And you thought Alfa Romeo electrics where bad! LAC

["John Fielding" <johnf@domain.elided>]

Hi All,

I just thought you might like to hear how my day has been.  Apart from manufacturing
automotive electronics I also do odd jobs for the local auto electrical trade to help keep
the wolf from the door.

Started at 8am with a panic phone call from one of my regular customers to get down ASAP
and sort out a Ferrari 348TS with a flaky climate control computer.  This car is of course
painted in the traditional Ferrari red and a real crowd puller.  I had worked on the
climate control computer about 3 months back and fixed a number of faults, mostly dry
joints.  The quality of the electronics was appalling for such a car.  The main harness
connector was the cheapest and nastiest type available and one I even wouldn't choose for
a low cost product as it had relability implications.

The symptoms were now a fan speed controller which was possesed and went ballistic at any
time.  The only way to find the fault was to drive it around.  Just geting out of the
parking lot was a major mission.  The car has no power steering and needs muscles akin to
Arnold Schwarnager (sp?) to get it out into the downtown traffic!  The owner is a very
petite lady Managing Director, how she drives it I don't know.  The gear change was an
abortion and it took me almost half an hour before I mastered the change from 1st to 2nd
without crashing the gears.  Never got out of 2nd in town as the engine just bogs down
below 4000rpm.  After an hour of tooling around town in mid-day traffic I found no fault
until I gave it an Italian tune-up along a section of freeway and had to stand on the
anchors very hard when some granny pulled out in front of me.  Then the fan speed
momentarily dipped.  A good blast in first gear away from a set of traffic lights produced
the same result.  Hum - something not making a good connection?

Back at the auto-electricians we started to pull the cars wiring to pieces to find the
fault,which in itself is no easy task.  Turns out that a flaky fuse holder was the
culprit.  Horrors - it is a cheap Ford fuse block tucked away under the carpet in the
front luggage compartment.

I left them to sort out the mess.

On to my second call of the day.  Guess what - two Ferraris this time.  The first was a
Ferrari Mondial.

This first one had a simple wiring fault.  I was reliably told it was the engine
management computer as it had been diagnosed by a top auto electrician.
Well, ECU's don't work too well when the ground strap is floating around
disconnected.  Reconnecting this soon had the motor singing!  The motor
had just been rebuilt as it threw a conrod.

The second was more of a puzzler.  This was a Ferrari 308GTBi with the transverse V8 and
twin ignition computers buried in the rear wheel well.

The symptoms were an idle which dropped suddenly after a few minutes of running.  Turns
out the two ignition computers boxes each cater for one bank of cylinders and drive a coil
pack per bank and individual distributors.  The fuel injection is the good old K-Jetronic
mechanical system so weren't part of the equation.

After the computers had thoroughly warmed up, not difficult as they sat close to the
exhaust!, the front bank of cylinders cut out and caused a lumpy idle.  Swapping the ECU
connectors around made the fault follow the computer box.  Off with the cover and
surprise!  this box had been replaced in 1989 as the date codes on the IC's indicated, the
car was a 1981 version.  The other box was also a lot newer and a 1995 serial number.  So
both boxes had been changed since the car was made.

The use of a 'scope and various test leads showed the computer chip stopped working after
a few minutes running, got very hot, and caused the one set of cylinders to switch off.
Disconnecting the suspect ECU for a few seconds and then reconnecting it had the motor
running normally for a few minutes and then the fault reoccurred.  As luck would have it
the faulty box also drove the rev counter and this also stopped working at the same time.
A quick long distance phone call to the agents prompted the reply " they all do that" and
"yes, we have spares - at a price"  The owner was not impressed when he was told how
much a new ignition computer box was going to cost.  He thought he had been clever as
he bought the car as a rolling shell and the dis-assembled motor came in three tea chests
(seriously!) for a very nominal price from a bankrupt estate last year. He had a many
$ dollar car for peanuts, but didn't count on the maintenance costs such a car relies on.

The only good thing about all this is that Ferrari had sufficient foresight to use  two
ignition computers and separate distributors for each bank of the V8 or else it would
have been a totally dead motor.  With one set of cylinders off  it was still possible to
drive the car although it was a bit down on power and sounded terrible, farting and
banging!

Oh, and I left out one detail.  On my dash into town the battery in my Fiat Uno Turbo died
after I stopped to fill up with fuel at the local filling station.  Bump started it and
managed to make auto electricians #1 where a new battery was fitted.

I hope next week is a bit less frenetic!

John
Durban
South Africa
Alfetta 1.8L turbo - some what neglected at present!
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