Indeed, condolences (if his is a base engine issue) to the OP. To help avoid the situation where prospective purchasers turn into owners with a problem is the reason i recently went vocal on the subject over on PH, until then the problem has been known about, but probably mainly due to not having a public platform like me, other re-builders except through dialog with owners, have not disclosed the exact mode of failure widely. I have seen enough guys (and wish to see no more) who after saving for years to buy their dream car, find a bill more than half its value is waiting. I cant do too much to help owners already with the problem, but at least i can advise a pre purchase inspection is imperative for every prospective owner.

I cant speak for US other than i know of and am in communication with 4 owners presently with the same sounding issue, and over the last years probably had about 10 US owners contact me directly with a video clip with same sounding issue. We have repaired about 7 UK cars with the issue, had engines shipped to us from Germany, France and Singapore with the issue. Its quite common in UK classifieds to see a few older '9's with adverts stating 'new engine fitted' to cars i'm unaware of previously, and most likely its either the tick or failed big end bearing (due to running low on oil) the culprit. We have probably repaired about 10 V12's due to low oil mode of failure. If same in the US as UK, cars with this problem are probably outside the dealer network anyway due to age, and at least in UK, dealers rarely rebuild engines anyway because they are not trained to, they simply pick a refurbished unit off the shelf, hence why there are a few competing re builders because it represents by far the better economic repair hence another reason why the problem is seen more in the independent world than franchised.

I cant tell you what causes the problem, other than what i have already posted on the matter. We have customers with early '9's that come in year after year accumulating significant mileage without problem and IMO will unlikely ever have the problem. I have yet to find the problem on late 450BHP '9, mostly occurs in early #VIN 450BHP '9's (although clearly running low on oil damages any age engine). When diagnosed and perhaps after valvetrain has been ruled out, most owners are (totally understandably) in denial and a few don't get repaired but are traded-in (hence why i advise pre purchase inspection). On the ones we come across which we repair, after strip / inspection the piston pin is sloppy in con-rod small end. The small end doesn't look badly worn but the pin will rock in the bearing ever-so-slightly. The pin is also often too loose in piston boss, the piston rings are worn and commonly the oil scraper ring is doing nothing. Finally, but no means least, the liner has gone oval to the extent the piston will not rotate in the bore, and just past a little rotation the piston locks up in the bore completely. All of these in some way can be argued to produce the tick after heat soak / differing expansion rates.

Its important not to blow the problem out of proportion (sorry OP, i know this doesn't help you), because in terms of failure rate, its low, and mostly the problem is isolated to older cars in my experience at least. Because its more likely this age / value car is now sold through independent seller or private than franchised, is why a pre purchase inspection is advised. If car is bought via dealer, there is the approved used scheme as the safety net for aftersales care. Meaning that in my opinion, it is worth spending the extra to buy the car from franchised dealer over independent.

 

I did some searching on this and from what I gather a lot of these failures seem to be linked to running the engine low on oil. I also ran into one post about the owner not letting the car properly warm up and the builder seemed to think it was a combination of the two -- low oil and not proper warm up. The tolerances on these aluminum engines are very tight when cold so if your the type to hop in and floor it, engine trouble is in your future. I'm not saying this is the definite answer, but the threads I read seem to talk about this as the root cause.

 

you could well be right on the low oil front and combination idea.

Although at full dipstick I have sat through a fair few thermal shock durability tests (there is a suite of about 5 different types of test), starts at below freezing point and immediately goes to peak torque until fully warm, then gets thermally shocked back down to freezing point and the fun starts again, over and over, for a few hours - engines flew through that so i'm not certain this type of abuse is root cause, but yeah, a careful warm up is always advised too.

 

Thank you very much for this in depth insight on this issue. I'm pretty devastated right now. I don't know what to do at this point

 

Took my car to an indy in town (the nearest Aston Martin shop is a few hundred miles away) that specializes in British cars. They were stumped on the actual problem without tearing down the engine. They contacted a few Aston Martin shops and were suggested to run a thicker oil (15w50). They ran that oil and called to let me know that the tick was gone. I picked up the car and drove it home. On my way home..........the ticking started.......
So they told me to monitor when I do drive it to see if the ticking behavior has changed in frequency at all. So basically I back to square one.


It seems the "resolution" has been trial and error with cars with this same issue. But it seems like I'm going to have to spend a ton of money just for a noise.........

 

What is the risk of you just drive with the tick?

 

Apparently there's no risk. It's just annoying. As soon as it starts I want to drive home and park it.

 

Just wanted to give an update for this situation. I remembered when the shop said that after they changed the oil and added thicker oil they said the ticking had stopped. Said they drove it on the freeway, let it idle for an hour or so, and ran the AC. But when I brought it home it still ticked. So the other day I drove it out of town (about a 45 min trip). Got in town, no tick. Stopped at a car wash to do a clean up. Started the car, no tick. Went to an auto parts store a few minutes later. Started the car.....now it's ticking...

So then I remember them saying they ran the AC also. When I picked up the car the shop the AC was running so I turned it off. Halfway home it started ticking. Remembering that, I decided to turn the AC on full blast (AUTO).......the ticking goes away.....what??? Drove around for about an hour or more and little to no tick. And the times it did tick (triggers seem to be when slowing down and transmission going into the lower gears and when the engine is started after being driven for awhile) the tick immediately went away. I'm guessing it has something to do with the extra load on the engine?? Drove it again the next day, AC on full.......no tick........so weird. But since I'm in Cali, I can ride with the AC on full blast most of the time anyways. The mystery continues........

 

Sounds like it may be a wrist pin or rod bearing. A test for that is if you can get it to tick when almost coasting with ever so little throttle applied, like enough to barely maintain speed on a level surface.

 

I was excited to read the post about the ticking being related to the AC system. I ran out and jumped in the car and warmed it up for a few miles. Then flipped on the AC. damnit Tick is still there. Would have been nice if this was the case, but it doesnt look like its going to be that easy. One difference I've noticed for thegolden1's symptoms is that mine really never goes away. It may get a little quieter, but otherwise its fairly constant and predictable.

I'm having a hard time understanding oo7's test. If I just barely touch the throttle, what is the difference between that and just letting the car idle or letting it creep in gear? What would I be listening for? The tick to stay or go away? And what would it be demonstrating if I did notice this change?

 

jjacksonphd,
Sorry to mislead you to think it was AC related. It seems with the combination of the thicker oil and the ac running, this may be putting a heavier load on the engine to the point that it doesn't spin fast enough to "trigger" the ticking. I pressed my luck the other day and drove via saddle shifter. It ticked like normal, even with the ac on. So I put it back into normal gear and the ticking slowly went away. Really sad our cars are doing this but it appears that the oil/ac thing lessens mine a bit.

 

Heat is what increases the noise, A/C load? no A/C fan causing lower temp. If you haven't damaged the cylinders or pistons yet, you could renew the connecting rods. lack of piston cooling as stated before (small rod end is going to fail) usually thru the side of the block! Invest in better rods on the rebuild. Or a factory engine reman. If the block is damaged you have no "CORE" which adds $$$$.
K1 Tech 3.0 Ford Duratec V6 Performance Rods H Beam

 

Small rod end going thru the side of the block???? Has this happened already to an Aston???

 

Oh I bet money that it's happened! Unfortunately, there are a few dumb owners who do stupid things to their cars. I bet there isn't a manufacture yet who hasn't had at least one dumb owner put a rod through the side of the block. Some years ago I was in Vegas with a friend looking at a Gallardo he was interested in. When we arrived at the dealer the owner said the salesman lent the keys to a friend and the car came back with 9 cylinders instead of 10. We looked at the damage and couldn't believe the massive hole in the side of the block. The amazing thing was the car still ran! Just goes to show anything is possible. Unfortunately, I think your car had a pretty hard life! Didn't you buy this car at Thrift Auto?

 

It's a engine with a noise that is not normal, as any internal combustion engine when parts fail inside. And dependent on speed and mass.The do EXIT thru the least path of resistance. There is a reason why the aftermarket makes better rods for the "Duratec" 3.0 motors. $100 performance rod is not bad even X12.