Hi all,

It's a bit difficult for me to shift my manual Vantage into 2nd on cold days (e.g., below 35°F) when the engine is also cold, as in the morning. Not grinding gears or anything -- it just takes some muscle to get into 2nd for the first 10-15 minutes of driving until the car warms up a bit. Anyone else notice this? Is this indicative of a problem? Lately, I've taken to skipping 2nd until the car warms to avoid what feels like forcing the car into gear. Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

Interesting observation. For me it's been 1st gear, and 3rd gear to a lesser extent.

At the first stop sign I'm always giving 2 or 3 tries going into gear. 10 mins into the driving session everything's silky smooth.

 

Happens to me as well...here is a great blog entry from Derby Motor Services on it

http://www.derbymotorservices.com/fa...gear+selection

Aston Martin V8 Vantage difficult 1st and 2nd gear selection

There has been much reported on the difficult 1st and 2nd gear selection of the Aston Martin V8 Vantage when the gearbox is cold,

Firstly this was a know concern and by the owners request if a complaint was made whilst the vehicle was under warranty then a modification was carried out, This included changing one of the selection levers on the gearbox itself, a modification at the gear lever to help with reverse gear selection and a modified oil,

If your car has had the modification and you are still experiencing difficulty with gear selection this can be caused usually by one of these problems, all of which are relativley easy to rectify,
1. the selection cables have been incorrectly set
2. the selection cables locate in u shaped brackets the locking mechanism is not the best and can allow the cable to ride up, firstly causing difficult selection and secondly losing gear selection altogether,
3. and lastly where the cables attach the selection arms themselves are mounted in rubber, these can split again at first feeling quite sloppy and eventually becoming completely detached so again losing selection altogether,

If your car has not had the modification there are a few options, the first one is to have the gear oil replaced and an additive added this can make a big improvement and no other rectification may be necessary, as most of the cars with this issue are around 4 years old at which time the 4 year service has the requirement to replace the oil so no additional costs should be incurred and insist on the additive,

If there is not enough of an improvement for your liking then the modification and setup will be the only choice, but correctly done will improve selection

 

Thanks for the info. I'll talk to AM about this next time I bring the car in.

 

I had the same issue on my 2006 and the dealer performed service bulletin 236 which corrected the issue.

 

First of all I am glad that my information that I add to my site is considered useful, the additive I mention is readily available in the uk and is called Kendall and at only about £13.00 i consider it not only useful but great value , I presume there will be an equivalent in the US and would be interested in the name of an equivalent, So that i can recommend the product as I am asked regularly asked by people from the US,

 

Here's a copy of the relevant service bulletin if anyone is interested . . .

 

double clutch it till its warm. clutch in, change to neutral, depress cluctch
clutch in, go into second

it helps

 

Is this service bulletin limited to 06-07 models?

I'm not sure if it is due to the cold, but my brakes squeak during low speeds (0-25mph). It didn't start until the weather dropped below 35 degrees.

 

The bulletin re: cold weather shifting was issued in April '07 and says that it is for "V8 Vantage up to VIN C04876." I don't know if it applies to later models or not.

As for the brakes . . . there's a bulletin for that (attached). The bulletin was issued November 2008 and is for "all" VINs. I had the warranty work done on this issue and it fixed the problem. That said, on really cold days like today, the brakes squeak the first time or two I apply relatively hard pressure. Quick and firm pressure seems to stop it though.

 

Thanks AstonAficionado, I cannot wait for this weather to warm up. Will call the dealership this afternoon.

I also need them to program my power mirrors to fold when I activate my alarm.

 

I dropped by earlier this week to have clear tail light lenses installed. They mentioned something about their relationship with Aston coming to an end next week. Not sure what they were talking about.

Do you mean that they can program the mirrors to automatically fold when you lock the car? If so, do you know if such programming is available for the 4.3?

 

Yes, but you must have the power fold mirror option. I did not know the dealer had to program this until I ran across it in my owners manual. I'm going to make sure they give me a complete list of all the options they must program. I think they can program my mirrors to automatically dip when I place the car in reverse instead of using the toggle switch.

 

Great, please share the list when you get it. Why AM doesn't enable the owners to program these options themselves using the car's infotainment system I'll never understand.

 

There aren't that many dealers to start with and now some dealers are dropping out. Does anyone know what's going on?