Many moons ago a cog in the AC timing actuator failed as I detailed here:

Gear of misfortune

I thought it would be easy enough to get a 3D printed version as a replacement. Oh, how wrong I was. I tried some trusted contacts who were in the 3D printing industry. They referred me onto a number of businesses who unable to print a cog for me.

After more than 2 years trying to get a commercial 3D printing business to print a replacement cog for me, I decided that the only way it was going to happen was if I did it myself. Thus, began another long quest to learn about 3D printing.

A few weeks back my 3D printer selection arrived. After assembling it and doing some test prints, I turned my attention to the real reason for my purchase, to print a simple cog!

Attempt 1

As you can see from the above, this attempt didn’t go well. The issue was the fact that due to the small size of the cog the print lifts from the bed.

Attempt 2

Things are looking better now after some adjustments to the printing process. I can at least see that it is starting to look like a cog, but again the print is detaching from the bed. More adjustments.

Attempt 3

YEAH BABY! We have a winner. As you can see the print completed successfully. I needed to some minor clean up on the finished product but I tested it in the Timing Actuator and it seems to work fine.

Oh man, has this been a long (and expensive journey) all to get a replacement for this tiny cog! However, there are a few minor tweaks I need to make to the model so it needs less clean up after printing but I don’t expect that to be too hard. It’ll also be a good way to learn more about the 3D modelling process.

I can now finally say that I have the ability to produce a solution for the 63307100 Timing Actuator gear failing from about two years ago! Even though I do have a number of cogs made by others that work the one I just printed myself now holds pride of place.

During this process, a few readers of this blog contacted me about obtaining a replacement for themselves if I managed to produce them. Well I have and you are welcome to reply to this post, or contact me directly via email and I’ll send you what I have made. Note, that I am still tweaking as we speak and I have not yet actually put the cog into the car so I can’t guarantee that it works on the road, but I’m pretty confident it will. But, if you want to try it and let me know if it indeed does work, contact me a I’ll send you a print.

Hopefully, after a few adjustments I can offer these to people who experience the same issues.

So after all the work that was done to try and sort the car, it unfortunately seems to still be there. I took the car on a run over the mountains and pulled over just before ascending for some breakfast. When I tried to start it after a break it took a lot of cranking. Hmmm, this isn’t good I thought! The car finally fired and I started up the mountain.

Unfortunately, about 20 minutes into the drive the car dropped into ‘limp mode’ without and warning or indicators on the dash. I took a side road and pulled over. I tried on/off, to no avail. I tried isolating the battery, to no avail. Thus, my only option was to limp the car home, which is never a fun experience.

As I went to put the car away it almost didn’t start. Crank, crank, crank……finally started but again in limp mode. It had almost no power.

Ok, so off to the shop again. Problem is, Sal from Racing Red was unavailable for a few weeks. Rather than wait and have the car sitting around I decided to try Scuderia Cavallino Servizio instead. Maybe a fresh set of eyes would help?

Sadly, even after being there and having the ignition coils and O2 sensors changed (and of course not displaying any issues), the car still doesn’t feel right to me after taking for a weekend drive. It certainly doesn’t go into limp mode (yet) but there is still an occasional hesitation on crank.

The biggest challenge is the problem is consistent. Typically, the issue manifest itself after the car has been drive for at least one hour. Sometimes, it start fine, with no hesitation. Sometimes, it starts but there is a bit of a ‘glug’ at the end of a long crank and then it fires. Sometime, it takes two cranks to fire. As yet, the car has always started and not failed into limp mode. However, I can still feel the ‘glug’ on occasional start which indicates to me the issue is still there.

So now what? Do I keep driving it in the hope that limp mode doesn’t return? Do I take it back for continued troubleshooting. Decisions, decisions. It is super frustrating that it is a intermittent issues. Makes troubleshooting really tough.

I hate to say it but my ‘ignition but no crank issues’ haven’t gone away. The car certain starts cleaner after the recent flush, but something still isn’t quite right.

Typically, I have gone for a drive, stopped the car, say to re-fuel, return and I get lights but no crank. I turn the key off and on and car starts.

It worries me that one day I won’t be able to get the car to start all. The most likely candidates for the issue seem to be:

1. Solenoid

2. Ignition relay

3. Alarm

The car does have an after market alarm as factory ones were not available back when the car was made. Perhaps the engine cut out relay in the alarm is failing after all this time? This is hard to troubleshoot without disabling the whole alarm. So my thinking is to get the mechanicals replaced (solenoid and ignition relay) first. Then, if the problem continues, it maybe time to consider getting a new alarm?

The car goes back to Racing Red shortly for a once over again and I’ll report back once that has been completed and if anything was found or replace.

Again, annoying but I need to have it sorted to have piece of mind.

The 355 is back after a visit to Sal at Racing Red to try and solve the ‘spluttering’ problem. He went through the car but the main thing he did was clean the injectors.

Using a device that he has, he cleaned and tested all the injectors, which has not been done since I have owned the car.

He also went in and change all the spark plugs. My records indicate that these  haven’t been changed in over 8 years, so doing both should make a difference.

While the car was in it had its annual service and rego check, so when I picked it up it was good to go for another 12 months.

On the drive home I did notice a marked difference in performance, which was pleasing. However, while parking the car I did get a ‘lights but no crank’ issue on one restart. I’m kind of wondering whether that has anythign to do maybe with the alarm not fully disengaging? I’ll have to monitor that more closely. However, no ‘spluttering’ was present which is great. Fingers crossed that at least that issue has been resolved and I can enjoy the car over the holidays.

Unfortunately its appears that the initial attempt at rectifying the ‘spluttering’ problem was unsuccessful. This means an extended stay with Sal to try and get to the bottom of things.

I’ve had to wait a while for Sal to be able to fit me but that will happen next week. Given it is also time for the cars annual service and rego we might be able to squeeze all that in during this visit I hope.

To prepare I took the car out to a local petrol station to get fuelled up and it performed faultlessly. It seems that I only get the ‘spluttering’ once the engine is up to temperature after a long drive. Starting and stopped then seems to cause the issue to arise.

So, it is off for a good check up this week and hopefully a solution to the issue which has been keeping me off the streets of late.

Unfortunately, it is time for the F355 to play up. This doesn’t happen very often BUT I am fully appreciative that it will happen as the car is now approaching 98,000 kilometres travelled. And today was the day.

I was out on a Club drive heading south along the coast. We had taken the freeway and stopped at the top of Bulli pass to grab a coffee. All good so far. After about 20 minutes I jumped back in the car, but when I started it I was greeted with ‘chugging’. The engine was spluttering and the ‘Check Engine 5-8’ light stayed on for longer than normal before extinguishing. I turned the car off and on but was greeted with the same result. Oh no!

Now this has happened before. Typically it has happened on a cold morning after I have filled up with fuel and returned to start my car. Generally, the car ‘chugs’ a bit and then is fine. It has happened two or three times over the life of the car and not recently.

Having seen these symptoms before, I continued along the freeway south hoping it would clear but it was obvious that the car had not fixed itself and was in fact now running in ‘limp mode’ (with only half the cylinders working). You can tell this because it simply has no guts to get up a hill. Along the flat or down a hill it is generally ok but on almost any incline it is a pig. I have experienced this before but not for many years.

With something clearly wrong with the car, I pull over again on the side of the freeway and did a battery isolation (i.e. disconnect and reconnect the battery via the switch in under the bonnet). The idea with doing this is to reset the engine management system and hopefully clear any errors.

Unfortunately, when I restarted the car I still had issues again. The return of ‘limp mode’. I knew it was time to abort the run and head for home. I turned right and headed across to the Hume Highway, M7 and M2 route home.

I pulled over again a few kilometres along, isolated the battery again, and waited a few minutes to see if that, perhaps, would clear things. Nope. Same problem. Damm! Off we go again.

I continued on my way, luckily at freeway speeds, avoiding traffic. I did debate whether to pull over again once the car got nice and warm to see if another reset would help, but decided against it. Let’s just get the car home asap I figured.

The last part, off the freeway, on suburban streets as a real challenge, especially going up any hill. To add salt to the wounds there was a huge bank up of traffic near the destination due to a car festival. Of all the days!

After crawling through the traffic I finally made it back. Even stopping and starting the car here still made no improvement, something is broken for sure. My guess is a sensor has decided that today was the day to go to God.

The positives are that I was able to get the car back home and hopefully I didn’t stress it too much running in limp mode. Next step is to see what needs to be done to get it fixed! I hope that can be done where it is and not having to take the car somewhere as it is a real pig to drive. But, let’s wait and see what the options are.

I’ll keep you posted on what happens next.