My new Vantage S Roadster

[mikey k]

520 miles on the clock!
3rd tank of fuel
But my first decent drive round N Wales in some great weather
I absolutely love this car
Sounds great (even without the sport button in) corners on rails and turns in exactly where I point it.
Its all diry now


Astons & Horshoes 074 by mikey k V8VR, on Flickr


Astons & Horshoes 069 by mikey k V8VR, on Flickr

[Norfolkaston]

Mikey, love the car - especially the colour! I was interested in what you said about replacing the headlight bulb with a 100w bulb instead of the existing 55w bulb. I asked my dealer about this for my car (2006 DB9) and he said they can do it, but it can cause damage to the headlight lens. Have you had any problems with this?

Philip

[mikey k]

I've always done it on ALL my cars and never damaged a projector, wiring loom or head light unit.
How much time do you spend with the lights on main beam
I did find they made a difference last night as others have pointed out the AM light "throw" is not great anyway.

[Norfolkaston]

I don't drive the car that much at night, so it sounds like it isn't going to be an issue. Thanks for your help.

[mikey k]

Right - off for a blast over the Cat & Fiddle whilst its not raining.

[mikey k]

I ENJOYED that
Stopped off in Monks Heath Prestige Motors to look at their collection of cars for sale but nothing really struck me. Gallardo seats are waaaaaay too high for me and theres absolutely no storage
(599, 599GTB, 430, Gallardo spider, new Morgan, 997 turbo S convertible, 458 :drool: )
Had a nice chat to the owner though - he knows his ferraris & porkers!
Managed a nice blast over the Cat & Fiddle (even with the averaging cameras )
Down to Leek and back over to Macclesfield.
The S is ALOT quicker than my old sports pack car, overtakes are much quicker. ASM2 must have something to do with this as it only has 10 BHP more at the engine.
I find myself driving every where with the "giggle" button in, it makes the throttle so much nicer and of course does something to the noise
Only side effect is it encourages you to leave it in a low gear to listen to the gurgling and popping on the over run.
It is not too happy pulling away with the "giggle" button in though - I don't like clutch smells
"Hill assist" also needs to have the "giggle" button off to work with out slipping the clutch.
Managed to set off the traction control on one bend and then got it airborne shortly after

That's another layer of dirty added, a few more and I'll wash it

[V8 Animal]

Sounds like you enjoyed your ride i would of loved to have joined you in my merc

Another day eh

[GPM3D]

Hey Mikey
You should have called round to ours for a brew - or met up in Alderley for a photo shoot!
Graham

[mikey k]

Hi Graham did think about it but got distracted by a couple of hours with the "giggle" button in
Weathers looking good so time for another coat of dirty me thinks

Edited by mikey k on Sunday 6th November 10:50

[mikey k]

Bit of a not so good update after 1200 miles & just over 3 months

Came back from meeting Molly & Rob at the EVO shoot a week ago last Thursday.
Vowed to clean it ASAP as it had salt all over it.
Tried to start it on Monday to pressure wash it and it didn't even drop the windows. Battery voltage was 8.3V
Charged it over night with two trickle charges, still didn't want to start
I jump started it, put some load on it and left it running for 40 minutes whilst I cleaned it.
Backed it in to the garage and switched it off. The damn thing then refused to start again. 9.2V on the battery
So I left it open/alarm off with two trickle chargers on until this afternoon.
Checked the voltage 13.2V GAME ON!
Opened the door to get in and the usual pump noise slowed in speed as I got in (What is that pump?) not a good sign.
ECU in ignition - absolutely nothing! Checked voltage 7.8V
So it flattened an apparently fully charged battery in 20 seconds

I will be calling Wilmslow tomorrow for them to recover it

The most annoying thing?
It was EXACTLY the same fault that prompted me to get rid of my last one.
I'm beginning to think there is something about the way I use Astons that kills them
And I suspect I know what it is but will leave judgement until Wilmslow have looked at it.

[bogie]

do you keep it on a battery conditioner ? ...maybe worth getting one plumbed in ...mines permantly in the boot compartment so I just plug it in whenever its in the garage longer than 24 hours

[mikey k]

bogie said:

do you keep it on a battery conditioner ? ...maybe worth getting one plumbed in ...mines permantly in the boot compartment so I just plug it in whenever its in the garage longer than 24 hours

Always on the AM trickle charger, never spends more than 2-3 days off it.
It's been on two since Tuesday

[Mr Noble]

How do you mean on two? Doesn't sound like a good plan to me to have two chargers on the same battery

[bogie]

I guess Mikey means hes tried 2 chargers in case one had gone faulty and wasnt working ...been there and got that t-shirt...my first official AM Ctek charger was indeed dead on arrival and never worked..

[mikey k]

Mr Noble said:

How do you mean on two? Doesn't sound like a good plan to me to have two chargers on the same battery

I do have two trickle chargers and have used them both this last week to get it charged back up.
AM/Ctek one plugged in to the boot and another I have on the terminals in the engine bay.
Not sure why or how that would be a problem?
They charged it to normal voltage this week.
But something drains it flat again in seconds when you go to start it.

On a 3 month old car I'm not messing around trying to find the problem.
The dealers can recover it and sort it out

[Molly GT]

We are sorry to hear you've got problems. Hope all will soon be explained and your dealer can make you a happy owner again. Keep us posted.

[Mr Noble]

Can I ask which chargers you're using? Do you know the model number? Is it the c-tek 3600 or 3.6? I think that's what the Aston one is (£120 from dealer or £40 from halfords)

It is possibly to overcharge a 12v battery and kill it by doing so. I fear that plugging in two "smart" chargers that are not actually that smart, you may be overfrying the batteries. This would result in the kind of symptoms that you're experiencing.

One 3.6 charger should fully charge and condition the Aston battery in about 6-8 hours.

[Jockman]

The Charger should change from Absorption to Pulse at 95% full, so there should be no problem with overloading. Your lowest voltage was pretty close to terminal voltage of 6, but the fact that the battery recharged shows there was sufficient reverse voltage.

I'm going for a bad earth somewhere, but you're doing the right thing by taking it to the Dealer. I shall email Alan and tell him to put his best trainee with an old towel on car washing detail.

I knew you would learn something from me eventually

[mikey k]

Thanks Molly

Mr Noble - On is the AM branded Ctek unit and the other a similar size one I had from my last car. As our learned Jock says they are both "intelligent" so ought to go in to pulse mode when they have recharged it.

Jockman - you may be right on the earth, I have a couple of other suspects No one is going near my car to wash it other than me

Just checked back up to 12V so I'll try and start it in a bit before I call them out to recover it!

[Lunablack]

It's not unusual for a battery that has dropped to below 9v.... To not recover