DB11 v12 waste gate rattle

[mattkoy]

Hi all,

I’ve recently bought a 2017 DB11 V12 (19k miles). The car has a metallic rattle under load, which the Aston Martin dealer diagnosed using NVH equipment as coming from the waste gates on both turbochargers. The workshop submitted a request for turbo replacement, but instead authorised the approved repair for the waste gate pennies to be welded to stop the rattle.

The repair has definitely improved the car. The rattle is much less frequent than before, however I’m still able to reproduce the same metallic rattle (and a slight vibration through the accelerator pedal) under certain load conditions, for example:

• Normal acceleration from around 20–40 mph
• Normal acceleration from around 50–70 mph
• 70 mph on cruise control, where the road started to incline and the car automatically applied more power to maintain speed.

The dealer has since driven the car again and advised that it’s mechanically sound and that some remaining wastegate noise is characteristic of the DB11 V12.

My question is really for other V12 DB11 owners:

• Does your car make a similar metallic wastegate rattle under load?
• Can you feel any vibration through the accelerator pedal when it happens?
• If you’ve had the wastegate modification carried out, did it eliminate the noise completely or simply reduce it?

Many thanks.

[Crumpet]

Mine had that and I reported it when it went in for service. They basically said they all do that and that it was as they’ve described to you. Fast forward a few months and I started getting EML lights, which was subsequently diagnosed as wastegate actuator failure. Linked? Maybe.

[mattkoy]

Ah interesting, thanks. Out of interest, did they replace the wastegate actuators themselves or the complete turbos?

Also, once the actuator issue was resolved, did you notice whether the original rattle disappeared completely?

Thanks!

[Crumpet]

Well they refused to carry out the work under warranty and would only replace the turbo at a cost of £10k. Long story but I didn’t enjoy dealing with AM.

Got a specialist in the NE to do it who sourced an actuator and did it for a fraction of the cost.

The noise went away and the car had so much more power that it must’ve been running on a single turbo since I got it, even though there was no light on. Then I started getting the light back again and decided to get rid of the car as it was just a headache. The Yorkshire based dealer was st, from sales to servicing (they managed to scratch my door on a service) and although the independent in the NE was outstanding it was just a bit too far to be getting the car to them every time something went wrong. So basically as much as I’d like another AM I can’t because maintaining it would be too much like hard work.

[Crumpet]

Sorry should’ve been clearer, AM said the actuators were part of the turbo and couldn’t be replaced separately - which is bks. I know they’re a dealer and it goes with the territory that they’ll pull your pants down but I don’t like being lied to. A shame really. Porsche have been excellent, despite the reliability being only marginally better!

[LTP]

Crumpet said:

Sorry should ve been clearer, AM said the actuators were part of the turbo and couldn t be replaced separately - which is bks. I know they re a dealer and it goes with the territory that they ll pull your pants down but I don t like being lied to. A shame really. Porsche have been excellent, despite the reliability being only marginally better!

You may not be being lied to. It's AML and not the dealer who decide what level of service parts will be available for any one model, and that will also have to be agreed between AML and the part supplier (Borg-Warner in the case of the turbos?). So just because it's possible to unbolt the actuator doesn't mean that AML have agreed for the supply of actuators as serviceable parts (I covered this in a similar post on the fixing bolts for ceramic disc rotors a while ago).

Now let me emphasise that I no longer have anything to do with AML professionally and I do not know what level of service parts have been agreed on the V12 engine, so this is a theoretical post based on my past knowledge of how OEM spares provisions work. An independent turbo specialist may have a direct route into the turbo machine manufacturer and be able to obtain parts for the machines on the V12 that AML don't list as spares. Obviously, a repair by an independent would be outside of any warranty agreement with AML and Borg-Warner, even if genuine Borg-Warner parts were used.

Many people assume that every part on a car, down to the last nut and bolt, should be available as a spare part, but this is simply not the case. I hope this post hasn't tried to teach you to suck eggs

[Crumpet]

LTP said:

You may not be being lied to. It's AML and not the dealer who decide what level of service parts will be available for any one model, and that will also have to be agreed between AML and the part supplier (Borg-Warner in the case of the turbos?). So just because it's possible to unbolt the actuator doesn't mean that AML have agreed for the supply of actuators as serviceable parts (I covered this in a similar post on the fixing bolts for ceramic disc rotors a while ago).

Now let me emphasise that I no longer have anything to do with AML professionally and I do not know what level of service parts have been agreed on the V12 engine, so this is a theoretical post based on my past knowledge of how OEM spares provisions work. An independent turbo specialist may have a direct route into the turbo machine manufacturer and be able to obtain parts for the machines on the V12 that AML don't list as spares. Obviously, a repair by an independent would be outside of any warranty agreement with AML and Borg-Warner, even if genuine Borg-Warner parts were used.

Many people assume that every part on a car, down to the last nut and bolt, should be available as a spare part, but this is simply not the case. I hope this post hasn't tried to teach you to suck eggs

Fair enough, and thanks for taking the time to explain. To be honest that’s kind of what I’d assumed, that it all came as one unit to AM and that’s all they could sell me.

In any case, that wasn’t my major gripe with the main dealer. I just didn’t like them (and they scratched my car).