I'm pretty confident this is the reason why Aston removed the launch control instructions from the manual. I read the thread called "spinning tires" and this look like a good way to help your local dealer increase its profit margin, in a very big way. I bet this was good fun while it lasted.

 

Graziano will NOT sell AM diff and gearbox parts to road cars
When my ASM2 crown wheel and pinion gave up the factory blocked them from selling me the parts

Good luck not nice

 

If I understand you right, your local authorized Aston martin dealer will not sell you the parts you need. Is that correct?

 

Just to be clear. This was removed from the original Vanquish manual. It was never in the Vantage manual TMK.

 

You are correct. Which adds insult to injury.

I have found a 8k miles used part on Ebay which might do the trick. I might be lucky on this one. My mechanic saw it and said it's the right part, we'll see...
$300 vs a whole tansaxle? wonder what that goes for.

And no, it was actually not fun, expecting to be launched and instead kicking the tail out.

 

Bleen, where did you learn about the launch procedure? It's not in the owner's manual for a reason. If you saw the Spinning Tires thread you would have noticed Irish07's stern warning in bold, italic, underlined, asterisked letters stating:


**Disclaimer: Do as you wish to your own car, by doing this you can f*ck up your own car..damn this **** may be fun..but damn it costs money!!!***

 

there's an old thread on pistonheads:

They even attached the document from AM detailing that. Got to say, just reading the description of how to do it, no way would I ever attempt it.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/t...ch+Control+%3F

 

Chris, I believe the document in question (the link to the original PDF no longer works) applied to the original Vanquish and not the Vantage.

 

Yep, I don't know, the thread seemed to be speaking about Vantages tho, but the described procedure seems like abuse to the car and I can see no gain from it, personally speaking. Perhaps it's in part due to the fact I couldn't afford to fix it if I broke the LSD

 

Yeah that pistonheads thread. I don't know, the M3's manual said that launching it was dangerous, etc, yet the procedure is there and you can use it safely.
I take these warnings as "don't launch the car all the time", not "if you use this procedure once, the car will self-destruct".

Live and learn, I guess.

 

Yeah, live and learn, and pay unfortunately. My point was that the "launch control" procedure is not, nor has ever been, in the Vantage manual. It was taken from a Vanquish dealer technical document and someone probably realized that the Vantage could also do it because it used the same SportShift box (which probably still had the same code).

A lot of times, manufacturers put in little cheats that allow them to get better performance figures but aren't exactly healthy. On the Esprit, for example, if the vehicle speed is zero and the RPMs go over 5,000, you will get higher turbo boost for the next 12 seconds. Keeping this feature hidden allowed them to post faster 0-60 times but prevented owners from accomplishing the same under normal driving circumstances (since higher boost pressure could lead to a blown engine if done repeatedly). The cheat was not in the owner's manual (or anywhere else for that matter) but was in the ECU code for those who knew what to look for.

 

Gotta love Aston Martin's customer support! Unbelievable they would do that to you. Why make it difficult for the customer to get his car fixed? This one area of AM that I never cared for...

 

Correct
AM don't buy it as a kit of parts
They buy it as an assembly so will not sell parts

 

Oh it can get worse!

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...x-failure.html

We managed to get the required parts on order, only for a VERY senior manager at Aston Martin (thank you Ian ) to block the supply of them from the manufacturer

£13.5k for a new gearbox when all I need was a crown and pinion set

 

Why in the world would he prevent you from getting a part from the manufacturer when AM won't (or can't) give you the parts themselves???

That's some bullsh!t.