a guy on FB just sold an AMDS for $5k 3 wks ago to a shop in CA.
of course Virgiliu Matei on FB offers mobile AMDS service in LA and claims to even be able to alter the CCF

 

Appreciate the replies.

 

anybody know if the foxwell nt644 can also read the clutch life?

 

I am going to put this out there but I have no idea if he will help or not. This is just a thought. Aston1936 has an AMDS. He seems to be a great guy and maybe he can help. I not sure if he is in the LA area or not but he is in Southern California I belvieve. It is just a thought so dont be mad if it doesn’t pan out. His has a website aston1936.com.

 

FYI, this was told to me by my head service tech at my local AM dealer:

At a value of 1800, the clutch is on the way out. The annoying thing about this is that no two cars are the same with regard to starting position. One could start at 900 and the other could start at 1100 but bizarrely they'll have the same life becuase the value of 1800 is where things start to slip.

You'd think the one that starts at 900 would have 200 more than one that starts at 1100 but apparently the one that starts form 1100 will wear proportionately slower so they both have the same amount of life in terms of wear.

 

Just follow up to my original question: I found European Auto Service in Reseda (Owned/ or run by a good guy called Jon) has AMDS.

Took my vantage there and his guys were indeed able to give me the clutch data. They definately work on a lot of Astons, they had two others on the lifts while I was there and it's an impressive operation as they can do everything for any car there, and were stacked with everything from brand new Mclarens to very rare vintage Bentleys and Jags.

Charged me a fraction aka 1/3 of what O'gara charge for the same service.

My only slight gripe is that when it was first up on the lift, they removed the skid plate and saw (as is common) a small leak on the timing belt cover. The guys didn't seem to thing it was any issue and it looked very minor, like all my other cars leak far worse than this, it's a drop or two on the lowest point.

However, when I went to pick up the car, I was told this is a very serious problem that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. Unfortunately this is a 20 hour, Engine out job that even with their very fair rates is $5k+.

I didn't want to spend that right now and honestly the leak looked minor, like a drop or two so said maybe I'll get to it in the future / next service.

Some later googling found a bunch of links about this issue, including one detailed video from Bamford Rose where they state not only is it very common, if it's just weeping, there's really no need to fix it, you're barely losing any oil and that that small amount there's no detrimental effect etc. Just monitor once a year and see if it gets to the point you're losing a significant amount, and only then address it. I know anything leaking on a performance exotic isn't great, but this felt like one of those things where 99% of people won't address it, and they were seeing if I'm that 1% that gets scared and throws money at them to have a 15 year old car "perfect".

Otherwise very happy and will go back to them for everything from now on.

 

The key is to get a reading with a new clutch ant 1800 should be a good time to shop for an install. You are at the mercy of the transmission control module and the readings. If it doesn't like the numbers or detects slipping it likes to shut down.
Is your local dealer in LA?

 

Yes, O'gara is LA but European Auto Service is just in the valley so worth traveling to so save the money.

and 1800 is the point where you want to start thinking about replacement. I've seen people go further (one guy on another forum thought the replacement number was 6000 so his 2400 reading "has plenty of life" lol but in fairness he hadn't yet experienced problems so literally YMMV. Having said that, the guy wasn't the most educated on these cars and I think he got a new clutch recently.