Aston Martin V8 Vantage Ticking Noise (video)

[zed4]

Hi all,

I went to have a look at a V8 Vantage to buy the other day. The car seemed great, but it does have a ticking noise coming from the offside of the engine.

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH0soRML95U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rBFrmUHGVg

What do you think? It sounds similar to an exhaust manifold leak I had on my TVR. It was evident when first started, and didn't get any quieter when the engine was warmed up.

I would appreciate any comments or advice.

Thanks,

Dan

[steveatesh]

Personally I'd walk away there are plenty out there.

[northernmedia]

Walk away, find another.

Kind of reminds me of the death rattle often heard on a 997S!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGNSZZZ9Rs4

[zed4]

I should note that the vendor has agreed to take it to a garage to have the ticking noise fixed. Just wondering if anyone has come across this before.

[Quarterly]

Reminds me of the epic Maverick 'ticking noise' thread (on a DB9), so it could be as simple as just taking the whole engine to bits.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[zed4]

Quarterly said:

Reminds me of the epic Maverick 'ticking noise' thread (on a DB9), so it could be as simple as just taking the whole engine to bits.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Completely different engine though

[bentley01]

I think the noise is the oil scavenge pump. Ask on the BR forum because Mike explained it to me with my old V8.

[BamfordMike]

The noise in that vid sounds like tappet shim to me

If it's exhaust cam, is a do in the day job.

If it's inlet cam it's engine out job

[zed4]

BamfordMike said:

The noise in that vid sounds like tappet shim to me

If it's exhaust cam, is a do in the day job.

If it's inlet cam it's engine out job

Thanks for your reply Mike.

Looking back through the service history it had tappet valve assemblies changed in 2011 at a cost of around £6,000 at an Aston Martin dealership. Engine was taken out. That was only 10,000 miles ago.

Would they fail again?

[BamfordMike]

zed4 said:

Thanks for your reply Mike.

Looking back through the service history it had tappet valve assemblies changed in 2011 at a cost of around £6,000 at an Aston Martin dealership. Engine was taken out. That was only 10,000 miles ago.

Would they fail again?

No, they should not. The valve stem top is toughened as is bucket shim, so long as the correct shim was specified / fitted the assembly should run for life (circa 100k). If the problem is not workmanship or other shims now need replacing that were not replaced before, the only other culprit (and root cause of previous problem) could be cam lobe wearing (a known glitch during production so a source tells me).
If vendor does get problem fixed, great, the car is an option for you, but, there are plenty more fish in sea that don't have this worry which probably would not get out of your mind even if you took car on when fixed.

This sort of thing is becoming a big problem, most problem cars get traded on instead of fixed.

[zed4]

BamfordMike said:

zed4 said:

Thanks for your reply Mike.

Looking back through the service history it had tappet valve assemblies changed in 2011 at a cost of around £6,000 at an Aston Martin dealership. Engine was taken out. That was only 10,000 miles ago.

Would they fail again?

No, they should not. The valve stem top is toughened as is bucket shim, so long as the correct shim was specified / fitted the assembly should run for life (circa 100k). If the problem is not workmanship or other shims now need replacing that were not replaced before, the only other culprit (and root cause of previous problem) could be cam lobe wearing (a known glitch during production so a source tells me).
If vendor does get problem fixed, great, the car is an option for you, but, there are plenty more fish in sea that don't have this worry which probably would not get out of your mind even if you took car on when fixed.

This sort of thing is becoming a big problem, most problem cars get traded on instead of fixed.

Mike, thanks for your help with this.

Just spoke with the owner and he has said the garage have come back with their findings. It is indeed a tappet valve train noise. They don't know exactly what/where it is, only that it's from the right hand side bank.

The owner said he understands if I want to pull out of the deal, but he's not going to have the engine taken apart.

I guess the only option here is to walk away. I don't think I could put up with the noise. The car is cheap, but not cheap enough to justify a £6,000 bill.

[BamfordMike]

zed4 said:

Mike, thanks for your help with this.

Just spoke with the owner and he has said the garage have come back with their findings. It is indeed a tappet valve train noise. They don't know exactly what/where it is, only that it's from the right hand side bank.

The owner said he understands if I want to pull out of the deal, but he's not going to have the engine taken apart.

I guess the only option here is to walk away. I don't think I could put up with the noise. The car is cheap, but not cheap enough to justify a £6,000 bill.

I guess the vendor has a limited market, those with a beige device in ear lobe only need apply!

[Speedraser]

BamfordMike said:

No, they should not. The valve stem top is toughened as is bucket shim, so long as the correct shim was specified / fitted the assembly should run for life (circa 100k). If the problem is not workmanship or other shims now need replacing that were not replaced before, the only other culprit (and root cause of previous problem) could be cam lobe wearing (a known glitch during production so a source tells me).
If vendor does get problem fixed, great, the car is an option for you, but, there are plenty more fish in sea that don't have this worry which probably would not get out of your mind even if you took car on when fixed.

This sort of thing is becoming a big problem, most problem cars get traded on instead of fixed.

Mike,

The V8 seems to have an excellent reputation for reliability/durability. This issue seems to be very rare -- is that correct? Is there a model year range that this affects? 4.3 and/or 4.7 engines? If a car is going to have this problem, at what kind of mileage is it likely to show up?

[BamfordMike]

Speedraser said:

Mike,

The V8 seems to have an excellent reputation for reliability/durability. This issue seems to be very rare -- is that correct? Is there a model year range that this affects? 4.3 and/or 4.7 engines? If a car is going to have this problem, at what kind of mileage is it likely to show up?

This particular problem is not repeatable and is just bad luck. In most cases it's wearing of the shim causing the excessive clearance, in rare cases the cam lobes show visual signs of flattening off causing the clearance / tapping. But for either mode of failure , it's just bad luck and rare if the engine develops the problem at all.

If it was going to develop, I would say general valvetrain harshness will increase over 0-20k miles which perhaps leads to one or more of the clearances becoming a pronounced tick instead of remaining general harshness / general top end noise. Then >20k if the valvetrain is super quiet, it should stay that way for life, or if a bit harsh, might stay harsh for life or might develop to an annoying pronounced tick later on.

I have seen completely battered race engines on strip down have the same shim clearance as the day they were set, and no visual signs of wear to any component, and I have seen slightly used road car engines at <20k, for whatever reason, have cam lobe flattening or burroughing of valve stem tip into shim, which must draw conclusion that this rare to occur problem is either incorrect shim settings at original build, or bad batch of components (soft cams).

To be clear, when I said "this sort of thing is becoming a big problem" what I meant is that cars with expensive problems to remedy get traded on and not fixed prior

Edited by BamfordMike on Friday 2nd December 14:21

[Speedraser]

Mike, thanks for the info. Glad to hear it's rare. Does it seem be entirely random, or does it seem to affect certain model years or 4.3 vs 4.7 engines?