Yesterday I installed a new hydraulic hose as my previous repair failed. It turned out to be a reasonably straightforward job once I traced the damaged hose to the hydraulic cylinder that is powers. The cylinder in question was located inside the top itself so its not one of the large cylinders that raises the roof or tonneau cover.

I think the easiest way to trace the bad line is to cut it and start pulling and pushing the line until you can figure out which cylinder it goes to. In order to do that you'll have to cut all the cable ties that are used to keep these hoses bundled together and in place. These are important as they stop the hoses getting caught in the moving parts of the top so take lots of pictures of where the cable ties are and what lines were secured. Once you find the end of the hose that connects to the cylinder then you'll also find the hose number. Aston were kind enough to put printed numbers on both ends of every hose that once you find the one end you automatically know which hose you'll be replacing on the pump end.

Some of the cylinders are trickier to get to that others. The easiest one is the large cylinder that raises the tonneau top. The end with the hose connection is inside the car and I think the hose can be uncoupled without pulling the cylinder out. I have pulled that cylinder out I can tell you its a ***** to get back on. There is metal clip that holds the cylinder to a ball joint and that clip is hard to get back on. There may be a special tool to do it but I go by with reverse pliers (I don't know if that's what they are really called). There is also a large cylinder that pushed the roof up before a smaller cylinder pushed it forwards. That large cylinder looks really hard to get to because it is mounted almost vertically with one end deep down in the bowels of the car in the space between the rear wheel and the seat. However, if you can figure out how to remove the interior leather-lined panels then you can access the cylinder from inside. So again, its not so bad. The hard part was trying to get those interior panels off. I have the shop manual and it showed pictures of the panels with screw holes that on my car did not exist. Did Aston change the way they mount the panels at some point in the production life? That seems crazy but I can’t explain it otherwise.

On the end of each cylinder this is a silver metal clip that slides to release the hose. These are pretty easy to work. I used a small screwdriver and a torch as a mallet to bash the clip out of the way get the old hose out. Once the new hose is in place you simply slide the clip but. The rest of the job is running the new hose back to the pump. All those cable ties that you cut have to get replaced. Mounting the hose to the pump (located over the right rear wheel inside a foam package) is pretty easy. I showed an image of it earlier with and without hoses connected. I removed every hose at one point when I was experimenting. You don’t need to unless you are completely refilling the oil. I don’t know what the correct level of oil is and I suspect I never will. If you don’t think more oil is needed because only a small amount leaked when the hose broke then you just connect the one hose the pump. In my case the pressure pushed a large amount of oil out until the reservoir was only half full. I purchased a litre of ZH-M hydrolic oil from Febi-Bistein in Germany. It was reasonably priced and more that enough to fill the system with a bunch to spare. The replacement hydraulic line was made by Hel and shipped from a company in England. They only sold one line so the one I used was way too long. I tucked the excess hose into a safe place away from moving parts so I guess that’s ok.
I thinks that’s everything you may need to know. Hopefully this repair lasted a lifetime. So far Ive only raised and lowered the roof a couple of times. The first time took a long time and the system made a lot of whining noise. I suspect this is normal as the new line had to be filled with oil before it would work. I may also need to add more oil so that it doesn’t stress the pump motor. Only time will tell.

 

Here is a picture taken from the Vantage shop manual. This is only for the convertible cars but I can tell you that those screws you see in the picture do not exist on my car (and also have the pretty blue interior). No screws and no holes. I had a fun job getting the panel off. The next mystery I had was the removal of the speaker grill. T In the manual it says,
"see Workshop Manual procedure 01.05.CP/01.05.CN "
I couldn't find that section and I did a search of the manual!