Tag: Issues

The thirteen year anniversary

You may want to catch up on previous episodes:

One Year Anniversary

Two Year Anniversary

Three Year Anniversary

Four Year Anniversary

Five Year Anniversary

Sixth year Anniversary

Seventh year Anniversary

Eighth year Anniversary

Ninth year Anniversary

Ten year Anniversary

Eleven year Anniversary

Twelve year Anniversary

The thirteenth year they say is lace

It has been remiss of me not to provide my annual updates but life is still full of frustrations with the F355.

If you recall, I have been having intermittent ‘chugging’ issues particularly after refuelling. The car has been looked at by a variety of people, unfortunately to no avail. Of late the issue has reappeared but then today after refuelling and stopping the car to park it, the ‘chuggs’ returned.

At the moment I don’t dare take the car somewhere and then stop it. Typically, I’m taking it out regularly on the same run every time. Hopefully by doing so I might be able to see a pattern. After the run I park the car up.

Prior to today, the last time I got the full on ‘chuggs’ was back in April, about 6 months ago. This is what makes troubleshooting the issue so hard, the simple irregularity of it. I did however notice today that there was a lot of air ‘sucking’ when I removed the fuel cap which is somewhat unusual for that amount.

My plan therefore is simply to keep driving the car and recording all the details, then at the annual service have the fuel pump swapped as the next attempt to isolate the issue. Given that I am not stopping the car any except back at base or the local petrol station, I can live with that until the next major service due in a few months.

The car also has a bit of an oil leak I think that needs attention, plus the drivers seat is exhibiting wear near where the brake handle is pulled up. Thus, there will be a few things that need to be taken car of along with the registration.

It is disappointing that car is still getting random ‘chuggs’ but they are less than they were prior to the injectors being cleaned and it is something I can live with for the time being until the car gets serviced. It is frustrating not to be able to take the car out on club drives because I’m afraid it’ll get the ‘chuggs’ again after stopping and starting.

For now, I can still enjoy driving the car but the ‘chuggs’ remain an enigma that returns everty now and then to ruin things. All I can do is keep replacing parts until the issue, is hopefully, found. Thus, unfortunately, another year of frustrations with an ongoing issue that can’t seemed to be resolved.

Beyond the 100,000 kilometres barrier

car

Recently, I had the good fortune to attend the Bathurst 12 hour race. This meant a weekend away driving the car in and around the central west of the state.

We departed mid-morning on the Friday and after dropping our stuff off at our accommodation we headed to the Mount Panorama track. Here the ole F355 ticked over 100,000 kilometres total travel distance. Never a more fitting place to do this.

The rest of the weekend was a series of drives to and from the track, as well as around the area. Unfortunately, this did mean exploring some pot holes along the way but hopefully none of them caused any serious damage. It is always annoying to be travelling along at speed and then hit one out of the blue that was hidden or your missed.

Before I left I had the concern of the getting lights and no crank so I had given to Sal from Racing Red to go over. The good news is that he did find a loose connection on the starter motor and since then that particular problem has not re-occurred. The bad news is that that the ‘glugging’ start hasn’t fully gone. I had one instance over the weekend when the car was started and went into limp mode. I turned it off and on again and it was fine.

The issue seems to happen more when the car is warm and stopped for a short while and then started again, like when you stop for fuel. The limp mode incident was only at the end of the weekend, and only the one time. However, the start up is not as crisp as it once was and it feel like a bit of a lottery as to whether it starts fully. So far, the results have been favourable, but there is still an issue I feel. Unfortunately, it is hard to troubleshoot as it doesn’t happen all the time. I’ll need keep track of how it goes, but certainly the no crank issue seems resolved.

Unfortunately, here in Australia, when a car crosses the 100,000 kilometre barrier its value tends to plummet. I have no intention of selling but I kind of wonder what sort of hit the value has taken now?

The trip to Bathurst was a great weekend away with probably almost 700 kilometres of driving in the brilliant sunshine and surrounds. Love that kind of weekend. Let’s see how the start up process gets on from this point and see if there is some way to isolate what the issue maybe.

Onwards to 200,000 kilometres.