Aston Martin advice from Bamford Rose independent specialist

[flinder]

Mike, Congratulations on the completion of your facility addition. Looks First Class!

Show us the inside when you are ready.

Best regards, flinder

[VanquishDubai]

BamfordMike said:

Have you read a locked thread 'My Vanquish nightmare'??, you got a great deal having the frame replaced FOC, it would seem, and unfortunately for the OP of that thread, the same level of great customer service is not the same in UK as appears to be in your territory.....

Here is the normal culprit for pedal / brake oscillation - corrosion.



once the corrosion is ground in and is left in this state for period of time the damage (excessive run-out) is done. Skimming is unwise because the min to max wear limit of the discs is a little over 2mm. Better to bite the bullet and buy new discs and pads (pads required because now your current pads will be worn to the shape of the old discs). With new kit you will have a great / normal feeling pedal and in this perfect state there will be no pedal / brake oscillation - you are correct in stating that poor pedal feel is not a normal Vanquish feature.

no probs for any questions you have - that what we are here for...!

Thanks for the photo of the discs. I will double check this avo re the state, however when I had a good look before they looked mint. The were replaced with the vented discs and the car has only done a few kms on them. All in all the car is mint now (Although I did put new HT leads..plugs..pads..AC system...Engine cradle/subframe...wishbones front and rear..upper and lower...pulleys...and other odds and sods. )


Re the discs. can you send me a PM or email to [e-mail] with the costs for the discs. I will cross my fingers. Re the judder..for the moment its not at all bad now I have new pads on there and they have cleaned up the discs etc..However if it gets any worse then I will. Whilst you are there can you give me a cost for a clutch. I dont need one yet...but I think its the sort of cost I need to prepare a few years in advance for if you know what I mean.

By the way...pic of the car attached in case you are interested. : ) And I would sell it if you know anyone interested. It is mint...only 15,000 Kms - 9,320 miles. Owned by Qatari Royal Family. Every service under the sun. Open to reasonable offers. I love it...but still, if I get a decent price would consider. Its under Astons Extended Warranty Scheme for another 10 months.

Edited by VanquishDubai on Tuesday 4th September 14:19

[VanquishDubai]

And yes, I read the "My Nightmare" story. Really feel for the guy. I checked on a million forums before buying and asked the dealer to take photos of the engine cradle so that I had proof they checked it. Lucky I did. Hope the guy has has better luck now. I think it goes around you know.

[Molly GT]

BamfordMike said:

Bamford Rose itself gets an upgrade.....!

The other import benefit we get from our new workshop will be outside space which we intend to use for sales when we venture into that business. Anybody can sell cars, what we aim to deliver is the sale of an Aston with the Bamford Rose guaranty of history, quality and reliability with leading independent after sales service and support.

But for now having the extra ramps and technicians will mean we can keep up with the demand we appreciate and thank you all for. We will be having an open day to celebrate and besides coming for Pommehogsters catering we will be staging an interesting competition which the winner will receive some upgrade kit as the prize...!

Be careful saying 'anyone can sell cars' - it's trickier than you might think! However, I can send Rob over to give you a masterclass if that might help (or loan him to you occasionally on commission!)

On the subject of coming over - V888AMV and her drivers are looking forward to the launch invite - and the catering - hope its happening soon while we have some decent weather

[GlynV8]

I can see resistance is futile and I think it is about time my V8V had a few enhancements for it's 3rd birthday.
Email enquiry sent.

[yeti]

Finally got the new workshop in order - looks great Mike!

Look forward to the opening party and Ben's cooking again - happy days, just like Le Mans

[robgt]

Mike, Molly and I would definitely be up for your open day. I will be so proud to show off our S. So when is the big day planed for? Are you going to sign write the building?

If you need anyone who requires convincing to do the exhaust upgrade please let me have a word with them!!

[Tony V12V]

robgt said:

Mike, Molly and I would definitely be up for your open day. I will be so proud to show off our S. So when is the big day planed for? Are you going to sign write the building?

If you need anyone who requires convincing to do the exhaust upgrade please let me have a word with them!!

Are you pleased with it then Rob?

[BamfordMike]

apotek said:

Just tried and no warning at all, no codes,coolant full it`s just that vantage way to keep us all on our toes.Only thing is that the coolant is brown and I am sure that it was reddish the last time this happened.

The level remains constant, yes??

[BamfordMike]

VanquishDubai said:

Re the discs. can you send me a PM or email to [e-mail] with the costs for the discs. Whilst you are there can you give me a cost for a clutch. I dont need one yet...but I think its the sort of cost I need to prepare a few years in advance for if you know what I mean.

By the way...pic of the car attached in case you are interested. : )

|http://thumbsnap.com/6Hy9db9N[/url]

Edited by VanquishDubai on Tuesday 4th September 14:19

Great looking car..!

Vanquish S discs are about £565 each and pad set per axle about £250 ish.

Clutch kit is around the £2700 mark just for the parts (depends on the car and the upgrades already done meaning more or less of latest level clutch kit is required).

After the 'Vanquish nightmare' and stories from other epics we have done on several Vanquish recently, I will soon bring back from the dead a Vanquish running costs thread and update it. Forum member PSimmerson made some excellent living with Vanquish remarks and accurate charted likely spend on service and upkeep.

[BamfordMike]

Molly GT said:

Be careful saying 'anyone can sell cars' - it's trickier than you might think! However, I can send Rob over to give you a masterclass if that might help (or loan him to you occasionally on commission!)

On the subject of coming over - V888AMV and her drivers are looking forward to the launch invite - and the catering - hope its happening soon while we have some decent weather

I hear you and i was being rather flippant....

just these last few months i have seen 3 broken engines, 1 broken gearbox and lots of minor repair issues from cars brought to us by new owners straight from sales where the cars were billed as tip-top.
We get asked to perform nearly as many post purchase inspections, just to give the new owner reassurance, as we do annual service schedules. This strikes me as odd because clearly no matter who the vendor or inspection the car is billed as having sailed through, owners have nagging doubts as to the real status of the cars health and seek second opinion.
What we are planning on doing is offering to market cars toward the older end of the new era market, and after our preparation come without hidden nasty or skimpy service history and create a name that a car from Bamford Rose is a car to trust. There are a few of our clients who are traders that do this very well and have a great reputation, and i can see how well these guys prepare cars for sales by the extent of the work they undertake with us prior themselves being happy to put the car for sale - but these guys are in the minority of traders and are also spread across many marques.

I will snap up the opportunity of the materclass from Rob, sadly i think our open day will not make it before the weather turns

[BamfordMike]

robgt said:

Mike, Molly and I would definitely be up for your open day. I will be so proud to show off our S. So when is the big day planed for? Are you going to sign write the building?

If you need anyone who requires convincing to do the exhaust upgrade please let me have a word with them!!

Thanks Rob, after the fun atmosphere of the open day we had earlier this year i cant wait to celebrate moving into more palatial facility too.

We have pommehogster on the food and drink, we are going to set up something like GranTurismo on a games console and whoever sets the fastest lap wins a piece of upgrade kit, and no doubt a certain dear Vantage S and a certain green DB9V will provide the soundtrack to the day along the fosse way - cant wait but we are not quite their yet...

So glad you are enjoying your PandJ so much..!

[Gibberish]

Hello Mike

Please would you give me a price for supplied and fitted MY09 mirrors? The same as you’ve done for Pete Cowie’s DB9. Thanks in advance.

[apotek]

Yes Mike the level stays constant but the warning came back again with no faults on the obd I am only 20 miles from the Macc lads so am popping in tomorrow for a change of coolant and maybe a new switch.Thanks for your help and your generously giving time and advice john

[vince1972]

Great news, Mike!

Very happy for you

BamfordMike said:

Bamford Rose itself gets an upgrade.....!

Thanks to many PH members who entrust their pride and joy with us to repair and service, those that take the plunge for upgrade projects and our Motorsport clients who we prepare and evolve racing cars for. We find ourselves in the fantastic situation, especially in these times, of reaching saturation point and out growing what our current facility allows is to deliver.

For the last 6 months and as many of you who have visited us have seen at different stages of development, out the back of our current workshop - we have something bigger and better...!





This new facility gives us much more space for drive-in /drive out service, and we will have one dedicated ramp and technician for service.

We will have one dedicated ramp and technician for DB7 and Vanquish repair and service.

We will have one dedicated ramp and technician for V8 and V12 upgrades.

We also keep our existing facility for long term projects and motorsport where cars occupy ramp for many weeks.

The other import benefit we get from our new workshop will be outside space which we intend to use for sales when we venture into that business. Anybody can sell cars, what we aim to deliver is the sale of an Aston with the Bamford Rose guaranty of history, quality and reliability with leading independent after sales service and support.

But for now having the extra ramps and technicians will mean we can keep up with the demand we appreciate and thank you all for. We will be having an open day to celebrate and besides coming for Pommehogsters catering we will be staging an interesting competition which the winner will receive some upgrade kit as the prize...!

[BamfordMike]

Gibberish said:

Hello Mike

Please would you give me a price for supplied and fitted MY09 mirrors? The same as you’ve done for Pete Cowie’s DB9. Thanks in advance.

From the top of my head mirrors bare of trims / seals = £150 pair, trim kit = £160, plus labour and plus VAT

labour would depend on what else you were having done with us, for instance we could merge if this job was part of service....

[jonby]

All the best with the new facility Mike !

Can you explain a little more about the Cats in the V12 system please ? I'm already thinking about what to do to V12VR when it arrives !

I have more or less ruled out changing the backbox, as whilst I loved my tubi, the loss of valves is not ideal for some circumstances - the only valved systems appear to be Capristo (which is 4k plus fitting although has remote control for a variety of settings)or Kriesseg which is even more money

If I don't want to go the whole hog of your wonderful looking manifolds, what options are there regarding the cats ? IIRC, did you mention there are 3 pairs in the V12 system, as opposed to one in the V8 ? If so, is there any benefit to changing just one pair of cats, which I assume is the only viable option ? I'm guessing the pair that can be changed is just a little way down from the backbox. So do the other two pairs feature much closer to the engine, just before the 'split' into 2 then 3 ? HOw restrictive are they. Out of interest, in your full manifold system, presumably a reasonable amount of the 'gain' comes from going from 6 restrictive cats to 2 racing cats ?

[BamfordMike]

jonby said:

All the best with the new facility Mike !

Can you explain a little more about the Cats in the V12 system please ? I'm already thinking about what to do to V12VR when it arrives !

I have more or less ruled out changing the backbox, as whilst I loved my tubi, the loss of valves is not ideal for some circumstances - the only valved systems appear to be Capristo (which is 4k plus fitting although has remote control for a variety of settings)or Kriesseg which is even more money

If I don't want to go the whole hog of your wonderful looking manifolds, what options are there regarding the cats ? IIRC, did you mention there are 3 pairs in the V12 system, as opposed to one in the V8 ? If so, is there any benefit to changing just one pair of cats, which I assume is the only viable option ? I'm guessing the pair that can be changed is just a little way down from the backbox. So do the other two pairs feature much closer to the engine, just before the 'split' into 2 then 3 ? HOw restrictive are they. Out of interest, in your full manifold system, presumably a reasonable amount of the 'gain' comes from going from 6 restrictive cats to 2 racing cats ?

Thanks for the best wishes jonby....

The standard exhaust system has 2 starter catalysts per side and 1 secondary catalyst making 3 catalysts per bank / 6 in total.

We are soon to fit Bamford Rose exhaust systems to forum members JohnG39 and Guycord's V12V's. These systems will have the 2 starter bricks removed like the system we fitted to Yeti's car, but wont have, to the same extent, tuned primary pipe lengths or F1 style collectors like Yeti's does. This means less cost for the exhaust manifold but less power delta increase as a result. Exactly how much, meaning it is possible to attribute exactly how much delta increase comes from the tuned primary pipes or how much comes from removing the catalyst bricks, we will only know fully when we have performed necessary testing. The exhaust note of this system will be 'Baritone' unlike Yeti's 'tenor' and yes, will have the benefit of bypass valves to make quiet the exhaust note when wished.

If you didnt want to touch the manifolds at all, then the secondary cats can be exchanged for high flow replacements and give a smaller power increase but still glorious exhaust note.

The power delta of std + high flow secondary cats,
the above + Stage 1 manifolds
All the above + stage 2 manifolds, will be reported when we complete the next 2 projects and I will do my best to capture the exhaust note too.

Enjoy ur beast when it arrives....

[jonby]

BamfordMike said:

The standard exhaust system has 2 starter catalysts per side and 1 secondary catalyst making 3 catalysts per bank / 6 in total.

We are soon to fit Bamford Rose exhaust systems to forum members JohnG39 and Guycord's V12V's. These systems will have the 2 starter bricks removed like the system we fitted to Yeti's car, but wont have, to the same extent, tuned primary pipe lengths or F1 style collectors like Yeti's does. This means less cost for the exhaust manifold but less power delta increase as a result. Exactly how much, meaning it is possible to attribute exactly how much delta increase comes from the tuned primary pipes or how much comes from removing the catalyst bricks, we will only know fully when we have performed necessary testing. The exhaust note of this system will be 'Baritone' unlike Yeti's 'tenor' and yes, will have the benefit of bypass valves to make quiet the exhaust note when wished.

If you didnt want to touch the manifolds at all, then the secondary cats can be exchanged for high flow replacements and give a smaller power increase but still glorious exhaust note.

The power delta of std + high flow secondary cats,
the above + Stage 1 manifolds
All the above + stage 2 manifolds, will be reported when we complete the next 2 projects and I will do my best to capture the exhaust note too.

Enjoy ur beast when it arrives....

Thanks MIke - exactly what I'm looking for

I appreciate John is looking at high lift cams and possibly inlet manifolds too, but forgetting that, if I understand correctly, the 'middle stage' you refer to above effectively replaces the exhaust manifolds from the backbox all the way to the collectors/primary pipes, deleting the primary cats & replacing the secondary cats along the way ? So you could always upgrade the back box and/or the 'primary manifolds' at a later stage without duplication.

I know John has referred to some of the option combinations as being more geared to increases in torque, others in bhp and in some instances, changing where in the power curve these increases come and potentially even the redline.

In this example, of stage 1 exhaust manifolds plus cat replacement/delete, do you expect a little extra power & torque across the range or a more 'focussed' improvement in one particular area ? I'm not looking to overly change the general characteristics of the car's performance (though I do like the idea of a higher revving engine) and my main objectives are more (i.e. louder) of the same (deep) noise and a touch more power at the same time - for me, the engine is certainly not lacking in torque.

[BamfordMike]

jonby said:

Thanks MIke - exactly what I'm looking for

I appreciate John is looking at high lift cams and possibly inlet manifolds too, but forgetting that, if I understand correctly, the 'middle stage' you refer to above effectively replaces the exhaust manifolds from the backbox all the way to the collectors/primary pipes, deleting the primary cats & replacing the secondary cats along the way ? So you could always upgrade the back box and/or the 'primary manifolds' at a later stage without duplication.

I know John has referred to some of the option combinations as being more geared to increases in torque, others in bhp and in some instances, changing where in the power curve these increases come and potentially even the redline.

In this example, of stage 1 exhaust manifolds plus cat replacement/delete, do you expect a little extra power & torque across the range or a more 'focussed' improvement in one particular area ? I'm not looking to overly change the general characteristics of the car's performance (though I do like the idea of a higher revving engine) and my main objectives are more (i.e. louder) of the same (deep) noise and a touch more power at the same time - for me, the engine is certainly not lacking in torque.

Jonby.

The silencer and intermediate pipes stay the same, we replace the manifolds and catalysts only. We have the top spec manifolds and cats as per Yeti's car and the halfway house which will be fitted to JohnG39 car, both specs are new manifolds and cats - but clearly are of different design. But, what we could do for a third option is just replace the secondary cats, keeping existing manifolds, for higher flow cats. Then at a later date the manifolds could be added - whatever level.

The experiment we will conduct with John will assess two different options. One which will deliver more mid range torque at the sacrifice of lowering peak power redline speed and power value. The other option will deliver lower torque for the trade of higher peak power value which is higher up the rev range. The experiment will uncover for John which style of torque / power delivery more suits his driving style, and help inform other owners in the future what system is best for their upgrade project.

Lewis was clear in his directive, he wanted the engine to rev as high as possible, make the most power as possible and sound as loud as possible. The distinction between Lewis and what will be JohnG39 systems is that by nature of construction Lewis system will sound 'tenor' and JohnG39 'baritone'.

Just upgrade to high flow cats keeping existing manifolds will also deliver 'baritone', just deeper and louder than exhaust note released from factory

Hope this answers your questions.