Quattroporte buyer looking for some advice

[Lorenzo]

Hi everyone,

I'm about to realize my almost 10 year long dream of owning a Quattroporte V, just need some expert advice on a few things.

In the past weeks I've had a close up look at a 2009 Quattroporte S (facelift) and a 2007 Quattroporte Sport GT Automatica with Full Maserati Service History. Most likely my realistic budget lies somewhere on a 2007-08 Automatica (due to the price of insurance, which shocked me).

What cought my eye was that both cars had signs of oil leakage, and I would just like to confirm whether this is one of those "don't worry, they all do" - thing or whether it's a bad sign. The Sport GT also had some engine maintenance done for a large chunk of cash to fix the "rattle issue" - can somebody enlighten me on this one? (the car had around 90k kilometers on it).

Other weak points I've heard is the steering rack and the power steering pump and the windowlifters. Are there any other factors it's vital to check? What are factors that would make you walk away from a deal?

Thanks!

 

[highlander]

Welcome along lorenzo! Estonia one of my fav destinations.
I cannot give you any advice on buying a QP but there will be plenty along to help you out in that regard. Have you sorted out a knowledgable garage to do servicing etc? If so, might be worth seeing if they will do an inspection for you. These cars can be reasonably cheap to buy but if you buy wrong, potentially bank breaking to upkeep on repairs.

 

[conaero]

The rattle issue is most probably referring to the variator. This involves removing the timing chain cover and the left cam cover and the oil is overspill from that.

The oil leak they all do is from the cam cover gaskets down the back of the engine.

Listen for rattling on startup that goes and noise from the aux belt area. AC Pumps are failing quite regularly now. The oil pressure is another you want to closely look at too. Cold the gauge should be hard over on 5 bar, hot idle in the middle at 2.5 bar going back to 5 bar when you Rev it. When it's stinking hot, it will drop below 2.5 bar at idle to nearer 2 bar.

Really, you should have any car inspected by an independant specialist it really is money well spent.

Good luck and welcome.

Never been to Estonia but am always looking for new places to go so I'll look it up.

 

[Ewan]

Hi Lorenzo,

The QP V is a great car, and reliable. I'm on my third, having used them as my daily cars for the last 8 years, and not had any oil leaks, or problems with the window lifters or steering. The maintenance is normally just the standard wear items such as tyres and brakes (and eventually, clutch). But as is obvious, choose one with proper provenance and history, and have an independent check if buying outside of the comfort of the main dealer network.

I'm collecting mine from a big annual service later this morning. The service part cost about £800 and there was another £500 of other bits and bobs (inc vat). That was my total cost for the year, having covered about 6k miles.

 

[Lorenzo]

Welcome along lorenzo! Estonia one of my fav destinations.

I cannot give you any advice on buying a QP but there will be plenty along to help you out in that regard. Have you sorted out a knowledgable garage to do servicing etc? If so, might be worth seeing if they will do an inspection for you. These cars can be reasonably cheap to buy but if you buy wrong, potentially bank breaking to upkeep on repairs.

Thanks for the welcome Greg,

Finding the right place to service the car is something I'm still working on. Unlike for example Porsche or Lamborghini, Maseratis have never been sold new in Estonia. However, at the beginning of this year the local Mercedes dealer made a deal to become an official Maserati dealer (Mazda 6 -looking Diesel Quattroportes for the people, hurray ). This means of course that Maseratis are still quite a rarity here. There used to be a Maserati dealership in Latvia, but I think it died down with the financial crisis in 2008 - and then of course in Finland. Up until now I know that the local Alfa Romeo dealership has been servicing Maseratis (their labor prices are very decent actually), but I'm afraid I won't find any indy specialists like you have there over in the UK.

Due to my earlier points, there are a whopping two (2) Quattroporte V's for the sale in the whole country at the moment, so I'm mostly looking at the German market.

 

[Andyk]

A big warm welcome to the forum Lorenzo.. You will get good advice on here which should help you find you perfect QP. The QP is just a brilliant car that I'm sure you will not be disappointed with.

 

[daverichardson]

QP - excellent
As already mentioned variators could be a BIG costly item to fix about £4500, may or may not be under warranty
So get that checked and go for it

 

[StuartW]

Welcome along and I'm sure you'll be happy with what you buy, good luck with the search

 

[Keano]

The variator problem potentially affects cars with an engine number below 148697 so worth checking this - engine number is shown on the original documentation. I had mine done under warranty and only issue i have had since is i hear a tapping noise when in the cabin at idle and low speed.

 

[Contigo]

Can the variator issue affect the 04-06 cars?

 

[Ewan]

Hasn't affected my 05 and 06 QP's. So far!

 

[StuartW]

The variators have been done on mine prior to my ownership and Maserati now supply a modified part as a replacement so if they need to be done, it should hopefully be a once only job

 

[daverichardson]

as above at around 45000miles

 

[StuartW]

45K miles for me too Dave

 

[Keano]

From a PDF Training Manual i have the M139 went from Dry Sump to Wet Sump and this is when the problem may have started.... I would say M139 wet Sump from 2007 onwards with engine number prior to 148697 are the ones affected and likely to need the modification to the Cam Bearing. Specialist did mine by sending the part out to be machined.

201140075-Technical Training Light-Manual-en-Final.pdf

Model code: M139
Years of production: 2003-2008
Engine: 90° V8 dry sump, 4.2L, 400 hp

Model code: M139
Years of production: 2007-2008
Engine: 90° V8 wet sump, 4.2L, 400 hp

Model code: M139 - Facelift
Start of production: 2008
Engine: 90° V8 wet sump, 4.2L & 4.7L, 400hp & 430hp

 

[ChrisQP09]

My QP was beginning to show signs of the variator rattle albeit rarely. Mine was 2009 and 47,500 odd, had it diagnosed and main stealer said all was fine.

 

[Nemcova]

Hi Lorenzo, welcome to the forum and the very best place to get some great advice from guys with much more experience of Maserati than me, but with 2 years experience of my own 2007 QP V 4.2 Sport GT I hope that I can help with your questions.
You seem to have it well sorted already in the items to look for, I've had issues with the interior door handles which can break, steering rack as you've mentioned, in fact suspension on a heavy car like this will generally need your focus, watch out for upper suspension bushes which will probably be perished on a car of the age that you're looking at (can be a time consuming fix even though parts are not too expensive), handbrake rear pads also need to be looked at.

I've recently had my Variators (rattle) done, but at 80K not surprising (this is my daily driver). Head gaskets are known to be a bit leaky so don't be surprised. Mine was a one-owner full main dealer serviced vehicle and I still had issues.

Now that I've scared you to death, don't hesitate to buy this QP as soon as you find the right one. I love this car - better than any Mercedes or even brand new Porsche that I've ever had and I'd buy it again tomorrow.

Get yourself in a proper Maserati like this and you'll never regret it, even when the service bills arrive. The sound, the speed, the looks you'll get every day is worth every penny. Good luck finding your dream car, I'll look out for your update when you find 'the one'.

 

[Lorenzo]

From a PDF Training Manual i have the M139 went from Dry Sump to Wet Sump and this is when the problem may have started.... I would say M139 wet Sump from 2007 onwards with engine number prior to 148697 are the ones affected and likely to need the modification to the Cam Bearing. Specialist did mine by sending the part out to be machined.

201140075-Technical Training Light-Manual-en-Final.pdf

Model code: M139
Years of production: 2003-2008
Engine: 90° V8 dry sump, 4.2L, 400 hp

Model code: M139
Years of production: 2007-2008
Engine: 90° V8 wet sump, 4.2L, 400 hp

Model code: M139 - Facelift
Start of production: 2008
Engine: 90° V8 wet sump, 4.2L & 4.7L, 400hp & 430hp

Thank you for your kind words and informative replies.

Regarding the wet sump engines, this engine number 148697 is probably somewhere up in 2009 then if I understood correctly? This actually brings me to another question - I see that from 2007 onwards cars come both wet and dry sump engines, but which models have what engine? The 2007 Sport GT I had checked had a blue engine (wetsump?) and the 2009 Facelift S model 4.7 had a red engine (drysump?). Are there any general reliability differences between these engines, apart from wet sumps apparently suffering from the variator issue? I won't be doing any track-days with the car so the performance differences make no difference.

I don't understand german much, but the Sport GT I had a look at most likely had this variator issue corrected:

 

[Lorenzo]

Hi Lorenzo, welcome to the forum and the very best place to get some great advice from guys with much more experience of Maserati than me, but with 2 years experience of my own 2007 QP V 4.2 Sport GT I hope that I can help with your questions.
You seem to have it well sorted already in the items to look for, I've had issues with the interior door handles which can break, steering rack as you've mentioned, in fact suspension on a heavy car like this will generally need your focus, watch out for upper suspension bushes which will probably be perished on a car of the age that you're looking at (can be a time consuming fix even though parts are not too expensive), handbrake rear pads also need to be looked at.

I've recently had my Variators (rattle) done, but at 80K not surprising (this is my daily driver). Head gaskets are known to be a bit leaky so don't be surprised. Mine was a one-owner full main dealer serviced vehicle and I still had issues.

Now that I've scared you to death, don't hesitate to buy this QP as soon as you find the right one. I love this car - better than any Mercedes or even brand new Porsche that I've ever had and I'd buy it again tomorrow.

Get yourself in a proper Maserati like this and you'll never regret it, even when the service bills arrive. The sound, the speed, the looks you'll get every day is worth every penny. Good luck finding your dream car, I'll look out for your update when you find 'the one'.

Thank you Nemcova, these are exactly the kind of real life experiences I like to hear about!

 

[Keano]

Lorenzo - this doc should answer all your questions on which engines in which car. see pages 50-52
https://www.dropbox.com/s/37f9nnc1g...nical Training Light-Manual-en-Final.pdf?dl=0