So my DB9 decided to throw me a curveball yesterday (actually my wife was driving it at the time). While on a road rally with the dealership that sold us the car the engine started tapping loudly and then an error message came on saying "emission service required." She stopped, and then had a hard time restarting the car. The women running the drive said not to run the car and sent a flatbed to pick it up. After having service department look at it, they said the noise is inside the motor, most likely somewhere in the valvetrain ( cam, valve, lifter, etc.) They are tearing it down now to find out more definitively what it is. In all my research I've never heard of valve issues with a DB9 V12. I've heard of the oil starvation issue, but nothing related to valves. Is this a common problem area? I've had my car for a year and put 5500 miles on it for a total of 25500 on the car and its been flawlessly up to this point.

Thoughts?

 

According to BR, they've seen several noisy V12s. Problem can be valve train (lifters) or piston slap due to rod bearing wear. But these generally get worse over time. Yours sounds like a sudden problem. V12 with or without the cam advancer? And then there's the primary cat ingestion issue, which is a sudden failure.

 

Not sure about the cam advancer. It's a 2006 if that helps any. It happened quickly without warning and never gave me any trouble to this point. I'm genuinely surprised because i hadn't heard of DB9 having valve issues.

 

 

The only difference in my case is aside from the ticking the car now struggles to start. This may sound like a dumb question but are these interference motors?

 

I'm gonna' say it's cat ingestion since it was sudden. This would probably end up with breaking a valve or two.

 

Based on everything I've read it sounds like my engine is toast. Since the car is currently at the same Aston Martin dealer that sold me the car 10 months ago, I'm waiting to hear their version of what happened and how many 10's of thousands it will cost to repair. At that point it's probably not worth fixing and definitely not worth putting a new engine on it based on current market value for these cars. I'd say its next destination is probably the scrap heap.

 

Turned out to be a broken valve spring. Still unsure of the outcome.

 

Now, that IS unusual. If no secondary damage took place, I would think that's easily repairable (not the same thing as cheap). Push the dealer for as much good will as you can get.

 

And go buy some lottery tickets! Broken valve springs are a very uncommon issue, that's worth fixing it.

 

As of last night the service dept at my local Aston dealer said the retainer clip did not break so the valve did not drop far enough to cause any secondary damage. They will be able to fix the valve spring in the car without removing the head. I dodged a bullet big time! They quoted me $3300. (USD) But will talk to the higher ups and see what they can do. All things considered i felt $3300. wasn't unreasonable.

 

With 25k miles on the car, think about replacing coils/plugs on that side while they are in there. Will save lots of labor cost. They should only charge you for the parts since the labor to install is nil at this stage.

 

In my country 3000USD is some cash!

Pull the motor have them machine a new manifold and fit a new Ford or chevy V8 or if you are really English a Jag V8
Then at least you can enjoy the car


Only kidding sorry to hear about your issue .....fix it at any cost it's an Aston !

 

Considering a replacement engine could cost around $30K I was relieved to hear $3300. But yeah its still a decent chunk of cash.

 

The retainer clip did not break
You sir are blessed.When I first read this thread, I was kind of sick to my stomach. Glad to hear this whole thing is going work out.

Regards,