Tuesday 23rd January 2018

Aston Martin recalls the DB11

Despite no reported problems, the Daimler-supplied steering column issue has infected Gaydon's flagship

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Aston Martin has been forced to recall every DB11 built since 2015 over the same steering column fault that blighted Mercedes-Benz last year. Stuttgart had to recall over a million models following reports of unintended airbag deployments, and while Gaydon has a much smaller number to fix - 3,873 cars, according to Reuters - that accounts for the entire production run of the new flagship.

While no Aston Martin customer is understood to have reported any problems, the brand has confirmed that the recall will address an issue with the "DB11 steering column upper". And when that problem is specifically the inadequate grounding of the electric steering's circuitry (making the unit rather vulnerable to electrostatic charges, which in turn have the potential to fire the airbag) you can see why Gaydon is keen to provide buyers with a quick fix.

This will be completely free of charge to owners, of course, and will apparently take under two hours to complete. Doubtless the headache will have provoked some frustration behind closed doors at Gaydon: increased reliability was cited as one of the upsides to sharing in Daimler's electrical systems. Still, 3,873 is a more manageable number than, say, 17,500 - which is the volume Infiniti has had to recall for a defect that was also not of its own making.

[gm77]

What is it that people say about German engineering...?

[Agent XXX]

gm77 said:

What is it that people say about German engineering...?

Over rated

[phumy]

So other countries car manufacturers don't have any recalls?

[ogrodz]

gm77 said:

What is it that people say about German engineering...?

"Ficken unbeabsichtigte Entfaltung des Airbags"

or short version...

"FICKEN......"

Edited by ogrodz on Tuesday 23 January 17:20

[thesmurfs]

Nein!

[Jeff2010]

How on earth are we as consumers still having these issues, I recall having an Audi 80 Tdi in the mid 90's, they too had recalls of all Audi's requiring exactly the same earthing for the air bags, do manufacturers never learn?

[Onehp]

Jeff2010 said:

How on earth are we as consumers still having these issues, I recall having an Audi 80 Tdi in the mid 90's, they too had recalls of all Audi's requiring exactly the same earthing for the air bags, do manufacturers never learn?

Maybe the engineers that did get payed too little ("we have no problems...") and move on...

[Rich_W]

Jeff2010 said:

How on earth are we as consumers still having these issues, I recall having an Audi 80 Tdi in the mid 90's, they too had recalls of all Audi's requiring exactly the same earthing for the air bags, do manufacturers never learn?

VAG STILL have ignition coil and door lock problems YEARS after those faults first appeared on Mk4 Golfs.
One of the most common complaints raised by owners is "cant connect Apple product to car and have it work. Whether that's the phone or music or streaming it. This has been going on for over a decade.
Chains that stretch/get noisy.
Wheel bearings that become noisy at 40-50K.
Rain Water ingress. I mean how hard can it be!

etc etc!

It's not just them. They'll be thousands of other repetitive faults on each and every brand. Yet the manufacturers literally don't care. And then bash the dealers for not fixing a design flaw with the same flawed components first time!


Remember when you take your faulty car tot a dealer. It's NOT the dealers fault. Your gripe is with the faceless "engineers" who designed the thing and ignored/missed the faults