End float

[Nick B]

I know it's on here somewhere but I couldn't find it, can anyone tell me what the safe endfloat range is on a 3200GT?

Thanks in advance

 

[conaero]

From memory it's about quarter to half a millimetre, once it gets a quarter of a mm over that issues ensue.

Pretty sure mine was 0.9 mm and I had to have it addressed before the crank starts eating into the journals.

 

[Rex B]

Hi

Between 0.15 and 0.20mm

Rex B

 

[Contigo]

Found a receipt from Meridien for my car which details that the they did some work to access the bottom end crank and renewed the washers at 47.5K miles. Can I assume that this warranty work will prevent it from happening again ie will the washer be a renewed/modified version to prevent end float?

 

[allandwf]

How long ago Phil? and what's mileage now? I have mine checked yearly when it's getting annual service. Impossible to say really endfloat seems like a bit of a lottery.

 

[Contigo]

This receipt is from 2007 at 47500 and mine is now on 56000. New clutch done then too.

 

[allandwf]

Mine munched it's first engine due to endfloat, that was at 36000. now on 80000 and all good

 

[alfatwo]

This receipt is from 2007 at 47500 and mine is now on 56000. New clutch done then too.

Did they take the engine out Phil?

Dave

 

[Contigo]

That is a good question Dave, I will look at the invoice again and take a shot of it. I may even ring up Modena and ask them what the work entails and if the crank washer was one of the redesigned ones which effectively eliminates it from happening in the future.

Allan, when yours was lunched did it kill the rods and pistons ie total failure or did they measure the crank slop and fix it all before it lunched it all? Did you own the car when the engine failed?

 

[allandwf]

That is a good question Dave, I will look at the invoice again and take a shot of it. I may even ring up Modena and ask them what the work entails and if the crank washer was one of the redesigned ones which effectively eliminates it from happening in the future.

Allan, when yours was lunched did it kill the rods and pistons ie total failure or did they measure the crank slop and fix it all before it lunched it all? Did you own the car when the engine failed?

It was owner prior to last, it was "uneconomical to repair" according to the paperwork I have, so I would take it from that that it needed a crank at least. I think it had been left too long. I think if it is going to happen then the wear shows up reasonably early.

 

[Contigo]

Yes my understanding is this first rears it's head as loss of oil pressure after washer causes starvation on one side of the crank. Usually when the oil pressure drops under 3 bar then it's very much on its way out. Mine runs fine it's just after reading the classic car buying guide it said there are no cranks left to buy for rebuild so the only way is to buy an auto engine and fit a modified crank washer. That reeks of ******** to me and another scare story as I wanted to gauge how many of the manual cars out there have like mine had a warranty contribution like mine did to rebuild the crank and fit a different modified washer.

 

[allandwf]

Can't say I was too impressed with some of that buying guide, sensationalism and scare mongering, and an advert for a certain garage. Was rather biased I thought.

 

[Contigo]

As always. And notice most do the owners were maserati club who also had an affiliation with that garage too.

 

[allandwf]

There are loads of good independants out there, and I have not heard of many endfloat issues in recent times, other than the odd unloved bargain priced example on the bay. It's a bit like when I ran my Cerbera, seemingly they were notorious for snapping cranks if you believed everything you read. This was also a problem early on, but it stuck around a bit like the end float issue.

 

[Contigo]

Everything mechanical has some form of weakness and as you say there are internet horror stories, some people get lucky, some are victims. I think it's best just to enjoy them and as you say check them once a year on the service to pre empt any future problems.

Thinking about cars like the RX8 with its rotary where the tips fail causing compression issues, it's only a matter of time with those and they are much newer cars and are meant to have the usual Japanese reliability. And also Porsches have their fair share of common problems well documented.

Am just going to enjoy it like we all do and not worry about the future as the price in ten years will he fully be many more multiples of what they are at this moment.

 

[Trev Latter]

Car forums are also their own worst enemy sometimes too. You'll always get to read about the bad stuff before the good. Bottom line is, if it's going to happen, it will, so worry about it when it does. There don't seem to be many documented cases in the year I've had mine, so I get the impression they're not all going to go pop too soon.

 

[conaero]

Car forums are also their own worst enemy sometimes too. You'll always get to read about the bad stuff before the good. Bottom line is, if it's going to happen, it will, so worry about it when it does. There don't seem to be many documented cases in the year I've had mine, so I get the impression they're not all going to go pop too soon.

So true Trev.

 

[dem maser]

true. I looked into getting an RX8 as a runaround till I get something "serious" but the reliability is an issue!! Japanese car with reliability worse than any other

 

[beau]

I had an rx8 recently, very good car, to be honest the engines are not that bad, people on the forum who do regular oil changes and run a bit of 2 stroke mixed in the fuel tank have run them at over 100k miles fine and still running, it's just as soon as you run oil low or miss a service it's game over ! Something which most normal engines can cope with

 

[dem maser]

so buying one is all about the history? a missed service means don't buy?