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Bwings
its an interesting video where a mecanic rebuilt a db9 engine with only 9500 miles.
and he said this motor should have an oil pressure gauge and that the piston are fragile.
the 6-12 pistons had insuficient oil and they have seized..so much inside the engine and how the oil can be bad with only 9500 miles, maybe its an old car i didn't looked very well there is 3 video parts i think. Its scary. they replaced the pistons for better ones.
video is from 2017, car from 2005, if there wasnt any services the oil could be 12 years old but they will have said something about it, i will watch the other 2 videos better.
due to an oil level too low he said. sorry
when you don't check the oil level.
Last edited by manuel2171s; Jul 19, 2025 at 04:03 PM.
I do not know if this is the case in your summary, however, some like to experiment with different weight oils and they do not understand why a given engine is designed then a weight is specified. They like to experiment thinking thicker weight oils are better for various reasons usually the wrong reasons.
I built engine for a number of years. We chose a specific weight oil based on how we would set bearing clearances. Tight bearing clearances need a thinner oil. Loose bearing clearances need a thicker oil. If you put thicker oil in an engine with tight clearances the oils would not sufficiently lubricate bearings and sooner or later a bearing would seize.
With a race engine (drag race 1/4 or 1/8 mile) we would build a "loose" engine with liberal clearances. This took a thicker oil weight such as 50 or 60 weight. some conclude that thicker weight oils will work in their modern engines; unfortunately, with modern engine building techniques and newer bearing materials, much closer tolerances can be held. But still, these engine will die, sooner or later, with thicker oils when the builder recommends 20 or 30 weights and the user is experimenting with 50 or 60 weights.
I do not know if this is the case in your summary, however, some like to experiment with different weight oils and they do not understand why a given engine is designed then a weight is specified. They like to experiment thinking thicker weight oils are better for various reasons usually the wrong reasons.
I built engine for a number of years. We chose a specific weight oil based on how we would set bearing clearances. Tight bearing clearances need a thinner oil. Loose bearing clearances need a thicker oil. If you put thicker oil in an engine with tight clearances the oils would not sufficiently lubricate bearings and sooner or later a bearing would seize.
With a race engine (drag race 1/4 or 1/8 mile) we would build a "loose" engine with liberal clearances. This took a thicker oil weight such as 50 or 60 weight. some conclude that thicker weight oils will work in their modern engines; unfortunately, with modern engine building techniques and newer bearing materials, much closer tolerances can be held. But still, these engine will die, sooner or later, with thicker oils when the builder recommends 20 or 30 weights and the user is experimenting with 50 or 60 weights.
Its not good watching youtube? i wander sometimes...
thanks a lot for the explanation, i was guessing too, i think this car may have the same oil since day1 and it was missing too, without showing us the stamps from maintenance we will not know. It has happenned at 30 miles an hour, it may have been real low and bad oil. Maybe they bought it from years standing there with 9,5k miles and driven it and seized it as it was.
Last edited by manuel2171s; Jul 19, 2025 at 11:56 PM.
I have similar sentiments to Bwing about engines and motor oil. I'll add that I've been told the best oil for an engine is hot oil. The next best is the correct weight oil for your engine. The vast majority of engine bearing surface wear occurs when the oil is cold. My Grandmother always warned me that you should never rev a cold engine.
Astons tend to get wealthy owners who know little about engines or the care of the cars. Generalizing they get in, turn the key and then drive it like they stole it... This is really hard on an engine. They then sell it before an oil service and the 2nd owner drives it like they stole it without changing the oil. My DB9 had 5-6 prior owners. The tires and air filter were original. The oil filter didn't look like it had been changed either.
The V12 is more fragile than a shorter block as the pump has to adequately fill all the bearings. To do this it has (tight) .016" main clearances, the Ford V-8 distant cousin with the same geometry is .024". Which is why the Ford uses 5-30, and the AM uses 0-40W. Need to pump the oil around but still provide the ability to support the rotating surfaces. OLD oil is bad oil. Mileage and age matter...
I agree with the video in that I put a temp & pressure gauge in my DB9 when I rebuilt it. It takes a LONG time to get to an idle pressure of 21 PSI. It starts out a 71 PSI at room temp and gets down to 21 PSI some 10-15 minutes later. Interestingly if you drive it gently for 5 minutes, stop, buy gas and restart it the engine heat soaks and warms up the oil during the refueling.
So, it's all about the maintenance records and how the prior owners treated the car when deciding to buy a used vehicle...
thanks a lot for this response, it worth opening a thread so people pay attention, what i do myself all the time, i never skipped it, i wait the temp. gauge to move on the first line. it takes between 2-4,5? minutes in winter time . so its better to wait 15 mn before to accelerate and its better to set the gearbox into sport waiting a few minutes too isnt?
last time i had no power no battery to to the rodent damage i relased the handbrake by pushing the handle in the opposite direction and holding it there , i am saying so for rapide owners in case. i could release handbrake with no battery doing this, it came to my mind like that. i dont remember for what is the latch behind the driver seat, but i went there too.
these are soem reece 101 machines i refreshed a bit, repainted, cleaned, changed a few parts cause i wont changed them all, its the type of machine that will freak out most if not all sewing machine repair shops. if you red the manual you will understand, for me its like playing pinball, they are 160 kilogs each, a horse used in atelir 24/7, they just add oil to it, i have been restoring a few of them but they were runing good before i got them so. fly bar button holer invented in 1890? supposed to imitate a handmade button holes, very avantguardist for the time.
Last edited by manuel2171s; Jul 20, 2025 at 08:20 AM.
Some early engines had piston slap. Bamford Rose has a video on how to detect the ticking sound. If not caught early enough there is major engine damage.
I don’t think this engine failure was due to “bad oil” it seemed the engine was operated with a too low oil level which probably led to oil starvation.
