Home at last

I finally got my Ghibli back this weekend after what seems an eternity. The last couple of weeks have certainly been eventful! As you can see from the picture above, I no longer have a large crack in the center of the front bumper, so now there's nothing to distract the eye from the fabulous shiny trident!


The replacement bumpers are of the new variety, made from a flexible plastic material versus the stiff fibre glass used for the old bumper that proved itself to be pretty brittle. As you can see in the picture above, the new bumpers are without the black rubber insert for protecting against scratches from minor nudges, but instead the new ones are a single tone. I think the new ones look nicer for it.


I also had the rear bumper replaced as the corners on the old ones had cracked as well as starting to flake a little around the exhaust outlets.

The new exhausts, given that they're much more flexible, require a steel plate to be installed across the width of the car onto which to bolt to provide some rigidity to the bumper. The factory was out of stock for the rear bar, with the part on back order and not available until September some time. I therefore purchased the part from David Askew instead, since he had it in stock. Despite being brand new and still in the original packaging, the part still required bending into shape before fitting. Maserati obviously did not have a tight tolerance on this part!

For the front stiffening bar, the factory did send a part, which was labelled as being for the front of a Ghibli. However, when Jorrit came to fit it, it turned out to have been mislabelled at the factory; it was in fact the rear bar from a Quatroporte. Although the factory said they had the proper part in stock and would send it immediately, after a couple of days it turned out that the part was also on back order at the factory and would not be available until September. I therefore ended up driving to visit David Askew, since I was over in the UK this weekend anyway visiting my parents. He had a used part in decent shape, which although required a bit of bending into shape, looked like new after Jorrit gave it a spray of paint.


The paint shop also removed the dent from the left front wing. They even touched up the paint, which is more than I asked for, but I'm not complaining since they did a good job! I'm sure I'll pay for it though.

Unfortunately, I'm still waiting to get the new front section exhaust to get fitted; the replacement needs a bit of refinement, but should be sorted soon.

It's great to have the car back since I've really missed driving it. I did have a bit of a scare today though... I was watching the voltmeter and noticed it slowly dropping from 12 volts, down to 11 volts and slowly less less. I was sure the alternator had packed in, so hurriedly drove back home before the car shut down. When I got back I got the multi-meter out and measured the voltage across the battery... 12.7 volts. Then with the engine running... 14.3 volts. Seems that the volt meter circuit has some problems... the voltmeter has been playing up for a while, intermittently on and off, but I've not seen it misreading before. Something new to look into!

Latest parts have arrived...

I dropped my car off this afternoon with Jorrit at Auto Forza for him to work on the list of jobs I listed a couple of posts ago. Hopefully it will be ready before the end of next week so that I can drive down to France in it with my wife for our holiday!

The new front section Larini de-cat sports exhaust was unpacked and waiting at Jorrit's workshop. As you can see below, it's seems overly complicated for a de-cat exhaust, with all the original bends in of the Maserati OEM exhaust and even the flange connection between where the two cats are located on the original exhaust. No wonder it wasn't cheap!


So both Jorrit and I are wondering why they've not just made a single, straight pipe section? I suspect it has something to do with them making it as a modular part, that can be used to build up any of the exhaust options... either sports cat, de-cat muffled or straight through pipes like I have. If they're really advanced, it might be to make the sections equal length or maybe to minimise resonance in the exhaust? I'll have to ask them...

Also arrived are my replacement bumpers. These are the new style ones fitted to the ABS Ghibli and later models, essentially made from a much more malleable material that is less prone to cracking as suffered by the bumpers currently fitted on my car.


Since they're much less stiff than my current bumpers, they require a steel plate to be installed behind them to keep them in shape and offer some resistance to impact. As you can see, they need spraying, which should get finished tomorrow.

There's always something interesting going on at Jorrit's when I visit... I arrived to find him playing with a Quatroporte V8 Evoluzione engine that he'd dismantled, which he seemed to take pleasure talking me though and explaining what he was doing with it... which of course I found extremely interesting!

I couldn't help but notice the black Shamal that he had in there too... I recognised it instantly as belonging to Mark... there's not many Shamal's around after all, so it was a fair bet. It was great having a look around the engine bay... there's so many parts common to my Ghibli. Jorrit treated me my starting up the engine so that I could listen to the warbling V8... hope you don't mind Mark... but it sounds great with a pretty smooth idle compared to my Ghibli.


Anyway, can't wait to pick up the car and try out the new exhaust... I really hope it will be ready next week!

On the road again...

After a couple of weeks of rain, there's been a break in the weather and a spot of sunshine today (my cat Boris can vouch for this... as you can see he loves to sunbathe), so I took advantage of this and took the car for a drive.

I primarily wanted to try the brakes out, since they've now covered well over the bedding in 1000km distance. I therefore got some speed up and gave them a good warming up by seeing how fast I could go from 200km/h down to about 80km/h. They seem to work well, with no sign of fading. I didn't push them so hard as to lock them up, but I certainly had the rear end of the car lightening up and giving a bit of a wiggle. I was also getting a bit confident around the corners and approaching opposite lock territory, but since changing the wheels and fitting much wider tires on the back, the car adheres to the road far more than it used to (going from 225 to 255 width on the rear) so I have to push it quite hard to get the rear out. Traction from stand still is also much better than it used to be, which I'm sure improves the 0-60km/h sprint times.


After picking up the wife, we decided to drive to the beach for a coffee and enjoy the warm weather for a while. On the way back, we stopped off at a travel agent to see if we could organise a holiday in a month or so's time... walking or cycling in France, driving down there in the Ghibli. This kind of puts the pressure on to get the car running good and reliable before then, which is going to be tighter than I thought since Jorrit is having trouble sourcing one of the parts for my new rear bumper.

Since I have a non-ABS Ghibli, it needs adapter brackets fitting in order to install the ABS and later car's bumpers, as you can see from the drawing below.


Part 11 on the drawing is the bit that is missing. Apparently they have it on back order at the factory, which means that it will likely take some time to get delivered. Since I don't mind getting a second hand part (you don't see this part), I wrote to David Askew. Turns out he has a new part in stock, so hopefully I can get this delivered and fitted within the next couple of weeks!

Talking of factory parts, Jorrit was telling me that Maserati have now honoured their 10 year commitment to maintain spare parts at the factory for the Ghibli, but since they have no obligation to keep these for more than 10 years (production stopped around 1997 to 1998), they're likely to let the parts run out now and not replace them. This means that parts for the Ghibli will start to become harder and harder (and likely more expensive) to source.

Garage appointment booked

Not much to report other than the new exhaust should be delivered by the end of this week (Larini seems to be a bit stretched at the moment, since they told me two to three weeks delivery but are taking more like four to five).

All the parts for changing out the bumpers have arrived at the garage except for some of the the adapter fittings (since the new bumpers are designed to fit on an ABS Ghibli, which has a slightly different fitting to the non-ABS cars), but hopefully these will arrive before the end of the week. I also noticed that the rubber elbow pipe leading to my driver's side intercooler was looking a bit cracked and have therefore ordered a new one... which is still yet to arrive, but Jorrit has a decent second hand one in his store which he'll fit if the new part hasn't arrived in time.

Here's a summary of the work that's hopefully getting done:

1. Replace bumpers front and back (including re-spray).
2. Roll out dent on front left wing.
3. Roll out dent in floor in driver’s side foot well.
4. Change out cracked rubber elbow into left intercooler.
5. Fasten boost solenoid valve (the original screw has fallen out).
6. Fabricate and fit new fixing brackets for air boxes.
7. Get the car APK tested (road worthiness test).
8. Fit new exhaust.
9. Fit wide-band lambda probe (including resistor) and wire in data-logger to ECU wiring harness (just the power and lambda probe for now). I need the pin diagram for non-ABS Ghibli (think it's the same as for a 224?). Once I have the pin diagram then I can wire in the other signals. Install the exhaust gas temperature probe on the exhaust and run the cables into the cockpit along with the lambda probe cables. I think there’s a spare port on the exhaust, otherwise will have to drill a hole and weld one on? It’s a 1/8” NPT fitting.
10. The voltmeter still stops working so will see if it can be fixed? Maybe a faulty earth connection?
11. Check engine timing; the car is loosing power above 4000 rpm, which may be an indication of problems with the distributor or valve timing. I’m convinced the car is loosing 10-20% power above 4000 rpm and since the fuelling looks fine from the last dyno (although the wideband lambda will be able to confirm this) the likely culprit is either air flow/temperature (changing the exhaust will help determine this) or timing (I’ve no reason to suspect that the ECU timing is incorrect since it’s not been re-programmed since the car was running well and producing 330 hp). So I think it’s a mechanical problem (unless one of the sensors to the ECU is malfunctioning, but if I get the data logger setup then I should be able to check this).
12. Determine amount of offset required to prevent front wheels from fouling suspension bars on full steering lock; I’ll have some wheel spacers made front and back (additional 10 mm would probably solve the problem?) once I know the required offset.
13. Fit new pin in passenger’s side door hinge. The old one has fallen out and now the door makes a loud cracking noise when opened due to the spring force in the hinge.
14. Check the clutch… the position that the clutch is engaging feels a bit high on the clutch pedal travel (i.e. the clutch pedal is almost fully out before the clutch feels to fully engage). This may be caused by the steep ramp I have to drive up in order to get the park out of the garage where I have the car parked?

If all this is sorted then the car should be running great, plus I can start getting some engine data to play with and use to focus my future upgrading efforts. Plus, once I install the accelerometers then I can get some road dyno results instead of having to go to the dyno all the time.

The time has come...

For about three years I've had a big crack on my front bumber. It was caused by an old lady parking her Smart on my bumper. I've been putting off repairing the damage initially because I used to park the car in the street and so the chances of repeated bumper damage seemed pretty high.

For just under a year now I've been privalidged enough to own a parking spot in a private garage and so the chances of repeated bumper damage are dramatically reduced. I'm therefore getting more serious about getting the damage repaired, so last week I popped 'round to a local body shop to get a quote. It's not cheap!

My Ghibli still has the original bumpers, which are old style ones manufactured from quite a brittle plastic (it actually looks like they're made from a sort of fiber glass). The cheapest option would be to simply have the damaged bumpers repaired, by removing all the cracked paint, filling the gaps and having them resprayed. However, like I said, the material from which the bumpers are made is very brittle, so they appear to crack very easily. Therefore, simply having the bumpers repaired probably means that within a couple of years, there will be new cracks... since living in the city means living with other drivers who are not such careful drivers.

As kind of an example of this, I woke up this morning to find my wife making breakfast for us (what a great way to wake up!). She told me to have a look outside, since she'd had to move her car to a different parking spot on the road on which we live. When I looked outside, I noticed that a Renault Espace had its right rear end smashed up. My wife informed me that there was glass all over the road and that about three cars were damaged in the street. It seems that last night someone had smashed their car into the parked cars down the street and then driven off. We felt quite lucky that they'd missed my wife's car and it made me realise how lucky I am to have my car parked in a garage down the street.

As you'll recall from my post last week, it only takes one night being parked in the street to acquire damage. I had a quote for repairing the dent that the car received... €80 plus tax! And that only repairs the dent... they can't repair the scratch unless they respray the entire wing.

So, my dilema is, do I repair the existing bumpers (since there's cracks in the rear bumper too) or do I get brand new bumpers? It takes the body shop about 2 hours to repair the old bumpers before spraying them and I suspect that they charge something in the region of €60 per hour. So that gives me €120 plus tax to find a new bumper. Unfortunately, new bumpers will cost about twice this amount. However, new bumpers are more tolerant to subsequent knocks so in the long run will be cheaper to maintain.

Here's a couple of drawings of the parts that I need.


Item 24 on the first drawing and item 33 on the second drawing.

For some reason, the rear bumper costs about twice the amount of the front bumber?

It's probably going to be spring time that I get these bumpers repaired, since I'm not sure how much longer this warm winter will continue. I'm very suprised with how long the driving season is continuing this year, but I'm trying to make the most of it... I managed to drive the car three times this week!

The brakes seem to be settling in... they're a bit like the turbos to drive I find... the preformance isn't that impressive around town... I'd even go as far to say that the braking performance is not as good at low speeds, requiring heavier force with the braking foot. However, on the main roads and motorways, the performance seems to pick up substantially, although I've still not had to use them aggressively. But, like the turbos, the brakes seem to increase in performance the more that they're loaded. Just like when you accellerate in the Ghibli... you can lightly lift off the throttle and the rate of accelleration continues to increase. You get the same effect with the brakes... lift off the brake pedal slightly and you find that the rate of deaccelleration is still increasing. This is because the brakes are warming up as you use them, becoming more efficient... therefore, as they warm up, you need less brake pressure to achieve the same braking force.

So now, I need to keep one step ahead when braking as well as when accellerating! This adds a whole new dimension to the driving experience... and makes me even more enthusiastic to drive the car.

I have to say, when the Ghibli is performing on song (and it currently is), then it's an absolute pleasure to drive! I walk away from the car smiling and already planning my next journey when I can drive the car again. And driving in this colder weather is also great... the engine is performing with extremely good torque and I find myself quite content to accellerate from 80km/h in sixth gear. I have to put this improvement in torque down to the 3200 GT turbos, the new induction kit and finally setting up the boost controller optimally so that the wastegates stay closed right up to maximum boost pressure... before these modifications, the car would not pick up until about 4000rpm, but now it's picking up at 3000rpm... that's really noticeable when driving the car.

I'd really like another Ghibli driver to have a go in my car to see if they notice any differences. So I'll have to make an effort to join the local Maserati club and attend one of the track days.