Hello - New V8V Owners; couple questions

[buckster]

Hello,

I bought a fantastic 2006 V8V a couple weeks back, waited ages for one in meteorite silver with the added bonus of the prodrive performance pack; WHAT A NOISE!!!

I came from a Focus RS Mk2, forged engine with the Revo4+ upgrade (425bhp and 455lbft torque; brutal)... No doubt a future classic but I have always wanted an Aston.

Trying to adapt my driving style back to a NA performance car where the power is at the top end of the range, nice linear acceleration.

I have a couple of questions, hope someone can help?

1) The car has fairly bad drivetrain shunt in first gear; as you are coming to a junction and slowing down, car shunts forward if the clutch is not depressed. Is this normal for the V8V?

2) The gears are fairly hard to engage when cold (esp 2nd) and I am going from 1st to 3rd until car warms up when it's much better; is this fairly normal?

3) The car has done 35K on the original clutch, worried how much longer it has left. When it goes, where is the best place/price to get a replacement and is it clutch plus flywheel or typically just clutch plate only?

I live on the West side of London by the way, make sure you give me a wave if you see/hear me :-) , already had a DBS owner and a V12 vantage owner give me a wave, very cool.

Cheers

[simonpa]

Looks good!

1 - shunt - I don't know what ProDrive do to the throttle mapping, but I find the standard V8V has a significant 'bounce' when slowing down, that can cause a shunt - you have to drive around it.

2 - stiff change when cold - they mostly do that. If the gearbox oil has never been changed (very possible) then that is supposed to help. That reminds me, I have 8l of gearbox oil on the shelf, so I really should do mine!

3 - clutch - could go anytime, could last a fair while longer, it depends on how it has been driven. Do Prodrive leave the clutch standard? Appleby reckon their upgrade will probably not need changing again, not sure about the BR offering.
You can change just the plate, as long as the flywheel and pressure plate aren't damaged, but most of the cost is in the labour.

I'm amazed there appear to be no 3rd-party replacement friction plates on the market.

HTH - Simon

Edited by simonpa on Thursday 12th March 16:45

[V8Andrew]

Welcome, and nice looking car!

Mine does the 1st to 2nd gear stickiness when cold, goes away when warm. My 911 is the same don't think it's anything to worry about.

For a new clutch I'll be doing this if mine goes although it only has 10k on it
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

A

[bogie]

1- dunno, mine does not do that
2 - get the oil changed to later spec, surprising difference
3 - im on 70k miles, original clutch from new on a Jan 2006 Vantage , so you might be lucky for a few years yet

[buckster]

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated!

My next service is at 40K miles so later this year sometime. I noticed the 40K service does require gearbox oil change so perhaps it will make a difference.

Car was serviced by Aston in Oct last year, only done 500 miles since then so if there were any problems with gearbox (or shunt) I'm sure they would have flagged it.

Cheers

[Johnny42]

Very nice indeed. I'm jealous, even though I have a meteorite V8V on the drive... My clutch stinks and on cold mornings it changes into 2nd like a 17 year old on L plates. Welcome to the club!

[Impasse]

I complained about low speed driveline shunt at tip-in point and the tickover not being as smooth as it used to be during last year's service. They "couldn't find anything wrong" but gave the car a software reflash with what they claimed to be an updated map. Placebo or not, the car was noticeably better than before.

[JohnG1]

Lovely car. Is that Richmond Park?

Clutch - you can get a twin plate clutch from Bamford Rose. They have a sticky on the top or visit their website.

1st to 2nd in a 2006 V8 - I had the same problem. AML offered a "fix" - a different gearbox oil and a change to the linkage. Ask an AML dealer to check the VIN on AMDS and see if this has been done. If not, it's worth doing - I did it on mine and it made a difference.

[buckster]

Hey...

Thanks again for the follow up responses, very interesting feedback.

This is not Richmond park but Bushy park (I live in Hampton), lovely place to visit if you are in the area; head out the North entrance into Teddington for lunch, great place!

I will speak with AM at my next service, see what they think.

Cheers