How much is a dual plate clutch replacement these days?

[Bobajobbob]

Morning all, my 4.7 Vantage is due a service soon and having just breached 20k miles I was considering having a pre-emptive clutch replacement done. No reason to think the current one is about to fail but if it might improve the driving experience too then it might be worth spending the money now.

Has anyone had this done recently either in official dealer or elsewhere?

Thanks

[Dewi 2]

I have a twin plate on my 19,000 mile 4.7.
Excellent, but you might have a little more gear chatter, if your particular car is already (above average) prone to that.
If that is the case, a normal weight flywheel avoids any increase in chatter.
That is the only downside.
Far lighter clutch pedal (if manual), smoother bite point and theoretically should last much longer.

Think the total cost (incl VAT) was about £3,500.

In one of BR's recent videos, lower competitor prices were mentioned, but it was stated (who knows), possibly because not including VAT, or their lightweight flywheels have an added on starter gear ring (which AM racing tried, but had trouble with). BR seem proud that their flywheels are made from one piece of metal.

[Riddochg]

Lots of recent threads on this.

I had mine replaced by David Appleby about 5 months back. It was about £2,300 plus VAT fitted. Had lots of other work done at the same time hence I'm hazy. Checking their website looks like costs have gone up, unsurprisingly.....

https://www.davidapplebyengineering.com/shop/produ...

[BiggaJ]

Had mine done about 18 months ago and it was around £2500. I recall at the time looking at the cost of the OEM single plate unit and it was no cheaper. Meaning its a no brainer.

[IainWhy]

Dewi 2 said:

I have a twin plate on my 19,000 mile 4.7.
Excellent, but you might have a little more gear chatter, if your particular car is already (above average) prone to that.
If that is the case, a normal weight flywheel avoids any increase in chatter.
That is the only downside.
Far lighter clutch pedal (if manual), smoother bite point and theoretically should last much longer.

Think the total cost (incl VAT) was about £3,500.

In one of BR's recent videos, lower competitor prices were mentioned, but it was stated (who knows), possibly because not including VAT, or their lightweight flywheels have an added on starter gear ring (which AM racing tried, but had trouble with). BR seem proud that their flywheels are made from one piece of metal.

Pretty much all the flywheels are made by ttv, you can buy from ttv directly and they are all one piece,

The DA kit is cheaper as its not a valeo clutch, hence, cheaper bits = cheaper price

[LordBretSinclair]

Dewi 2 said:

In one of BR's recent videos, lower competitor prices were mentioned, but it was stated (who knows), possibly because not including VAT, or their lightweight flywheels have an added on starter gear ring (which AM racing tried, but had trouble with). BR seem proud that their flywheels are made from one piece of metal.

A BR video having a go at competitors?? Nothing new there then

[Bobajobbob]

Thanks all, I should have said it's a manual car and obviously I'd go for a twin plate replacement. It looks like £3,500 inc VAT is going to be the ballpark. I'm nowhere near DA or Bamford Rose so I may need to go to the local main dealer (unless someone knows a good indie in Kent?). Do main dealers only install the official Aston bits or could I ship in the DA part for example and have them fit it?

Thanks again for all the feedback

[BigMig]

Try Vantage Engineering in Horsham, probably the nearest indie to Kent.

[BiggaJ]

BigMig said:

Try Vantage Engineering in Horsham, probably the nearest indie to Kent.

Good shout, give them a call and ask for Terry the owner, great guy.

[IainWhy]

Bobajobbob said:

Thanks all, I should have said it's a manual car and obviously I'd go for a twin plate replacement. It looks like £3,500 inc VAT is going to be the ballpark. I'm nowhere near DA or Bamford Rose so I may need to go to the local main dealer (unless someone knows a good indie in Kent?). Do main dealers only install the official Aston bits or could I ship in the DA part for example and have them fit it?

Thanks again for all the feedback

Aston martin care, adrian developed his own kit using the 12 clutch and a ttv fly, which i beleive may hace formed the basis for most of the other kits. He has them in stick as he showed me a load in a box. Good guy and does good work from what i can tell. No idea on pricing bit i would think ballpark same numbers

https://www.astonmartincare.co.uk/

Or if your feeling really brave i am 99 percent its the same as the meserati twin plate of which there are many used ones about and buy the fly direct off ttv.

Edited by IainWhy on Thursday 20th October 21:56

[telum01]

IainWhy said:

Pretty much all the flywheels are made by ttv, you can buy from ttv directly and they are all one piece,

The DA kit is cheaper as its not a valeo clutch, hence, cheaper bits = cheaper price

VAP/DAE brought the price down by having their own twin-plate clutch made for them by the original manufacturer, rather than sourcing them from Aston Martin. The parts savings came from cutting out the middle man, not by reduction of quality.

Stuart at VAP has a video explaining them quite a bit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAxYh01ej1M

Dewi 2 said:

In one of BR's recent videos, lower competitor prices were mentioned, but it was stated (who knows), possibly because not including VAT, or their lightweight flywheels have an added on starter gear ring (which AM racing tried, but had trouble with). BR seem proud that their flywheels are made from one piece of metal.

I (and nobody I know at AML, AMR, or any company that works with them) have never heard of a flywheel having trouble. The two-piece design has been used for years on the Vantage GT4 and that same flywheel carried over to the "AMR" twin-plate clutch package that Aston Martin now sells as an upgrade for the V8 Vantage. If there had been any issues with Aston Martin Racing, the flywheel would not have been offered to the public as an AMR upgrade. Beyond that, the standard flywheels for both the V8 and V12 cars have been the same 2-piece construction all along, and I've never heard of a single issue with any of them, either.

VAP used to have a one-piece flywheel (I have it on my supercharged '07 V8V) but they found after a massive amount of testing that there was no benefit to justify the higher cost, and they could pass along savings to customers.

Edited by telum01 on Friday 21st October 03:46

[EVR]

There is also a fabled version 2.0 of the SportShift DAE kit supposedly coming out soon, that should reduce costs and integrate what they learned so far with ver. 1.0. I believe the manual is out already.

[telum01]

EVR said:

There is also a fabled version 2.0 of the SportShift DAE kit supposedly coming out soon, that should reduce costs and integrate what they learned so far with ver. 1.0. I believe the manual is out already.

VelocityAP and David Appleby Engineering often collaborate on product development and they split markets (NA for VAP, UK for DAE) to keep things tidy between them for sales.
The "v1.0" you're referring to was the kit that used a V12 clutch, slave cylinder, and exhaust manifold gasket from Aston Martin paired with their own custom flywheel to make the OEM V12 clutch work with a V8.
The "v2.0" you're referring to is the kit that uses a V12-style clutch, slave cylinder, exhaust manifold gasket, and flywheel that are all their own. This is currently available for the manual transmission (I've sold a few already and they're shipping quickly), and they will also be available soon for Sportshift. Stuart goes over the details in the video I linked to in my previous post above.
VAP were able to drop the pricing by $1200 without any compromise to quality by changing how they manufacture and supply the components - as I said above, cutting out the middle man, but also a very large investment for economies of scale. DAE uses a different pricing structure, so I'm not sure how their pricing was affected (but I'm sure it was substantial, just as it was for VAP).

Edited by telum01 on Friday 21st October 09:21

[EVR]

telum01 said:

VelocityAP and David Appleby Engineering often collaborate on product development and they split markets (NA for VAP, UK for DAE) to keep things tidy between them for sales.
The "v1.0" you're referring to was the kit that used a V12 clutch, slave cylinder, and exhaust manifold gasket from Aston Martin paired with their own custom flywheel to make the OEM V12 clutch work with a V8.
The "v2.0" you're referring to is the kit that uses a V12 clutch, slave cylinder, exhaust manifold gasket, and flywheel that are all their own. This is currently available for the manual transmission (I've sold a few already and they're shipping quickly), and they will also be available soon for Sportshift. Stuart goes over the details in the video I linked to in my previous post above.
VAP were able to drop the pricing by $1200 without any compromise to quality by changing how they manufacture and supply the components - as I said above, cutting out the middle man, but also a very large investment for economies of scale. DAE uses a different pricing structure, so I'm not sure how their pricing was affected (but I'm sure it was substantial, just as it was for VAP).

Thanks for the details Richard, this is the kit I am more inclined to go with when time will come.

I will check the video now. And speaking of, thanks again for your work, big fan of your videos.

[telum01]

Happy to help, and thanks for the kind words!

[Cold]

20k miles? My V8V is on about 56k miles and still on its original clutch. I'll probably go for one of the uprated versions when its time comes, but that might not be for another 20-30k miles.

[IainWhy]

telum01 said:

VAP/DAE brought the price down by having their own twin-plate clutch made for them by the original manufacturer, rather than sourcing them from Aston Martin. The parts savings came from cutting out the middle man, not by reduction of quality.

So you are explicitly stating that these are a Valeo clutch? As not beating about the bush thats who makes them (both versions including the AMR and GT4 units).

[telum01]

IainWhy said:

So you are explicitly stating that these are a Valeo clutch? As not beating about the bush thats who makes them (both versions including the AMR and GT4 units).

I'm not explicitly stating anything as I don't speak for those companies.

The V12 twin-plate clutch is made by Valeo.
The AMR V8 twin-plate clutch is made by Valeo.
The AMR V8 flywheel was originally used by Aston Martin Racing.
I don't remember who makes the single-plate V8 clutches because they're crap and I try to steer people away from them.

Aston Martin Racing (the racing division) and AMR (the in-house performance brand) are not the same, but some Aston Martin Racing parts have carried over to AMR (the flywheel, the aero kit, some other stuff).
So the AMR clutch is not the same as was used on the GT4, and there are a couple different flywheels that have been used by Aston Martin Racing as well (at least one more lightweight than the one that carried over to AMR from Aston Martin Racing).
Likewise, I think I've seen two different clutches used by Aston Martin Racing as well, but I think one was for the older N24 and one introduced with the later GT4. Been a while since I've even thought about it, though, so a bit hazy on details for that.

[IainWhy]

telum01 said:

I'm not explicitly stating anything as I don't speak for those companies.

The V12 twin-plate clutch is made by Valeo.
The AMR V8 twin-plate clutch is made by Valeo.
The AMR V8 flywheel was originally used by Aston Martin Racing.
I don't remember who makes the single-plate V8 clutches because they're crap and I try to steer people away from them.

Aston Martin Racing (the racing division) and AMR (the in-house performance brand) are not the same, but some Aston Martin Racing parts have carried over to AMR (the flywheel, the aero kit, some other stuff).
So the AMR clutch is not the same as was used on the GT4, and there are a couple different flywheels that have been used by Aston Martin Racing as well (at least one more lightweight than the one that carried over to AMR from Aston Martin Racing).
Likewise, I think I've seen two different clutches used by Aston Martin Racing as well, but I think one was for the older N24 and one introduced with the later GT4. Been a while since I've even thought about it, though, so a bit hazy on details for that.

Yeah, im not trying to be an arse, but its either the same or it aint, i have a gt4 clutch on mine, and its a Valeo, its the same housing as the AMR but with a sintered lining (which i replaced with a Kevlar one) for what its worth i think the stock one is actually an ap unit, but i agree entirely, it's toss.

Back to you point, i don't believe value make those twin plates in the east, so i am a bit confused as to the suggestion its the same kit, unless we are stating that it is definitively the same manufacturer.

If you want to suggest that its the same quality, i cant argue as I haven't looked at one in the flesh, that may well be the case. but if its not a valeo part, its not the same part.

I have no issue with alternative parts and its great to see someone looking to drive down some of the silly costs that are excessive.

[telum01]

IainWhy said:

Yeah, im not trying to be an arse, but its either the same or it aint, i have a gt4 clutch on mine, and its a Valeo, its the same housing as the AMR but with a sintered lining (which i replaced with a Kevlar one) for what its worth i think the stock one is actually an ap unit, but i agree entirely, it's toss.

Back to you point, i don't believe value make those twin plates in the east, so i am a bit confused as to the suggestion its the same kit, unless we are stating that it is definitively the same manufacturer.

If you want to suggest that its the same quality, i cant argue as I haven't looked at one in the flesh, that may well be the case. but if its not a valeo part, its not the same part.

I have no issue with alternative parts and its great to see someone looking to drive down some of the silly costs that are excessive.

Stuart explains it in the video I linked to above.
If you don't want to watch the whole thing, jump to the 5:28 mark.