The sad consequences of a man read and being a tool
Discussion
Yes, no excuses. One man read of the instructions a certain arrogance of the current owner leads to situation which could have so easily been avoided.
I don't normally get intimate with cars but being new to the Aston marque I thought it was the least I should do. I mean how hard could it be?
Check and adjust the tyre pressures. Done. Check the oil. mmmm it's not registering on the dip stick, I look in the manaul, yep no oil means top her up.Off to Halfords for some oil. Copious amounts of pouring later I wander into the house to share with my better half how thirsty the Aston is on oil. One beer later I'm musing to myself well P is for plenty and diligently top her up to the max while at the same time making a mental note to discuss this aspect either on the forum or with the dealer.
Now the following day I'm off to Millbrook and with a early start in hand, I start the car. One for the pleasure of hearing the noise and secondly to make sure she's fine and actually starts. I'll hang my head in shame at this point for having little faith but it's been a few weeks since our last outing and a little foreplay the night before the main event would increase my anticipation as I drifted off to sleep. Now if you believe the saying " How do you make God laugh? Tell him your plans" Well I must have had the chap rolling around on the floor.
Checking the oil again I was surprised to see the volume of oil that had appeared which was now attempting to drown my dipstick. At this point I actually had a proper read of the instructions. A very poor and feeble attempt of sticking a spray handle into the sump and furiously trying to pump the oil out ended in failure which meant to call to Ason assist who were very amiable and understanding as was Stratsone Hagley who have turned the car around in a day.
The best quote of the day so far goes to Rob at Hagley "I don't know which is worse the owners who don't lift the bonnet or the ones that do"!
So if this tale of self inflicted woe spares a fellow owner of the embarresment and ridicule that is wholly deserved then it's been a positive expereince and that's the straw I'm clinging too.
I don't normally get intimate with cars but being new to the Aston marque I thought it was the least I should do. I mean how hard could it be?
Check and adjust the tyre pressures. Done. Check the oil. mmmm it's not registering on the dip stick, I look in the manaul, yep no oil means top her up.Off to Halfords for some oil. Copious amounts of pouring later I wander into the house to share with my better half how thirsty the Aston is on oil. One beer later I'm musing to myself well P is for plenty and diligently top her up to the max while at the same time making a mental note to discuss this aspect either on the forum or with the dealer.
Now the following day I'm off to Millbrook and with a early start in hand, I start the car. One for the pleasure of hearing the noise and secondly to make sure she's fine and actually starts. I'll hang my head in shame at this point for having little faith but it's been a few weeks since our last outing and a little foreplay the night before the main event would increase my anticipation as I drifted off to sleep. Now if you believe the saying " How do you make God laugh? Tell him your plans" Well I must have had the chap rolling around on the floor.
Checking the oil again I was surprised to see the volume of oil that had appeared which was now attempting to drown my dipstick. At this point I actually had a proper read of the instructions. A very poor and feeble attempt of sticking a spray handle into the sump and furiously trying to pump the oil out ended in failure which meant to call to Ason assist who were very amiable and understanding as was Stratsone Hagley who have turned the car around in a day.
The best quote of the day so far goes to Rob at Hagley "I don't know which is worse the owners who don't lift the bonnet or the ones that do"!
So if this tale of self inflicted woe spares a fellow owner of the embarresment and ridicule that is wholly deserved then it's been a positive expereince and that's the straw I'm clinging too.
Edited by Mr Aston Martin on Wednesday 15th June 17:18
Simpo Two said:
Where does the oil live in a dry sump system?
An oil tank. It's towards the front of the engine bay in the V8V.Another side advantage of these systems is that you can place the oil tank to best effect too (though in the Aston it will likely have been driven by packaging rather than weight distribution. They also mean the engine can be kept shorter in height, and help prevent oil starvation when cornering (if designed properly).
The main reason car engines are "dry sump" is because they don’t have a sump tank or reservoir at the bottom of the engine allowing the engine to be lower in the bay,(and indeed the car) thus improving cornering and handling. You don’t have that old problem of grinding or potentially damaging the sump going over uneven ground. As previously mentioned they don’t suffer from oil starvation on heavy cornering as oil moves around the sump tank. On dry sumps the engine oil can be held anywhere.
Shmee said:
George H said:
It's reading stories like this that make me glad I don't attempt maintenance on any car myself, I would have done the exact same thing 
Massively +1!
michael gould said:
The main reason car engines are "dry sump" is because they don’t have a sump tank or reservoir at the bottom of the engine allowing the engine to be lower in the bay,(and indeed the car) thus improving cornering and handling. You don’t have that old problem of grinding or potentially damaging the sump going over uneven ground. As previously mentioned they don’t suffer from oil starvation on heavy cornering as oil moves around the sump tank. On dry sumps the engine oil can be held anywhere.
+1 lower and further back making is Mid front engined rather than front enginedNeil1300R said:
So, how do the 'juniors' of this forum actually check their oil between services then? Or are you assuming once a year is "like totally acceptable"
You're pretty much down with the kids with that sort of vernacular 
I haven't checked my oil yet, do I need to? The little oil can light has never come on so I thought it didn't need topping up. Don't do a lot of miles so maybe it lasts fine.
How can internal combustion engines be so complex
I'll stick with jet engines, they're much simpler really.Gassing Station | Aston Martin | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff