F355: HVAC panel refurbishment

Bubbling HVAC

The F355 and I believe other Ferrari's can suffer from the black plastic parts of the interior deteriorating into a sticky mess. Mine actually seems pretty good apart from the AC control panel (HVAC panel) which had bubbled up and really let the interior down. Unfortunately a new panel is not available separately from Ferrari and a new unit will cost around £1000. A company many people swear by called "Stickynomore" quoted me $350 to refurb the panel but couldn't tell me how much it was to ship back from the USA and I would also have to pay to ship the thing over there. Hill Engineering supply a replacement overlay panel for £40, not a great bargain for what's basically a big, albeit, decent quality sticker but still a huge saving over a replacement part from Ferrari. In the end I ordered the overlay.

Removing the HVAC panel was very simple, one single screw inside the ashtray which pops out and then the HVAC panel simply unplugs. My ashtray was a bit chipped and cracked, a new part is £165 so I thought I'd try and give this a tidy up too.

I had to dismantle the HVAC panel to be able to really clean off the old covering, I used "Cillit Bang" which after a lot of scrubbing left me with a clean bare panel and my new overlay was installed.

The Finished Centre Console

I dismantled the ashtray and glued up where the plastic had cracked (out of sight but was causing it to sag) I also removed the little flag badge and gave it a quick clean with brasso. I then gave the ashtray a good clean and spray painted it with plastikote black paint.

The outcome is a much tidier centre console!

Elise: Out of hibernation

After the exceptionally poor weather we've been having, I wasn't sure if the Elise would make it out before spring. Luckily it's got a bit better recently, so I went about getting it out for a run.

The first issue was the battery. It was completely flat (to the point where the immobizer light wasn't flashing), but after a jump start it seemed to be running fine. However after driving it a second issue started to occur, this time concerning the idle. It would occasionally dip too low and the car would cut out.

After a quick browse about the forums, it suggested that the battery was probably goosed and causing the erratic idle. Sure enough, after a £50 trip to Costco, resetting the ECU and a little bit of driving the problem was gone.

F355: Exhausting choices

Lee and I had both agreed on the way up that the standard F355 exhaust, while nice and quiet while cruising didn't really make that famous Ferrari V8 scream as you neared the rev limiter. A sports exhaust was on the cards. The two main options are really Tubi or Capristo and from what I've gathered from hours of youtube video watching is that the Tubi is a bit more bassy and makes a deep growl (popular in the states) and the Capristo makes a higher pitched F1 scream. Capristo is what I had kind of decided in my head but at well over £2000 before it's even fitted, it was going to be painful in the wallet region so decided to see what else was out there.

There's a relative newcomer to the F355 exhaust market: Nouvalari. Despite the Italian sounding name they are a actually British company and after a quick email was quoted £750 directly from them and after a bit of a haggle they said they could do me one for £600. Not bad. I did a bit more forum digging and although there were mixed reviews they definitely leant towards the positives side, it was during my search I found a German forum member selling his Nouvarali which had only clocked up 1000 miles of use. I mailed him and we eventually agreed on a price of 400 Euros so around £340. At this price it was worth a punt and the exhaust arrived a few days later looking virtually brand new!

We fitted the exhaust on Lee's driveway, saving even more cash! Installation was relatively straight forward though the fitting was a little awkward. I can't help but wonder if a Capristo or Tubi would have been more easily aligned.

We started it up, it was LOUD and this was only the "Sport" version (Nouvalari also do an even louder Super Sport). The exhaust is kind of boomy at low revs and would probably give you a headache after a while driving around town and the only thing less subtle than driving a red Ferrari around town is driving a red Ferrari with a ridiculously loud exhaust. I was feeling like perhaps I had made the wrong choice until by chance we ended up going through a tunnel with the windows open. It was safe to say it sounds rather awesome in the right conditions! Still, if I see a nice, used Capristo up for sale I may just be tempted to try that too...

F355: Air conditioning fix.

As previously mentioned when I took delivey of the F355 the AC was not pumping out cold air. The dealer said that it may only need a regas.

I did what any sensible Ferrari owner would and took it to Kwik-Fit to put their no fix no fee AC promise to the test. They didn't have the car in their system but I supplied them with the specs, I think all the needed was the weight of the refrigerant which I found in the manual.

Lee showed the guy the where the ports were and we left the car at headed to Illegal Jacks to enter the required amount of burrittos into our own systems.

When we got back the guy explained to Lee in AC talk basically the compressor wasn't kicking in and as such there would be no charge even though they had fully charged the system with refridgerant. Arse.

We had the car down at Lee's and decided to take a quick look in the fuse box, the fuse for the AC compressor was blown. We replaced it, turned on the AC, waited, heard the click of the compressor kick in and.... ice-cold air began flowing into the cabin! The fix I thought could have been in the thousands turned out to be sorted for absolutely nothing!