V12 tick cause

[Hoofy]

Just curious... was reading about this on https://bamfordrose.com/repairs/engine-repair/#158... and wondered what actually causes the problem. Couldn't find anything on any other site. Anyone got a good link I can refer to?

I mean, how can an owner of, say, a DB9 avoid this happening to them?

[F1NDW]

Read this thread
https://astonowners.com/Forum?p=post%2Fv12-vanquis...

[Jon39]

You might find it helpful to watch the BR video about this subject.
There are now so many BR videos, probably the easiest way to find it, is try a search engine enquiry for 'youtube video bamford rose DB9 tick'.

Mike B. obviously has an interest in promoting his own business, but I think the first mention of the tick, was on this forum many years ago, when a gentleman living somewhere near Bristol, discussed his problem.
A very interesting topic, because he had tremendous enthusiasm to do the repair himself (almost kitchen table stuff), but then asked questions here when stuck. We did not know about the various possible causes then.
I had tremendous admiration for his efforts eg. reassembled the engine, then immediately set off to Lapland or Norway for snow driving. Made it back successfully. Think the engine came to pieces more than once.

Wonder what happened? Think we might have gone a touch too far with jests, but underneath that, lay widespread admiration.

[Hoofy]

Thanks both... and... bloody hell!

Edited by Hoofy on Friday 24th February 17:19

[paulrog1]

Yeah, that topic was this, very interesting -

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

The topic on Aston Owners.com is also very interesting, looks like the DB9 tick is caused by AM changing the block/liner manufacturer sometime in Vanquish/ early DB9 production and if any oil gets between the liners and the block it seems to wear oval.

This seems to improve when the V12 production moves to AMEP Germany as there are less failures.

I still don't know the percentage rate of failures out there as most of the V12 problems are when they are starved of oil, my 2004 DB9 has just over 60K miles and (touch wood) currently no problems.

Edited by paulrog1 on Saturday 25th February 19:51

[Hoofy]

paulrog1 said:

Yeah, that topic was this, very interesting -

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

The topic on Aston Owners.com is also very interesting, looks like the DB9 tick is caused by AM changing the block/liner manufacturer sometime in Vanquish/ early DB9 production and if any oil gets between the liners and the block it seems to wear oval.

This seems to improve when the V12 production moves to AMEP Germany as there are less failures.

I still don't know the percentage rate of failures out there as most of the V12 problems are when they are starved of oil, my 2004 DB9 has just over 60K miles and (touch wood) currently no problems.

Edited by paulrog1 on Saturday 25th February 19:51

Thanks for the reply.. What constitutes an early DB9?

[paulrog1]

Hoofy said:

Thanks for the reply.. What constitutes an early DB9?

Regarding the engine tick an early DB9 are the ones upto roughly September 2005 when the engines were then produced in AMEP Germany. All the info are in Mike's video's and the Cosworth/AMEP engine numbers are also different.

The AMEP engines don't seem to suffer from this problem, although Mike did say to me some have small end bearing wear and if caught early that's not a rebuild job, The small end bearings were redesigned in roughly 2008 to make them more reliable.

[Hoofy]

paulrog1 said:

Hoofy said:

Thanks for the reply.. What constitutes an early DB9?

Regarding the engine tick an early DB9 are the ones upto roughly September 2005 when the engines were then produced in AMEP Germany. All the info are in Mike's video's and the Cosworth/AMEP engine numbers are also different.

The AMEP engines don't seem to suffer from this problem, although Mike did say to me some have small end bearing wear and if caught early that's not a rebuild job, The small end bearings were redesigned in roughly 2008 to make them more reliable.

Thanks!

So basically all early cars will have the problem at some point?

Any easy way of telling if a 2008 car has the latest engine?

Edit: actually, I can see that in Autotrader, for instance, a 2009 car mentions 470bhp rather than 450bhp.

Edited by Hoofy on Sunday 26th February 10:53

[Jon39]

paulrog1 said:

Yeah, that topic was this, very interesting -

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Maverick probably still owns the same car, because his personal plate is recorded as;

Aston Martin DB9, July 2004, Black, 5935cc.

One interesting point - Fuel type = GAS BI-FUEL.
Might not have much spare boot space, if there is a liquified gas tank in there.

A little MoT woopsie in 2015;
'Reason(s) for failure - Exhaust noise is clearly in excess of that emitted by a similar vehicle fitted with a standard silencer in average condition (7.1.4)

"Sounds luverly guv. but sorry, I had to fail it. It's more than my jobsworth." -

[AM4884]

I can't speak to the oval bore wear, but when I rebuilt my V12 I used stock Ford connecting rods. They had a slightly different design for the small end bearing. Instead of a simple plain bearing, it was slit and had grooves in it to make it easier for oil to get into the bearing. I would imagine that this was the design change that AM used - Ford upgraded all their Duratec connecting rods and they were used in the (newer) AM builds.