AM roadside assistance

[macdeb]

What are your experiences? Mine have been abominable.

[Jon39]

They helped me with a failretailertart once, not AM.

( The predictive text is making its own jokes now. That should be - failure to start. )

Did what was required and even went further by tightening the fanbelt, which was very slightly squeaking.

I would not be keen on them jacking my AM though.
Cannot tell what level of detailed AM knowledge they have.

Where did they go wrong, when attempting to help you ?

[macdeb]

I have noticed an engine noise that shouldn't be there after a few days of ownership. Sent a video and told it 'may' be injectors. I know what injectors sound like, I know it's difficult to diagnose from a video but I know it's not. In the meantime I took it to my local AM dealership who confirmed my thoughts, a mechanical rattle when hot on tickover that clearly shouldn't be there. It was then arranged for an AM roadside assistance 'technician' to visit me and diagnose before sending car off to confirm fault. This was arranged two days in advance. So, I had day off, sat at home and waited. (bear in mind this is my newly acquired AM Vantage with only 7k miles recorded). The appointment was made for between 13.00 and 16.00. The 'technician' called me at 13.30 saying he couldn't make the allotted time and asked if it could be moved later, I agreed. After waiting, and me contacting them again twice it was confirmed that he wasn't coming at all and had requested a vehicle pick up and taken to local AM dealers.
Now, I have to ask questions, why did it require a further confirmation of fault? Why did the 'technician' after clearly dodging the visit be allowed to request a vehicle pick up without visiting site to inspect? That could've been done in the first instance. The cynic in me suggests that it was Bank Holiday Friday, he didn't fancy a 30 odd mile journey back to me at 18.00. Bear with me, I've driven the car for less than 3 days, it's a once in a lifetime purchase and I've gone through an AM dealership with a 'Timeless' warranty, I was passed to AM roadside 'hinderance' who have quite clearly as I see it fobbed me off!
Do AM roadside assistance actually use AM technicians? or some bloke out of yellow pages? I don't expect a red carpet, but at least some kind of service.
My car is still in the garage waiting for collection by the dealers and the guy there seems to be listening (thank you) and doing his utmost to resolve the situation. He has been very helpful and I will compliment when issue resolved. Then again, why was the noise missed on 'Timeless' inspection?

Edited by macdeb on Monday 28th August 21:33

[RobDown]

Whoa there! You're telling me a main dealership spotted a fault with your car and told you to go home and await for a breakdown recovery service to come and help instead?

The car is under warranty, WTF (several glasses of limoncello in) is the dealership doing!?! I would take a fault Mercedes into a dealership and then have hen suggest to me that I call the AA to work out the problem

I think your blaming the wrong people here....

[V8V Pete]

macdeb said:

In the meantime I took it to my local AM dealership who confirmed my thoughts, a mechanical rattle when hot on tickover that clearly shouldn't be there. It was then arranged for an AM roadside assistance 'technician' to visit me and diagnose before sending car off to confirm fault.

I don't understand the sequence of events. If the local AM dealer confirmed the fault why on earth did you then have to call AM roadside assistance? If it has an AM warranty any main dealer can deal with it. AM Derby dealt with a bunch of problems the jokers on the A40 left me with on my first V8V (after having initially sent me out on a test drive when it had a slipping clutch lol). Take it to your local dealership and get them to sort it out for you. Will be the start of a good relationship you can utilise in the coming years of ownership. Good luck with this problem.

[V8V Pete]

Great minds think alike Rob.

[raceboy]

Put me down as another that's confused with the sequence of events.
My 'Timeless' car had a few small issues in the first few weeks of ownership and all handled quickly and efficiently by the supplying dealer, admittedly this was also the closest dealer.
Can't work out why the dealer wanted the breakdown people to be involved, I'd only be calling them if I'm sat by the side of the road in a dead car, and amusingly I've actually got 3 separate breakdown policies for the Aston.
Why wasn't the car just left at the dealers?

[hashluck]

It does all seem very odd but I have experienced this before with another vehicle brand where they wanted me to call roadside assistance despite me already having taken my car into them as it is then roadside assistance and not the dealer who have to supply a loan car!

[macdeb]

It was the supplying dealer that got AM roadside assistance to arrange the visit (non-visit) after I had taken the car to my nearest AM dealer who confirmed my thoughts of a fault. (I sent a video of the noise to supplying dealer and told it was injector noise, nothing to worry about, but I know what injectors sound like) This was again to confirm a fault? The supplying dealer involves a ferry crossing hence my action. I'm waiting for supplying dealer to confirm collection of vehicle tomorrow as they say they will treat it as priority whereas my local dealer couldn't book the car in until after the middle of September (that was a week ago).
Believe me, I can't believe the sequence of events.
Starting to think I should've kept the TVR and money in the bank.

Edited by macdeb on Tuesday 29th August 16:07

[Dewi 1]

Mac,

You state Worcestershire in your profile, so perhaps you took your car to Cheltenham.
What has the fault been diagnosed as?

Sometimes the top end can become rattley (tappets/shims ?), and the dry sump scavenge pump can make a little noise, although that is not deemed to cause a problem.

I bought my car from a main dealer, but it was more convenient for me to use a different dealer for subsequent work.
Although you describe facing a wait for the fault to be dealt with locally (probably the September registration busy time for sales and workshops), I think I would prefer local help. If any further adjustments are needed following the repair, you probably would not want distance dealing then.

Stay confident. Your car looks great in the photos, and once this matter is sorted, I am sure that you will be a proud owner. They are great cars, and hopefully you will be able to forget this initial problem.

Keep the forum informed, because there are some knowledgeable people here with experience of Aston Martins willing to try to help.

[GT1 Builder]

Hi

You don't mention how old your car is or mileage.

However, I experienced exactly the same problem with my 2006 40k miles V8 Vantage. Did the normal checks and found the noise was coming from the front of the engine and suspected the exhaust recirc valve playing up, so replaced it. No different.

Then came to the conclusion that it had to be the throttle body butterfly as it only happened when the engine was hot.

Took the throttle body off and cleaned it. Slight improvement.

Took the car to AHM for some service work and mentioned it to Adrian. He cleaned up a small burr that caused the butterfly to stick a little bit on closed throttle. No problems since.

Hope it helps

Mike

[macdeb]

Hi Guys, thanks. It's a late (30-12-09) car with only 7k miles from new. So difficult to believe it has a wear problem. It's deep inside and can be heard outside the car at rest from above and below (still can't believe this was missed by Timeless inspection). After test drive we pull up and stop. After first trip out we pull up and stop. Only when I parked it in the garage when hot was the noise apparent and it's whisper quiet mechanically from cold.
Just as an add on to further scare things, shortly after contacting AM roadside (several times) I receive a text message stating that I had been charged £79.66 to AWP assistance reference technician asking me to view statement. Obviously I didn't but checked to make sure I hadn't
Will I awake soon and realise it's been a horrible nightmare and be able to walk into my garage and actually drive my dream that I've saved for many years for? It's been with me for two weeks tomorrow and I've only been out in it 3 times with it not moving for over one of those weeks. To add insult we had arranged a week off work (self employed) to take a tour of South Devon coast in it and that's not happening now as we wont have it. Tell me this is not normal.

Edited by macdeb on Tuesday 29th August 18:13

Edited by macdeb on Tuesday 29th August 18:19

[RobDown]

Ultimately if you're not happy then tweet Andy Palmer, he's responsive and these drops in service quality needs to be sorted by the company

[wtdoom]

Poor Andy , we tweet him when the cat doesn't come in on time lol

[RobDown]

I know. I'd only suggest it as a last resort. Give the dealer a chance to sort it first

[Jon39]

GT1 Builder said:

Hi
You don't mention how old your car is or mileage.

Mike

Keep up at the back.

There might be a test on this terms work, from the beginning,
Including module 1 - The Purchase.


just kidding.

[macdeb]

Dewi 1 said:

Mac,

You state Worcestershire in your profile, so perhaps you took your car to Cheltenham.
What has the fault been diagnosed as?

Sometimes the top end can become rattley (tappets/shims ?), and the dry sump scavenge pump can make a little noise, although that is not deemed to cause a problem.

I bought my car from a main dealer, but it was more convenient for me to use a different dealer for subsequent work.
Although you describe facing a wait for the fault to be dealt with locally (probably the September registration busy time for sales and workshops), I think I would prefer local help. If any further adjustments are needed following the repair, you probably would not want distance dealing then.

Stay confident. Your car looks great in the photos, and once this matter is sorted, I am sure that you will be a proud owner. They are great cars, and hopefully you will be able to forget this initial problem.

Keep the forum informed, because there are some knowledgeable people here with experience of Aston Martins willing to try to help.

Thanks, Grange is closest to me, really nice bunch and they got a mechanic (again, nice guy) out straight away to listen to the noise for me and he agreed that it shouldn't be there. It's like a small ball bearing rattling around in a plastic cup. If I were to wait for them to inspect/diagnose, arrange, strip maybe, order parts, reassemble etc I'd be looking realistically at some time in October to get the car back. The original supplier have told me they will make it a priority and set to work on it next week. I've no other option than to give them a chance to rectify the situation.
One thing about PH that I like and that is there's still some decent folk out there who will help/pass on information.

Edited by macdeb on Wednesday 30th August 07:26

[superlightr]

macdeb said:

Thanks, Grange is closest to me, really nice bunch and they got a mechanic (again, nice guy) out straight away to listen to the noise for me and he agreed that it shouldn't be there. It's like a small ball bearing rattling around in a plastic cup. If I were to wait for them to inspect/diagnose, arrange, strip maybe, order parts, reassemble etc I'd be looking realistically at some time in October to get the car back. The original supplier have told me they will make it a priority and set to work on it next week. I've no other option than to give them a chance to rectify the situation.
One thing about PH that I like and that is there's still some decent folk out there who will help/pass on information.

Edited by macdeb on Wednesday 30th August 07:26

How is the car now? Hope it is fixed and you got your tour of the Devon coast.

Ignore - just saw your updated posts.

Edited by superlightr on Monday 16th October 10:13