Both running lights have failed simultaneously
Discussion
Evening all, I took my 2013 Vantage in for a service today and they report that the LED running lights on both clusters aren't working. I'm guessing that this is going to be a very expensive repair requiring 2 new units but i just wanted to check if there are any tricks to bringing them back to life? It does seem a bit strange that both have failed simultaneously. The dealer has quoted about 3 grand to install the new units, does that sound about right or can these be had for 200 quid each from a parts supplier?
thanks
thanks
Both my headlight LEDs failed within a few weeks of each other, one died altogether and the other one would only turn on intermittently.
I researched a repair option at the time and unfortunately it seems the LED strip can't be replaced as the headlight is a sealed unit.
I paid a similar price to what you've been quoted, about £1,500 per unit.
You could save some money by buying second hand headlights from the breakers but you will never know when they might fail again...
I researched a repair option at the time and unfortunately it seems the LED strip can't be replaced as the headlight is a sealed unit.
I paid a similar price to what you've been quoted, about £1,500 per unit.
You could save some money by buying second hand headlights from the breakers but you will never know when they might fail again...
Edited by matrignano on Thursday 7th January 20:07
In FAQ link above, these have been mentioned in several threads over the years, might be worth a shout. I’ve had three of these replaced, 1 under the initial warranty, 1 I paid for and the third was paid for by AM when I complained bitterly about the frequency of failure.
Anyway, the link:
Headlamp LED Light repairs
IER in Letchworth for Headlamp LED repairs Speak to Matt in the office 01462 671001
http://www.ieruk.com/
Anyway, the link:
Headlamp LED Light repairs
IER in Letchworth for Headlamp LED repairs Speak to Matt in the office 01462 671001
http://www.ieruk.com/
steveatesh said:
In FAQ link above, these have been mentioned in several threads over the years, might be worth a shout. I’ve had three of these replaced, 1 under the initial warranty, 1 I paid for and the third was paid for by AM when I complained bitterly about the frequency of failure.
Anyway, the link:
Headlamp LED Light repairs
IER in Letchworth for Headlamp LED repairs Speak to Matt in the office 01462 671001
http://www.ieruk.com/
Do they strip down and rebuild the lights or do you need to send them the bare electronics ?Anyway, the link:
Headlamp LED Light repairs
IER in Letchworth for Headlamp LED repairs Speak to Matt in the office 01462 671001
http://www.ieruk.com/
I wish I knew that. As a naturally suspicious person I did wonder immediately whether this is a common service trick to find a job for the garage to do. The lights must have been working last august for the MOT but I haven't looked at the front of the car with the lights on since. Not that it has moved much either. What is going to be close to 4k just to fix what used to be the cost of a couple of new light bulbs is one of the more painful costs I think i've had in my entire history of cars.
I guess my suspicion about the garage pulling a fast one abated when I ran some searches and found this to be a pretty common problem.
Just to confirm with you guys the car will fail its next MOT without these lights running won't it?
I guess my suspicion about the garage pulling a fast one abated when I ran some searches and found this to be a pretty common problem.
Just to confirm with you guys the car will fail its next MOT without these lights running won't it?
It’s interesting that purchasing a new Vantage headlight is considerably less expensive in the UK than the US. I looked at a lightly used 2016 Vantage (only 2100 miles) and both headlights had heavy condensation in them. I called three Aston dealerships for a quote to replace both Black Bezel Headlights and the price was identical. Each headlight was $5400 each and $900 for installation, for a grand total of $11,700 USD.
I attempted unsuccessfully to negotiate a reduction in price for the Vantage but the owner was convinced it was not an issue and still wanted top dollar. Months later the car is still unsold.
The sad part was that the Vantage was still under warranty a month earlier and the dealership would have replaced them for free. The 85 year old owner was unaware of this.
The headlights on my Vantage are completely dry but I am being proactive in installing the Headlight Ventilation Kit sold by AM Upgrades. Ian was great to deal with and the kit arrived a few days ago.
I attempted unsuccessfully to negotiate a reduction in price for the Vantage but the owner was convinced it was not an issue and still wanted top dollar. Months later the car is still unsold.
The sad part was that the Vantage was still under warranty a month earlier and the dealership would have replaced them for free. The 85 year old owner was unaware of this.
The headlights on my Vantage are completely dry but I am being proactive in installing the Headlight Ventilation Kit sold by AM Upgrades. Ian was great to deal with and the kit arrived a few days ago.
The frequency of lamps failing and the outlandish costs for replacements may cause some of us to think that AM has built-in the faults delkiberately to make profits from the sales of parts - or would this view be giving too much credit to the designers of such parts. Similarly with respect to the rapid rusting of the rear sub-frames on some models.
One would have thought with a premium product AM would provide some longevity.
One would have thought with a premium product AM would provide some longevity.
Aldhun said:
The frequency of lamps failing and the outlandish costs for replacements may cause some of us to think that AM has built-in the faults delkiberately to make profits from the sales of parts - or would this view be giving too much credit to the designers of such parts. Similarly with respect to the rapid rusting of the rear sub-frames on some models.
This is definitely not the case. The idea of car companies deliberately engineering in premature failure is an old canard. What you do have to consider is the design life - none of these cars are engineered for a 20-year lifespan (I use 20 as an example, it was more probably 10 or 12). Aldhun said:
One would have thought with a premium product AM would provide some longevity.
The VH cars were engineered to, and signed off, to the appropriate Ford standards. Small players like Aston can suffer from the lack of volume and capital investment affecting the suppliers that will do business with them and the type of tooling and facilities that can be afforded. Low volume manufacturing techniques have come on in leaps and bounds in the last few years (3D printing being an example) but back at the start of the VH cars Aston were often having to work with suppliers who could only work to paper drawings. Small suppliers can often submit early parts that are carefully manufactured in low numbers to the exact requirements of the drawings, especially as the supplier is eager to please and have their parts accepted, but sometimes when in production quality standards and process capability may not quite match up to those early samples. amongst the other issues are the sheer number of prototypes that can be built and tested on the shoestring R&D budgets that low volumes can support. Also, whole-life testing is not easy - to try to recreate the effects of 12 years of different use and driving; high speed, low speed traffic, weather, sun, heat, cold, road salt and grit, washing, garaging when wet, never garaged, etc etc that represents the actual life of a car and compress this in a reliable and repeatable way within in a 36-month development programme when off-tool parts may only be available in the last year is not an easy task. There are various accelerated durability tests, prototype mileage accumulation exercises, etc that are used, but the only real way to simulate 12 years in the field is to subject a car to 12 years in the field. When a car is assessed at the end of something like a whole-car durability and corrosion test, which is meant to recreate the complete life of the car, a rear subframe that is still structurally sound but is covered with surface corrosion will probably be regarded as a "pass" (depending, of course, on what the pass criteria laid down in the standards were).
I'm not an apologist and could Aston have done better? Yes. But now we have to accept the cars are what they are (and they will very rarely suffer from a catastrophic failure within their design life).
Edited by LTP on Saturday 9th January 16:55
Bobajobbob said:
I wish I knew that. As a naturally suspicious person I did wonder immediately whether this is a common service trick to find a job for the garage to do. The lights must have been working last august for the MOT but I haven't looked at the front of the car with the lights on since. Not that it has moved much either. What is going to be close to 4k just to fix what used to be the cost of a couple of new light bulbs is one of the more painful costs I think i've had in my entire history of cars.
I guess my suspicion about the garage pulling a fast one abated when I ran some searches and found this to be a pretty common problem.
Just to confirm with you guys the car will fail its next MOT without these lights running won't it?
As far as I'm aware, DRLs are only tested on the MoT for cars regd on/after 1st March 2018, so may not have been working at the last MoT. Not sure of the situation if one works and one doesn't.I guess my suspicion about the garage pulling a fast one abated when I ran some searches and found this to be a pretty common problem.
Just to confirm with you guys the car will fail its next MOT without these lights running won't it?
If it was mine, I might be tempted to leave them, assuming it is not an MoT issue, as it seems to be a 'not-unusual' issue on Vantages. Imagine, you replace both, then one fails again and just having one working is an MoT failure.
LTP said:
The VH cars were engineered to, and signed off, to the appropriate Ford standards. Small players like Aston can suffer from the lack of volume and capital investment affecting the suppliers that will do business with them and the type of tooling and facilities that can be afforded. Low volume manufacturing techniques have come on in leaps and bounds in the last few years (3D printing being an example) but back at the start of the VH cars Aston were often having to work with suppliers who could only work to paper drawings. Small suppliers can often submit early parts that are carefully manufactured in low numbers to the exact requirements of the drawings, especially as the supplier is eager to please and have their parts accepted, but sometimes when in production quality standards and process capability may not quite match up to those early samples.
amongst the other issues are the sheer number of prototypes that can be built and tested on the shoestring R&D budgets that low volumes can support. Also, whole-life testing is not easy - to try to recreate the effects of 12 years of different use and driving; high speed, low speed traffic, weather, sun, heat, cold, road salt and grit, washing, garaging when wet, never garaged, etc etc that represents the actual life of a car and compress this in a reliable and repeatable way within in a 36-month development programme when off-tool parts may only be available in the last year is not an easy task. There are various accelerated durability tests, prototype mileage accumulation exercises, etc that are used, but the only real way to simulate 12 years in the field is to subject a car to 12 years in the field. When a car is assessed at the end of something like a whole-car durability and corrosion test, which is meant to recreate the complete life of the car, a rear subframe that is still structurally sound but is covered with surface corrosion will probably be regarded as a "pass" (depending, of course, on what the pass criteria laid down in the standards were).
I'm not an apologist and could Aston have done better? Yes. But now we have to accept the cars are what they are (and they will very rarely suffer from a catastrophic failure within their design life).
I agree, my post was "tongue in cheek" but £3,000 to change the light units is hard to swallow.amongst the other issues are the sheer number of prototypes that can be built and tested on the shoestring R&D budgets that low volumes can support. Also, whole-life testing is not easy - to try to recreate the effects of 12 years of different use and driving; high speed, low speed traffic, weather, sun, heat, cold, road salt and grit, washing, garaging when wet, never garaged, etc etc that represents the actual life of a car and compress this in a reliable and repeatable way within in a 36-month development programme when off-tool parts may only be available in the last year is not an easy task. There are various accelerated durability tests, prototype mileage accumulation exercises, etc that are used, but the only real way to simulate 12 years in the field is to subject a car to 12 years in the field. When a car is assessed at the end of something like a whole-car durability and corrosion test, which is meant to recreate the complete life of the car, a rear subframe that is still structurally sound but is covered with surface corrosion will probably be regarded as a "pass" (depending, of course, on what the pass criteria laid down in the standards were).
I'm not an apologist and could Aston have done better? Yes. But now we have to accept the cars are what they are (and they will very rarely suffer from a catastrophic failure within their design life).
Edited by LTP on Saturday 9th January 16:55
TarquinMX5 said:
Bobajobbob said:
I wish I knew that. As a naturally suspicious person I did wonder immediately whether this is a common service trick to find a job for the garage to do. The lights must have been working last august for the MOT but I haven't looked at the front of the car with the lights on since. Not that it has moved much either. What is going to be close to 4k just to fix what used to be the cost of a couple of new light bulbs is one of the more painful costs I think i've had in my entire history of cars.
I guess my suspicion about the garage pulling a fast one abated when I ran some searches and found this to be a pretty common problem.
Just to confirm with you guys the car will fail its next MOT without these lights running won't it?
As far as I'm aware, DRLs are only tested on the MoT for cars regd on/after 1st March 2018, so may not have been working at the last MoT. Not sure of the situation if one works and one doesn't.I guess my suspicion about the garage pulling a fast one abated when I ran some searches and found this to be a pretty common problem.
Just to confirm with you guys the car will fail its next MOT without these lights running won't it?
If it was mine, I might be tempted to leave them, assuming it is not an MoT issue, as it seems to be a 'not-unusual' issue on Vantages. Imagine, you replace both, then one fails again and just having one working is an MoT failure.
The dealer told me that it is an MOT fail though now I come to think about it he did the last MOT as well. His explanation was that the running lights are the side lights. If anyone has more info or knowledge on this it would be useful as I probably wouldn't bother fixing them in a hurry if it wasn't an MOT fail.
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