Noisy bearing on the Ferrari 308 - no more!

Posted this article a few months back when I was getting a strange bearing type sound on cold start-up on cold days and when I'd not run the car for a while.

I investigated assuming it might be either the alternator or water pump bearings and ran the engine with the water pump belt removed - no noise. Yippee.

So I sourced a new Gates (7M975) polyflex belt from a local supplier, Hayley Group in the UK for about £18.

Installed, job done, no noise. Not really sure why it was making a ticking noise when cold and not used but I'm guessing the belt loosened up a little after running for a few minutes taking the pressure off the water pump or alternator bearings.

Next, annual fluid service, every 2-year timing belts change and replace the shifter shaft seals in the sump to reduce the garage leaks!

New Sat Nav technology for old Ferraris

It's great to be alive! in a time when gadgets surpassed my wildest dreams as a kid in the 70's. Ok so we don't have hover cars or time travel, but we have so much more that wasn't expected. Satellite Navigation is one of them, but if you have an older car it won't have come with any modern technology that we see commonly these days.

So what are the options for a 1970's Ferrari and Sat Nav. Some might say the sound of the engine is all you need to keep you entertained in a Ferrari 308, but actually no, I want Sat Nav too. Just like I fitted LED bulbs to the indicator (turn signals) so that I'd never have to change them ever again, I want more technology in my old car. Of course it has to be fitted sympathetically but until recently Sat Nav options that looked right in old cars was not around. Now we have a few options, namely the Becker Mexico 7943, the Blaupunkt E2 and recently the Porsche Classic Sat Nav/Radio combo.




All three offer 1 DIN fitment Sat Nav with varying levels of classic-ness for you to decide. I can't comment on the functionality, but these things don't come cheap as a quick search on Amazon will reveal.

Driving out with the SuperCarDriver club

Ok so I went out in my Porsche 993 because I couldn't face a 7:30am start in a cold and dark Manchester in an old Ferrari.

I also wanted to make sure I had some brakes when I went for a drive out with the SuperCarDrivers gang. Much fire from the exhaust of the GTR was had :)

I'll save the Dino for a warmer day.

First supercarDriver magazine

Our expanding group of super car drivers released their first magazine. With 80+ pages or real cars and real owners this is a good start to the public facing side of the club. My Ferrari Dino 308 GT4 is featured pp40-47 in an article about 30 years of Ferraris - nice.

Take a look at www.supercardriver.com for more information on how to join in with our regular activities - all super cars welcome :)


Image ©2010 Supercar Driver Ltd

New MOT another 12 months on the road.

After the brake rebuild I checked the car over and took it for its annual inspection (MOT) which it duly passed to my delight - well I would hope so given the amount of work I do on the car. The only comment was that it took some time to pass emissions and the inspector had to run the car up warm. Of course the carbed 308 Ferraris aren't particularly happy at idle and can easily get fouled plugs. The car has not seen any long high speed runs in the last few months so it's no surprise that emissions was touch and go. The piston rings on older cars need some use to get them sealing properly and my car could also do with an oil change which often effects emissions. I'll get on with that when the weather warms up.

Ferrari 308 brake calliper rebuild part 2

Looking at the brake pistons it was clear that I would benefit from fitting new ones. Remember that they are the same as Porsche 911 ones (47.97mm x 30 mm) and I bought four new ones and the required seal kit from a company called BiggRed - total cost around £120.

You can see the rust removed to reveal shiny casting ready to be reassembled. De-grease the whole thing and plenty of compressed air to make sure there is absolutely no dirt in the callipers.

Fit the new hudraulic seals and pistons with a little brake fluid on the piston as you push it in. I also add some brake grease (red) around the piston as I finally push it down into the calliper housing.

The cut-away on the mating face of the piston has to point towards the forward rotation of the brake disc (brake rotor).



Then fit new dust seals and spring clips - these can be a PITA to fit.

All rebuilt now and ready to re-install on the car. These callipers could do with a gold repaint really, but they still look ok from through the wheels so I will wait until summer to do this.





After rebuilding both front callipers with new stainless steel pistons and new seals I decided to also fit new discs bought from the BremboShop and of course new pads (same as Alfa Spider).

So finally all new brakes and no more pulling to the right :)

Ferrari 308 seized front brake calliper

So I was out driving with the SuperCarDriver guys the other week in my Ferrari Dino 308 GT4 starting pulling to the right (drivers side UK) under braking. I've never really looked at the front brake callipers so I suspect it is time for a rebuild.

The original brake callipers on the 308 are made by ATE and are in fact the same as fitted to the late 1970's Porsche 911 which means that rebuild kits and in fact new callipers and pistons are easy to come by.


So I pulled the left hand calliper pads to take a look and sure enough one of the pistons was seized. So definitely time for a rebuild.

Whilst the hydraulics were still connected and with the pads removed I used the brake pedal to push the pistons out as far as they would go as getting seized ones out once the callipers is removed can be hard.




Next thing was to remove the calliper and remove the pistons. It's normal to use compressed air to pump the pistons out of a removed calliper - clamp the one you don't want to come out first.

This worked finally and the seized outer piston came out. A bit of air also removed the free inner piston to reveal the cause of the seizure - rust of course.



You can see that there is no rust inside the cylinder area but you can see the rust on the thin section after the groove where the hydraulic seal goes. I used a dremel type drill to remove this surface rust - being careful not to mark the inner cylinder area. I also cleaned out the seal groove which showed some signs of rust.


Clean up and rebuild in the next post :)