Sportshift V8V Clutch Learns
Discussion
Hopefully all V8V owners with Sportshift gearboxes know about the Clutch Learn process but I thought it worth sharing my recent experience.
It is recommended to 'regularly' carry out the clutch learn process on the Sportshift gearbox and I had been doing it approximately every fortnight on my car. It gets driven 5-6 days of the week and I live in the centre of London so the majority of my journeys involve a bit a stop-start and traffic. Recently the car had started to suffer a small judder on pull-away, only from a standstill and not all of the time - uhoh!
Reading back on a thread I had coincidentally started not too long ago about what it's like when a clutch goes, it didn't seem to suffer any of the other issues like revs flying, high speed changes going slow etc so I was a little confused and wondering if it was a throttle issue or something more technically I wouldn't have a hope of understanding.
A few calls later and I was recommended by Alan at Amersham to try and do more regular clutch learns; blindingly obvious now but it wasn't before. And the long story-cut short is that after clutch learns almost daily for 2 weeks it is now driving almost perfectly again. I for one had no idea quite how important it was so although in the long term one doesn't need to do it this frequently, you can be sure that if you have a Sportshift - it absolutely will be a better drive if you do them fairly often!
Just a reminder to you V8V SS owners to get clutch learning!
For those that don't know what 'Clutch Learn' is: From cold and with the air conditioning turned off, foot on brake and start car, hold brake for 10 secs or so until you hear the clutch 'click'. Switch off and then repeat the process 3 or 4 times.
It is recommended to 'regularly' carry out the clutch learn process on the Sportshift gearbox and I had been doing it approximately every fortnight on my car. It gets driven 5-6 days of the week and I live in the centre of London so the majority of my journeys involve a bit a stop-start and traffic. Recently the car had started to suffer a small judder on pull-away, only from a standstill and not all of the time - uhoh!
Reading back on a thread I had coincidentally started not too long ago about what it's like when a clutch goes, it didn't seem to suffer any of the other issues like revs flying, high speed changes going slow etc so I was a little confused and wondering if it was a throttle issue or something more technically I wouldn't have a hope of understanding.
A few calls later and I was recommended by Alan at Amersham to try and do more regular clutch learns; blindingly obvious now but it wasn't before. And the long story-cut short is that after clutch learns almost daily for 2 weeks it is now driving almost perfectly again. I for one had no idea quite how important it was so although in the long term one doesn't need to do it this frequently, you can be sure that if you have a Sportshift - it absolutely will be a better drive if you do them fairly often!
Just a reminder to you V8V SS owners to get clutch learning!
For those that don't know what 'Clutch Learn' is: From cold and with the air conditioning turned off, foot on brake and start car, hold brake for 10 secs or so until you hear the clutch 'click'. Switch off and then repeat the process 3 or 4 times.
neveratt said:
Can I ask....why with the Air Con turned off? One of those dumb questions I've been daring myself to ask for a while now...
Neil
Possibly just a battery condition thing? I will often get in the (shared with OH) 911, turn the ignition to find the air con/heater, radio and wipers still on. A big current draw just before taking a massive current draw to start it.Neil
I always shut down everything I can when I get out of every car I drive. A few short journeys in cold weather and the battery starts to suffer...
mikey k said:
I would guess it is the voltage drop caused by the aircon compressor affecting the calibration of the ASM ECU during the "learn"
I had convinced myself it was to make sure there was no load on the engine from the aircon compressor, have to admit the voltage explanation sounds more feasible. I have been doing the clutch learn on mine every time it comes out of the garage from cold but the work that Rick at DMS did on it last year based on the latest service bulletin was what finally removed that slight judder. i still do the clutch learns with the same frequency and I rarely use the auto mode so maybe that has helped as well.
Shmee said:
Hopefully all V8V owners with Sportshift gearboxes know about the Clutch Learn process but I thought it worth sharing my recent experience.
It is recommended to 'regularly' carry out the clutch learn process on the Sportshift gearbox and I had been doing it approximately every fortnight on my car. It gets driven 5-6 days of the week and I live in the centre of London so the majority of my journeys involve a bit a stop-start and traffic. Recently the car had started to suffer a small judder on pull-away, only from a standstill and not all of the time - uhoh!
Reading back on a thread I had coincidentally started not too long ago about what it's like when a clutch goes, it didn't seem to suffer any of the other issues like revs flying, high speed changes going slow etc so I was a little confused and wondering if it was a throttle issue or something more technically I wouldn't have a hope of understanding.
A few calls later and I was recommended by Alan at Amersham to try and do more regular clutch learns; blindingly obvious now but it wasn't before. And the long story-cut short is that after clutch learns almost daily for 2 weeks it is now driving almost perfectly again. I for one had no idea quite how important it was so although in the long term one doesn't need to do it this frequently, you can be sure that if you have a Sportshift - it absolutely will be a better drive if you do them fairly often!
Just a reminder to you V8V SS owners to get clutch learning!
For those that don't know what 'Clutch Learn' is: From cold and with the air conditioning turned off, foot on brake and start car, hold brake for 10 secs or so until you hear the clutch 'click'. Switch off and then repeat the process 3 or 4 times.
Great post I had a guy ask me about the same thing last night...It is recommended to 'regularly' carry out the clutch learn process on the Sportshift gearbox and I had been doing it approximately every fortnight on my car. It gets driven 5-6 days of the week and I live in the centre of London so the majority of my journeys involve a bit a stop-start and traffic. Recently the car had started to suffer a small judder on pull-away, only from a standstill and not all of the time - uhoh!
Reading back on a thread I had coincidentally started not too long ago about what it's like when a clutch goes, it didn't seem to suffer any of the other issues like revs flying, high speed changes going slow etc so I was a little confused and wondering if it was a throttle issue or something more technically I wouldn't have a hope of understanding.
A few calls later and I was recommended by Alan at Amersham to try and do more regular clutch learns; blindingly obvious now but it wasn't before. And the long story-cut short is that after clutch learns almost daily for 2 weeks it is now driving almost perfectly again. I for one had no idea quite how important it was so although in the long term one doesn't need to do it this frequently, you can be sure that if you have a Sportshift - it absolutely will be a better drive if you do them fairly often!
Just a reminder to you V8V SS owners to get clutch learning!
For those that don't know what 'Clutch Learn' is: From cold and with the air conditioning turned off, foot on brake and start car, hold brake for 10 secs or so until you hear the clutch 'click'. Switch off and then repeat the process 3 or 4 times.
One of the reasons for turning off AirCon might be so that you can actually hear the 'click'.
Intriguing that this process is called a clutch 're-learn' procedure. As though during the process of driving the car, the clutch 'learns' all the wrong things and so needs to be labotomized at every start-up. Can't we just disable the 'learning' completely, then we wouldn't have to bother with this black art.
Intriguing that this process is called a clutch 're-learn' procedure. As though during the process of driving the car, the clutch 'learns' all the wrong things and so needs to be labotomized at every start-up. Can't we just disable the 'learning' completely, then we wouldn't have to bother with this black art.
mikey k said:
Taking pictures and videos of other peoples cars ? 
That's what passengers are for!Truth is with constant town driving it just gets very tiring on the left foot. I can happily agree the manual car may be better for the trips to the Alps etc but most of my driving minutes are in town so it's much better while still having an element of fun that a traditional auto can't offer.
toofastforme said:
One of the reasons for turning off AirCon might be so that you can actually hear the 'click'.
Intriguing that this process is called a clutch 're-learn' procedure. As though during the process of driving the car, the clutch 'learns' all the wrong things and so needs to be labotomized at every start-up. Can't we just disable the 'learning' completely, then we wouldn't have to bother with this black art.
AM call it a clutch learn or kiss point check. The system needs to monitor clutch wear in order to maintain shift quality and crawl performance. Intriguing that this process is called a clutch 're-learn' procedure. As though during the process of driving the car, the clutch 'learns' all the wrong things and so needs to be labotomized at every start-up. Can't we just disable the 'learning' completely, then we wouldn't have to bother with this black art.
Shmee said:
Truth is with constant town driving it just gets very tiring on the left foot. I can happily agree the manual car may be better for the trips to the Alps etc but most of my driving minutes are in town so it's much better while still having an element of fun that a traditional auto can't offer.
Won't argue with that, whenever I was stuck in traffic or in town with my DB7, auto was quite a relief - and the TipTronic was decent even on track. I vowed to get a manual next time though and don't regret it for a second, being stuck in bad traffic is a thankfully rare occurence. I just avoid driving when the plebs do 
Gassing Station | Aston Martin | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff