DB9 dampers upgrade to 2012 model
Discussion
Hi all,
last summer I bought a 2006 DB9, lovely car with a lot of the popular (and expensive!) Bamford Rose upgrades installed. The previous owner did install Nitron dampers and springs, and lowered the car by c. 1-2". Whereas this might be a good track set-up, I've been noticing that the Nitrons are too aggressive for normal (fast) road driving: quite busy, not great over rough surfaces, and also resulting in significant noises (both creaks/rattles and road noise). Furthermore very limited adjustment on these.
Speaking to Mike at BR, he is now recommending customers installing the latest Aston DB9 dampers (2012, and I believe sports pack, to be confirmed). Previously they had the Bilstein adjustable dampers but the controller takes additional time/cost, and they noticed a lot of customers didn't really use the multiple settings that particular system offered.
I was wondering whether anybody here has experience with this particular damper upgrade on an older car, or has a late model DB9 to comment on the drive of this set-up. I'm mainly using the car for travel/weekend blasts, and might take it on the occasional track day for laughs, but ideally want a fast and well-handling GT rather than a sportscar.
Many thanks, Adriaan
last summer I bought a 2006 DB9, lovely car with a lot of the popular (and expensive!) Bamford Rose upgrades installed. The previous owner did install Nitron dampers and springs, and lowered the car by c. 1-2". Whereas this might be a good track set-up, I've been noticing that the Nitrons are too aggressive for normal (fast) road driving: quite busy, not great over rough surfaces, and also resulting in significant noises (both creaks/rattles and road noise). Furthermore very limited adjustment on these.
Speaking to Mike at BR, he is now recommending customers installing the latest Aston DB9 dampers (2012, and I believe sports pack, to be confirmed). Previously they had the Bilstein adjustable dampers but the controller takes additional time/cost, and they noticed a lot of customers didn't really use the multiple settings that particular system offered.
I was wondering whether anybody here has experience with this particular damper upgrade on an older car, or has a late model DB9 to comment on the drive of this set-up. I'm mainly using the car for travel/weekend blasts, and might take it on the occasional track day for laughs, but ideally want a fast and well-handling GT rather than a sportscar.
Many thanks, Adriaan
I can’t speak for DB9, though I did go through something similar with my 2011 Vantage. I bought in 2016, it always seemed to sit very high.
Various specialists were approached and unable to tell me what the suspension problem was, or indeed even what suspension was fitted. After a year of ownership I decided to replace the suspension with Nitron.
Where the handling was much improved, I noticed the same as you wrt NVH, clunks and knocks due to the solid mounts and lack of isolation inherent with the racing-type damper design. Though it was obvious, the installer refused to accept that the Nitron suspension was the cause of the new clunks. I had just swapped one problem for another.
in about 2019 I asked BR to properly diagnose the issues, which they did, and we swapped the Nitrons for their Bilstein switchable system. That finally fixed the car properly. The two settings of the switchable system are à beautifully judged firm mode for 99% of al road use and an even firmer setting too hard for UK roads, but perfect for the track.
In hindsight, the road-biased non-switchable set up would have been much cheaper and just fine, and it was what was recommended by BR at the time. Those guys at BR probably know their way round the n/a Gaydon stuff better than most outside the factory, I don’t think you’d go far wrong taking their recommendation.
In my case, the switchable system has a slight issue in that it will default to hard track mode after approx 40min of driving, and need to be switched back to the softer mode. It’s been that way since the day it was fitted.
To be fair to Mike at BR, when I returned the car a year later primarily for some other tweaks and mentioned it he acknowledged that there can be some sort of interface issue between some versions of the genuine AML glass switch BR supplied as part of the full suspension upgrade and some versions of the Bilstein switchable suspension control module, and offered to fit a discreet Bilstein switch in the trinket box to resolve the issue. I declined because while I wanted to fix the issue, I really wanted keep the AM switch functional, so elected to wait until I discover a more elegant solution. Based on Mike's comments, the issue seems likely to be to do with comms-based logic integrated within either the AML switch or the module - if anyone has knowledge or an alternate solution keeping the AM switch functional I’d be grateful.
Notwithstanding the rather trivial switch issue, BR both instantly diagnosed my clunks as being due 100% the Nitrons (where 3 other specialists, including the one who fitted them) did not, and they also identified that the suspension my car was wearing when I bought it (which I brought along for inspection out of interest) was from an early DB9.
The Bilsteins supplied, fitted and tuned by BR were a revelation, the best thing I ever did for the car. I understand that these are very similar to the Bilstein units fitted as OE to the later VH AM, though there would naturally be differences between Vantage and DB9 in terms of spring rates and damper tuning.
Various specialists were approached and unable to tell me what the suspension problem was, or indeed even what suspension was fitted. After a year of ownership I decided to replace the suspension with Nitron.
Where the handling was much improved, I noticed the same as you wrt NVH, clunks and knocks due to the solid mounts and lack of isolation inherent with the racing-type damper design. Though it was obvious, the installer refused to accept that the Nitron suspension was the cause of the new clunks. I had just swapped one problem for another.
in about 2019 I asked BR to properly diagnose the issues, which they did, and we swapped the Nitrons for their Bilstein switchable system. That finally fixed the car properly. The two settings of the switchable system are à beautifully judged firm mode for 99% of al road use and an even firmer setting too hard for UK roads, but perfect for the track.
In hindsight, the road-biased non-switchable set up would have been much cheaper and just fine, and it was what was recommended by BR at the time. Those guys at BR probably know their way round the n/a Gaydon stuff better than most outside the factory, I don’t think you’d go far wrong taking their recommendation.
In my case, the switchable system has a slight issue in that it will default to hard track mode after approx 40min of driving, and need to be switched back to the softer mode. It’s been that way since the day it was fitted.
To be fair to Mike at BR, when I returned the car a year later primarily for some other tweaks and mentioned it he acknowledged that there can be some sort of interface issue between some versions of the genuine AML glass switch BR supplied as part of the full suspension upgrade and some versions of the Bilstein switchable suspension control module, and offered to fit a discreet Bilstein switch in the trinket box to resolve the issue. I declined because while I wanted to fix the issue, I really wanted keep the AM switch functional, so elected to wait until I discover a more elegant solution. Based on Mike's comments, the issue seems likely to be to do with comms-based logic integrated within either the AML switch or the module - if anyone has knowledge or an alternate solution keeping the AM switch functional I’d be grateful.
Notwithstanding the rather trivial switch issue, BR both instantly diagnosed my clunks as being due 100% the Nitrons (where 3 other specialists, including the one who fitted them) did not, and they also identified that the suspension my car was wearing when I bought it (which I brought along for inspection out of interest) was from an early DB9.
The Bilsteins supplied, fitted and tuned by BR were a revelation, the best thing I ever did for the car. I understand that these are very similar to the Bilstein units fitted as OE to the later VH AM, though there would naturally be differences between Vantage and DB9 in terms of spring rates and damper tuning.
Edited by Calinours on Saturday 25th March 13:25
For the Vantage, there used to be great enthusiasm on here for the optional SportPack.
More recently though, I have noticed several mentions of SportPack suspension being too hard.
Perhaps that might coincide with the worsening state of many British road surfaces.
I have the standard suspension (Bilstein from MY 2009) and that is quite firm enough for me.
Perhaps the same applies to the DB9.
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