2006 V8V Questions...

[ilikeAstons]

Hi all. Was a contributor here when I had my DB9, and when we moved from the UK to Canada, she had to go. I sold her to a good friend, and my loss was certainly his gain. So, Canada - been here a year and came across an early 4.3 Vantage. Picked it up for an extremely good price, 30000 KM, history, highly specced...

... and now I'm sorting out a few of the little gremlins that affect these cars.

I've managed to pretty much sort everything, apart from a couple of items.

1. The Voice control system. Pressing the buttons on the bottom left of the steering wheel has absolutely no effect. When I press 'voice command', I was expecting the car to ask me a command. I get absolutely nothing. None of the buttons on the left of the steering wheel seem to do anything. I have the bluetooth module (I removed the central tunnel, and can confirm it is present). What am I doing wrong? I want to pair my phone, but am completely stuck on this one.

2. Fuse 22. was removed, so I thought I would replace it, to see if the valves work. There seems to be no difference with the fuse in. I looked under the rear right exhaust and can freely move the rod that connects the actuator to the butterfly valve in the rear box). I couldn't see a vacuum or anything on the left hand side of the car, and so presume it all to be operated by the one vacuum. The T junction and rubber hoses seem to be fine.

Any help would be massively appreciated - I really want to get this car back to 100%.

Another question. I'm thinking the clutch will only Gove me a few more thousand miles. OEM or Velocity AP twin?

It feels great to be back....

James

[Neil1300r]

The voice command on MY2006 doesn't link to Bluetooth from memory. It's for the integrated SIM slot. You don't use the Voice command to pair your phone. Instructions are in the Frequently Asked Questions.

Re the exhaust flaps, no idea. Except are you aware that on cold startup the valves are open even with the fuse in, so you won't hear a difference.

[Dewi 2]

Welcome back James. You may remember we like car photos. Please post one of your new Aston Martin.

I can comment about the clutch.
Have had a twin plate fitted, the Bamford Rose version.
A remarkable improvement, with a very much lighter pedal action and a gentler biting point. They may prolong clutch life as well.
The only downside, is you might have a little more of the characteristic gearbox chatter at low revs. That does reduce a bit after mileage.

Cannot help with your other questions. Did not know we could talk to our cars and expect a reply !

[davek_964]

Neil1300r said:

The voice command on MY2006 doesn't link to Bluetooth from memory. It's for the integrated SIM slot. You don't use the Voice command to pair your phone. Instructions are in the Frequently Asked Questions.

Mine wasn't like that - it did work with bluetooth (and I don't think I even had a SIM slot).

You had to teach it the names / numbers you wanted to dial with voice but it still used phone bluetooth to do it. (And it should respond asking you what you want when you press the button).

[ilikeAstons]

Thank you Davek. This is what I figured. The problem I have is that when I press the 'voice command' button to awake the system so that I can say 'pair phone', nothing happens. In fact nothing happens with all the buttons on the left hand side of the wheel. The cruise on the right side, works perfectly.

So, I'm at a bit of a loss. I looked but couldn't see a particular fuse for those buttons/bluetooth. Does anyone have any other ideas.

And as requested, here is a photo:

[Neil1300r]

davek_964 said:

Neil1300r said:

The voice command on MY2006 doesn't link to Bluetooth from memory. It's for the integrated SIM slot. You don't use the Voice command to pair your phone. Instructions are in the Frequently Asked Questions.

Mine wasn't like that - it did work with bluetooth (and I don't think I even had a SIM slot).

You had to teach it the names / numbers you wanted to dial with voice but it still used phone bluetooth to do it. (And it should respond asking you what you want when you press the button).

Haven't had mine for a few years, but now you say it, you are correct. Always found it odd that you had to add numbers as it wasn't fully integrated to a bluetooth attached phone.

How to pair the phone, but does need the steering wheel button to work. Are you sure it has bluetooth and not just the integrated phone via the sim holder?



Some people have had problems pairing the 4 / 5 iPhone, especially on early cars, but will work:-

Put the iphone Bluetooth into search mode.
Tell the car - Pair phone
Car tells you to put phone into search mode and then type 1 2 3 4 as the bluetooth code.
Phone will see the car - will list as Aston Martin. Put code in
It will then fail! Car says pairing failed.
But you now have the iphone recognising the Aston Martin bluetooth, so on the phone, select "Aston Martin" on the bluetooth menu. It will bring up the boxes to put in the passcode. Put in 1 2 3 4, but do NOT press pair on the phone yet.
Tell the car - pair phone. Then immediatley press the Pair button (top right) on the phone.
Should then pair straght away.
Checked and phone is always then recognised on startup

Edited by Neil1300r on Friday 22 November 12:40

[TR-Spider]

exhaust flaps:

with fuse 22 installed, you should hear a small pump operating, when you turn the ignition key to position2.
The pump is located on left side of the car behind fender of the the rear wheel,
to acess you best need to remove the wheel & inner liner.

The pump and vacuum storage looks like this




There are varoius things which can go wrong here:
pump seized - no noise
switch valve (lower left in picture) seized - noise dont stops (as no vacuum is built)
leaking rubber hoses - noise dont stops (as no vacuum is built).

You need to try & error through the system.
I had good sucess getting my stuck valve working again, taking it to the workbench, soaking it with silkon spray and repeatedly triggering it with a 12V Battery.

Edited by TR-Spider on Friday 22 November 15:20

[ilikeAstons]

... many thanks everyone. That's my weekend sorted out!