Kyle4200
Junior Member
- Messages
- 251
Just a 'brief' little history of the experiences I've has over the past 2 years with my 4200 Cambiocorsa (MY02). This is mainly for the guys who are looking to buy or have just bought a early 4200, but I'm sure a lot of this will still be relevant for anyone with newer vehicles of the Coupe/Spyder/GranSport variety.
First Month
My first month of Maserati ownership went without fault, the only thing I can think of looking back is that one of the side repeaters was slightly loose - on closer inspection one of the clips which holds it in place had vanished, so I found myself on a useful website called 'Eurospares' and ordered a used one off a 3200 GT, the part is identical to the 4200 (part number), it also came with a spare bulb which was a bonus. The ASR light was on but the ABS light was off, the car drove fine as far as I was concerned, I assumed it was just a speed sensor fault so could be easily corrected in the future (no track days).
First Year
Within the first year I started to notice some misfiring symptoms, very intermittent but no fault codes appeared. I put this down to me getting used to the 4.2 V8 and just assumed it was cold. The symptoms persisted and eventually the engine warning light did come on, after a few battery resets I thought it's best to get it checked out by someone who knew these types of cars, I found myself at the Maserati Shed (Maserati Specialist, Hampshire) were Mike then scanned the car and had a general look over on his drive, he noticed the SD scanner wasn't finding my particular car and explained that mine was a very early 4200, and that the standard 4200 scan wouldn't find what it was looking for. Finally it worked after he had loaded an early program - he found I was having a Misfire in cylinder 03 and that my Timing Sensor was playing up, another thing that was flagged up was the airbag warning light (the bulb had blown but wasn't showing a fault). He explained that this was a common fault and could be easily rectified, the Timing Sensor could mean one of two things - an expensive one, or simply it was caked in oil and could be cleaned/changed and all would be fine. The misfire could either be a spark plug, ignition coil or knackered cylinder (fingers crossed). I took his advice and done a little digging myself, I knew I could do some of these jobs myself so I did, I changed the bulb on the dash board - seeing some wonderful Italian soldering while I was at it and then booked it in for a Full/Major service at a local Porsche Specialist who also catered for Exotics, my confidence was reassured when I saw a F430 and Audi R8 on the ramps, so I knew I was in good hands, regardless of the lack of Maserati diagnostic equipment. The Oil/Oil filter was replaced, Air Filter, Pollen Filter and Spark Plugs changed - all for a very reasonable price and with Genuine Maserati parts (A Service Pack was purchased). The car came back to me with a small report of some of things they had found while working on my car, I had developed an oil leak towards the rear of the engine, dripping down and onto the exhaust manifold, I had gotten use to the smell of oil since I had the car - again thinking it was just the 13 year old V8's charm, they had also noticed a slight power steering leak, the ASR light was permanently on and they could see, via the OBD port that there was a misfire fault. I left the car with them to investigate further and they had found that the Cam Cover Gaskets had perished, from the front it looked good but the rear was a different story. The power steering leak was only minor, happening only at full lock under strain and with the engine on, my fluid levels were all fine so it wasn't a major concern, the pump needed replacing though. With regards to the misfire, after changing the spark plugs they could only assume a shot ignition coil, but I would get this checked out at at Emblem (Maserati Specialist, Poole) the following Saturday. When I went to collect the car the technician explained he had replaced the gaskets and cleaned all the parts within, as it was caked in oil, included some of the important sensors, magically the Timing Sensor fault had vanished (Mike was right), the car started and drove fine... Fully serviced and now with new cam cover gaskets (oil smell had gone). Saturday came and the car was at Emblem, he quite quickly pin pointed the which ignition coil was gone and found that it was switching on and off while he fiddled with the cable, he advised I needed a new one immediately and quite possibly a new spark mplug as it may have become damaged driving from Southampton to Poole. I did this and the car ran perfect, no error codes and no more occasional juddering misfire. The rest of the year was fine, I just needed to attend to the power steering leak, ASR light and the Airbag warning.
While browsing the many websites, finding as much as I could about Maserati's - my model in particular, I stumbled across a offer my local dealership were doing, a Winter Health Check, they would take the car off you for 1-2 days and carry out a complete once over of the entire car, scan it, check brake/tyre condition, suspension, exhaust, engine, interior, fluids, you name it they checked it, all for just under £100. My thinking was that a pre-purchase inspection were double that, so I booked it in and waited for the call, when I came to collect it, I was given a list of advisories, this included the leaking power steering pump, both rear tyres were low, ASR light but they couldn't communicate with the module using SD, clutch wear '12.7%' (this is only a guide) and a couple of missing screws and bolts here and there but nothing to worry about, they also said they had cleared the Airbag fault so that light was now out and the car was good to go, once they had finished up treating the leather interior. I was now assured the car was fine and not going to cause me too much grief down the line now the dealer has had a look, so I put the car to 'sleep' for a while as I went to work abroad for 3 months, continuing the rest in the new year.
Second Year
Once I returned to the UK my main aim was to solve the ASR trouble, if the SD couldn't find a fault, or a main dealer then I would have to some more digging, the Bosch Unit is a 5.3 ASR/ABS module, with the early models anyway, I got in contact with various people that can sort ABS issues and also Bosch themselves. All were dead ends so I went back to the drawing board and tried to figure out why the ASR light only was on and not the ABS light, as a few others around with Ferrari's/Maserati's have had 'similar' issues but with both lights illuminated. I even purchased a ABS scan tool that was meant to read all cars included the Italians, it recognised the module but wouldn't go any further, the speed sensor were all okay and I had no fault codes via OBD. Eventually I received an E-mail from Bosch ABS, they wanted to know the exact serial number (not part number) for the module, so I then started unbolted the block, carefully not wanting to damage/remove the brake lines, the numbers were all underneath, once I had sent a few emails back and fourth, we came to the conclusion that the ABS module that was in my car was actually the incorrect one, only 2 numbers were out on it, the module was actually from a Ferrari 360 MY02 (previous owner WT..?). I then bought the correct part from Eurospares and selling the Ferrari unit, maybe the guy I sold it to had a Maserati one fitted in his 360!? Once fitted, the ASR light went out the Speedo no longer flickered up and down the speed range and the car was back to normal. Points to note, if you have a wrong part fitted - no matter how many SD scans you try and how many experts give their opinion, you will never find the true solution unless you do these long winded investigations with trial and error. The car was then back on the road, checking my PAS fluid regularly (no drop in level), as long as I stayed away from full lock it would be okay for a few more weekends until I could purchase a new pump.
Just as I thought the car was absolutely perfect I was hit with another issue, the car was stalling in (1)/(R) when driving slow, and at motorway speeds it began to feel like a train on a track, similar to the misfire feeling but not quite the same. I got the car home and inspected, no issues, then while sitting in idle - OBD plugged in a new fault was detected, it was with the o2 sensors, both of them - but different faults, one being high and the other with no signal. To me this wasn't a big issue, I ran the car on open loop just to test and it ran better, I then checked the MAF sensor as I knew these could be an issue also, ran it open loop and the car ran fine, for a short period. Under heavy acceleration the car was making a very tiny exhaust noise, like nails were inside the silencers, I also had a SLOW DOWN message come up once while driving slowly drove. Back home I had a look at the state of the exhaust system, while replacing the o2 sensors I thought I would look inside the holes with a specialist scope, on one side the pre cat was visible, and on the other side... Nothing, the cat wasn't there, no doubt clogging up the secondary cat, choking the engine. Next stop was a Exhaust Specialist, Basingstoke. I explained that what I had thought happened and he confirmed it, I told him I wanted the secondary cats replaced with 200-cell sports cats and had the primary cats deleted. Once this work was done the car was brilliant again and with a slightly better sound.
A few weeks later, after reading about a few others who had the same issue, I went down the path of the improving the current exhaust note and ordered the famous SportsMaserati H-Pipe to go with my new sports cats. I was told that some of this broken cat material can sometimes end up back in the engine oil - so I did a oil change myself, just to be sure. The car run perfectly after all this and everything was as it should be when... Bang! The car popped out of gear and into Neutral while out visiting family, my EV5 pipe had burst and my Cambiocorsa fluid was all over the road, I managed to fit a replacement pipe (Hydraulic Pipe Specialist) and topped up the fluid (CS Speed), I'm currently dealing with this issue as I speak, looking at either a failed accumulator, clutch valve solenoid or air in the system. Fingers crossed the car will be back working in time for the Summer.
My main aim here isn't to convince anyone not to buy a Maserati Cambiocorsa, but to learn from my issues and/or mistakes, and also see how I did some of my own fault finding, without going to see the Dealer/Specialist. This Forum has helped massively with many aspects as some of the guys on here know their stuff, if you do buy or now own a 4200 then have a quick check for a few things now;
- F1 Pump Relay. There are numerous threads on here on how to do this and why.
- Cam Cover Gaskets. For failure towards the rear of the engine = oil leaks.
- Check the condition of your MAF and o2 Sensors. (You may require a special tool to remove).
- Purchase a decent & user friendly OBD scantool and software.
- If you don't know the full condition of the engine get it serviced ASAP to reassure yourself.
- Check your service history with the Dealers stated in your Service Manual (you never know).
Help
A list of websites of specialists I've used in the past 2 years to help me along the way.
www.sportsmaserati.co.uk (Shared Univese of Knowledge)
www.aldousvoice.com (Expert on all things Ferrari/Maserati)
www.craig-waterman.com (Expert on all things Ferrari/Maserati)
www.eurospares.co.uk (New & Used Parts Gurus)
www.maseratished.co.uk (Maserati Specialist)
www.emblemsportscars.com (Maserati Specialist)
www.brookspeed.com (Porsche & Performance Specialist)
www.opieoils.co.uk (Oils, Spark Plugs, o2 Sensors)
www.davidaskew.co.uk (Maserati Parts Specialist)
www.meridienmodena.co.uk (Hampshire Main Dealer)
www.easyobdii.com (OBD Scan Tool/Software)
First Month
My first month of Maserati ownership went without fault, the only thing I can think of looking back is that one of the side repeaters was slightly loose - on closer inspection one of the clips which holds it in place had vanished, so I found myself on a useful website called 'Eurospares' and ordered a used one off a 3200 GT, the part is identical to the 4200 (part number), it also came with a spare bulb which was a bonus. The ASR light was on but the ABS light was off, the car drove fine as far as I was concerned, I assumed it was just a speed sensor fault so could be easily corrected in the future (no track days).
First Year
Within the first year I started to notice some misfiring symptoms, very intermittent but no fault codes appeared. I put this down to me getting used to the 4.2 V8 and just assumed it was cold. The symptoms persisted and eventually the engine warning light did come on, after a few battery resets I thought it's best to get it checked out by someone who knew these types of cars, I found myself at the Maserati Shed (Maserati Specialist, Hampshire) were Mike then scanned the car and had a general look over on his drive, he noticed the SD scanner wasn't finding my particular car and explained that mine was a very early 4200, and that the standard 4200 scan wouldn't find what it was looking for. Finally it worked after he had loaded an early program - he found I was having a Misfire in cylinder 03 and that my Timing Sensor was playing up, another thing that was flagged up was the airbag warning light (the bulb had blown but wasn't showing a fault). He explained that this was a common fault and could be easily rectified, the Timing Sensor could mean one of two things - an expensive one, or simply it was caked in oil and could be cleaned/changed and all would be fine. The misfire could either be a spark plug, ignition coil or knackered cylinder (fingers crossed). I took his advice and done a little digging myself, I knew I could do some of these jobs myself so I did, I changed the bulb on the dash board - seeing some wonderful Italian soldering while I was at it and then booked it in for a Full/Major service at a local Porsche Specialist who also catered for Exotics, my confidence was reassured when I saw a F430 and Audi R8 on the ramps, so I knew I was in good hands, regardless of the lack of Maserati diagnostic equipment. The Oil/Oil filter was replaced, Air Filter, Pollen Filter and Spark Plugs changed - all for a very reasonable price and with Genuine Maserati parts (A Service Pack was purchased). The car came back to me with a small report of some of things they had found while working on my car, I had developed an oil leak towards the rear of the engine, dripping down and onto the exhaust manifold, I had gotten use to the smell of oil since I had the car - again thinking it was just the 13 year old V8's charm, they had also noticed a slight power steering leak, the ASR light was permanently on and they could see, via the OBD port that there was a misfire fault. I left the car with them to investigate further and they had found that the Cam Cover Gaskets had perished, from the front it looked good but the rear was a different story. The power steering leak was only minor, happening only at full lock under strain and with the engine on, my fluid levels were all fine so it wasn't a major concern, the pump needed replacing though. With regards to the misfire, after changing the spark plugs they could only assume a shot ignition coil, but I would get this checked out at at Emblem (Maserati Specialist, Poole) the following Saturday. When I went to collect the car the technician explained he had replaced the gaskets and cleaned all the parts within, as it was caked in oil, included some of the important sensors, magically the Timing Sensor fault had vanished (Mike was right), the car started and drove fine... Fully serviced and now with new cam cover gaskets (oil smell had gone). Saturday came and the car was at Emblem, he quite quickly pin pointed the which ignition coil was gone and found that it was switching on and off while he fiddled with the cable, he advised I needed a new one immediately and quite possibly a new spark mplug as it may have become damaged driving from Southampton to Poole. I did this and the car ran perfect, no error codes and no more occasional juddering misfire. The rest of the year was fine, I just needed to attend to the power steering leak, ASR light and the Airbag warning.
While browsing the many websites, finding as much as I could about Maserati's - my model in particular, I stumbled across a offer my local dealership were doing, a Winter Health Check, they would take the car off you for 1-2 days and carry out a complete once over of the entire car, scan it, check brake/tyre condition, suspension, exhaust, engine, interior, fluids, you name it they checked it, all for just under £100. My thinking was that a pre-purchase inspection were double that, so I booked it in and waited for the call, when I came to collect it, I was given a list of advisories, this included the leaking power steering pump, both rear tyres were low, ASR light but they couldn't communicate with the module using SD, clutch wear '12.7%' (this is only a guide) and a couple of missing screws and bolts here and there but nothing to worry about, they also said they had cleared the Airbag fault so that light was now out and the car was good to go, once they had finished up treating the leather interior. I was now assured the car was fine and not going to cause me too much grief down the line now the dealer has had a look, so I put the car to 'sleep' for a while as I went to work abroad for 3 months, continuing the rest in the new year.
Second Year
Once I returned to the UK my main aim was to solve the ASR trouble, if the SD couldn't find a fault, or a main dealer then I would have to some more digging, the Bosch Unit is a 5.3 ASR/ABS module, with the early models anyway, I got in contact with various people that can sort ABS issues and also Bosch themselves. All were dead ends so I went back to the drawing board and tried to figure out why the ASR light only was on and not the ABS light, as a few others around with Ferrari's/Maserati's have had 'similar' issues but with both lights illuminated. I even purchased a ABS scan tool that was meant to read all cars included the Italians, it recognised the module but wouldn't go any further, the speed sensor were all okay and I had no fault codes via OBD. Eventually I received an E-mail from Bosch ABS, they wanted to know the exact serial number (not part number) for the module, so I then started unbolted the block, carefully not wanting to damage/remove the brake lines, the numbers were all underneath, once I had sent a few emails back and fourth, we came to the conclusion that the ABS module that was in my car was actually the incorrect one, only 2 numbers were out on it, the module was actually from a Ferrari 360 MY02 (previous owner WT..?). I then bought the correct part from Eurospares and selling the Ferrari unit, maybe the guy I sold it to had a Maserati one fitted in his 360!? Once fitted, the ASR light went out the Speedo no longer flickered up and down the speed range and the car was back to normal. Points to note, if you have a wrong part fitted - no matter how many SD scans you try and how many experts give their opinion, you will never find the true solution unless you do these long winded investigations with trial and error. The car was then back on the road, checking my PAS fluid regularly (no drop in level), as long as I stayed away from full lock it would be okay for a few more weekends until I could purchase a new pump.
Just as I thought the car was absolutely perfect I was hit with another issue, the car was stalling in (1)/(R) when driving slow, and at motorway speeds it began to feel like a train on a track, similar to the misfire feeling but not quite the same. I got the car home and inspected, no issues, then while sitting in idle - OBD plugged in a new fault was detected, it was with the o2 sensors, both of them - but different faults, one being high and the other with no signal. To me this wasn't a big issue, I ran the car on open loop just to test and it ran better, I then checked the MAF sensor as I knew these could be an issue also, ran it open loop and the car ran fine, for a short period. Under heavy acceleration the car was making a very tiny exhaust noise, like nails were inside the silencers, I also had a SLOW DOWN message come up once while driving slowly drove. Back home I had a look at the state of the exhaust system, while replacing the o2 sensors I thought I would look inside the holes with a specialist scope, on one side the pre cat was visible, and on the other side... Nothing, the cat wasn't there, no doubt clogging up the secondary cat, choking the engine. Next stop was a Exhaust Specialist, Basingstoke. I explained that what I had thought happened and he confirmed it, I told him I wanted the secondary cats replaced with 200-cell sports cats and had the primary cats deleted. Once this work was done the car was brilliant again and with a slightly better sound.
A few weeks later, after reading about a few others who had the same issue, I went down the path of the improving the current exhaust note and ordered the famous SportsMaserati H-Pipe to go with my new sports cats. I was told that some of this broken cat material can sometimes end up back in the engine oil - so I did a oil change myself, just to be sure. The car run perfectly after all this and everything was as it should be when... Bang! The car popped out of gear and into Neutral while out visiting family, my EV5 pipe had burst and my Cambiocorsa fluid was all over the road, I managed to fit a replacement pipe (Hydraulic Pipe Specialist) and topped up the fluid (CS Speed), I'm currently dealing with this issue as I speak, looking at either a failed accumulator, clutch valve solenoid or air in the system. Fingers crossed the car will be back working in time for the Summer.
My main aim here isn't to convince anyone not to buy a Maserati Cambiocorsa, but to learn from my issues and/or mistakes, and also see how I did some of my own fault finding, without going to see the Dealer/Specialist. This Forum has helped massively with many aspects as some of the guys on here know their stuff, if you do buy or now own a 4200 then have a quick check for a few things now;
- F1 Pump Relay. There are numerous threads on here on how to do this and why.
- Cam Cover Gaskets. For failure towards the rear of the engine = oil leaks.
- Check the condition of your MAF and o2 Sensors. (You may require a special tool to remove).
- Purchase a decent & user friendly OBD scantool and software.
- If you don't know the full condition of the engine get it serviced ASAP to reassure yourself.
- Check your service history with the Dealers stated in your Service Manual (you never know).
Help
A list of websites of specialists I've used in the past 2 years to help me along the way.
www.sportsmaserati.co.uk (Shared Univese of Knowledge)
www.aldousvoice.com (Expert on all things Ferrari/Maserati)
www.craig-waterman.com (Expert on all things Ferrari/Maserati)
www.eurospares.co.uk (New & Used Parts Gurus)
www.maseratished.co.uk (Maserati Specialist)
www.emblemsportscars.com (Maserati Specialist)
www.brookspeed.com (Porsche & Performance Specialist)
www.opieoils.co.uk (Oils, Spark Plugs, o2 Sensors)
www.davidaskew.co.uk (Maserati Parts Specialist)
www.meridienmodena.co.uk (Hampshire Main Dealer)
www.easyobdii.com (OBD Scan Tool/Software)
Nice write up and helpful.
