Airbag spiral contact (Part # 169471) has arrived from Pro-Sport Ferrari. Here are a few shots of what it looks like:

Next step is now get it into the car.

After all the wait, the airbag light is still on unfortunately. Turns out that the Airbag spiral contact (Part # 169471) looks like it needs replacing as well.

It’s item number 48 in the above picture. The good news is that is about $250 (from Pro-Sport Ferrari) and Sal from Racing Red can come to me and change it over when it arrives. So that isn’t too bad.

I will tell you that it is certainly annoying to still have the light on, and some people have asked me why I simply don’t put up with the problem (since it doesn’t affect the car’s performance) or disconnect the globe if it is really annoying me? At the end of the day I want the car ‘right’. I full appreciate that things will go wrong over time and as an enthusiast I want to fix them ‘correctly’ rather than just ‘making due’. I’m just that kinda guy I suppose.

Sal was also kind enough to take some photos of the car in its various disassembled state during the installation of the new Airbag ECU (Part #169710)  and cables (Part #169712).

 

While these parts were being changed I took the opportunity to get the dash re-trimmed.

I did that because it had deterioration as you can see in the above images.

You can see the different with the new trim in the above pictures. Much, much better and I am very happy with the result and my decision to get this done. I think that it really adds to the value of the car.

So I have the car back again, with the airbag light still on unfortunately. However, I have ordered the Airbag spiral contact (Part # 169471) and will get that replaced as soon as it arrives. Then I’ll feel much more zen when I’m driving.

It is interesting to see the car’s dash disassembled and I must admit I’m surprised at how simple it appears. I’m sure it is far more complex but it really doesn’t look like there is all that much to me.

Anyway, I’ve got me a nice new dash to show the world when next the car steps out and for that I’m really thankful.

On of the things that many are not aware of is that the Ferrari F355 does not normally come with a spare wheel. Nope, not even a space saver! When you think about it, it is a rare occurrence when you actually need a spare so it makes sense to leave it out of the car since it reduces the overweight which provides better performance.

However, I have only ever driven cars with a spare so I always found it a little perturbing that the F355 didn’t have one. So the easiest solution to overcome this nagging doubt was to buy one.

The spare that suits the F355 is a space saver as shown above. It lives in the front trunk of the car. Now there is apparently a brace that you can install in the car as shown below:

to hold the spare firm. Apparently that assembly is quite hard to find and when I took a look in my car I could easily see where it should be installed. I’ll have to have a closer look when the car is outside in sunshine one day.

Obviously to change the spare you also need a jack and wrench. These come in a kit, as shown above, that I also purchased to give myself piece of mind.

The other thing that you need to beware of when you purchase a spare and jack is that it adds weight to the nose of the car. I noticed this only after driving around after putting then in the car and finding that the car scrapes more over driveways. Will need to be even more careful now when entering and existing driveways.

Now the spare and the jack are not cheap, but then again nothing on the F355 is cheap. That said however, I see the spare and jack as more than just piece of mind I see them as adding value to car if (heaven forbid) I ever decide to sell it. This is because the spare and jack are becoming harder and harder to source, so getting one now should certainly add value to the car overtime. I suppose we’ll see on that score but for the time being, having a spare and jack are worth every penny simply in my books for the piece of mind they provide when I’m out and about with the car.

Well the replacement airbag ECU and cables for the F355 have turned up. Here are some shots of the parts:

169712 – Airbag cables

 

 

 

169710 – Airbag Electronic Control Unit (ECU)

So the car has been booked in with Racing Red to have these parts changed and to get the shrinkage on the dash repaired.

It is probably a little hard to see in the above image but just above the wiper connection you might be able to see some brown bits. This appears to be where the glue and the dash have parted ways. Not a huge issue but if the dash has to be ‘almost’ disassembled to replace the airbag cables might as well take the opportunity to get this ‘whole’ dash disassembled and this taken care of as well.

In the last post I mentioned how the airbag warning light had come on and simply restarting the car failed to clear it. After speak with Sal from Racing Red he decided that he’d need to see what the car’s computer says before he could diagnose further.

The connection for the airbag ECU is in a panel in the passengers foot well. You pull off the panel to reveal the fuse box and the connector.

The computer revealed that the ECU believed that the car had ‘crashed’, thereby deploying both airbags. When you drill into this ‘crash data’ you see:

The most common cause of the airbag warning light is low battery voltage and you can see that is an error recorded before the “crash”. The car has no problems starting and gets a run every week so you would tend to think that the issue is not related to the battery voltage.

Using the computer Sal was unable to reset the airbag warning light and believes that the issue is a faulty ECU unit, given that the failure happened while driving rather than when first starting.

So the next step seems to be to procure the replacement airbag ECU and then look at changing it over. Doing so may also require changing the wiring from the ECU (which lives under the centre console near the gear stick) to each airbag. That will mean disassembling the dashboard.

If the dashboard is going to need any disassembly it is probably a good opportunity to get some other issues with the upholstery taken car of (the passengers airbag is fraying and it coming away slightly from under the windscreen, right in the middle of the dash). 

Sal says that he can take car of both and would need about a week to complete everything. Next step now is to find a replacement airbag ECU.

The news is, unfortunately, that car has again thrown up a warning light, although this time it is something new.

I was travelling along on a recent drive, when all of a sudden the airbag warning light came on. The performance and operation of the car wasn’t affected at all (apart from the big warning light on the dash, which I know all about anyway). I continued on and parked the car in the hope that it may reset after the engine had been turned off.

Unfortunately, taking the car out again proved that the airbag warning light needs more attention that simply turning the engine off. The car’s performance is no way affected but that red warning light on the dash is annoying.

As you can see from the above diagram the car has two airbags, driver and passenger. The ECU (item 1) that controls the airbag is located under the front console.

Reading the F355 workshop manual on airbag issues you see:

Being a safety system, the airbag individual components cannot be repaired. To detect the faulty component, use the SD-1 system and then replace it.

From what I tell you need to hook up the diagnostic (SD-1) to connector A shown above.

That connector in the passengers foot well along with the fuses as shown above. There seems to be a procedure in which you can short pin 1 of the diagnostics connector for 1 – 5 seconds and the following sequence will show on the air bag warning lamp on the dash, depending on the issue:

Lamp check : Fault

1: None (the lamp switches on for about 4 seconds, when ignition key is put in position”II”)

2: Faulty sensor

3: Airbag starting circuit short-circuited towards battery +

4: Airbag starting circuit short-circuited towards ground +

5: Wrong driver’s side airbag resistance

6: Wrong passenger’s side airbag resistance

7: Low battery voltage

8: Faulty light or circuits

9 Stored crash data

After the last fault, the first one is shown again.

The faults can be cancelled (apart from no. 9) by short circuiting the pin no. 1 of the diagnostics socket connector towards earth for a time between 5 and 10 seconds.

If the fault no 2. (ECU inner failure) disappears, the sensor resets.

So it looks like I could attempt to determine what the fault is and then attempt to reset this by simply grounding one of the connectors. However, I think the first thing I need to do is talk to someone a with more knowledge about these things before I try anything and see what they recommend. I really don’t want to be mucking about with the airbag system, without knowing what I’m doing, just in case I set it off or something. So I need to make a few calls before I go much further.

Now the ECU unit that controls the airbag is located under the console between the seats. I was wondering how you would get to it if you needed, and once again YouTube to the rescue with these videos:

I am not saying that the ECU is the problem but at least now I know how to get access to it if needed.

I’ll keep you posted on what happens with the airbag issue once I have talked to a few people to see what they recommend.

One of the recommendations made to me was that I should look at using some replacement mats for the car while keeping the originals in as new condition as possible. Good idea, I thought. That way if I ever show or the car or sell it (heaven forbid) then I’d have as near to perfect original mats.

The above shot shows you the original mats side by side (left = passenger, right = drivers). You’ll also notice that they are different shapes and have two eyelets each to secure them onto the floor.

As a temporary measure I bought some ‘standard’ car mats just to put over these mats. What I overlooked again was the fact that a car like a Ferrari is very different from your run of the mill car. Why? Because in the F355 the pedals are actually mounted on floor as they connect to the motor at the rear. Most ‘standard’ cars these days have their pedals connected at the top leaving underneath clear.

The main issue was the driver’s side with the pedals but I managed to kinda get a ‘standard’ mat to fit by reversing it. This all worked well in the interim, preventing wear and tear on the original mats while I scoured the Internet for some custom replacements.

I found a couple of places that had F355 mats but most would not ship to Australia. Finally, I located:

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/FERRARI-355-CUSTOM-FLOOR-MAT-SET-/300448967239

These mats are provided through Ricambi America which I know very well are perusing their website looking for different parts and engine configurations. I sent them an email, as I wanted right hand side mats and they said that would no problems. They emailed me a PayPal invoice for $125 to cover the mats and delivery. All very efficient and response.

The mats arrived in about three weeks and looked like:

They were well made Llyods Mats and certainly look like they’ll do the job.

Problem was when I attempted to install in the floor of the car them I discovered that the distance between the eyelets on these new mats was too short. The passengers side was about 3cm too short and the driver’s side was about 7cm too short. Both mats will attach to the outside floor mount on each side but the inside eyelet simply doesn’t match up.

I checked the original floor mats and the distance between the the eyelets is 48cm for driver and passenger mats. Strange I thought. Surely, they would have the layout for these mats and should be spot on?

I have emailed Ricambi America to see what they say and how they want to handle this. I not fussed enough to return the mats, they’ll do the job that I need, however it would be nice if they did fit but as I keep being reminded by this car, nothing every works out the way you think. What I however have learnt by this stage, is that this is all part of the enjoyment of owning one.

As promised in a previous post, here’s some pictures of the actual starter motor in the vehicle up close.

This is the view looking into the engine bay from the top. The black lead going to the housing of the starter motor is from the positive terminal on the rear right of the car.

This is the view looking from underneath the car. That fixture from the body shown above appears to be an earth wire as it seems to merely bolt to the frame between the barrels.

I also found this nice video on the principles of the starting motor put out by the US Department of Defence in 1957.