I have read a lot of your posts on this forum for the past years and want to thank everyone for being so informative.

I have a 2007 DB9 sport pack with 11000 miles on it. My vehicle is in storage for the winter and I start it up and roll it every few weeks. About a month a go i tried starting the vehicle and the engine cranked, choked and would not fire up on the first try. On the second try it fired up but the service emission system warning came up on the display. At first i thought it might have been because is was due to cold temperatures. It has been dipping below 0 degrees Celsius here. I erased the code with my odb reader but the code came back up with the code P0300 and P0309. I however have not experienced any difficulty starting the car on the first try ever since the first incident where the code came up.

I am not too sure what to do and what the issue could be. My thoughts are that it might be that the gas going bad because i didn't put any fuel stabilizer in the tank when the vehicle went in to initial storage at the end of october 2013. The other thing i was thinking is that the spark plugs might need replacing but with the vehicle at only 11000 miles I'm not sure if that could be an issue. Last year the vehicle had its 6th year service at the dealer no know issues were found and I only fill the vehicle with 94 octane fuel from chevron

Im afraid to run the engine now and i am not planning to put the vehicle back on the road for at least a few months but i don't want to just let the vehicle sit and not start and roll it for the next 4 months.

This is what i feel like i could try in the following order
1- Mix injector cleaner with existing gas and run the engine
2- Syphon out the gas and re fill the tank and mix in some injector cleaner & fuel stabilizer
3- Replace all the spark plugs

I would really appreciate any advice or opinions on whats going on and any diagnosis procedure that would be recommended for my car. Thanks

 

Welcome jyu12. Nice to see another Vancouver DB9 owner here

Have you had it on a battery conditioner since putting it away? Is the gas tank full? Do you have mice in your garage?

I've been driving mine on some cold days when there's no salt, so I don't think temperature is the issue. The Chevron 94 we get here has no ethanol so it should last longer than ethanol blends -- siphoning the tank would be my last choice.

I'd check with the dealer first (about possible damage to the cats), but if it's OK to drive it like this then getting it out and well warmed up might be what it needs.

 

Nice to meet you yvr

I do have the vehicle on a trickle charger and the fuel was filled to the brim before I put it into storage. Dealer did not recommend me to put the fuel stabilizer in because I'm only storing it for about 6-8months.

I spoke to the dealer and they said the coils and spark plugs mostly likely needs replacing. He said it is a common known issue with the db9 even at low milage and that the new coils have been redesigned. It will approximately take 10hrs of shop time and cost about $5k for the job.

I would love to get a second opinion from some of the AM techs on here. Thanks

 

I got my car at 11K miles (US car) and now have 26K miles on it. Unless the original owner had the coils replaced (and I'm pretty sure they didn't) I'm still on the originals.

If you don't hear from Irish07 or AMFixer here, think about making a call to Vince Edwards at Park Place Aston in Bellevue for a second opinion -- he knows his stuff.

 

start with the easy stuff first fuel filters, spark plugs, etc. maybe swap coils and see if the problem follows

 

My 2007 DB9 Sports Pack has original coils and plugs at 26K. Agree - a second opinion is in order.

 

Swapping plugs/coils isn't that simple -- intake manifold has to come off

Even so, dealer quote of 10 hours seems a bit much.

 

Spoke to Doug at park place aston. Fault might be cause by idling the engine to operating temperature and not driving it. Which is causing carbon build up.

I drove the vehicle around and did not feel anything wrong or any power loss. Do you guys think its safe for me to take it out for a good long drive to burn up all the carbon build up

 

Sounds more realistic. I think most agree that idling in the garage during storage does more harm than good -- things just don't get hot enough. Better to leave it sit.

Good to hear that it drives well. What did Doug say about driving it? If the misfire doesn't clear up with driving you *could* be pushing unburnt fuel through the catalytic converters and that can eventually wreck them.

 

Unless you have serious fault codes stored for really wrong stuff, sometimes an Italian tune-up is a great treatment for a car that has been sitting. I'm in the UK right now, but arriving back in Vancouver on the 12th. Happy to take a look at it for you when I get back.

 

Doug thinks that taking the car out for a good drive is whats needed but he's still recommends me to go to the dealer and get it looked at first to prevent the potential risk of damaging anything.

 

Just curious if there are any local shop or techncian aside from MCL in Vancouver B.C for servicing Aston DB9's

 

I don't know of any, but Stuart might have a recommendation (if he does, please let me know!). As far as I know the AMDS diagnostic system is exclusive to dealers and kind of ties you to them for all but regular maintenance.

I know there are a couple of local owners that have their work done at Park Place AM in Bellevue. I've looked into the potential cross-border issues -- repairs & maintenance with OEM parts *seems* to be OK, but "improvements" could result in tax on the total value of the car when you return I haven't been brave enough to test this.

 

[QUOTE=Stuart@VelocityAP;4036271]Unless you have serious fault codes stored for really wrong stuff, sometimes an Italian tune-up is a great treatment for a car that has been sitting. I'm in the UK right now, but arriving back in Vancouver on the 12th. Happy to take a look at it for

This has been a successful solution for me through the years with other cars. But it was a bit intimidating at first, going against the expensive recommendation of the dealer. It has never quite required that i push my cars overly hard either, to effect a remedy. I think Stuart is right.

 

I'm with Sturat on the Italian "tune-up". There are alot of cars being awakened up after winter hibernation. After a full pre-start check up, fluids, belts, tires, ect. and proper pre-start "bring the oil to pressure" measures, there are probably a few AM that will get, to the owners delight, an Italian tune up! It's very important to bring an AM out of hibernation properly.