2 years on, an update, niggles, some fixes and upgrades.
Discussion
It's just coming up to 2 years since I entered AM ownership with the Hardly green V8V. https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&... In that time, I have put 24,000km on the clock. Very early on I removed the front plinth and then put it on a private plate after consultation with the PH massive.
I love the car and I've met some good people because of it. The dealership has been very good and I feel like I have been welcomed into the fold, however on a couple of occasions the Aston Martin Tax in my view has been excessive. I enjoyed meeting Marek last year, the opportunity to discuss the cars and some of the thought process behind them.
I've been an F1 fan since childhood, hanging out in the back of the Red Bull garage during in F1 qualifying last year in Melbourne was an experience I will never forget.
I use my AM in rotation with the other 2 cars I own and it's mostly been a great ownership experience but not without some annoying niggles. I thought I would provide an update and try document the information that I have discovered from my niggles and upgrades on my journey. I'll do it over the next week or so in a number of posts.
The niggles.
The LED sidelights
These just seem to be completely random in their function or may be they just have epilepsy. Frequently they work, whenever I pop into the dealership they are fine but then other times, one or the other or both just can't be arsed. I presume at some stage they with fail a WOF(MOT). Not sure what to do about these so if anyone has been in a similar situation please fill me in.
https://youtu.be/VvNTYT2Z1d8
The parking sensors.
These just scream at me now whenever I slot reverse. I can't hear any of them clicking so I'm guessing it's the switch or the module. I'll find out at the service in April.
The Sat Nav
I bought my car used from Aston Martin New Zealand, however it spent the first 6 months of its life in the UK, when I bought the car I was told the Sat Nav would never work and if I wanted to have Sat Nav, I would have to replace it with an aftermarket system. No cars were sold in NZ with this system. Sat Nav was not supplied in NZ until later Garmin systems.
I'm not very good when I'm told it can't be done, that just sounds like a challenge to me. I did some research, this is the Melco HDD based Volvo system. Reading Volvo forums, I wasn't sure that there were Volvos running the Sat Nav system in NZ. However, after some searching I found that the maps for NZ are now supplied with the Australian maps on the 'Volvo Pacific' disc and I ordered a disk from Aus. This is where things became complex. The system accepted the disk and updated the system software but then stopped with a message that the disc was from the wrong region. I had kept in touch with the dealership and asked them about this. The message I received was the standard one- that as a system had never been sold in NZ there was no software or support to get this up and running. A bit of a brick wall
but I wasn't ready to give up.
Reading Volvo forums, they had issues with this too, particularly US servicemen who had bought cars in Germany and had them shipped home after their tour. They had to get a friendly US dealership to reconfigure their cars to the US. Of course, I couldn't find anything in the Aston world similar.
Enter Pistonheads, this fantastic forum and the people that populate it. Thank you Scott for your help with this. I reached out on PH. Scott helped me by sending the info from his system in Australia running updated Volvo maps. Later, this enabled me to prove the hardware was identical to mine and with the system updates the disc had installed so was the software. The issue was the maps and the region.
The Sat Nav has a hidden config. menu, when you power your car on, you repetitively press- back, enter back. It allows a user to look at many if the settings and make some adjustments. Unfortunately, what it doesn't allow you to do is to change the region. It did help though because now I was convinced all I needed to do was get a new configuration file loaded onto my car, as if it was a car sold in Australia.
Next followed lots of back and forth with my dealership. Then writing a detailed email for the dealership to send to Aston Martin explaining what I wanted them to do and justifying that as my Sat Nav was completely useless what harm could it do. Explaining that while I understood there were no NZ cars, I wanted them to pretend it was an Australian car. A month or so and some AM Tax later they had written a config file for my car. That major change was 'Car Config 3.2 c' changed from AML EU to AML AU. I'm sure it took someone all of about 3 seconds and a couple of mouse clicks. Anyway, Voilà working NZ Sat Nav, first in country.
I know the Sat Nav is not that great and I know Waze is better but the car feels more complete now.
I'm not the only one either, my friend Sunny (skat004) has it too now. Funny thing was he contacted me through the Volvo form where I had left a message trying to get some help. With only 2 post on PH he's a bit of a lurker.
Enough for now, next up tyres.
I love the car and I've met some good people because of it. The dealership has been very good and I feel like I have been welcomed into the fold, however on a couple of occasions the Aston Martin Tax in my view has been excessive. I enjoyed meeting Marek last year, the opportunity to discuss the cars and some of the thought process behind them.
I've been an F1 fan since childhood, hanging out in the back of the Red Bull garage during in F1 qualifying last year in Melbourne was an experience I will never forget.
I use my AM in rotation with the other 2 cars I own and it's mostly been a great ownership experience but not without some annoying niggles. I thought I would provide an update and try document the information that I have discovered from my niggles and upgrades on my journey. I'll do it over the next week or so in a number of posts.
The niggles.
The LED sidelights
These just seem to be completely random in their function or may be they just have epilepsy. Frequently they work, whenever I pop into the dealership they are fine but then other times, one or the other or both just can't be arsed. I presume at some stage they with fail a WOF(MOT). Not sure what to do about these so if anyone has been in a similar situation please fill me in.
https://youtu.be/VvNTYT2Z1d8
The parking sensors.
These just scream at me now whenever I slot reverse. I can't hear any of them clicking so I'm guessing it's the switch or the module. I'll find out at the service in April.
The Sat Nav
I bought my car used from Aston Martin New Zealand, however it spent the first 6 months of its life in the UK, when I bought the car I was told the Sat Nav would never work and if I wanted to have Sat Nav, I would have to replace it with an aftermarket system. No cars were sold in NZ with this system. Sat Nav was not supplied in NZ until later Garmin systems.
I'm not very good when I'm told it can't be done, that just sounds like a challenge to me. I did some research, this is the Melco HDD based Volvo system. Reading Volvo forums, I wasn't sure that there were Volvos running the Sat Nav system in NZ. However, after some searching I found that the maps for NZ are now supplied with the Australian maps on the 'Volvo Pacific' disc and I ordered a disk from Aus. This is where things became complex. The system accepted the disk and updated the system software but then stopped with a message that the disc was from the wrong region. I had kept in touch with the dealership and asked them about this. The message I received was the standard one- that as a system had never been sold in NZ there was no software or support to get this up and running. A bit of a brick wall
but I wasn't ready to give up.Reading Volvo forums, they had issues with this too, particularly US servicemen who had bought cars in Germany and had them shipped home after their tour. They had to get a friendly US dealership to reconfigure their cars to the US. Of course, I couldn't find anything in the Aston world similar.
Enter Pistonheads, this fantastic forum and the people that populate it. Thank you Scott for your help with this. I reached out on PH. Scott helped me by sending the info from his system in Australia running updated Volvo maps. Later, this enabled me to prove the hardware was identical to mine and with the system updates the disc had installed so was the software. The issue was the maps and the region.
The Sat Nav has a hidden config. menu, when you power your car on, you repetitively press- back, enter back. It allows a user to look at many if the settings and make some adjustments. Unfortunately, what it doesn't allow you to do is to change the region. It did help though because now I was convinced all I needed to do was get a new configuration file loaded onto my car, as if it was a car sold in Australia.
Next followed lots of back and forth with my dealership. Then writing a detailed email for the dealership to send to Aston Martin explaining what I wanted them to do and justifying that as my Sat Nav was completely useless what harm could it do. Explaining that while I understood there were no NZ cars, I wanted them to pretend it was an Australian car. A month or so and some AM Tax later they had written a config file for my car. That major change was 'Car Config 3.2 c' changed from AML EU to AML AU. I'm sure it took someone all of about 3 seconds and a couple of mouse clicks. Anyway, Voilà working NZ Sat Nav, first in country.
I know the Sat Nav is not that great and I know Waze is better but the car feels more complete now.
I'm not the only one either, my friend Sunny (skat004) has it too now. Funny thing was he contacted me through the Volvo form where I had left a message trying to get some help. With only 2 post on PH he's a bit of a lurker.
Enough for now, next up tyres.
Great write up, thanks for sharing. My V12V had the same problem with the parking sensors. In my case it meant replacing a couple that were faulty, which was determined after plugging the car in for service. The replacement sensors weren't expensive and the system has been flawless since.
Keep enjoying that Aston!
Keep enjoying that Aston!
HBradley said:
Thanks for sharing.
The easy way to solve the Sat Nag issue is to install a smartphone mirroring module which uses the screen in the car to mirror whatever is on your phone. I had one in my V8VS & it was excellent. James at Aston Installations will be able to help.
The easy way to solve the Sat Nag issue is to install a smartphone mirroring module which uses the screen in the car to mirror whatever is on your phone. I had one in my V8VS & it was excellent. James at Aston Installations will be able to help.
Might there be any legal problems?
Is it true that we are allowed to touch a built-in sat. nav. whilst in control of a motor vehicle, but are not allowed to touch a mobile phone?
This is the law in NZ. It says there are very similar rules in the UK. I think it would allow the Sat Nav Mirroring scenario providing it was mounted. Not really the point though. I wanted to get a original solution working.
From 1 November 2009 it became illegal for drivers to use a hand-held mobile phone while driving. The Road User Rule states that drivers cannot use a mobile phone:
to make, receive, or terminate a telephone call
to create, send, or read a text message or email
to create, send, or view a video message
to communicate in a similar way
in any other way.
Breaching the ban incurs an $80 fine and 20 demerit points.
The ban includes other telecommunications devices such as Blackberrys and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) but excludes two-way radios. However, a driver may, while driving a vehicle, use a mobile phone in a way described in 1 and 5 above provided the mobile phone:
does not require the driver to hold or physically manipulate it to make, receive, or terminate the call (e.g. Blue Tooth technology)
is secured in a mounting fixed to the vehicle and the driver manipulates the phone infrequently and briefly (e.g. hands-free kits)
From 1 November 2009 it became illegal for drivers to use a hand-held mobile phone while driving. The Road User Rule states that drivers cannot use a mobile phone:
to make, receive, or terminate a telephone call
to create, send, or read a text message or email
to create, send, or view a video message
to communicate in a similar way
in any other way.
Breaching the ban incurs an $80 fine and 20 demerit points.
The ban includes other telecommunications devices such as Blackberrys and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) but excludes two-way radios. However, a driver may, while driving a vehicle, use a mobile phone in a way described in 1 and 5 above provided the mobile phone:
does not require the driver to hold or physically manipulate it to make, receive, or terminate the call (e.g. Blue Tooth technology)
is secured in a mounting fixed to the vehicle and the driver manipulates the phone infrequently and briefly (e.g. hands-free kits)
Andrew Bristow said:
I have a 2010 DB9 which was an UK car transferred to Australia, would you please give the contact details of the person you spoke to at AM in England so that i can get the GPS transferred to Australia.
Hi Andrew, apologies for my tardiness replying, I've been busy travelling. I did all of my communication to Aston through the after sales manager at my dealer. The biggest issue I had was trying to convince everyone to give if a go as they said if was not possible. There are 2 issues that you need to solve.1. You need a copy of the maps. Unfortunately the Volvo Pacific disc has been unavailable for about a year now and a replacement, whilst promised, has not been delivered.
2. You need the car reconfigured which can only be done through a helpful dealer. The configuration files are locked to your specific VIN, Aston needs to be persuaded to write a new one for your VIN. A new one can only be uploaded by connecting the car to the Aston computer which connects back to Gaydon were all of the configs are stored. (The first time we tried to do mine the Gaydon server was down and hence we had to reschedule.)
As a side issue if you change the region without a maps disc the car will continuously pop up the screen with an error message. This is what happened to my friend Sunny and he found it very annoying.
Tyres- I seem to have been pretty unlucky with tyres on this car.
Within a few weeks of getting the car I had the TPMS light come on, the car didn't feel too bad initially and so I thought maybe it was just a bit low. As I was in the middle of nowhere on a windy road, with not much space to pull over, I kept going. (In retrospect, not my brightest moment.) I drove for about 10km slowly on it, but by then it was feeling pretty loose at the rear. I found a place I could pull over that had cell phone coverage. It wasn't pretty, I'd driven far too far.
The only option for the OEM AM9 Bridgestone tyres in NZ, were the AM agent that I had purchased the car from. They charged 1200NZD(600GBP) for a single rear. I thought this was robbery but I was a bit stuck.
A few months later I noticed that the inner edges on the front tyres were badly worn but the rest of the tyre was good. I had the alignment checked and it was way off with lots of toe out. They were realigned so I could get a bit more mileage while I pondered what I was going to do for replacements. I was annoyed by this, both with myself and the dealer, I assumed that an 'AM Assured' car would come with it wheels pointing in the right direction.
I'd read on the forums about different tyre options and I decided at this point that I would do a bit of investigation into tyres. It turns out that Bridgestone NZ bring the AM2 tyres (245 & 285) but the AM9 is dealer only. I was quoted $2400NZ for 4 by Bridgestone NZ. That's right I could buy 4 AM2 for the same price as 2 AM9s from the dealer.
Whilst investigating tyre options I read the announcement about the Michelin PS4S. They were soon to be released in the US. They were an updated and upgraded Pilot SuperSport, which were themselves highly regarded. I've always had a soft spot for Michelin tyres and have never had a lot of love for Bridgestone. I hadn't really enjoyed the Bridgestone OEM AM9 on the Vantage. When entering corners at speeds well below what I was comfortable with in my Elise the DSC would kick in. Switching the DSC off, you had to gather up a little entry oversteer, this reduced my confidence and robbed the car of carrying a good turn of speed. I've had OEM Bridgestone on other cars too and been happier with alternative replacements. The Bridgestone really don't seem to suit NZ coarse chip roads very well. Their too hard, too loud and always seem to wear badly.
Time for some more research, after reading more about the PS4S, I decided I was going to try these. The problem was they weren't expected in NZ for nearly a year. After some further investigation and contacting tirerack in the US I decided I would get some PS4S shipped over. Cost wise including shipping and import duty it was going to cost about 2600NZD and gave me the option of changing sizes to the later AM2 size.
Option 1 - Same as OEM(AM9) Bridgestone
· Front - 235/40-R19
· Rear - 275/35-R19
Option 2 - Same as sports option tyres and later V8VS(AM2)
· Front - 245/40-R19
· Rear - 285/35-R19
Yes in the US you can get PS4S in option 2.
PROS of option 2 v 1
Slightly wider
Yes slightly more grip and traction. Slightly increased front v rear grip with 4.2% increase front v 3.6% rear, should reduce understeer to more neutral balance.
Slightly taller
Pros-better ride on our rubbish roads due to more tire side wall compliance and should in theory provide better grip and traction on poorer road surfaces. Corrects the inaccuracy in the Speedo. (Mine still slightly under reads compared to GPS speed but is now only by 1kph.) Slight increase in gearing reduces cruise rpm.
Should last slightly longer with reduced revs per mile.
Cons- they will slightly increase centre of gravity. They will weigh slightly more and this is unsprung weight, but still significantly lighter than the AM9s.
As well as the technical reasons, for me, Aston didn't quite get the aesthetic of the stance on the Vantage right, it isn't quite athletic enough. It's one of the aspects they seem to have improved greatly on the new Vantage. When looking at my car there seemed to be far too much of a gap to the wheel arches and not quite enough wheel and tire in there.
As well as the gap I always felt the wheels and tyres looked too inboard and deep in the arches.
I decided to get the slightly larger tyres. When they were fitted they looked much better, filled the wheel arches more with no rubbing. The reduced space between tyre and arch had quite a visual effect, more than I expected.
I measured the distance between the floor and the middle of the wheel arch to see the impact of the new tires. These will become more relevant when I move on to what happened when I fitted lowering springs.
Partially worn Bridgestone Front with knackered inner edge - 699mm, Rear- 707mm
New PS4S in Option 2 size Front 710mm, Rear- 717mm
Approximately 10mm height gain. I think that about 5mm of this new height came from the new tyre size and the rest from the partially worn to new tyre swap.
I've written about the PS4S tyres on PH before, I am of the opinion that they are a fabulous sports road tyre. They have lots of feel, lots of grip and are progressive at and beyond break away. They are quieter, ride better and generally just feel nice and planted. As well as this they are bloody good in the wet and seem to be wearing nicely. The corner where I always had the DSC kicking in is no longer an issue. I can enter that corner with much more speed than before and the DSC stays uninterested.
Unfortunately, this was not the end of my tyre saga. We had some pretty bad rains last winter and the roads of Northland where I live did not stand up to them well. There was actually an article in a NZ paper because of the number of cars damaged. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id...
In the bad weather, the potholes just can't be seen as they hide under puddles. Well I hit one of these and thought 'bloody hell that was harsh' but it seemed like I'd got away with it. A few days later I saw a bulge on the side of my driver's side front tyre. My local alignment and tyre guy told me that it probably wasn't a good idea to keep using it for too long and that I should replace it. The only problem these tyres were not in NZ and I had them sent from the US. Bugger.
Maybe though there was a way out of this. I had to go to the US for a work conference. Could I buy a tyre online, have it delivered to my hotel and then bring it home on the plane with me? Well the 3 planes it would take me to get home. I talked to Air NZ. No problems as long as I'm within my weight limit. The doorman at the Langham, 5th Avenue, New York seemed pretty surprised that I was having a tyre delivered but said "no problem". I put in in a big box and filled the space in the centre with all the trip shopping, pressies for the wife and kids. I dropped it off at check in marked as personal items and off it went. The box got back to Auckland everything present and undamaged but it had obviously triggered some interest from The Transportation Security Administration. It had been opened and then re taped up with a lot of their special tape. Crazy thing is it ended up being bloody cheap to do it this way. About half price.
All good, well not quite, a couple of weeks later the TMPS light comes on. I've learned my lesson, I pulled over and inspected the indicated tyre. I couldn't see anything wrong but I got the pump out of the boot and it was a little down(27PSI) on pressure so I topped it up. About a week later, same story. Off I went to see my guy again.
F*ck a Duck, I am jinxed? It feels like it. Anyhow he was convinced he could fix it and it would be ok. He said if it was any closer to the edge it would have been toast.
It's been fine since then.
Next time springs and spacers.
Within a few weeks of getting the car I had the TPMS light come on, the car didn't feel too bad initially and so I thought maybe it was just a bit low. As I was in the middle of nowhere on a windy road, with not much space to pull over, I kept going. (In retrospect, not my brightest moment.) I drove for about 10km slowly on it, but by then it was feeling pretty loose at the rear. I found a place I could pull over that had cell phone coverage. It wasn't pretty, I'd driven far too far.
The only option for the OEM AM9 Bridgestone tyres in NZ, were the AM agent that I had purchased the car from. They charged 1200NZD(600GBP) for a single rear. I thought this was robbery but I was a bit stuck.
A few months later I noticed that the inner edges on the front tyres were badly worn but the rest of the tyre was good. I had the alignment checked and it was way off with lots of toe out. They were realigned so I could get a bit more mileage while I pondered what I was going to do for replacements. I was annoyed by this, both with myself and the dealer, I assumed that an 'AM Assured' car would come with it wheels pointing in the right direction.
I'd read on the forums about different tyre options and I decided at this point that I would do a bit of investigation into tyres. It turns out that Bridgestone NZ bring the AM2 tyres (245 & 285) but the AM9 is dealer only. I was quoted $2400NZ for 4 by Bridgestone NZ. That's right I could buy 4 AM2 for the same price as 2 AM9s from the dealer.
Whilst investigating tyre options I read the announcement about the Michelin PS4S. They were soon to be released in the US. They were an updated and upgraded Pilot SuperSport, which were themselves highly regarded. I've always had a soft spot for Michelin tyres and have never had a lot of love for Bridgestone. I hadn't really enjoyed the Bridgestone OEM AM9 on the Vantage. When entering corners at speeds well below what I was comfortable with in my Elise the DSC would kick in. Switching the DSC off, you had to gather up a little entry oversteer, this reduced my confidence and robbed the car of carrying a good turn of speed. I've had OEM Bridgestone on other cars too and been happier with alternative replacements. The Bridgestone really don't seem to suit NZ coarse chip roads very well. Their too hard, too loud and always seem to wear badly.
Time for some more research, after reading more about the PS4S, I decided I was going to try these. The problem was they weren't expected in NZ for nearly a year. After some further investigation and contacting tirerack in the US I decided I would get some PS4S shipped over. Cost wise including shipping and import duty it was going to cost about 2600NZD and gave me the option of changing sizes to the later AM2 size.
Option 1 - Same as OEM(AM9) Bridgestone
· Front - 235/40-R19
· Rear - 275/35-R19
Option 2 - Same as sports option tyres and later V8VS(AM2)
· Front - 245/40-R19
· Rear - 285/35-R19
Yes in the US you can get PS4S in option 2.
PROS of option 2 v 1
Slightly wider
Yes slightly more grip and traction. Slightly increased front v rear grip with 4.2% increase front v 3.6% rear, should reduce understeer to more neutral balance.
Slightly taller
Pros-better ride on our rubbish roads due to more tire side wall compliance and should in theory provide better grip and traction on poorer road surfaces. Corrects the inaccuracy in the Speedo. (Mine still slightly under reads compared to GPS speed but is now only by 1kph.) Slight increase in gearing reduces cruise rpm.
Should last slightly longer with reduced revs per mile.
Cons- they will slightly increase centre of gravity. They will weigh slightly more and this is unsprung weight, but still significantly lighter than the AM9s.
As well as the technical reasons, for me, Aston didn't quite get the aesthetic of the stance on the Vantage right, it isn't quite athletic enough. It's one of the aspects they seem to have improved greatly on the new Vantage. When looking at my car there seemed to be far too much of a gap to the wheel arches and not quite enough wheel and tire in there.
As well as the gap I always felt the wheels and tyres looked too inboard and deep in the arches.
I decided to get the slightly larger tyres. When they were fitted they looked much better, filled the wheel arches more with no rubbing. The reduced space between tyre and arch had quite a visual effect, more than I expected.
I measured the distance between the floor and the middle of the wheel arch to see the impact of the new tires. These will become more relevant when I move on to what happened when I fitted lowering springs.
Partially worn Bridgestone Front with knackered inner edge - 699mm, Rear- 707mm
New PS4S in Option 2 size Front 710mm, Rear- 717mm
Approximately 10mm height gain. I think that about 5mm of this new height came from the new tyre size and the rest from the partially worn to new tyre swap.
I've written about the PS4S tyres on PH before, I am of the opinion that they are a fabulous sports road tyre. They have lots of feel, lots of grip and are progressive at and beyond break away. They are quieter, ride better and generally just feel nice and planted. As well as this they are bloody good in the wet and seem to be wearing nicely. The corner where I always had the DSC kicking in is no longer an issue. I can enter that corner with much more speed than before and the DSC stays uninterested.
Unfortunately, this was not the end of my tyre saga. We had some pretty bad rains last winter and the roads of Northland where I live did not stand up to them well. There was actually an article in a NZ paper because of the number of cars damaged. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id...
In the bad weather, the potholes just can't be seen as they hide under puddles. Well I hit one of these and thought 'bloody hell that was harsh' but it seemed like I'd got away with it. A few days later I saw a bulge on the side of my driver's side front tyre. My local alignment and tyre guy told me that it probably wasn't a good idea to keep using it for too long and that I should replace it. The only problem these tyres were not in NZ and I had them sent from the US.
Bugger.Maybe though there was a way out of this. I had to go to the US for a work conference. Could I buy a tyre online, have it delivered to my hotel and then bring it home on the plane with me? Well the 3 planes it would take me to get home. I talked to Air NZ. No problems as long as I'm within my weight limit. The doorman at the Langham, 5th Avenue, New York seemed pretty surprised that I was having a tyre delivered but said "no problem". I put in in a big box and filled the space in the centre with all the trip shopping, pressies for the wife and kids. I dropped it off at check in marked as personal items and off it went. The box got back to Auckland everything present and undamaged but it had obviously triggered some interest from The Transportation Security Administration. It had been opened and then re taped up with a lot of their special tape. Crazy thing is it ended up being bloody cheap to do it this way. About half price.
All good, well not quite, a couple of weeks later the TMPS light comes on. I've learned my lesson, I pulled over and inspected the indicated tyre. I couldn't see anything wrong but I got the pump out of the boot and it was a little down(27PSI) on pressure so I topped it up. About a week later, same story. Off I went to see my guy again.
F*ck a Duck, I am jinxed? It feels like it. Anyhow he was convinced he could fix it and it would be ok. He said if it was any closer to the edge it would have been toast.
It's been fine since then.
Next time springs and spacers.
for having a tire delivered to the Langham and popping it in your suitcase home. I think that’s a new one for this forum... Gassing Station | Aston Martin | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff