I just pulled the trigger on a 2007 with 13k miles, I drove the car for about 1000 miles and the clutch started to slip. Dropped the car off at a dealer , $6000 bucks for a clutch ($1350 for the part., 19 hrs of labor) Not covered under warranty as it is a wear item,but some forums had mentioned bad clutches in some cars. Aston Martin offerd no relief .How many miles should I expect on these clutches? I plan to drive it as a daily driver , but if I have to put a clutch in every 14k miles , you get the picture > The first 1000 miles was alot of fun , Had a Ferrari and the Mercedes S600,so I do get the joke about service bills , just hoping this was a bad clutch , not the norm.

 

What was the labor rate?

 

$250 an hour at the dealer , in NJ /Philly area

 

I'm sorry...did you say 19 hours to replace a clutch? And at $250/hr? I'm not an expert here, but on most cars it takes about 3 hours to replace the clutch and I can't imagine it takes that much longer on this car...19 hours sounds ridiculous. We can ask rmrmd who had his clutch replaced with a heavy-duty one when he got his supercharger. I would imagine you got taken to the cleaners, so to speak, but I could be completely wrong...I've never heard of it taking so long to replace a clutch.

As a side note, if my clutch goes out, I'm going to replace it with either a custom aftermarket one, the upgraded one from the '09s, or if I can get one, the clutch off the V12 Vantage.

 

I agree , I think 19 hrs seems insane , but I guess I need responses from either an owner or mechanic who really works on these cars. Sometimes the truth hurts I guess,. by the way , I have not signed off to do the work yet , for that they tell me I am on the waiting list in their shop and cannot get to it till July. Now that is just plain torture , dont think these guys will see me again.

 

OK that's good! I would definitely shop it around. And while you're at it, look at sourcing an '09 clutch and flywheel...they are lighter and it should make the car rev easier and would make the car faster in the lower gears.

 

I had a custom clutch made for my car by ACT. They replaced the clutch disc, pressure plate, throwout bearing and flywheel. Because it was the first they had done, they put it in, drove it around and then took it apart again to be sure it was seating correctly(At least that is what they told me). Price $5K. These are not cheap. When they took my stock clutch out it was worn/burned. It only had about 6K miles on it and it smelled and occasionally slipped from new. My clutch is now perfect, can dump it all day long and fry the tires. Of course I don't do that for respect to the marque.

 

Awesome idea, I have a guy handling this for me so I will forward the idea, hanks so much.

 

Did they use a lightweight flywheel as well?

This is interesting stuff...I think the clutch assembly is one of the major weaknesses on the pre-'09 cars and may account for some of the lackluster testing numbers in the magazines. I wouldn't be surprised if changing it for '09 made as much of a difference on the performance numbers as the engine changes.

 

Away from the clutch issue, everything else has been good? a few people have commented on extended warranties, any good insight there?

 

I have 20,000 miles on my '06 six speed with the original clutch and it seems fine. I just did the power kit and suspension kit at Aston Martin Dallas (GREAT GUYS!) I was told that "when the time comes" to expect about a $5k bill from the dealer for anew clutch. they also said the 09 clutch wont retrofit to the pre-09 cars.

-mark

 

I'm surprised the clutch won't retrofit. I wonder why it doesn't work...

 

...i think the crankshaft is different... but not 100% on that.

-mark

 

I think $5-6K for a new clutch installed is about right for the Aston. If you find any [place doing it a lot lower, please let us know. As you would expect, any major work on an Aston is expensive. Ferraris, Lambos and Astons have about the same price for the clutch. Since you've owned a Ferrari, you would know service bills on luxury cars are always high. But the clutch shouldn't wear out so quickly at 13K miles. I have no doubt the clutch got abused by the previous owner.

 

The Aston Martin labour time for a manual V8 Vantage is 9 hours, with the sportshift being 9.65 hours, it is labour intensive as transaxle is at the rear clutch at the front,
you have to remove the undertrays, exhausts , ns exhaust manifold , rear transaxle, carbon fibre propshaft, torque tube then you have access to the clutch,

usual cause of low mileage clutch failure is down to driving style, resting your foot on the clutch, holding the car on the clutch at junctions especially when facing up hill, will increase clutch wear, i see cars that have done 400000 to 50000 miles on the same clutch alternativy one of the hire cars i service only lasts between 5000 and 10000 miles, just down to how it has been driven,