Proud owner of a "new to me" '06 AM V8V 6-spd. Silver on black, ~56,000km.

Pulled the trigger on this car after much debate over replacing my 996TT.

Love the cosmetic, elegance, heavy action on the clutch, steering, gear box. Fantastic machine gun V8 audio. It has been a great daily driver for me over the past 6 months. Yes - I have snow tires for it. Only driven on milder days.

It's time for a clutch. Seems to be a good following on a few aftermarket options. Any long term users of such? I'm not a track start although it may become a once a year sort event. Best online source? Autoparts from the US market are much more economical than in Canada.

It's also time for brakes. Best online source for economical option? I don't see a need for aftermarket option - although I could be talked into

The car has the following lights that recently came on the dash (oh the joys of a good British auto). They are likely easy fixes as this is the first model year of the V8V. None of this has affected vehicle power output or drivability:

-she thinks that the handbrake is always pulled. Likely a shot sensor on the handbrake lever itself or on the brake actuator? Sometimes the indicator panel reads "emergency brake failure" intermittently. This could be caused by the following...

-rear pads low. I assume a new wear indicator needs to be purchase with replacement brakes?

-good online source of oil, plugs, filters etc.?

-"emissions systems service required" started flashing once the car was driven in the cold (-8 degrees Celsius). CEL light on as well. With a battery disconnection the error goes away but come back. What are common fixes for this? Perhaps a leak in the EVAP / emissions system? Is there a diagnosis tool I can buy equivalent to a VAGCOM (VW / Audi tool)

Thanks in advance all.

 

Welcome! Always great to see another southern ON owner on the forum. You've got a lot of questions in there and a number can be answered in some recent threads.

Search for DIY oil change to get details on that (for oil, pick up Castrol TWS 10w-60 on your local BMW shop, filter kits are on eBay).

For parts, ironically ordering from a UK dealer is often your cheapest option. Google HWM (call directly for best prices) or Aston Bits. For less expensive but excellent pads, consider the option that Karlfranz came up with - Porterfield. You can buy the pad sensor from Aston bits, it's not expensive.

There is a ton of info on clutch replacement on the forum if you search, the RSC option is the one that there is the most info on here. A bit more expensive than OEM but more durable by all accounts.

Il leave the handbrake and engine code issue to Irish or AMFixer to tackle but the codes should not be cleared and ignored. RSC Hs a code reader that comes with their ECU tune but just about any ODB reader software and interface can get you info on the codes if you can enter make/mol # etc.

 

Welcome! Would love to see some pics of your car - why not post a few on this thread: https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...on-thread.html ?

When you say "milder days", did you drive it in any snow at all? If so, I'm curious how it coped with the winter tires.

 

Subscribed. I have same CEL for emission service. Car goes in for service on Friday.......

Also have what sounds like a leaky exhaust during acceleration that I'm having tended to.

 

When you replace brake pads, you'll want to go with excellent pads that don't squeal and dust very little (much better than OEM). This site has pretty much settled on Porterfield R4-S pads as being some of the best and they'll cost you a little over $300 for all 4-wheels. You may not have to replace the pad sensors.

 

Yes if the rear pads are touching the wear sensors the "brake" light comes on sometimes you also get the warning of rear pads low. Not that is anything wrong with the park brake.
As far as the engine light, evap leaks are the most common fault, and most of the time it can be a loose fuel cap. Best to get the code so we can look into further. Do any of your local parts store pull engine codes for free? Any basic OBD2 scan tool can read codes.

 

Hey Bud,

Congrats on the buy!!

The emergency brake warning msg and light in the dash can be resolved, the emergency brake cable just need to be adjusted from under the car at the emergency brake calipers. Your car has rear brake caliper and also rear parking emergency brake calipers...thus pad sensors won't help with the warning msgs your getting for emergency brake concerns, for the emergency brake pads don't have any sensors..

The dealer prices in Canada for parts are marked up pretty high..no comment..soo, RSC's clutch can be bought at the same if not cheaper price than a OEM in Canada..I'd recommend the RSC clutch if your in need of one, they rivot the friction disc together versus OEM which is stamped, known concern with the Veleo clutch(OEM) is the stamped section gets loose and the friction disc comes apart, and the center hub starts to spin freely..

Emissions light, like AMFixer stated, you can scan a OBDII emissions codes with any generic scanner, just any manufacture codes can't be detected by a generic scanner..Being it's emissions related though, generic scanner will work. As for a scanner like what VW/Audi/Bentley use at there dealers..aka VAS, at the dealers AMDS is used for Aston Martins, an AMDS can be bought by you for your own use..just it's gonna cost you $$,$$$, unless your really into troubleshooting, the cost for a AMDS wouldn't be worth it

 

The car is great in the snow with a proper set of tyres. Any vehicles with a near 50 - 50 weight distribution and a good traction system are lots of fun.

Looking forward to Irish or AMFixer to chime in. Where is the OBD port on these cars?

I will post photos once I'm back from holidays.

 

Early models like yours had both ports on the drivers side, they are both under the dash, when your foot is in front of the throttle, it's at about your axle but stright up..the one the left is the Powertrain OBD II port, the one close to the center console(right) is the Body port..with a generic scanner you would be using the Powertrain port only..Body port is mostly for dealer scanners.

 

We have some clients that drive them in the winter, choice of haveing winters isn't a option for it's law..hehe but the underside of the car takes a beating, you can tell the difference from non-winter driven to winter driven on are wonderfull salt covered winter roads..

 

LR...Did you get the sweet HRE shoes on that whip yet bud? take some pics, can't wait to see it lowered with spacers and those wheels...gonna look great!

OP - congrats and welcome to the club!

 

Thanks guys for the info. Great community!

So with a cheap generic scanner I can run the emissions error code? If so I'll grab a basic one at Canadian Tire

Car has under 60,000 km on it. Visually the rotors look fine with no pitting or scoring. No vibration in the pedal / warping. Think I can get away with just a set of pads? Car has never been tracked - it's driven lightly. Just ordered a set of Porter R4S.

Where can I get the blue grey paint to touch up the interior metal on the door? Little stuff like this bothers me.

Just noticed another oddity - at slow to medium speeds - right hand medium to tight radius turns a slight squeak coming from the rear of the car. Common problem? I hope not wheel bearing...

 

Any basic scan tool can pull codes.
Paint I'm not sure. What color is it? Blue/Grey? Never seen that.
The noise you hear is more than likely the rear park brake pads. They like to squeak when you turn. The best way to clean them up without taking them apart. Drive around and pull on the handbrake a few times while driving. This should help clean them up a bit.

 

The paint I'm referring to is the coating on the interior metals trim on the door. Every AM I've looked has the paint chipping.

Spent the day trolling the forums...

Source for online spark plugs? Source for rubber pads on brake and accel pedals? (seems to very very common for them to fall off)

Simple solution to connect an aux audio device? A simply stereo jack and cable works for me...

 

The paint does not chip on the door handles. It is from when people take off there seat belt and let the metal part hit the inner door handle. I have seen several that aren't chipped, and some that look like really bad. Sometimes you can see the driver door handle has chips, and the passenger side has none.