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

[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.

[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

[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?

[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.