V12VS Service Schedule actions - coil packs & plugs

[Graze01]

My V12 Vantage S is going in for 5 year service in a couple of weeks

I want to know when the coil packs and spark plugs should be replaced

Car has done 28,000km or there abouts

I've looked through the manual and it says 70,000miles or 112,00km - replace spark plugs, but makes no reference to coil packs or time

does anyone have any specific knowledge on the time interval for vc]changing these out - or iis it just mileage

car seems to be missing at idle (after all the issues I've had with emission service lights and AM fitting new MAF sensor and custom catch cans to fix whatever they did to it when they replaced the manifold breather pipes in January due to oil in the breathers), so I want to know if its time to do coil packs?

any advice appreciated

Graze

[paulrog1]

"Custom catch cans" what the bloody hell have they been doing to your car?

The breather circuit should have 2 PCV valves operating correctly to stop oil going into the intake system, anything else is not as per factory spec.

My understanding of V12 cars and defiantly DB9 the sparkplugs & coil packs to be replaced every 7 years.

I would connect the car to AMDS and find out what is the problem with your rough idle and if it's a bad coil I would replace all sparkplugs and coil packs as it's a big job...........plus at the same time remove the catch cans and revert to standard factory spec with new PCV valves.

[Phil74891]

My 2014 V12VS had its 7 year service at an AM dealer this year. It used to be new plugs at 7 years or 70,000 miles, whichever came sooner.

The factory revised this earlier in the year to just 70,000 miles with no time limit. I’m on 18,000 miles so did not change the plugs.

I can’t see any guidance for coil replacement on the V12VS

Edited by Phil74891 on Saturday 31st July 16:45

[phumy]

Phil74891 said:

My 2014 V12VS had its 7 year service at an AM dealer this year. It used to be new plugs at 7 years or 70,000 miles, whichever came sooner.

The factory revised this earlier in the year to just 70,000 miles with no time limit. I’m on 18,000 miles so did not change the plugs.

I can’t see any guidance for coil replacement on the V12VS

Edited by Phil74891 on Saturday 31st July 16:45

My 2014 was in for service 5 weeks ago and exactly the same as me, i had 13k miles on the clock and no plug change, i cant see any problem with not changing with such low miles as theyre hardly used. The only problem that could arise with not replacing them for a while, especially if they dont do them for a couple of years more is that the plugs could be difficult to remove or even sieze in the plug threads. Maybe they need to be "exercised" by turning them a few turns out then back in again although i doubt very much that the Dealer would do that, unless you asked them to, then its extra labour charge.

[Graze01]

Phumy, Paul, Phil

thanks for the info

Yes I was going to make sure they did AMDS scan on the engine while running to work out why it is missing

appreciate your comments

Graze

Edited by Graze01 on Sunday 1st August 10:32

[vulcan26]

I don't think there's any guidance from AM on when to change the coils, just the plugs, but basically you need AMDS to monitor the misfire, and assuming thats the issue, all the plugs, coils should be replaced. Changing just the one or two back coils is a false economy due to the work involved getting the intake manifolds off. Also, while they're off, change the 2 PCV valves as these don't last long.

Bamford rose did a good series of videos on this (Youtube) so worth taking a look. I don't think its a mileage or age thing, they advise that they hook up AMDS at each service and check the misfire count and if not looking good will recommend the work. I think thats a much better way of monitoring what is known to be an issue on the V12 garden astons.

Edited by vulcan26 on Sunday 1st August 20:01

[Ken Figenus]

phumy said:

My 2014 was in for service 5 weeks ago and exactly the same as me, i had 13k miles on the clock and no plug change, i cant see any problem with not changing with such low miles as theyre hardly used. The only problem that could arise with not replacing them for a while, especially if they dont do them for a couple of years more is that the plugs could be difficult to remove or even sieze in the plug threads. Maybe they need to be "exercised" by turning them a few turns out then back in again although i doubt very much that the Dealer would do that, unless you asked them to, then its extra labour charge.

Mate if you have managed to get a spanner on them you CHANGE THEM! Its a bit of a palaver to get there!

I'll do plugs and coils and PCV at 10 years unless any issues. I hope to source the spark plugs for typical NGK spark plug costs and Denso coils for like typical coils costs - saving a grand!

[morty1961]

Ken Figenus said:

Mate if you have managed to get a spanner on them you CHANGE THEM! Its a bit of a palaver to get there!

I'll do plugs and coils and PCV at 10 years unless any issues. I hope to source the spark plugs for typical NGK spark plug costs and Denso coils for like typical coils costs - saving a grand!

Good luck with sourcing plugs and coils mate ... ive been trying to cross reference for a good while now with no luck yet !

I was at AM Performance last Thursday for my 2009 V12 6 Speed annual service (on 41k miles) and the manual box oil changed).

On my request, due to what I thought was an occasional very slight misfire at idle, had the misfire count live checked with AMDS hooked up to OBD on roadtest then the correction run downs done. Very interesting as I was in the passenger seat with the laptop on my knee. Took about an 11/2 hours on the road to perform all this and after the correction the engine did seem a little smoother on idle.

The main thing to take from this was that under load and when the engine was at its hottest there was almost zero misfire count across all the cylinders, especially watching cylinders 5/6 and 11/12 at the rear of the engine. Under load is the biggest indicator of a defective coil, plug or even injector. So I'm now happy that I have no issues with the ignition system.

Edited by morty1961 on Monday 9th August 07:31

Edited by morty1961 on Monday 9th August 07:33

[Ken Figenus]

morty1961 said:

Good luck with sourcing plugs and coils mate ... ive been trying to cross reference for a good while now with no luck yet !

I think coils have been done by the dedicated DIYers - matches a £25 Toyota Denso part (or was it 6 cyl Jag?) from Euro Car Parts. You need to re-use a rubber boot.

I have this link saved from someone but bit unsure about it: https://www.aceignitioncoil.com/product/ford-repla...

[morty1961]

Ken Figenus said:

I think coils have been done by the dedicated DIYers - matches a £25 Toyota Denso part (or was it 6 cyl Jag?) from Euro Car Parts. You need to re-use a rubber boot.

I have this link saved from someone but bit unsure about it: https://www.aceignitioncoil.com/product/ford-repla...

Im pretty sure that was only for the 2 pin coils fitted to pre 2006 DB9's .... I dont think there are any 3 pin alternatives for post 2006 (ish) V12 engines