What's it cost?

Yale · Post by **Yale** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:13 pm

A while ago, in pain, I detailed what I had spent repairing my 330 since my ownership. Since I just did my taxes I thought I should provide, just for your prurient interest, the amount I spend each year on this car as I total it up. Some of this years costs were noted in my earlier missive so you have heard about some of these expenses before.

Three visits to the mechanic this year.
Grand Total: $6678.

This was detailed before but from memory includes new brake pads, calipers redone, radiator redone (for the third time), some but not all rear suspension bushes, diff removed and checked, again, (though it still makes the same noise) oil change and lube, etc. And also I put in a new battery. (For other 330 owners this was a Sears International Group 47, their number 33347, $99. Fits perfectly, looks very low key and all black).

I also visited Jim Wickstead, owner of the SWB named "Shorty," and he did a carb adjustment and mini tune up that made the car so fast I thought something must be wrong as no 330 I've driven ever felt like this. I brought it back and he did pull back on the advance but the car still is -peppy- and this before installing an electronic ignition and doing a valve adjustment. So for all those single headlight folks who tried the four headlight model at Tom's party and thought it was similar, heh, heh, heh.

Next year will be fun too because the car has resided at the mechanics since October but I've not yet been billed for: brake boosters, valves adjusted, new plugs, heater cable fixed, and a Pertronix system installed. Also for next years -money honey report-, I got four new tires installed and an alignment. Since I had gone through two sets of XWX's in three years, I went with Pirelli's. This was done in December but didn't shown up till January on my credit card.

Stay tuned. Yale

Art S. · Post by **Art S.** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 4:57 pm

Yale,

Is Francois doing all of the work? Did his guy do your radiator?

Regards,

Art S.

Rudy van Daalen Wetters · Sat Mar 04, 2006 6:18 pm

Yale,

Misery loves company. In the last year, I did a complete engine rebuild, clutch and suspension work on my GTE. I don't want to know how much I have spent. Should my wife find out, I'd be left with two Borranis if I'm lucky.

Rudy van Daalen Wetters
1963 GTE s/n 4001
1966 330 GT s/n 8705

Michael Bayer · Post by **Michael Bayer** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 11:52 am

Yale: However, that is about one year's depreciation and maintaince on a modern sports car not even a Ferrari.

Yale · Post by **Yale** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 12:36 pm

Yeah, I don't think the 6G's is out of line really, I just thought it would be interesting for people if I detailed money spent. We can't really talk with our wives about this but we can talk to each other about it.

I am surprised at the re-occuring things like the radiator, rebuilt by the P.O., someone Francoise Sicard used and someone another mechanic used. Will it stay leak free?

The differential, rebuilt by the P.O. (so he says), Francoise Sicard, (I saw the replaced gouged out teeth) and then opened up again (seemed fine) because it is still making the same chattering noise on left hand turns.

So the stuff that doesn't stay fixed is the surprise for me.

Best,

Yale

Michael Bayer · Post by **Michael Bayer** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 7:15 am

Yale: Your first line in the 330 Buyers Guide is priceless! Try as I might I could not come up with anything 1/2 as good anywhere in the one I wrote for the GTC/4! Bravo, Michael Bayer

seamusdavis · Post by **seamusdavis** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 12:57 pm

Must be cheap in the US. Brakes alone cost £5k in the UK !

Does anyone know are the diffs the same across the V12 models, eg 250 330 365 ?

Shaun

Yale · Post by **Yale** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 3:42 pm

I have heard the limited slip in the 330 is the same as in the GTO. As for brake rebuild, I used Karp's Brake Service http://www.resleeve.com/ which I had heard good things about and if brakes cost $9000 to do in the UK it might be worth an international Fed ex to the guy.

The calipers were around $400 each, the boosters around $300 each plus another $150 for plating of the boosters.

Best,
Yale

seamusdavis · Post by **seamusdavis** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 11:15 am

Thanks Yale

Luckily I did not pay for the brakes, it included new calipers, servo, master etc and labour.

shaun

Dr. Ian Levy · Post by **Dr. Ian Levy** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 8:02 pm

Seamus
What did you get for your £5k & where did you spend it? or was it a guesstimate
Regsrds
Ian L
Manchester
UK

Yale · Post by **Yale** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 10:46 pm

Every year when I do my taxes I add up what I spent on the Ferrari. Partly this is to shine a light on the theory that Ferrari's are no big deal on the maintance/ownership experience. And partly it's a diary of events for me and for the car. So without further ado, here we go:

As you may recall in 2005 I was having some brake issues which necessitated rebuilding the brake boosters (the calipers having been done earlier). Though this work started in 2005 I picked up the car and paid the $5868.16 bill in March of 2006.
Here is the work performed:
Boosters rebuilt and plated $920 for both boosters, $850 labor.
The rest of the bill was for valve adjustments, carb adjustment, new spark plugs, and installing the Pertonix kit.

In May I brought the car back due to a failure of the mechanical fuel pump and an aux electric fuel pump was added to deal with the problem. This cost $1213.

After picking the car up from that repair and driving it towards the nefarious Holland tunnel, smoke started pouring out from under the hood. I brought the car back to Brain the same day to fix what was some sort of fault in the electric fan wiring. $428.30.

In July I don't remember what happened but it had something to do with the radiator and cost $381. (Maybe this was the third or fourth radiator rebuild.)

Then in October I had a balky transmission where it wouldn't at times go into third gear. I took it to Brain to change the trans. fluids and he replaced the oil as well. $262.90.

Then to top off the year those bearings went on the way back from the Tom Yang gathering at Mike's place. The bearings, some new oil lines and a few other minor bits totaled $2394.

So there you have it, $12,000 or so later, the joys of Ferrari ownership. Oh, I bought a 1972 911 as I am startiing to wonder if it's really affordable to drive the Ferrari.

Best,

Yale

Art S. · Post by **Art S.** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 1:00 pm

Yale,

I don't have a good answer, but there's something wrong with this picture! Once something is rebuilt properly, it should be done for a good - long time.

On my car, each failure seems to be from something I haven't yet done but once it's fixed, it stays fixed.

The really weird thing is your repeat problems seem to be independent of which mechanic you use.

Out of curiosity, how many miles did you put on the Ferrari since you picked it up at the beginning of '06?

Regards,

Art S.

Steve Meltzer · Post by **Steve Meltzer** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:01 pm

I just pulled the radiator out of my 330 GTC. It will be the third time in 2 years that the top tank has required a repair to it's incessant, tho' miniscule, leak. Twice now, Terry Myr in Michigan has recored this thing and I wonder what I should do now. I spoke with a custom radiator shop who said they could reproduce it for $1100. It's about 3-4 hours just pull it out, so I'm not anxious to continue this futile exercise. thanx steve meltzer

Art S. · Post by **Art S.** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 3:13 pm

Steve,

Contact Francois through Tom Y. He has an old school guy that did my radiator. My radiator sounds just like yours, small leaks in the head tank and other issues. I have not had any problems since it was done - reiable system, no overheating in traffic! (oh, I do not have any extra cooling fans, the refreshed system is good enough!).

One caviat to my recommendation - my car has been having it's next round of work done at Francois', so I have not driven it for a looong time.

Regards,

Art S.

Yale · Post by **Yale** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 4:18 pm

Hi Art,

I have driven the car somewhere between 1500 and 3000 miles last year. Probably closer to the lower number. Maybe it's living/driving in NYC or maybe the cars reputed stay in a French auto museum could be causing it's testiness. I don't believe it's Francois or Bryan Vignale or even Domenics care that is at issue. And you know, speaking of radiators, before you have someone send theirs all the way across the country, Francois had his guy do my radiator rebuild number 2. Maybe after 40 years most cars would just have new (a few?) radiators installed and the strains of driving these days and at that age make successfully fixing them more of an iffy proposition.

By the way that total of the expenses above also included a new set of tires, Pirelli's that were $750 including mounting and balancing. And the two Pertronix systems.

Best,

Yale