Aston V8 Vantage 4.3
Discussion
IainWhy said:
yes mate. its no drama as i just cleaned it all up and bonded it back with 3m DP6310 which is i am almost sure what asston used in the first place. but i was surprised to find both insecure. Just years of heat and vibration i guess.
Oh yes, haha, I remember now. They had come off Iike yours but I only found them putting it back together, time was short so they’re just put back how I found them for now. olv said:
Oh yes, haha, I remember now. They had come off Iike yours but I only found them putting it back together, time was short so they’re just put back how I found them for now.
I thought it could be a common problem, for what its worth I think they were bonded with 3m Scotchweld DP6310Ns Green which is a commonly available urethane multi material glue. I just removed the glue, wire wheeled the surface and bonded it with the above glue which seems solid.
IainWhy said:
I thought it could be a common problem, for what its worth I think they were bonded with 3m Scotchweld DP6310Ns Green which is a commonly available urethane multi material glue.
I just removed the glue, wire wheeled the surface and bonded it with the above glue which seems solid.
Great, thanks. I just removed the glue, wire wheeled the surface and bonded it with the above glue which seems solid.
My next job is the power steering fluid, have you done yours? I get the high pitch whine through the steering column at low speed manoeuvring. There was a service bulletin to change the fluid from the original ATF to CHF 11S with some special additive thrown in. But not sure I want to tackle it in my basement.
Nothing bad to report since its MOT, the car has behaved, the Deadweight battery has been no trouble starting without issue after a couple of weeks of sitting. Has felt a bit like mid 2020 mostly just using it for essential journeys...
But I have ticked off another two bits of maintenance. First was the steering which would make a high pitch noise at slow speed manoeuvring, a bit like vinyl record being scratched. The power steering system and rack are reportedly very robust, but the rack is horribly expensive should you need to replace it so I did not want to wait for it to get any worse. There was a service bulletin from Aston Martin part way through production where they changed from Texaco ATF fluid in the power steering system to CHF 11S power steering fluid with a lubricating additive called Lubrizol. This was to address cars (Vantage and DB9) which were experiencing inconsistent or lumpy feeling steering or noises. I had no record of the power steering fluid ever having been changed so assumed it was still on the 16 year old fluid.
I followed Aston1936's YouTube guide from his DB9.
Front wheels off as you need to turn the wheel a lot with the engine off.
Empty the reservoir of as much fluid as you can.
Then disconnect the return house from the bottom of the reservoir, bunging up the barb on the reservoir to stop it leaking everywhere and then using a 12mm ID hose and a hose barb to make a route for the old fluid to empty into a bottle.
Then the motion of turning the wheel back and forth from lock to lock will pump the old fluid out.
Then you need 2 litres of fluid, the system is about 1.3 litre total but you will use some to push the remaining old fluid out. So fill up the reservoir to max and then spin the wheel back and forth again. Repeat this until you get clean, new fluid showing coming out.
The dog was really bored by this point, wondering why he'd even volunteered to help.
You can then reconnect the hoses and put the reservoir back (I'd removed it from its clamp for better access). Then I added the Lubrizol additive and topped up with more new fluid. To bleed the system I did more turns of the wheel lock to lock, checking the level and topping up if necessary. There is a thorough process in the manual of bringing the fluid up to 100C with the engine on and a particular routine of turning and holding the wheel but I think if you've repeated enough turns of the wheel you won't have an airlock.
I've been keeping an eye on the fluid level since and it's stable, steering feels good, no negative change but the noise has gone now so will consider that a success.
The second job I'd been putting off since I got it was the door gas struts had totally gone, but I hate the job having done it on my previous car. It's simple enough but access via the arch liner is annoying. Knowing this would be a good opportunity with both wheels already off I finally did it.
Then wondered why I didn't do it last year, makes such a difference not having your legs almost chopped off every time you get out.
But I have ticked off another two bits of maintenance. First was the steering which would make a high pitch noise at slow speed manoeuvring, a bit like vinyl record being scratched. The power steering system and rack are reportedly very robust, but the rack is horribly expensive should you need to replace it so I did not want to wait for it to get any worse. There was a service bulletin from Aston Martin part way through production where they changed from Texaco ATF fluid in the power steering system to CHF 11S power steering fluid with a lubricating additive called Lubrizol. This was to address cars (Vantage and DB9) which were experiencing inconsistent or lumpy feeling steering or noises. I had no record of the power steering fluid ever having been changed so assumed it was still on the 16 year old fluid.
I followed Aston1936's YouTube guide from his DB9.
Front wheels off as you need to turn the wheel a lot with the engine off.
Empty the reservoir of as much fluid as you can.
Then disconnect the return house from the bottom of the reservoir, bunging up the barb on the reservoir to stop it leaking everywhere and then using a 12mm ID hose and a hose barb to make a route for the old fluid to empty into a bottle.
Then the motion of turning the wheel back and forth from lock to lock will pump the old fluid out.
Then you need 2 litres of fluid, the system is about 1.3 litre total but you will use some to push the remaining old fluid out. So fill up the reservoir to max and then spin the wheel back and forth again. Repeat this until you get clean, new fluid showing coming out.
The dog was really bored by this point, wondering why he'd even volunteered to help.
You can then reconnect the hoses and put the reservoir back (I'd removed it from its clamp for better access). Then I added the Lubrizol additive and topped up with more new fluid. To bleed the system I did more turns of the wheel lock to lock, checking the level and topping up if necessary. There is a thorough process in the manual of bringing the fluid up to 100C with the engine on and a particular routine of turning and holding the wheel but I think if you've repeated enough turns of the wheel you won't have an airlock.
I've been keeping an eye on the fluid level since and it's stable, steering feels good, no negative change but the noise has gone now so will consider that a success.
The second job I'd been putting off since I got it was the door gas struts had totally gone, but I hate the job having done it on my previous car. It's simple enough but access via the arch liner is annoying. Knowing this would be a good opportunity with both wheels already off I finally did it.
Then wondered why I didn't do it last year, makes such a difference not having your legs almost chopped off every time you get out.
I didn't update this at all in the last few months of last year. There was not a lot to report but I did go on holiday to Wales at the end of August and it was mega.
I actually SORNed the car for November and December so it really has been doing nothing (worth noting that the Deadweight battery has been brilliant so far, never fails to start after 4-5 weeks, without any juice). But I did treat myself to a Christmas present which I've just fitted.
I had had factory Alcantara wheels in my TT quattro Sport and M3 CS before and loved them and this is something I'd wanted to add to to the Vantage but had not gotten around to. So I had the wheel and gearstick and gaitor done and think it looks great.
It was a simple process to switch following Redpants guides.
As part of it I bought a second spare wheel with no multifunction controls as I wanted to ditch the ugly bluetooth control wart that was useless as it doesn't control the stereo on MY2007. So I now have a more pleasing, symmetrical wheel.
The other thing I am working on for the interior is a CarPlay install. There's a huge thread on here https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/aston-martin/4... so I am taking my notes from that. I'll update if and when that comes to fruition.
I actually SORNed the car for November and December so it really has been doing nothing (worth noting that the Deadweight battery has been brilliant so far, never fails to start after 4-5 weeks, without any juice). But I did treat myself to a Christmas present which I've just fitted.
I had had factory Alcantara wheels in my TT quattro Sport and M3 CS before and loved them and this is something I'd wanted to add to to the Vantage but had not gotten around to. So I had the wheel and gearstick and gaitor done and think it looks great.
It was a simple process to switch following Redpants guides.
As part of it I bought a second spare wheel with no multifunction controls as I wanted to ditch the ugly bluetooth control wart that was useless as it doesn't control the stereo on MY2007. So I now have a more pleasing, symmetrical wheel.
The other thing I am working on for the interior is a CarPlay install. There's a huge thread on here https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/aston-martin/4... so I am taking my notes from that. I'll update if and when that comes to fruition.
In the interest of keep this up to date, I have finally finished my raspberry pi based CarPlay install. I found this thread a long time ago and always wanted to try it out https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/aston-martin/4... essentially it's dismantling the factory navigation screen, retrofitting a higher resolution screen and connecting it to a device to gives you CarPlay and whatever other functionality you're after (front and rear cameras being a popular one).
I wanted to keep it really simple, the more involved builds go to the length of building a wiring harness and signal inverter to be able to view the factory navigation screen with the use of an input switch. However that was a step beyond what I was capable of so I stuck to building a simple CarPlay computer using a Raspberry Pi 4 and used a GitHub project called CarPlay React which enables the use of the common Android CarlinKit USB dongles to be run natively on RaspbianOS rather than needing to use an Android port like lineage. The reason being that it's built for Pis hardware, so should be a leaner OS generally with minimal customisation needed.
This is the bones of it, a Raspberry Pi 4, a CarlinKit wired USB CarPlay dongle, a 6.5" 800x480 LCD and an external speaker to test audio out.
Used the same eBay screen AT065TN14 that lots of builds in 6speedonline thread used.
Took the screen out the dash which is straightforward.
Stripped it down out of the casing which is an absolute pain.
Squeezed everything in.
It works!
Get your dog to help you put it all back together. Running cables from the dash to the footwell is a pain too.
You can just make out the power cable for the screen and the HDMI cable between the vents, these routed down into the passenger footwell fusebox where the Mr12Volt box already lives and where the Pi will live and get its power.
It looks OEM finished and as I memorised the button combo to shutdown the screen (it is Back, down, down, down, Enter) I can still hide the screen when not in use. Power from the accessory circuit turns on the Pi when the car is unlocked so the 90 second boot up time is not an issue.
As it's just an HDMI screen I could swap out or upgrade the Pi in future for one the car media CarPlay PCs or other device. Equally I could revert it to stock if necessary.
I wanted to keep it really simple, the more involved builds go to the length of building a wiring harness and signal inverter to be able to view the factory navigation screen with the use of an input switch. However that was a step beyond what I was capable of so I stuck to building a simple CarPlay computer using a Raspberry Pi 4 and used a GitHub project called CarPlay React which enables the use of the common Android CarlinKit USB dongles to be run natively on RaspbianOS rather than needing to use an Android port like lineage. The reason being that it's built for Pis hardware, so should be a leaner OS generally with minimal customisation needed.
This is the bones of it, a Raspberry Pi 4, a CarlinKit wired USB CarPlay dongle, a 6.5" 800x480 LCD and an external speaker to test audio out.
Used the same eBay screen AT065TN14 that lots of builds in 6speedonline thread used.
Took the screen out the dash which is straightforward.
Stripped it down out of the casing which is an absolute pain.
Squeezed everything in.
It works!
Get your dog to help you put it all back together. Running cables from the dash to the footwell is a pain too.
You can just make out the power cable for the screen and the HDMI cable between the vents, these routed down into the passenger footwell fusebox where the Mr12Volt box already lives and where the Pi will live and get its power.
It looks OEM finished and as I memorised the button combo to shutdown the screen (it is Back, down, down, down, Enter) I can still hide the screen when not in use. Power from the accessory circuit turns on the Pi when the car is unlocked so the 90 second boot up time is not an issue.
As it's just an HDMI screen I could swap out or upgrade the Pi in future for one the car media CarPlay PCs or other device. Equally I could revert it to stock if necessary.
olv said:
In the interest of keep this up to date, I have finally finished my raspberry pi based CarPlay install. I found this thread a long time ago and always wanted to try it out https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/aston-martin/4... essentially it's dismantling the factory navigation screen, retrofitting a higher resolution screen and connecting it to a device to gives you CarPlay and whatever other functionality you're after (front and rear cameras being a popular one).
I wanted to keep it really simple, the more involved builds go to the length of building a wiring harness and signal inverter to be able to view the factory navigation screen with the use of an input switch. However that was a step beyond what I was capable of so I stuck to building a simple CarPlay computer using a Raspberry Pi 4 and used a GitHub project called CarPlay React which enables the use of the common Android CarlinKit USB dongles to be run natively on RaspbianOS rather than needing to use an Android port like lineage. The reason being that it's built for Pis hardware, so should be a leaner OS generally with minimal customisation needed.
This is the bones of it, a Raspberry Pi 4, a CarlinKit wired USB CarPlay dongle, a 6.5" 800x480 LCD and an external speaker to test audio out.
Used the same eBay screen AT065TN14 that lots of builds in 6speedonline thread used.
Took the screen out the dash which is straightforward.
Stripped it down out of the casing which is an absolute pain.
Squeezed everything in.
It works!
Get your dog to help you put it all back together. Running cables from the dash to the footwell is a pain too.
You can just make out the power cable for the screen and the HDMI cable between the vents, these routed down into the passenger footwell fusebox where the Mr12Volt box already lives and where the Pi will live and get its power.
It looks OEM finished and as I memorised the button combo to shutdown the screen (it is Back, down, down, down, Enter) I can still hide the screen when not in use. Power from the accessory circuit turns on the Pi when the car is unlocked so the 90 second boot up time is not an issue.
As it's just an HDMI screen I could swap out or upgrade the Pi in future for one the car media CarPlay PCs or other device. Equally I could revert it to stock if necessary.
How does it compare performance wise with the E46 M3 ? From memory the M3 weighs circa 1530 kgs. My old 53 plate manual M3 was absolutely epic performance wise even with 179,000 on it. I stripped out the rear seats & door cards which saved a lot of weight. The front seats were boat anchors I wanted to keep it really simple, the more involved builds go to the length of building a wiring harness and signal inverter to be able to view the factory navigation screen with the use of an input switch. However that was a step beyond what I was capable of so I stuck to building a simple CarPlay computer using a Raspberry Pi 4 and used a GitHub project called CarPlay React which enables the use of the common Android CarlinKit USB dongles to be run natively on RaspbianOS rather than needing to use an Android port like lineage. The reason being that it's built for Pis hardware, so should be a leaner OS generally with minimal customisation needed.
This is the bones of it, a Raspberry Pi 4, a CarlinKit wired USB CarPlay dongle, a 6.5" 800x480 LCD and an external speaker to test audio out.
Used the same eBay screen AT065TN14 that lots of builds in 6speedonline thread used.
Took the screen out the dash which is straightforward.
Stripped it down out of the casing which is an absolute pain.
Squeezed everything in.
It works!
Get your dog to help you put it all back together. Running cables from the dash to the footwell is a pain too.
You can just make out the power cable for the screen and the HDMI cable between the vents, these routed down into the passenger footwell fusebox where the Mr12Volt box already lives and where the Pi will live and get its power.
It looks OEM finished and as I memorised the button combo to shutdown the screen (it is Back, down, down, down, Enter) I can still hide the screen when not in use. Power from the accessory circuit turns on the Pi when the car is unlocked so the 90 second boot up time is not an issue.
As it's just an HDMI screen I could swap out or upgrade the Pi in future for one the car media CarPlay PCs or other device. Equally I could revert it to stock if necessary.
T_S_M said:
Absolutely love what you’ve done with this far.
I’m looking at changing my ISF for one of these later in the year. What are they like to work on generally? And parts are readily available being a lot of Ford/Volvo stuff?
Thanks I’m looking at changing my ISF for one of these later in the year. What are they like to work on generally? And parts are readily available being a lot of Ford/Volvo stuff?
there’s a bit DIY community for them now so you’ll find someone who has tackled most jobs. The Ford/Volvo/Jag stuff is not always as helpful as you imagine. Most of the potential bigger costs are Aston specific mechanicals, but if you get a well looked after car that’s had a new clutch in the last 20k miles then unless you’re unlucky (which is possible!) you would get away with £1-2k a year of servicing/running. SS427 Camaro said:
How does it compare performance wise with the E46 M3 ? From memory the M3 weighs circa 1530 kgs. My old 53 plate manual M3 was absolutely epic performance wise even with 179,000 on it. I stripped out the rear seats & door cards which saved a lot of weight. The front seats were boat anchors
It’s 7-8 years since I had my e46 m3 so not that fresh any longer. They’re both similar weight and the Aston has another 60bhp so comfortably faster. It’s not a fast car by modern standards really though and you have to rev it out to get the most of it. Steering, seating position and weight balance all better than the M3. Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff