Geppetto
New Member
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- 1
Howdy, y’all, from a first-time Maserati owner from Texas! I’m Pinocchio over on MaseratiLife, but since that handle is taken here, and my Maser has been the naughty, wooden-headed one lately, I think I must be Gepetto.
I think my desire to have a Maserati started when I read “All But My Life” by Stirling Moss at age 12. Once licensed, my friends and I waxed rhapsodic over the Italian exotics featured in glossy magazines, but as such things were rare on the ground and expensive in Texas in the 1960’s, I settled for an MG A to rally and gymkana with the college sports car club. I was more of a blue-collar hipster in my younger days, so I was more interested in motorcycles, particularly Ducatis. Then adulthood arrived with profession, marriage, and family, and I went through a series of pickup trucks to haul the things that suburban dads in Texas haul around. Now that I’m retired and financially well-established, I have been through a few Ducatis in the past two decades (currently a DesertX) but my car buying has been confined to mid-sized and compact US and Japanese sport-oriented cars, and I found myself bored with them. I started to consider something more exotic, maybe Italian, and discovered the sweet spot for quality and price that the QP V M139 represents - the period when Maserati mostly got it right. I learned that the QP V Sport GTS was considered la crème de la crème of that particular production run, found what I thought was a very well-kept example of this rare bird online, and put the deal together with the seller.
My ownership experience of the last 45 days: dead battery on arrival, leaking Bilstein shocks and valve covers. It has moderate underbody rust for a car that spent 2-3 years of its ownership history in the US Snowbelt, especially affecting the rear toe-in links, which should be salvageable with some penetrating oil. After the new AGM battery discharged completely, I found the negative pole quick-connector was fitting loosely on the new battery’s terminal. A week later the TGK heater water valves stuck open, partially on the passenger side, and fully on the driver’s side, and didn’t respond to the reset technique suggested on the forums; fortunately I was able to source a pair from a low-mileage QP V at nearby salvage yard that has an eBay store.
Only after replacing the valve cover gaskets did I become aware of the intake cam timing issue with the variators of the 2009, which could have been done at the same time, along with replacing the timing chain guide. I have only heard variator clatter on one cold morning (30° F/ -1° C; we don’t get many of those here), and never on deceleration; so, thus far I have dodged that bullet, but there is a squeaking sound I need to isolate coming from the front of the engine at idle that may be the timing chain guide. I may try an oil accumulator to buy 20K miles or so of driving time while I put aside funds for the inevitable variator replacement, provided I can locate someone local besides the dealership who can do the job and set the timing for what I expect to be $7-8K USD.
Now while waiting for a new set of coilovers to arrive, I’m happily dividing my time between an occasional blast down local county backroads in Sport mode listening to the exhaust, cleaning the sticky buttons off with 91% isopropyl alcohol, and scouring the Internet forums like this one for tips and tricks. I’m very glad to be here and would like to shout out to conearo for the manual member confirmation that he performed!
I think my desire to have a Maserati started when I read “All But My Life” by Stirling Moss at age 12. Once licensed, my friends and I waxed rhapsodic over the Italian exotics featured in glossy magazines, but as such things were rare on the ground and expensive in Texas in the 1960’s, I settled for an MG A to rally and gymkana with the college sports car club. I was more of a blue-collar hipster in my younger days, so I was more interested in motorcycles, particularly Ducatis. Then adulthood arrived with profession, marriage, and family, and I went through a series of pickup trucks to haul the things that suburban dads in Texas haul around. Now that I’m retired and financially well-established, I have been through a few Ducatis in the past two decades (currently a DesertX) but my car buying has been confined to mid-sized and compact US and Japanese sport-oriented cars, and I found myself bored with them. I started to consider something more exotic, maybe Italian, and discovered the sweet spot for quality and price that the QP V M139 represents - the period when Maserati mostly got it right. I learned that the QP V Sport GTS was considered la crème de la crème of that particular production run, found what I thought was a very well-kept example of this rare bird online, and put the deal together with the seller.
My ownership experience of the last 45 days: dead battery on arrival, leaking Bilstein shocks and valve covers. It has moderate underbody rust for a car that spent 2-3 years of its ownership history in the US Snowbelt, especially affecting the rear toe-in links, which should be salvageable with some penetrating oil. After the new AGM battery discharged completely, I found the negative pole quick-connector was fitting loosely on the new battery’s terminal. A week later the TGK heater water valves stuck open, partially on the passenger side, and fully on the driver’s side, and didn’t respond to the reset technique suggested on the forums; fortunately I was able to source a pair from a low-mileage QP V at nearby salvage yard that has an eBay store.
Only after replacing the valve cover gaskets did I become aware of the intake cam timing issue with the variators of the 2009, which could have been done at the same time, along with replacing the timing chain guide. I have only heard variator clatter on one cold morning (30° F/ -1° C; we don’t get many of those here), and never on deceleration; so, thus far I have dodged that bullet, but there is a squeaking sound I need to isolate coming from the front of the engine at idle that may be the timing chain guide. I may try an oil accumulator to buy 20K miles or so of driving time while I put aside funds for the inevitable variator replacement, provided I can locate someone local besides the dealership who can do the job and set the timing for what I expect to be $7-8K USD.
Now while waiting for a new set of coilovers to arrive, I’m happily dividing my time between an occasional blast down local county backroads in Sport mode listening to the exhaust, cleaning the sticky buttons off with 91% isopropyl alcohol, and scouring the Internet forums like this one for tips and tricks. I’m very glad to be here and would like to shout out to conearo for the manual member confirmation that he performed!
