3200GT steering recall/Thailand

Tompelli

Junior Member
Messages
99
Hi Gents/ladies,
Anyone have a contact in Maserati Italy that can get some sense out of their Thai dealers? Last week I had just arrived at a friends house (luckily) & he told me to drive into the carport so that the car wouldn't sit on the road. Hard left, completely lost steering but managed to drive off the road. Got a local mechanic to take a look & as per photo the steering box had broken off the chassis at the bracket. Got it welded back into place & managed to get back home. Dug out the recall for the steering clamp fault & it's just spot on what happened to me.
The dealers are changing over from a company called FERMA to a new one called Millenium. My wife contacted a former employee who said that FERMA had not carried out any recall work on the 9 3200Gts that were exported to Thailand?
Recall: No. 1 of 4
Recall Ref: R/2005/076
Exact Model: GT
Description: Steering rack sub-frame may crack
VIN: ZAMAA380000000127 to ZAMAA38D000004901
Build Date:
Numbers: 874
Defect: The steering rack sub-frame may develop a crack in the area of the two fixing points nearest the steering column. This could result in the steering rack becoming loose and a reduction of vehicle control. Potential early symptoms noticed by the driver could be vibrations, noises and unusual feeling through the steering wheel.
Action: Recall the vehicles that are likely to be affected and weld brackets of improved design to the sub-frame.
Launch Date: 13 June 2005
20170424_192557[1].jpg
 

davy83

Member
Messages
2,809
its good that no-one was hurt and the car is fixable. its a good warning for anyone who has not had this recall checked.
 

Tompelli

Junior Member
Messages
99
Sure is Davy, I had the alignment checked/adjusted & pretty much trust the guys welding (up to maybe 120Kmh). On the recall notice they do mention a clamp of improved design (probably more meat). When I looked at the chassis I couldn't see any sign that anything had been welded previously, hence the question to the useless dealers who sent my wife a Ghibli brochure instead of answering the question.
 

allandwf

Member
Messages
10,958
Check with any main dealer, and they will tell you what recalls have been done. Just give them the chassis number. I got an email back from mine with a print out of everything done, all up to date :)
 

Tompelli

Junior Member
Messages
99
Check with any main dealer, and they will tell you what recalls have been done. Just give them the chassis number. I got an email back from mine with a print out of everything done, all up to date :)

Sorry Allan, the companies that I mentioned are the (only) dealers. FERMA were the Maserati dealer in Thailand & did nothing about the recall. The dealership has been taken over by Millenium, who are trying to say that the "campaign" is not in force any more.
 

Tompelli

Junior Member
Messages
99
Update: Yesterday received an e-mail that the last of the required parts are now sitting in Bangkok & I can book a time to get the service work carried out FOC. After a year, I should think so.
 

FIFTY

Member
Messages
3,100
Wow what a lead time

On a side note I would love to live in Thailand and have my Maser, the roads are pretty good and there are some nice mountain passes up towards Chiang Mai... petrol cheaper than Europe and nice weather nearly every day (other than rainy season)
 

Tompelli

Junior Member
Messages
99
The car is now (over a year later) at the dealers having the recall work done. They had to trawl for parts from the middle east?
While the car was laid up it developed a CEL limiting throttle to 1000rpm. So I asked the dealers to check it out & got this reply today: Lastly , your throttle and potentiometer was modified .our diagnosis machine cannot access into it.
The car has a Boomerang modified throttle body & a Davey pedal pot. The car has been at the previous dealers & they have never said there was a problem reading them. How do I approach this guy without muddying the waters too much? Surely their software will throw up error codes?
I know from past experiences that they are unable to work on the TB internals, but I don't want to send it off to Europe (again) when I don't know what or where the fault is? Thank you all knowing ones in advance.
 

davy83

Member
Messages
2,809
Hi Tompelli. Having one of my pedal sensors fitted has no effect on what the diagnostic reader can get from the CAN bus system. The new pedal sensor is in every way (as far as the car system is concerned) the same as the original. The difference is in effect internal to the sensor design, and makes no difference externally. So the diagnostic system will get the same response from the modified sensor as the original one (error codes, voltages etc). It is also worth noting that I believe Maserati do not supply the OEM sensor anymore so this is a situation which is more or less unavoidable? I cannot comment on the throttle body as I don't know what was modified, but I would assume that it is the modified TB that they are concerned about.
 

Tompelli

Junior Member
Messages
99
Hi Tompelli. Having one of my pedal sensors fitted has no effect on what the diagnostic reader can get from the CAN bus system. The new pedal sensor is in every way (as far as the car system is concerned) the same as the original. The difference is in effect internal to the sensor design, and makes no difference externally. So the diagnostic system will get the same response from the modified sensor as the original one (error codes, voltages etc). It is also worth noting that I believe Maserati do not supply the OEM sensor anymore so this is a situation which is more or less unavoidable? I cannot comment on the throttle body as I don't know what was modified, but I would assume that it is the modified TB that they are concerned about.
Thanks Davy,
I had that distinct impression, as it had been in the previous dealers without any problems. thanks a lot for clearing up "your end".