2010 DB9 Diff leak & Engine shake

[nyaston]

Hello good people,

Longtime forum reader and 7 year owner of 2010 DB9 Volante. It now has 34k miles.

Need some advice.

Had in for a service at a local indy, i’ve used them for a few years and they been solid. They specialise in imports and high end cars, not sure how many astons but i figured the car is not that complex by high end standards.

Most recently had a fluids and filters
service. This included:

1. Engine Oil Change & Oil Filter Change.
2. Brake Fluid Change.
3. Coolant Fluid Change.
4. Differential Fluid Change.

This was a month ago. After service, I took the car on a 40 mile trip without issue, and since have not driven the car.

Yesterday, I decided to take her for a spin and started her up as normal, pulled forward a few feet and figured i better check the ground for any fluids!

The was a pool of fluid on the ground on the drivers side (US based) just ahead of the rear wheel (not directly in front of it, more towards the center of the car).

I assume this was a diff leak.

After a few minutes of the engine running (i figured i’d let her warm up, the diff shouldn’t be an issue because it was just parked. However, the engine started to shudder and shake. This was very unnerving! I quickly turned off the engine.

This morning I managed to pull it out of the garage (parked in an underground garage that tow trucks can’t get into) after i disabled the transmission.

There was more fluid in the same spot on the ground.

The car was put on a flatbed and i now await further details on what has happened. I did check the engine oil and it seemed fine.

All coil packs, spark plugs and pcv components were replaced 2k miles ago.

I’ve never had an issue with the car until now!

Any possibility of a link with the engine shudder to the diff? or is that just crazy coincidence?

Waiting to hear what the diagnostics comes back with and really nervous.

Any insight is sincerely appreciated.

-n

[AM4884]

sorry to hear your tail of woe...

Very challenging to diagnose from afar. If you want to help, buy or borrow a good obd tool (I have a foxwell NT-520) and see what codes, if any are pending. I'm assuming the CEL didn't come on, but if it's bucking, it's misfiring and you will have codes. Why it's bucking is the $64K question... A good reader is only about $150.00, or less than an hour of shop time.

You can also put your phone on a selfie stick and take photos of the transmission/differential and see where fluid is coming from. It might have been water from the AC Condensate drain, but again, hard to tell remotely.

I'd be surprised if the dff/tranny suddenly decided to start leaking, unless they serviced it 2K miles prior and they failed to tighten the fill port. If it backed out, it would start sloshing and coating the sides which would then slowly accumulate on your garage floor.

[Simpo Two]

I'm no expert but my 2007 DB9 has had a couple of gearbox oil leaks. The oil is not always directly below the source of the leak; it can run along the underside and drop elsewhere. So you need to get the undertrays off to locate the source. I can't explain the engine shudder but if it all started going wrong after the garage changed things 40 miles ago then that seems a bit of a smoking gun.

Flatbed straight back to the place that did the work IMHO. Unless they are talented it may need to go to someone who knows a bit more about Astons and their foibles. Good luck and I hope you get it fixed first time for not to much ££.

ETA you mention 'diagnostics' - that's a big can of worms. A code-reader may not find any codes. Some so-called technicians can't read misfires and/or (even with AMDS) are unable to interpret the results so they start taking the wrong end of the car apart. Ask me how I know...

Edited by Simpo Two on Sunday 29th October 12:15

[nyaston]

Update. But first, thanks chaps for the responses, good to have some smarter ones around to make sense of things.

So, it was two different issues that happened at once, and honestly, I was a little freaked out.

First, the oil on the ground. The diff plug did not have the correct gasket, so was slowly leaking. The independent shop apologized and rectified with a top up and correct seal replacement.

The engine shaking. So, this was a bit more complicated. I put fuel stabilizer in the gas (it was nearly a full tank, however, I've not driven much over the past few months). This helped however, I still took into Aston Martin of Long Island for a full check up.

After diagnosis, replaced both throttle bodies and remapped. Not only did it fix the issue, the car is noticeably running better and responds better when driving.

My takeaway is nothing new - you have to drive these cars. So, I will try my best through this New York winter. I'll also make sure I'm using fuel stabilizer through the next few months of not much driving.

Thanks again for the insight chaps.