Dear Gang, I'm looking at a F355 Spider for sale here in Malaysia but couldn't make out the year of manufacture. The chassis number is ZFFXR48C 000 105697 and the engine number is F129C -43130. Would appreciate any comments and info from this well learned group. It's blue and asking for equavelant to USD118K Best regards
Hi, no doubt some one else will answer your question, but maybe you could tell the year by looking for clues, like if the headrests have no horse embosed on it,its a 95 or early 96. Or has it got two airflow meters (one from each air box going to each side of the plenium) this will be a 95 or 96, if it has one air flow meter that uses a Y peice its from 97 onwards. Also i think 95 and 96 intereas have speakers showing in the middle of the doors, 97 on have them hidden.I give you these comparasons from my own 355 spider which is a 95 model, which i compared with my frends 97 model. I hope this helps, but i am sure some one will check your vin number for you.
chaa, I've a 355 spider with no embosed prancing horse and mine is sept 97!!, I think you may find that the embossing was just another option. Or alternatively I've got a set of dodgy fiarano pack seats Mark Liverpool
My 97 is 107XXX...so what Mitch said sounds right... Dumb question - but in the door jam you have a plate with the SN# on it and it should also state manuf month and year... Is the plate missing? Also if you have the full number just run a carfax on it.
Thanks for the reply. I have not seen the car yet, I will check the car door jam when I view the car this week. Anybody can check the Vin for me. I ran it against the 348 Manual but I believed the USA vin is different than the UK spec. What the advantage? disadvantage? of having 2 air flow meter against the later model of only 1. Any advantage of the 97 and later model compare to the 96 and below models? What is the most, I won't call problems but dislikes that a 355 Spider owner would like to be rectified. I own a 348TB and is not familiar with a 355 Spider.
Carfax - US thing used to track cars when registered, and if there has been any accident, etc. Body shops report this to a centralized agency (or they are supposed to.). www.carfax.com Only the 1995 355 cars had seperate Air Systems. 96 - 1999 - had a little piece that linkend them together and under one system. The difference is slight - the 1995 will have arguably 5 - 9 more horsepower (some say more) but is probably about 5hp in reality. Which as some will say is the fastest of the 355's. Do a search on this - you will find many debates on 1995 and up...
I finally saw the car yesterday. Look like brand new. Open up the engine bay and the engine has a single flow meter with a y to both Intake. Got in the car to try out the soft top. Unlash the single hook and press the middle button. The seats move forward and the window wind down. The soft top move back about a foot and stop. It would not want to retreat further and does come down. What's wrong? I saw a cover button on the middle at the back of the seat for by pass to retrieve and close the roof but did not try it. Is the the manual overide? I later found out that I did not closed the engine cover fully. I thought this could be the reason for the roof not to retrieve. Close it try again and still the same. Is this going to be an expensive repair?
Depends - To lower the parking brake must be on, doors closed, etc. Unlatch, pull back until you hear the "beep"..stop. Window drop, seats move, top goes down. The ECU is overkill on the top...if it gets a false signal or you did not set the brake, it will not open. However, having said that many other things can stop the top...from air in the hydralic system to a potentiometer under the seat..which is a frequent failure point. The potentiometer is on the seat real (part of it) and the dealer will try to sell you the entire assembly. An indepent can get it seperately and swap it out. Yes, there are 2 back up systems. In the consol between the seats there is a round plug...pull it out and there is a long wire with a switch on it. This switch "overides" the computer and if the hydralics are Ok the roof will operate without the ecu. The other back up is a small tool set that should be next to the parking brake in a leather case when you enter the car. If need more info...send me a PM Frank
The VIN shows that it's a UK RHD version. You won't find a plate on the door jam, as that only is on US versions. Running a Carfax also won't work, as that also only is for US versions. When I look at similar US cars, I would also guess that it's a mid 1996 model year car. For example, 105674 is a US F355 Spider, model year 1996. Of course, the actual build date could be a bit different.
