spyder TCU updates.

[Gullible]

Maserati have now had a chance to have a look at the SD2 report on my car with reference to the issue with the gear selection.
i have had a responce:
"Having reviewed the “Parameter†reports from both Carrs and Meridien with my technical colleagues it is apparent that this vehicle is running Trofeo race car gearbox and ecu software. It would not be possible for a Maserati dealer to program the ecu as the software is not available from Maserati to do so.

Clearly the problems that you been experiencing will be due to this Trofeo gearbox and ecu and its integration in to a road car strategy. From Maserati's perspective until the vehicle is returned to correct road homologated specification we are unable to comment on performance and driveability characteristics.Finally, we are obviously sorry to bring this news to you and do hope you are able to find a solution to resolve this problem.

With kind regards

Yours sincerely

Paul"

 

[Stoner]

Interesting thread as I own a 06 GranSport Spyder with the sequential paddle shift.
What year is your Spyder?
Is this a common problem?

 

[Pibbow]

Adam I know of only one such car that was broken for spares in the uk. It may be the case that some bright spark for what ever reason purchased the ecu from this car and installed it in your spyder. A long shot but that is a very rare bit of kit and certainly not available through a main dealer.

Peter

 

[BennyD]

Perhaps they thought they could get DBW on the cheap. It's a pity that Maserati won't update/re-install the trofeo software to sort the problem. I wonder if any of the old race teams have the software 'lying about'.

 

[Gullible]

Adam I know of only one such car that was broken for spares in the uk. It may be the case that some bright spark for what ever reason purchased the ecu from this car and installed it in your spyder. A long shot but that is a very rare bit of kit and certainly not available through a main dealer.

Peter

Yes thats quite possibly the case here.
Who broke a trofeo in the UK?
surely the Tcu and ECU needed to stay with the engine and gearbox?
Looks like i am in the market for a new ECU though.Not sure i can run to this and certainly that i dont want to buy new.
The other solution is a new clutch.

 

[Gullible]

probably little or no interest here but maserati have come back ans stated that they dont think carrs was in the wrong for charging for the PIS reset and when failing to achieve correct PIS,to just not bother to tell me this.
They are continually stating ".we would like to make our position clear in that until the vehicle is running the correct gearbox Ecu software Maserati GB has no further comment to make on this matter."
I still think that Carrs had a duty to inform me that the PIS was impossible to reset and that this constituted a fault that needed attention and Not to just take the cash and keep quiet about it!
still just another problem in a long list of problems large and small.
So who is likely to be the cheapest to find a 2003/4 Cambiocorsa TCU and why cant the existing TCU be reprogrammed?

 

[conaero]

My 3200 was sourced through Carrs and had to have an engine rebuild at 36k miles due to poor oil servicing so Carrs is one dealer I would never use or buy a used Maserati through again.

 

[Parisien]

...not wanting to open up old wounds Matt....but what was the issue with poor oil servicing.....

P

 

[conaero]

Well in short, I bought the car through a car dealer in Newcastle and they knew one of the sales guys at Carrs who was suppling them cars that they did not want to sell, basically needed too much work to get them to a standard to sell through a main dealer so were passing them on. The car was serviced at Carrs before it was passed to the Newcastle dealer for sale to me. About a year later I had to have the engine rebuilt due to knackered bearings and endfloat shells. This only showed up when the oil was changed after a year of ownership and Mike who works on my cars commented on just how poor the oil was and said it has been in there for years, so basically my book had been stamped by Carrs as being serviced but I'll leave it to you to decide what really happened.

 

[Parisien]

But short of some sort of analysis....or even by analysis(?)......how can you truly tell....is how an oil looks enough?


P

 

[BennyD]

An experienced mechanic can get an idea from the thickness and smell if an oil is old. The carbon deposits are an indication that the oil is working well by getting all the cr4p out of the engine, and the thicker/smellier it is tells you;
a)you have a top end cylinder trouble as there is a lot of combustion by-product or
b) the oil has been doing it's job for too long.
It would appear in this case that the top end was ok but the bottom end wasn't which could indicate that he oil was in for too long and was unable to do it's intended job as it couldn't take any more gunk out.

 

[Parisien]

....again....realise that for standard oils........but understood fully synthetic oils don't breakdown or discolour as much etc......harder to tell or?


P

 

[conaero]

You would have to speak to Mike to get the full story, but I will try and relay what he told me:

The 3200 shreds the oil due to the turbo chargers. The Selina oil has a scrubbing capacity, where it will scrub all the moving parts clean and suspend the muck in the oil and the larger bits in the filter. When the oil gets to a point when it can no longer suspend the contaminates in the oil, the oil becomes useless and engine wear will commence....its something like that anyway.

Also, the air filters in the 3200 rust on the bottoms, mine were rusted on both ends which indicates they have not been changed, simply rotated, the clues were all there.

The last 2 services were carried out my Carrs, so make your mind up as to what was actually done.

Mike sees a lot of cars and it would be very obvious to him what normal and extreme wear oil would look like, as he baths in the stuff.

 

[Parisien]

Cheers for that Matt......crystal like now.......pity you were conned if I can use that word to discribe this happening....or just plain fraud.


P

 

[conaero]

Well, I think I got it right, but basically if you done maintain a super car, you will get bitten!