Hey guys,

Just wanted to say hi and introduce myself! Just picked up a black on black V8V and am eager to learn all I can about the car, upgrades, modifications, etc. I used to have a single turbo 94 RX-7 that was a lot of fun but outgrew and hardly drove near the end. Anyways, back to lurking I go, and I will try to keep the questions to a minimum!

Anthony

 

Congratulations! But before you go back to lurking, how about a few pictures?

We all love Aston pics

 

Welcome! And don't just go back to lurking. Ask away--we're all here to help.
Congratulations on a great car, and enjoy the "Permasmile" all of us experience while driving it.

 

Thanks guys! This car is a dream to drive. The sounds this thing makes! I want to research into any weak components that need upgrading/replacing. Mine is an 09 with SS if that helps. Eventually will look at exhaust, springs, wheels, etc (the fun expensive add-ons!). Any help would be much appreciated. I've read that a member was looking into an oil catch can for their Vantage, but I don't think there was any resolution or conclusion just yet. There's much reading ahead of me!

Thanks for the welcome guys!

Anthony

 

Err...I have a few images of my car on the first day I bought it. Anyone know of a free web hosting service for uploading images? It's been about 8 years since I last used an online car forum!

 

Hi and welcome.

Buy Grant's book, Definitive Buyer's Guides - Aston Martin. This is my favorite book of late.

Do the clutch learns every time you drive. There is a thread (maybe even a sticky if I'd looked) on it here, written by Stuart who knows lots. This will make your Sport Shift life much better and you clutch life much longer.

If you want more power; air filters, then 200 cell cats, then ECU, then headers. Stuart again.

If you want aftermarket wheels... um, ask someone else or just copy DoubleLow7's HRE set up.

Don't let a "detailer" touch your paint unless you've done homework and really know that the detailer knows his stuff. Learn the right way to wash and care for the finishes on the outside and inside of your car.

Don't abuse the thing, but don't be afraid to drive it and drive it hard. This does not hurt the car. The moving parts were designed to move.

 

Welcome to the fold, and IbisRider is right, definitely buy Grant's book!

 

Hi Ibis,

Thanks for the advice! I will definitely pick up the book--I can use good reading material.

There are two threads that outline the clutch learn procedure. One thread recommended doing this 3-4 times (in one sitting?)...does this seem right? Or should this be done once at the start of each drive? Turn on with brake held for 10 secs, shut off, turn on and go?

Also read a thread that recommended lifting off the gas during transmission shifts (whether in D mode or in semi-auto mode). This is my first paddle-shift car so any advice is certainly welcome.

Stuart, thanks very much for the warm welcome--I may be contacting you soon for some fun mods.

On another note, I got the "Emission System Service Required" message. This happened the same day I had filled the car up with gas. I scanned for codes and got P0497, P2402, and P2406 (Evaporative Emission System Low Purge Flow, Evaporative Emission System Leak Detection Pump Control Circuit High, and Evaporative Emission System Leak Detection Pump Sense Circuit High respectively). I'm hoping this is due to me filling the car up and perhaps not tightening the gas cap properly. Cleared the codes for now, and will monitor. I read elsewhere that the "Emission System Service Required" message went away after 5-10 drives, but I haven't been able to drive as often as I had hoped to see if this would clear itself. I did see this thread https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...low-purge.html but it doesn't look like it was resolved or concluded.

Anyways, more reading and digging around for me to do tonight. Thoughts and feedback are welcome, and I look forward to chatting and learning more. Thanks for the warm welcome again guys!

 

I was very confused also about the clutch, however what I found was that I don't have to turn off the electronics with just start the car and slowly put the seatbelt and take my time to get ready. Since I'm 61 and that 21 that's not hard to do and just taking my time for about 15 seconds the clutch seems to do the kiss procedure and all has been well. I've learned starting the car and then going into reverse quickly is not a good thing. I have the documents for Aston Martin dealers on the clutch procedure and it does not mention having to turn off all electronics.

I have a 2009, I'm not sure if that's the same procedure as earlier ones.

 

As long as the A/C is off, it should do the kiss procedure fine regardless of electronics being switched on.

It sounds very much like your DTC codes are a gas cap issue. If they go away and don't come back I would say nothing to worry about. There have been a couple of issues with the fuel tanks, mostly internally to do with the venting system, but I wouldn't worry about that, sounds like gas cap related stuff to me.

 

Thanks guys for the input. I will monitor and update accordingly!

 

Click below to download the dealer guide on the Sportshift:

http://astonmartin.lms.coloni.net/LM...ng%20Guide.pdf

Note that on page 3, it says to idle in neutral for 10 seconds for the TCU to update its settings for the 'bite' point (the kiss) of the clutch.

The date on the document is two years ago, so I'm assuming its on the 09+ Sportshifts which may differ from the 07-08 models.

 

When I bought my V8V a year ago, all my in-the-know car pals said "Don't buy an Aston Martin! They are fragile British cars and it will be in the shop all the time and drive you to the poorhouse. Stay with a Porsche, they're reliable!"

Where did they get that information? Well, they pulled it our of their ****, I think. My past 12 months of ownership has shown the car to be slightly quirky, but dead nuts reliable. And among a sea of Porsches, one doesn't come across too many Astons on the road and that makes it fun. Plus, they confuse a lot of people - I had mine in for state inspection two days ago and the guy doing the inspection gave up trying to get the car out of the bay and had me drive it out, he couldn't start it or release the brake. He said "I'm not tearing up a $ 400,000 car". If that's not entertainment, I dunno what is.

They're very trackable as well, really fun to drive quick. I've instructed in two Aston schools in the past year and take my students out for hot laps in the car. Its very forgiving and delightfully neutral, and I'd love to have some slicks for it as the chassis is so capable you run out of tire before you run out of car.

Remember too, that an Aston has LOTS of parts on it that can be had from Ford, Jaguar and Volvo for a whole lot less money than Aston-Branded, and the part is the same. Ask here when you need to do that cross-over on parts, you can save a lot that way.

 

I had a '93 RX7 and loved that car, but damn it was temperamental. I was still on the stock twins when I sold it, though. (Bought it just to learn how to build rotaries.)

Vantages are very well-built cars. I've had mine for nearly two years and put 10k miles per year on it. I've driven it long distance, in the rain, on a track, and in DC/NoVa rush hour traffic. It's been very reliable.

 

I actually had three prior Astons, a 85, and 84 and an 88... all Lagonda's but had the running gear essentially the same as their Sports cars. It was from this era that Aston's had the reputation, and justly so, of being expensive to maintain, and needed to be fixed often. Now, the Lagonda in particular had terrible electronics, but discounting electronic glitches, the reliability was not very good. I would estimate a 50% chance of something going wrong every time I drove the 84 and 85 Lagonda. The 88 was fairly reliable, but did break on occasion. On a good day I'd be lucky to see as much as 10 MPG.

When I got my first Vantage, I was amazed how solid and reliable the car was. The few things that did go wrong were quickly fixed by Lake Forest Aston Martin, and the services were very affordable. After 24,000 very hard driving miles, nothing wrong.