V8 Vantage Gearbox Fault Reduced Function - please help!
Discussion
HI, I hope you can help!
I have had a 2010 V8 Vantage Sportshift for 2 years now. I don't drive it all that often and last Christmas when I went to start it up, despite being on a trickle charger, the battery was dead. I duly jump started it and all was good for a couple more outings between then and the the spring. Went to start it the other day and discovered that the lights on the trickle charger were out and the battery was again dead. Jump started the car again and left it running on the drive for half an hour. Prior to going out in it I thought I would turn the car off and restart it just to be sure it would start again and lo and behold it failed to start.
Tried to jump start it but nothing was happening this time. Instead I got a 'Gearbox Fault Reduced Function' text warning on the dash. Repeated attempts to restart the car failed until it once again fired into life, result! Selected the gearbox into reverse, went to reverse out of the drive and the car started driving forwards!
It is now back in the garage and again won't start although all the electrics seem to be working fine, heating fan, dashboard, windows, radio etc (I understand that the electrics need less voltage to work than it does to turn over the starter motor). When I try to start it, once the key goes in the dash again shows 'Gearbox Fault Reduced Function', then when I try to start the engine by pushing in the key, the key surround turns red (as it should do) and I get three loud clicks from behind me and the heating fan cuts out (which makes me think it is the battery), but nothing else. Owners manual says 'Gearbox Fault Reduced Function' is limp home mode and to contact an Aston Martin dealer. Contacted the dealer and they said the only thing to do is disconnect the earth lead from the battery, wait 30 mins then reconnect and try again. Tried this but has resulted in the same dash warning, clicking and no starting.
Would a new battery solve this do you think?
Anyone got any ideas before I get the car towed to the dealer?
I have had a 2010 V8 Vantage Sportshift for 2 years now. I don't drive it all that often and last Christmas when I went to start it up, despite being on a trickle charger, the battery was dead. I duly jump started it and all was good for a couple more outings between then and the the spring. Went to start it the other day and discovered that the lights on the trickle charger were out and the battery was again dead. Jump started the car again and left it running on the drive for half an hour. Prior to going out in it I thought I would turn the car off and restart it just to be sure it would start again and lo and behold it failed to start.
Tried to jump start it but nothing was happening this time. Instead I got a 'Gearbox Fault Reduced Function' text warning on the dash. Repeated attempts to restart the car failed until it once again fired into life, result! Selected the gearbox into reverse, went to reverse out of the drive and the car started driving forwards!
It is now back in the garage and again won't start although all the electrics seem to be working fine, heating fan, dashboard, windows, radio etc (I understand that the electrics need less voltage to work than it does to turn over the starter motor). When I try to start it, once the key goes in the dash again shows 'Gearbox Fault Reduced Function', then when I try to start the engine by pushing in the key, the key surround turns red (as it should do) and I get three loud clicks from behind me and the heating fan cuts out (which makes me think it is the battery), but nothing else. Owners manual says 'Gearbox Fault Reduced Function' is limp home mode and to contact an Aston Martin dealer. Contacted the dealer and they said the only thing to do is disconnect the earth lead from the battery, wait 30 mins then reconnect and try again. Tried this but has resulted in the same dash warning, clicking and no starting.
Would a new battery solve this do you think?
Anyone got any ideas before I get the car towed to the dealer?
I had intermittant problems starting/non-starting despite the battery conditioner saying 'good', the battery was phooked. (when it didn't start all sorts of errors were thrown up on dash). So, £96 and 20 minutes later with new battery installed all great. Made a significant difference to the whole car if that makes sense.
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