My First Ferrari Service - Lessons learned

THIS is why we say that condition counts more than miles. It is also a bit of reflection about records, in that they show what has been fixed and care taken. Unknown cars, even with a good PPI, will require $$$ to get fully sorted. It also reflects why we say that the cheap cars are generally not the great deal they appear; the good cars have this stuff done and the cheap ones don't. There really is no getting around good maintenance and spending to get the car sorted.

Glad you have it a good part of the way now, maybe all of the way.

 

How many miles were on it when you got it? How many miles are on it now?

 

My take away in all this is; I didn't know the passenger side window even had an auto-down function... thought only the driver side did

 

That's a little steep but not out of the question. Mine had 8900 miles, 2 owners and sat a lot. Most everything was handled except the alternator cable and ball joints. Those were good for a year or two and I greased them the last 2 years. It's gotten louder but I got a nice 10,000 over those 3 years. I plan to do the ball joints myself and just finished flushing the calipers. Front bridge tubes were blocked and I got them loose with a nice new set of flare wrenches. So glad the castings are fine, threads and all. Braking is 100% now and not an ABS "thing" like I thought. I added ceramic pads, anti squeal paste, and it is heaven now. Suspension design is pretty good save the crappy ball joints. Servicing it is not too tough. I may get by another year if motorcycle chain lube works miracles with its aerosol propellant. My mini grease gun has been a little clunky under there and tough to use. The ball seals are torn a bit too. Time kills the rubber. It perishes.

 

Exactly! These cars have a bit of age to them.... period ... there is no way around that. The ball joints, exhaust brackets etc... will need to be replaced. If you buy a car that has had no problems, you will get problems. If you buy a car with documented fixes... then you are better off.

When I bought mine, I had to get an out of province inspection done. My agreement with the Ferrari dealership I bought the car was that it needed to pass the provincial inspection.... or they needed to fix whatever was wrong. The original dealership did a fair bit of work to it, but in the end there were a few things they had to cover after the inspection. My car had very similar problems to the OP’s.

 

Super helpful post, thanks!!

I'm working my way towards my first Ferrari, and looking to likely be a 430 (wanted 458, but that would take a bit longer to get to), and this post is great for someone like me.

 

$15k for that? Sounds incredibly expensive.

I agree on the PPI. Get a trusted specialist to do it, or you´ll regret it. Low mileage don´t say anything at all. Get a car that´s been taken care of, too many Ferraris are neglected.

 

Clearly you haven't owned one or owned one for very long. It is not that expensive given what he described. Remember, it isn't IF you will get a $10K bill but when and, there will be another one out there waiting. Fortunately they aren't usually to close together.

 

I have dealt with most issues on a F430 so I would know don’t worry. The expensive part there are the variators but even that can’t be the major part of that bill. Maybe I’m just not used to the prices in the US for labor.

Actually I can think of any problem that would cause a 10k bill unless you need a new gearbox, engine and then it would be more of course. A complete clutch job can cost up to 8-9k but even that is expensive. I get my parts on Eurospares or look for good prices from Ferrari dealerships in different countries. Then I negotiate on the labor price with a Ferrari specialist. Not more expensive then running a top of the shelf AMG etc.

But if you go to the dealer for every problem I guess those 10k are easily reached several times over in a couple of years.

 

It's typical boutique-indy or authorized dealer sort of pricing in that number but these are the people that are most trusted to do the work. It's great that the OP is getting this car sorted. I have never heard of the rear shock mounts needing replacement but if all the ball joints are bad that is a lot of work and tells a story about the types of roads that the previous owner(s) drove on! (see below) I like to keep all the old parts that come from my car and if you are like me and get a box of parts from your mechanic it would be great to see pics of them in here.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

For the issues you listed. I must say $15k is way too much.

 

Don´t keep the old parts like ball joints or worn clutch, manifolds etc. Just the receipts on what´s done.

 

You are missing out on some great conversation pieces and often the engineering aspects of Ferrari parts are worth pondering.

 

Actually, i payed $800 for both wheels including parts and that was at a top Ferrari specialist. It took approx. 5 hours.

Concerning the variators and the seals, are we talking 360 or 430 now? I see you are mentioning the belt and tensioners? 430 has a cam chain. One variator/solenoid is $540 at Eurospares, there are four of them. Cam cover gaskets are around $40 a side. The labor is around 15 hours for an experienced shop which should make the total job cost around $3500-4000. That´s what i was quoted.

 

My joy is mainly to drive it and take care of it to the maximum. There is nothing extraordinary about F430 parts. Many are actually shared with cheaper Maseratis and even Alfa Romeos.

 

HA LOL I ca

OMG I cant believe I did it again! This is the second time in as many weeks that I thought the post was about a 360! Ooops

 

that would mean $15k for the jobs op listed is way too much. should be ~ $10k.

 

Kansas sure charge more than southern California !!
oil change and brake flush is $770 !!
surprised of $17 brake fluid. what brand could that be? my SRF is $65 a bottle.

 

Holy ****, ****, ***** and ****!!
Almost $800 to adjust windows?
$5200 for solenoids? (less than 2500 through Eurospares or just over 3000 from Ricambi)

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure these are all going rates for that work, but I couldn't even think of owning one of these cars without doing the majority of my own work.

 

On the inspection recommendation, absolutely yes. Get one. But sometimes even a good inspection can miss a tiny little thing that actually turns out to be ba big deal.

Case in point, I bought my 328 many years back with a test drive and a quick inspection. Great car overall. Still have it, and not going to part with it any time soon. I did have to spend a bit post purchase on the usual things. Needed new bearings, couple of tie rod ends, did the belts etc.

One item still sticks in my mind to this day. It was running rough, and a bit sluggish. In sorting that out, my mechanic couldn’t seem to get the rich smell to go away. When he looked, it turned out the factory cat was badly blown out, so raw fuel had been dumping in there and igniting for some time. Not only that, the thermocouple to measure cat temperature had been cut, and the wire pulled out so you couldn’t see that it had been cut. And the ‘Slow Down’ light on the dash had been disconnected.

It was bad enough that my mechanic told me that it could have been catastrophic if not fatal. If I had kept driving it like that, he used the phrase “go up like a roman candle” to describe it.

I didn’t know enough at the time to know that when you first turn on the ignition, every single light on the dash has to come on. And if the Slow Down light didn’t come on, it should have raised a red flag. I missed that.

So, moral of the story, never buy a used car without at least some level of inspection. And even then, remain diligent. You never know what a previous owner may have done.