Vanquish II broken - Full of surprises from main dealers!
Discussion
I brought my 2015 Vanquish II Carbon White Edition from a friend of mine last July. Such a great car and I love it, but shortly after picking it up I noticed a very small knock from the near side front on the very odd occasion, I asked my friend if he had noticed it before but he said he hadn't. (He lives abroad and hadn't really used it) I Run the car for a 4-6 weeks and took it to my local main dealer to be checked over for the noise and also a slight misfire when it started from cold. They could not find a fault with the knocking noise or the misfire, but did tell me one of the cats were knocking and would need replacing in the future.
The knocking noise which only happened when turning right had got worse, the car needed a service and I also wanted the secondary CAT delete doing. I thought the best place to go on the recommendation of this forum was Bamford Rose. Spoke with Mike, got it booked in and dropped it off last week.
Anyhow to my surprise, turns out the knocking noise was the engine moving as the mounts were loose!! So in March 2019 just before i purchased the car, it had a sump oil leak repair and a service at a main dealer for a large amount of money. It appears that during these works the engine mounts were not tightened up after!! The same oil leak is back and the movement has got worse to a point where it has caused a larger hole in the frame which needs fixing from the excess movement. Not only this but now there are two more oil leaks elsewhere. The misfire is minimal and i had forgot about till Mike had told me he spotted it.
Mike from Bamford has been excellent throughout and explained the poor workmanship from the main dealers, also how i should have been advised to have the sorted the cat straight away as this can cause parts of the broken CAT to be drawn into the engine with back pressure. He also showed me the air filters which were not replaced either on the service and the lower clips to the filters not seated correctly either. A lot of human error in one car he told me.
Fortunately it's all fixable, but to say i'm extremely disappointed and frustrated with the main dealers is an understatement. Good money was paid out for poor oil leak repairs which have failed again, bolts not tightened, air filters not replaced and then for the major issue not to be seen by the second dealer who i asked to inspect the car and who found no faults apart from the cat issue just seems wrong.
So it needs 3 oil leaks fixed, repairs to frame, Service, primary cat removal and new high flow cats fitted.
I have asked Mike to fully repair the car, which will sadly be a lot of money to sort however i'm thankful i went to him before anything worse happened and not back to the main dealers who i no longer trust. I will write to the Customer Services about this, but i feel as the repair and service was over a year ago i have no come back and i'm sure the second dealer will only tell me they didn't see anything. Be interesting if i get a response from Gaydon.
The knocking noise which only happened when turning right had got worse, the car needed a service and I also wanted the secondary CAT delete doing. I thought the best place to go on the recommendation of this forum was Bamford Rose. Spoke with Mike, got it booked in and dropped it off last week.
Anyhow to my surprise, turns out the knocking noise was the engine moving as the mounts were loose!! So in March 2019 just before i purchased the car, it had a sump oil leak repair and a service at a main dealer for a large amount of money. It appears that during these works the engine mounts were not tightened up after!! The same oil leak is back and the movement has got worse to a point where it has caused a larger hole in the frame which needs fixing from the excess movement. Not only this but now there are two more oil leaks elsewhere. The misfire is minimal and i had forgot about till Mike had told me he spotted it.
Mike from Bamford has been excellent throughout and explained the poor workmanship from the main dealers, also how i should have been advised to have the sorted the cat straight away as this can cause parts of the broken CAT to be drawn into the engine with back pressure. He also showed me the air filters which were not replaced either on the service and the lower clips to the filters not seated correctly either. A lot of human error in one car he told me.
Fortunately it's all fixable, but to say i'm extremely disappointed and frustrated with the main dealers is an understatement. Good money was paid out for poor oil leak repairs which have failed again, bolts not tightened, air filters not replaced and then for the major issue not to be seen by the second dealer who i asked to inspect the car and who found no faults apart from the cat issue just seems wrong.
So it needs 3 oil leaks fixed, repairs to frame, Service, primary cat removal and new high flow cats fitted.
I have asked Mike to fully repair the car, which will sadly be a lot of money to sort however i'm thankful i went to him before anything worse happened and not back to the main dealers who i no longer trust. I will write to the Customer Services about this, but i feel as the repair and service was over a year ago i have no come back and i'm sure the second dealer will only tell me they didn't see anything. Be interesting if i get a response from Gaydon.
I started reading your post Mark and thought to myself, I know where you should be going. Reading further and was glad you did exactly that.
You may know about Mike's earlier career, so to be fair, most of the main dealer technicians could never gain that amount of detailed experience and knowledge. When faced with any problem, which is perhaps unusual or difficult to diagnose, experience is often so important.
Hopefully, you should have a car which you can properly enjoy.
SFO said:
I suspect AM Customer Services would be more interested if you had gone to another authorised AM dealer
It did cross my mind, but I can imagine the scenario of them not being interested, having to get the car transported around and not having my car for a while.If it had been within the 12 months i would have done this for sure.
Absolutely dismal...
Sorry to hear this.
If it helps it is exactly the reason I changed to only use BR. A well-known indie (mainly focused on pre-VH ear cars) hadn't changed air filters and had even neglected to change my rear brake pads (in spite of charging for them)...
To cut a long story short a kaleidoscope of warning light caused by oiled air filters at 239KPH(!!!!!!!) on the autobahn and followed by.... a brake warning light a day later - rear pads down to the wear indicator - and I had the alps to cross!
NEVER again.
If you use the car - go to someone you trust!
Sorry to hear this.
If it helps it is exactly the reason I changed to only use BR. A well-known indie (mainly focused on pre-VH ear cars) hadn't changed air filters and had even neglected to change my rear brake pads (in spite of charging for them)...
To cut a long story short a kaleidoscope of warning light caused by oiled air filters at 239KPH(!!!!!!!) on the autobahn and followed by.... a brake warning light a day later - rear pads down to the wear indicator - and I had the alps to cross!
NEVER again.
If you use the car - go to someone you trust!
Edited by Squaremeal on Tuesday 19th May 20:25
My car was serviced by a certain Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire MD and after now doing my own servicing in the last couple of year ive found loads of issues which where supposed to have been sorted.
One being the top strut mounts being stripped which I bought new ones to replace, oil which I paid for and wasn't needed as mine is a manual and they charged me for Auto and the manual. Will never trust main dealers even again.
One being the top strut mounts being stripped which I bought new ones to replace, oil which I paid for and wasn't needed as mine is a manual and they charged me for Auto and the manual. Will never trust main dealers even again.
I am not surprised by your experiences.
I got my car nearly 3 years ago from the ex-AM Cardiff dealer. It turned out ok but a few things needed addressing. Most concerning was the lack of brakes unless I really stood on them. My main dealer chief mechanic did a test drive with me and said TADT sir, nothing wrong.
BR looked at it and explained that the pads were new and hadn’t been bedded in. They did the bedding in process and it transformed the braking, which now is very good.
I got my car nearly 3 years ago from the ex-AM Cardiff dealer. It turned out ok but a few things needed addressing. Most concerning was the lack of brakes unless I really stood on them. My main dealer chief mechanic did a test drive with me and said TADT sir, nothing wrong.
BR looked at it and explained that the pads were new and hadn’t been bedded in. They did the bedding in process and it transformed the braking, which now is very good.
Lawts0908 said:
Would love to know the Geographical area that the car was serviced in.....
Do you think it would make a difference then?These things are all over the forums yet people still think that a car has to have a full main dealer service history which really makes me laugh.
When i bought my V12 from a member on here it was agreed that he would put the car in for service and get about four things sorted under the warranty which i read the email he sent to the dealer telling them what was needed.
Guess what not one of the things was done.
As for the air filters, it seems no main dealer wants to change them and if they do its £300 extra but you will have to ask, ridiculous.
If i was in the uk my car would go to BR as they are the only ones who seem to check our cars, main dealers no chance i would even question if they change the oil.
I have used both Main dealers and indies. Not happy with the main dealers I used at all! No complaints about the indies but now do all the servicing myself. Its often fiddly as so much is crammed into such a work of art but very doable yourself and no more very expensive to replace plastic cosmetic panels damaged by trainee's who don't know what a torque wrench is for.
LordBretSinclair said:
cayman-black said:
.
If i was in the uk my car would go to BR as they are the only ones who seem to check our cars, main dealers no chance i would even question if they change the oil.
There are lots of other good "indies" in the UK.If i was in the uk my car would go to BR as they are the only ones who seem to check our cars, main dealers no chance i would even question if they change the oil.
Not good but I agree with all comments as I started a thread about AM Timeless inspection and how 2 leaking shock absorbers and leaking timing cover were missed by the AM dealer which was spotted by taking the car to Bamford Rose for an independant inspection soon after purchase.
Mines gping into AM Birmingham today for its 4 year service, oil was changed only 1,000 miles ago due to a timing cover leak so will be inttresting to see if they change it or not and if I wil be charged.
Mines gping into AM Birmingham today for its 4 year service, oil was changed only 1,000 miles ago due to a timing cover leak so will be inttresting to see if they change it or not and if I wil be charged.
SHIFTY said:
Mines going into AM Birmingham today for its 4 year service, oil was changed only 1,000 miles ago due to a timing cover leak so will be interesting to see if they change it or not, and if I will be charged.
Only 1,000 miles ago, so the colour will still look new. How will you be able to tell?
James Bond might use that old, hair across the drain plug trick!
Gassing Station | Aston Martin | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff