27th Sep 2006, 17:00

The Clock was from Lassale. No Cartier and no Rolex :-)

I have a 222SE build in 1991 2,8 L machine.

Its the fastest car around. It eats up all cars up to 345 hp.

It makes less than 5,5 sec in 0-60 and under 12,5 sec in 1/4 mile.

Most problems are bad electric contacts and cheap or bad (and expensive) engine oil. Never use anything else then Mobil1 or better Motul v300. Forget Castrol, it destroys the engine.

Maintain it well and it's a very good car.

20th Sep 2007, 18:33

224 from 1990. 5 years driving in Amsterdam at full speed, no problems. Spend 10000 euros on repairs. Fantastic car.

1st Dec 2008, 09:15

Intermittent engine starting problems...

It is most probably the sensor on the camshaft it is a white sensor positioned on the left side near the front part of the left valve cover (If 24v). This should solve your problem.

The speedometer it is also very easy and simple:

It is the sensor in the gearbox, take it off and clean it (some times the dirt and debrit are simply depositing over) Change oil and flash the gearbox some times.

The other think to check is a ground pace near the battery.

Take off the battery and clean the - ground. Unbolt the post and clean with a metal brush or sendpaper the surface. Rebolt the ground and this should solve your speedo problem.

Fog-lights wipers etc.. for sure depend from the fuse-box under the glove box. Replace it or fix the connection inside. Since the fuse-box is made out from plastic sheet with printed circuits on it and folded one on an other, some times when more than 12/15 years old they fail. I think it is around 200/250 euro new.

The camshaft sensor for your starting problem is about 35 euro and I would change also the 3 relays on the left side of the engine bay. (they are ignition related).

Ciao.

31st Dec 2008, 23:48

My 1992 222E was the worst car I ever owned. Two acquaintances with the same model had similar problems. Once at a club meet all but 2 of the dozen or so members' Maseratis were off the road waiting for parts at the same time.

Twice jolts occurring on somewhat rough minor bitumen roads in Australia caused the air pressure sensor cable to detach from the engine block, damaging the plug, and the motor just stopped rather than default to a sea level setting without it. I also had problems with coolant hoses that bifurcated near the exhaust manifold and tended to go brittle and split. The circuit for the touch controls for the air conditioning was printed on a flexible plastic base that went brittle and cracked in the Australian heat. In the end I was not game to take it out of the city and traded it on a Porsche 968CS.

Once I got a puncture at speed and the tyre came of the rim instantly, causing me to crash. Similar incidents occurring in a previous older Porsche resulted in no problem and my barely noticing until the tyre became quite soft. My independent mechanic, whose workshop Ferrari used when there was the Adelaide Grand Prix, attributed this to poor rim design in the standard wheels of that model. [He was Italian.]

1st Jun 2011, 12:47

You have a bad mechanic and you probably are a Porsche fan!

Your problems are quite strange; did you buy the car new? Probably not, and if you do not know how to buy a used car, do not blame the model or brand itself, but yourself!

11th Sep 2015, 23:52

I had a 222E in Australia for 3 years and was happy to take the financial loss to get rid of it. It was a great car when it was working - it just spent 25% of the time I owned it off the road having very expensive repairs done, with long waits for parts to get here from Italy.

Issues:

1. Ground clearance is inadequate for Australian roads and speed humps. I had to learn to take speed humps diagonally and to slow down dramatically on any road other than a super smooth freeway to watch for irregularities. The air pressure sensor was ripped out on 3 occasions by minor jolts, and the motor then did not default to a nominal normal pressure, but refused to run at all.

2. The flexible plastic printed circuit connecting the temp control to the touch pad went rigid and cracked in a very short time. The dealership admitted it was related to the summer heat here, and that any replacement would do the same. I had to bypass it and fit control switches in the covered tray in the centre console.

3. Coolant hoses bifurcated where they passed over the exhaust manifold and split inside the Y at frequent intervals.

The Porsche 968 CS I traded it in on gave me none of these problems. Nor did the Audi S2 that succeeded that, nor has the Renault Megane RS 265 Cup I now drive.