"SPAMBot - Horse Doctor" (spambot2002) 07/10/2019 at 16:20 • Filed to: Ferrari, More than I can afford pal, SHIT'S BROKE, Momma Mia

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Area man not very shocked his Italian car is still acting Italian
As we approach the 2 month mark of when my car decided to develop a nasty misfire, I am very near throwing in the towel. I threw some parts at the issue with no real progress, and I’m now far past my knowledge, skills, and tool set.

Sunny Daze

After what almost certainly felt like a coil giving up the ghost, I replaced both (one per bank), along with the control module for each. I triple double checked they were wired correctly, and fiddled around with the cat temperature ECU’s (known weak point and can shut down a bank). I pulled the plugs on that side and they all were wet and smelled heavily of gas with one looking slightly dryer than the rest. It looks like they were ran really really rich, I think. The plugs were changed early 2018, so about 1500 miles ago. Also, there was this gray looking crud on the inside of the plug boots.

My current (probably bad theory) is the plugs are too fouled from gas after the coil went. Or, an injector or 3 is leaking, but they were checked in my major service last year. Here are the pics from pulling the plugs last night. They aren’t great pictures, but they are what I currently have lol. I’ll throw new plugs on tomorrow (cheap and easy) and check each plug is getting spark with one of those cheap spark plug checkers. After that, I’ll prob drop it at the shop and throw some money at the problem. I’m really trying to avoid that option, though.

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Happy Humpday, Y’all!

E90M3 > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 07/10/2019 at 16:24

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Should’ve just bought an E60 M5 with a 6 speed.

I kid, of course. 

Chariotoflove > E90M3 07/10/2019 at 16:29

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But not really. :p

Chariotoflove > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 07/10/2019 at 16:29

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When you said, “showing in the towel”, I was afraid you meant selling the thing.

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 07/10/2019 at 16:39

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Hopefully its good to go for weekend after next!

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > E90M3 07/10/2019 at 16:40

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It would have been cheaper! LOL

I really did like the one I drove but the 348 hits a little different, as the youths say.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > Chariotoflove 07/10/2019 at 16:42

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Not close to that!!! I have a few more thousand in my maintenance fund I can blow. After that, well, you only really need one kidney and only part of your liver ;)

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars 07/10/2019 at 16:43

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Next weekend is my main motivation to get it figured out, even if I need to seek professional help.

RallyWrench > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 07/10/2019 at 16:45

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I don’t know about 348s, but 308's and Mondials (maybe 328s too, haven’t touched one of those) have a reference sensor for each bank, and they’ll run on one side of the engine if either sensor fails. Pretty easy to test resistance, and given what you’ve already done, that’s what I’d look at first. Those ignition modules won’t trigger the coils without speed inputs. Did CaptDale pass on my #?

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > RallyWrench 07/10/2019 at 16:56

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Yeah, I’ll send you a text here in a bit.

The engine is basically two independent I4's that share a crank. So it has two crank sensors which are newish. I believe it only has one cam sensor, though, which seems odd. I’m unaware to any other speed sensors. It also has the cat temp ecus, which typically break, and ran it with and without those to no avail. I think I at least have partial ignition on the suspect bank because the exhaust is heating up, just not as hot as the other side, according to my IR thermometer. I really do not want to pull off the header heat shields, but it might be required to see which cylinders are dead. I really really don’t want try the old pull the spark plug wire of the coil and listen to changes trick.

I do not think it’s the MAF, because the car is supposed to run in a pre programed open loop until it is up to temperature. I guess one of the coolant sensors could be bad on that side, and telling it to dump fuel to warm up. I can’t swap those without draining the coolant, though.

sony1492 > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 07/10/2019 at 17:02

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If you have a multimeter you could check the resistances of the spark plug wires, internally broken wires will lead to inconsistent spark depending on load and rpm

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > sony1492 07/10/2019 at 17:09

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I need to check a lot of things with a multimeter but I can’t for the life of me find mine. I might need to borrow a nice one from work tomorrow night haha

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 07/10/2019 at 17:15

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Haha awesome. Have you heard confirmations from anyone?

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars 07/10/2019 at 17:26

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WWD and Golf R Guy. I’ll do another blast next week or on Friday

Sovande > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 07/10/2019 at 17:38

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You made the right choice. 

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 07/10/2019 at 17:51

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Much excite !

Chariotoflove > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 07/10/2019 at 17:59

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Whew.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > Sovande 07/10/2019 at 18:15

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Thanks, I still think so! haha

MM54 > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 07/10/2019 at 18:16

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Much credit for working on it yourself!

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars 07/10/2019 at 18:18

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SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > MM54 07/10/2019 at 18:30

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Thanks! There are some things I don’t want to do, but I try to at least take a shot at fixing anything that breaks or try to diagnose things. Most of my wrenching has been on diesels or car stereos (high school was weird) so I’m learning a lot. I’m not ready to do an engine out or change the clutch, but making baby steps. The more I dig in, the less scary it is.

Part of the old car experience is that things go wrong. And it is usually somewhat enjoyable to try to track down the problem. I do have my limits, though.

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 07/10/2019 at 18:57

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Could still be the MAF. “Open loop” just means it doesn’t adjust the trim based on the O2 sensors - it still dumps in more or less dino juice depending on what the MAF says about how much air is being sucked in. If the MAF is overestimating it’ll run rich when cold. Should sort itself out when it goes to closed loop though, or throw a fault code if the MAF is so wrong the trim can’t compensate 

CaptDale - is secretly British > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 07/10/2019 at 19:07

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I am frustrated now. I want to see the pony go! I do have one solution I can help with... *cough*

*cough*

;3

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen 07/10/2019 at 20:06

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This is true. Or it could be getting a bad signal from the coolant temp sensor and flooding the motor with fuel. When it happened, I’m pretty sure the car was warm where it should have been in closed loop and saw the A/F ratio was out of whack. It overheated the cat and smelled like gas so it had to be rich as hell. Not sure though. I need to pull out a multimeter and check a few things. Right now I’m still essentially shooting from the hip.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > CaptDale - is secretly British 07/10/2019 at 20:07

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Too many pushrods and too few cams :p

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 07/10/2019 at 20:41

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I am confirmed going to something? Lol, just checked my email and now I remember. I should be able to find time still I hope.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 07/10/2019 at 20:46

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Haha OK. I’ll send out another email blast right now, just to make sure everyone is still in.

merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 07/10/2019 at 21:18

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Have you checked compression in the cylinders?  I’m sure not the same carboning issue that the DI engines have, but you may have some carboning and it may be keeping you from getting good compression and helping with the misfires.  Might be worth a look if the fresh plugs don’t do the trick.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc 07/10/2019 at 21:51

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I have not had it checked (since my ppi) nor am I really equipped to do that. I would think if it was a compression issue, performance would have degraded over time. This all started when I was driving. Engine was running perfectly smooth, I shifted to second from a stop sign, and the engine just slugged and died in neutral. It felt like I suddenly lost a bank. Seemed like a coil at the time. I know the 355's can have carbon deposits on the valves after not driving it hard, which is sometimes inaccurately diagnosed as valve guide wear, but I haven’t heard any cases of that happening in a 348. A guy I know blew his engine, and a few belt mishaps, but nothing like that.

But things like this, that I can't easily check, is probably why I'm going to bring it to the shop if plugs don't fix the issue and nothing else obvious is wrong. There are only a limited number of things I can try in my garage.

E90M3 > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 07/11/2019 at 07:35

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The Ferrari was probably the smarter buy, plus it seems to be the car you always lusted after. 

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 07/11/2019 at 10:32

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Wife is going to get approved to drive t he G63. I am pretty sure she is just as/if not more excited than I am to drive it.

CaptDale - is secretly British > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 07/11/2019 at 11:13

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Heresy ! Only the one true in block cam will be the savior when the world ends! LAST OF THE V8S! Bow to the mighty pushrod!

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > E90M3 07/11/2019 at 11:46

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It was worth it, just to live out a dream haha

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > CaptDale - is secretly British 07/11/2019 at 11:48

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merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 07/11/2019 at 11:49

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10-4, from what you describe, it does sound electrical.  And that may have fouled the plugs, so hopefully replacement will solve it.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc 07/11/2019 at 11:52

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I’m not sure if that is a stretch or not. Hopefully it works!

CaptDale - is secretly British > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 07/11/2019 at 12:03

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SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars 07/11/2019 at 12:37

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I can’t blame her for that! haha