So I just picked up my 09 Vantage after paying $8,300 for the solenoid control valves and the hydraulic pump on the rear transmission on this sports shift.

The mechanic told me it pops out of reverse once in a while, and you have to put it back in gear. The computer is learning, and it will get better, he says.. Well, I found that happening on first gear too. I go to pull out on a busy highway, and all of a sudden, it would jump into neutral.

I called him, and he said he would look at it on the 8th of January. I put about 50 or 75 miles on the car that way, and then all of a sudden it would not shift out of second gear.

So I spent another $250 to have it towed to him, and he says now the front hydraulic throw-out bearing for the clutch blew up. Now he says he can’t fix it for 2 months; he’s too busy. So now I'm looking at another $13,000. I think it's time to get rid of this car. I can't put any more money into it. My car is a 2009 Vantage convertible with about 53,000 miles on it. I'm beside myself. I'm not a rich man. I still work full-time. I guess the question is, can I put a clutch assembly in myself? I changed the clutch on a Trans Am twice when I was 22. But that was a different Animal and 45 years ago.
Any thoughts or ideas would be really helpful to me at this time.

 

I had a 2009 and am certainly familiar with the clutch and everything related (clutch, pump, etc) needing to be changed. However, I question those prices. Its been a while, but in 2013, changing all of that at once was less than $7k by an Aston dealer. Over $21k now seems like way too much. Has anyone else had this done recently to compare current prices? I also question why the clutch wasn't the first thing replaced if it was having problems. Do you know when the last time the clutch was replaced? I had mine for 55,000 miles and was on my 3rd, one failed and replaced under warranty, the other just wore out.

Also, if you are doing it, there's now an upgraded clutch to put in which improves its performance and life expectancy.

 

New clutch installed from VAP at a decent indy shouldn't run more than $8,000.

$13,000 is the "go away, I don't want to do it" price.

It's 15 hours in the book so even at $300 per hour that's only $4.5k labor and the clutch is $3.5k.

You can do it yourself but it's a bit involved, probably take you 2-3 days. Look up redpants, he does the clutch step by step.

 

See Attachments

 

You can DIY the clutch but you need access to AMDS to reset the clutch statistics on an ASM car. It will be time consuming as the headers and transaxle must be removed to allow for dropping the torque tube.

I have heard the Orlando AM dealer is enthusiast friendly, but I have no personal experience so take with a grain of salt. Maybe a local can chime in with a suggestion.

https://mofler.com/uploads/attachmen...a45cf7be180edf

 

You are in Florida - land of many Aston Martin dealers vs. Minnesota, land of Walz, fraud, taxes, freezing weather, and no local Aston Martin service since the dealer closed last year. Seems to me, you need to not take the car to a mechanic, but an Aston Martin mechanic. I'd also source the parts from Aston Martin Bits (astonmartinbits.com) if possible. Clutch, I'd not bother with OEM, but instead VelocityAP upgrades. Aston service is different since Ford stopped being involved. They (AM USA) knows there are issues, and at least here in Minnesota I've been talking to AM to get a local Factory authorized service center with higher quality. Some dealers will install better options like the VelocityAP clutch, some will only do OEM. If it was my car and I had an issue, I'd take it to a shop with lots of AM experience on the generation Aston needing service, and I'd say to change any part that is worn or likely to fail. I just bought a 2016 V12S from Park Place Aston Martin and in the first week of ownership (last October), it slipped out of first gear twice from a stop. Their mechanic said 'oh, that's normal'. I've had 8 Vantages since 2007. From 2011 on, all being Sportshift. 3 being V8's and 4 being V12S's, in all probably over 50K miles in Sportshift cars. Zero issues, and never once did a car slip out of first at a stop, not once. The good news is it seemed to go away and not show up again (so far) and the car has two years left on a factory warranty. It used to be, if I had ANY issue (during Ford ownership), I'd call the dealer and they would immediately order any parts, just from a phone call, and never was there more than a few days wait. When Andy Palmer too over as CEO, that great service suffered as well as parts availability. I've also noticed like my more recent issue with the car slipping out of gear, excuses from mechanics, Aston trained mechanics, seem to be making more 'excuses'. My first 'Astons' were back in the late 1980's - Lagonda's. This is when all the cars were hand formed and there were no factories, basically cars being made in a big building. If I needed parts, they were made and shipped from England but I never waited more than a few weeks. These were simple cars that any good local mechanic could easily service (other than the digital dash).

 

was that Dimwitt? i don't know where they keep getting that $...
SV Motorsports can do it
or you can get VAP kit on Black Friday sale and do it yourself
where are you located?

 

Sounds like you should flatbed it to a reasonably priced and accommodating repair shop.

 

The ASM slave cylinder has been on backorder status for 6+ months. Email Velocity AP or search for an authorized dealer for installation of a twin plate.

 

VAP has an alternative clutch release bearing

 

Yes, it's called a V12 version for the V12 twin plate clutch. It too was on backorder.
I got one last month.

 

If I were you, I'd look at respected indy shops that are not in your area or even out of state.

I'm in HCOL area and I take my Vantage to somewhere 50+ miles away because they charge $400 for a service vs $1500 at my dealer.

You may even want to look out of state. I was getting insane pricing for a full PPF anywhere near me so ended up having my car flatbedded several hundred miles away and it saved me over $3k on the cost.

You shouldn't really pay more than about $8k all in for a clutch change, and FYI: both places are pricing the AM OEM Clutch and there's no point. You might as well get the VAP one.

 

I need to have my clutch done soon, I got a quote of about $5400 from Autosport Designs, who do basically all my work on this car. The local AM dealer, Long Island Sportscars, quoted me $5100. Not sure who I'm going to give the work to yet.

Both are labor only, and both told me to buy the Velocity AP kit and bring it to them.