Aston Martin advice from Bamford Rose independent specialist
Discussion
mikey k said:
Don't let the facts get in they way 
It was closed because of a similar situation to this muppetery
If there is any source of this ridiculous blend of BR bum-licking and BR attacking, it is the staff of BR who are mis-managing their brand name.It was closed because of a similar situation to this muppetery
Whatever the sycophants say, BR ignore emails from interested customers (in my case I did receive one initial reply then was repeatedly ignored through emails and phone messages when asking for diary dates to book the job in).
I've chosen not to go with the oft-slandered competition Appleby's (who I must say were VERY helpful and good with communications and charming to deal with) - only because I can steer my own team to get the jobs I need done.
If you need tuning/improvement work done to your Aston by experienced and friendly people, talk to Appleby's; if you want to be ignored by a bunch of over-rated people who VERY RUDELY pick and choose who they can be arsed to reply to, go to BR.
so go and say so on the DAE appreciation thread Mechanicals and exterior now all complete on TeaSpn (after over a year of detailed development, it feels like a major milestone for the project and a nice sense of completion). The new Pinnacle downpipes are simply EPIC, I can't explain in words the improvement in sound and performance. I drove the car yesterday to Paintshield for the self-healing film, it was 
with a huge smile all the way 
I woke up this morning, still with the same silly grin on my face! Had to drive to work in my sophisticated but characterless 6 series BMW...
The custom interior is all that we have left to complete now... my daughter (a graduate luxury handbag and leather designer), for those that remember, has been given free-reigns on this as a personal career development project from her Dad. A Dad's role to support his little girl
We plan for completion of interior in December, when we have a renown car photographer lined up to do photo-shoot. Additionally, we are in the process of building a website for TeaSpn to show the vehicle development...
I hope and wish for all indies that turn out craftsmanship and quality to have great success!
This post from me on the BR Blog, is because I am very grateful to the boys at BR, this project would have never entered my life without the confidence I gained in their expertise. I felt I wanted to leave some very happy customer feedback. Thank you guys...
with a huge smile all the way I woke up this morning, still with the same silly grin on my face! Had to drive to work in my sophisticated but characterless 6 series BMW...
The custom interior is all that we have left to complete now... my daughter (a graduate luxury handbag and leather designer), for those that remember, has been given free-reigns on this as a personal career development project from her Dad. A Dad's role to support his little girl
We plan for completion of interior in December, when we have a renown car photographer lined up to do photo-shoot. Additionally, we are in the process of building a website for TeaSpn to show the vehicle development...
I hope and wish for all indies that turn out craftsmanship and quality to have great success!
This post from me on the BR Blog, is because I am very grateful to the boys at BR, this project would have never entered my life without the confidence I gained in their expertise. I felt I wanted to leave some very happy customer feedback. Thank you guys...
W1111AM said:
Mechanicals and exterior now all complete on TeaSpn (after over a year of detailed development, it feels like a major milestone for the project and a nice sense of completion). The new Pinnacle downpipes are simply EPIC, I can't explain in words the improvement in sound and performance. I drove the car yesterday to Paintshield for the self-healing film, it was with a huge smile all the way
I woke up this morning, still with the same silly grin on my face! Had to drive to work in my sophisticated but characterless 6 series BMW...
The custom interior is all that we have left to complete now... my daughter (a graduate luxury handbag and leather designer), for those that remember, has been given free-reigns on this as a personal career development project from her Dad. A Dad's role to support his little girl
We plan for completion of interior in December, when we have a renown car photographer lined up to do photo-shoot. Additionally, we are in the process of building a website for TeaSpn to show the vehicle development...
I hope and wish for all indies that turn out craftsmanship and quality to have great success!
This post from me on the BR Blog, is because I am very grateful to the boys at BR, this project would have never entered my life without the confidence I gained in their expertise. I felt I wanted to leave some very happy customer feedback. Thank you guys...
Have your ears been burning this morning with a huge smile all the way I woke up this morning, still with the same silly grin on my face! Had to drive to work in my sophisticated but characterless 6 series BMW...
The custom interior is all that we have left to complete now... my daughter (a graduate luxury handbag and leather designer), for those that remember, has been given free-reigns on this as a personal career development project from her Dad. A Dad's role to support his little girl
We plan for completion of interior in December, when we have a renown car photographer lined up to do photo-shoot. Additionally, we are in the process of building a website for TeaSpn to show the vehicle development...
I hope and wish for all indies that turn out craftsmanship and quality to have great success!
This post from me on the BR Blog, is because I am very grateful to the boys at BR, this project would have never entered my life without the confidence I gained in their expertise. I felt I wanted to leave some very happy customer feedback. Thank you guys...
I think the boys were as excited by the outcome too W1111AM said:
Beardog said:
W1111AM said:
... my daughter (a graduate luxury handbag and leather designer
You jest surely, or are there degrees in chimney sweeping/hole digging/floor tiling?LV's that the ladies like you to buy them
Thought I would post this story and data up offering advice to anybody faced with renewing Ceramic brakes or advice for anybody buying an early car (V12V or DBS) fitted with ceramic brakes.
This weeks upgrade project is a beautiful DBS Volante having the full 'Lance Spec' 510 to 570 BHP enhancement kit. On test drive the brakes didn't feel as sharp as they should have done and there was poor feedback coming through into cabin from grumbling brakes and poor vibes through steering wheel. Quick inspection on ramp revealed the ceramic discs had seen better days, the top layer / surface was compromised and extremely pitted.
running a finger over the surface it felt extremely rough instead of the near mirror to touch smooth feeling from touching disc within service.
A quick scan of the service book showed the car was @ 24k miles and on its third pad set, and in our experience of ceramic brakes both on track and on road, when in the hands of normal road use driver with perhaps the odd track day and spirited 'A' road use, this did seem normal point (to us) for disc renewal.
However, when we discussed our findings with the owner he was under the impression that the discs should last a lot longer and replacement now was a bit of a shock to him, especially so considering the high cost of the replacement parts.
This is reason for making this posting.
In our opinion it is possible to categorise pad and disc life into the following;
1- in the hands of a pro around race track a set of pads will last approx. 500 miles
2- in the hands of frequent trackday user and fast road driving, a set of pads will last 4500 - 5500 miles
3- in the hands of normal road use, never seeing track day a set of pads will last approx 15k miles
Not in all cases but mostly, regardless of how its achieved (from the list above), a disc will last 3 pad sets.
Discounting the pro track driver as that is not representative of what to look out for in road cars, if the car is year after year tracked and driven hard on the road, then expect approx. 15k miles from a set of discs, for a car driven lightly on the road expect approx 45k miles from the discs before needing replacement. It could be the case that driven extremely lightly on the road a pad set might last 20k miles and discs 60k, but that would be such freak low use of a performance car which would beg the question why the driver owned such a car, but that is a different discussion.
But, the DBS in our workshop didn't really fit any of these categories in our opinion, because it is evident from the disc mounting bells that there is corrosion, the hard anodized disc bell was starting to turn from black to translucent in appearance with a slight purple tint. Meaning that instead of wear causing natural replacement of disc, contamination is cause of the problem, and the source most likely is from use of a chemical wheel cleaner.
What happens is the liquid after washing remains wet on the disc and if the car is driven soon after (<12hrs) the fluid and the brake dust mixes to form more-or-less a sort of grinding paste. The paste eats into the top layer of the ceramic disc making the surface coarse causing accelerated pad wear and poor feeling brakes. Now suspecting contamination is cause of wear we can link this back to the service book of the DBS and by observing the mileage / intervals pads were changed at conclude that instead of categorising the car as must have done track day work because of needing discs @ 24k miles (instead of normal road use needing discs @ approx. 45k), suggests that in early life the discs were compromised.
It must be remembered that even plain water on the disc (from washing / hosing down) will form grinding paste if the car is driven soon after washing. When we service a ceramic disc car we always wash the wheels off the car never getting the discs wet, so those that wash the car, get wheels and discs wet with plain water then take car for a short trip thinking doing good, actually is doing bad.
I have already pictured a worn disc and good disc, here is a new disc pre bedding in. This is useful to remember the crispness of a non contaminated mounting bell. There is stark difference between this and contaminated, so if purchasing a pre-owned car, if the mounting bell appears contaminated expect disc to be compromised also and factor in to the asking price disc renewal as most likely the surface of the disc face will be compromised too.
Also consider,
If in the back of the service book there is evidence car is on 3rd pad set and mileage is around 30k, for sure, make certain the purchase price reflects looming disc renewal.
Do not get discs wet when washing car, if discs become drenched do not drive for 12 hours
Never spray chemical wheel cleaner onto wheels
Ceramic brakes are fantastic, and as many a review out there states, the Aston brakes are about the best in the business, but just remember ceramic brakes need care. It is track usage that really wears these brakes, when the driver is REALLY standing on them and they get super hot, the wear rate is super fast - like mm's off the pad thickness in one day.
This weeks upgrade project is a beautiful DBS Volante having the full 'Lance Spec' 510 to 570 BHP enhancement kit. On test drive the brakes didn't feel as sharp as they should have done and there was poor feedback coming through into cabin from grumbling brakes and poor vibes through steering wheel. Quick inspection on ramp revealed the ceramic discs had seen better days, the top layer / surface was compromised and extremely pitted.
running a finger over the surface it felt extremely rough instead of the near mirror to touch smooth feeling from touching disc within service.
A quick scan of the service book showed the car was @ 24k miles and on its third pad set, and in our experience of ceramic brakes both on track and on road, when in the hands of normal road use driver with perhaps the odd track day and spirited 'A' road use, this did seem normal point (to us) for disc renewal.
However, when we discussed our findings with the owner he was under the impression that the discs should last a lot longer and replacement now was a bit of a shock to him, especially so considering the high cost of the replacement parts.
This is reason for making this posting.
In our opinion it is possible to categorise pad and disc life into the following;
1- in the hands of a pro around race track a set of pads will last approx. 500 miles
2- in the hands of frequent trackday user and fast road driving, a set of pads will last 4500 - 5500 miles
3- in the hands of normal road use, never seeing track day a set of pads will last approx 15k miles
Not in all cases but mostly, regardless of how its achieved (from the list above), a disc will last 3 pad sets.
Discounting the pro track driver as that is not representative of what to look out for in road cars, if the car is year after year tracked and driven hard on the road, then expect approx. 15k miles from a set of discs, for a car driven lightly on the road expect approx 45k miles from the discs before needing replacement. It could be the case that driven extremely lightly on the road a pad set might last 20k miles and discs 60k, but that would be such freak low use of a performance car which would beg the question why the driver owned such a car, but that is a different discussion.
But, the DBS in our workshop didn't really fit any of these categories in our opinion, because it is evident from the disc mounting bells that there is corrosion, the hard anodized disc bell was starting to turn from black to translucent in appearance with a slight purple tint. Meaning that instead of wear causing natural replacement of disc, contamination is cause of the problem, and the source most likely is from use of a chemical wheel cleaner.
What happens is the liquid after washing remains wet on the disc and if the car is driven soon after (<12hrs) the fluid and the brake dust mixes to form more-or-less a sort of grinding paste. The paste eats into the top layer of the ceramic disc making the surface coarse causing accelerated pad wear and poor feeling brakes. Now suspecting contamination is cause of wear we can link this back to the service book of the DBS and by observing the mileage / intervals pads were changed at conclude that instead of categorising the car as must have done track day work because of needing discs @ 24k miles (instead of normal road use needing discs @ approx. 45k), suggests that in early life the discs were compromised.
It must be remembered that even plain water on the disc (from washing / hosing down) will form grinding paste if the car is driven soon after washing. When we service a ceramic disc car we always wash the wheels off the car never getting the discs wet, so those that wash the car, get wheels and discs wet with plain water then take car for a short trip thinking doing good, actually is doing bad.
I have already pictured a worn disc and good disc, here is a new disc pre bedding in. This is useful to remember the crispness of a non contaminated mounting bell. There is stark difference between this and contaminated, so if purchasing a pre-owned car, if the mounting bell appears contaminated expect disc to be compromised also and factor in to the asking price disc renewal as most likely the surface of the disc face will be compromised too.
Also consider,
If in the back of the service book there is evidence car is on 3rd pad set and mileage is around 30k, for sure, make certain the purchase price reflects looming disc renewal.
Do not get discs wet when washing car, if discs become drenched do not drive for 12 hours
Never spray chemical wheel cleaner onto wheels
Ceramic brakes are fantastic, and as many a review out there states, the Aston brakes are about the best in the business, but just remember ceramic brakes need care. It is track usage that really wears these brakes, when the driver is REALLY standing on them and they get super hot, the wear rate is super fast - like mm's off the pad thickness in one day.
Quinny said:
whoami said:
What about when you drive the car in the rain??
Now you're just being silly....
However:
BamfordMike said:
It must be remembered that even plain water on the disc (from washing / hosing down) will form grinding paste if the car is driven soon after washing.
whoami said:
What about when you drive the car in the rain??
there is no real path of rain or splash water onto the disc.should water mist be sucked up through cooling ducts will simply be vaporised by heat
the good point your question raises is wading through water - problem. But this isn't a problem brand specific, is problem all cars with ceramic brakes.
steel brakes suffer problems, on vanquish we replace more discs and pads due to corrosion than through being worn out. The steel brakes last around the same as the mileage i stated ceramics wear out at. Only reason corrosion or wear rate problems isn't spoken or bothered about on steels is the relatively low price vs ceramic to replace.
We've seen many pictures of cars on here covered in snow foam which obviously, have then been jet washed. So it's probably fair to say that most give the wheels a good wash thinking just soapy water is fine. So I have a question:
Should contact with water be avoided, full stop - or - is it OK to clean them and then use an air gun or some other form of high powered air flow to dry them?
There'll be a few on here changing their cleaning regimes, for sure.
Should contact with water be avoided, full stop - or - is it OK to clean them and then use an air gun or some other form of high powered air flow to dry them?
There'll be a few on here changing their cleaning regimes, for sure.
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