. One is dead and one is working at 70%. Ordered two new pumps along with fuel filters and cleaned all hoses. All electrics checked ok, they are convinced that with the new pumps all will be solved. I'll report back.
Very common on these cars. The rubber in the tank disintegrates with the new gasolines and just time in general
Is it just the fuel pumps and filters or are there any other parts that suffer an accelerated degradation with the ethanol? Fuel pumps and filters are not very expensive parts to replace. If only those parts are subject to damage, it is not worth it to drive long to get the ethanol-free fuel.
Note that ethanol has good and bad properties. If you're leaving your car for long periods without refreshing the fuel there are added detrimental side-effects. e.g. ethanol attracts water. This can lead to corrosive bacteria which eats away ferrous materials. Are our tanks aluminium? Google will probably give you the most detail on these issues. https://roadguardians.org/september-2012-newsletter-biker-chads-corner/ https://www.totallandscapecare.com/business/article/15035839/the-effects-of-ethanol-gasoline-on-fuel-pumps It's not really stated, however, if fuel filters will prevent the bad stuff reaching the fuel rail, regulators and fuel injectors.
The seals in the fuel injectors are also affected by ethanol. The good injector rebuilders use Viton seals instead.
It eats the rubber isolators for the pump and the plastic tubing.. granted the newest cars are 21 years old now so that doesnt help
A quick update. With all repairs completed, I took today the 550 out for a proper drive and, boy, it feels good. I have noticed an improvement. It seems to have more power and feels nicer and smoother. It just runs wonderfully. And certainly no starting trouble. I think the fuel starvation as a result of the clogged fuel filters and hoses and underperforming fuel pumps develops slowly over time and one does not clearly notice the deterioration in performance. Probably because recently I never pushed the car to its limits. In addition to the fuel pumps and filters we changed the fuel pump assembly (along with the nearby hoses). All Ferrari parts. I wonder if the new pump assembly, in particular, the rubber that surrounds the fuel pump, has a different chemical composition, hopefully, more resistant to time and ethanol. It was that rubber that disintegrated into the black powder that clogged everything. There were many hours charged for the investigative work required to identify the fault. In the future, likely, not for many years, if the fault happens again, the repair would be much quicker and cheaper. For this reason I have decided to use low ethanol, but not ethanol free, gasoline. Which is a compromise between the ethanol free one that is quite difficult to find here in the UK, and more expensive, and the E10 which can have up to 10% ethanol.
