Aston Martin V8 Vantage Workshop

Upon delivery, I wasn't able to move the car without revving the engine very high. I immediately noticed that the clutch in this car was bad. The clutch is a very common issue with these Aston's, the OEM clutch does not last long and the common fix is upgrade to a VelocityAP twin disc clutch. This is the original clutch that came out of the factory, the clutch disc had hardly any material left, and the springs were rattling. The pressure plate has many hot spots as you can see in the picture.

After obtaining a quote from the closest Aston Martin dealership from me in Nashville, the parts and labor would amount to over $15,000 from them! I thought to myself how ridiculous the cost is for this job, even if I ordered the VelocityAP twin disc, it would still be a fraction of the cost quoted by the dealership. I knew I was going to tackle the clutch job myself because I like to see how things are put together and how they work. After taking my old clutch parts to Kentucky Clutch, they built me an entire clutch kit for the Aston Martin for only $500. Much better price than what the dealer wanted.

The teardown began. The transmission process was relatively easy as this is a transaxle, which made the hardware easier to get to. It was a matter of dropping the exhaust, unbolting the axles, unbolting the transmission mounting brackets, and separating it from the torque tube, and it was ready to come out! This transaxle was built by Graziano, the same company that builds transmissions for various Ferrari's and Lamborghini's of this era. The input shaft spline was coated with surface rust, as well as the inner splines of the driveshaft which made it difficult to separate. The driver side header had to be removed in order to allow enough room for the torque tube bellhousing to separate from the engine. New clutch kit was installed and the process to put the car back together is just like removing but backwards.

As I drove this car more and more, I noticed that the previous owner had hit a curb on the passenger front side at some point. The front lip was cracked, part of the fender liner was missing, and the air box had been cracked. I would get a check engine light on the dash for a mass air flow incorrect value. This car has two MAF sensors, and upon cross referencing, Aston Martin uses Ford Crown Victoria MAF sensors. I went to AutoZone and picked up some new sensors, as well as picked up a couple of pod filters and built my own cold air intake, eliminating the factory airbox. After installation, the check engine light went away and the car makes more induction noise, which makes it just that much more fun to drive. 

Another common issue with these cars is that the navigation screen will struggle to open up as it is gear driven. This is largely due to the plastic gears missing teeth or binding up when they rotate. I ordered a new set of updated navigation gears from Redpants and tore down the front ski slope to expose the navigation screen assembly and removed it. Replacing the gears was a relatively easy process. The screen now opens up flawlessly.

The previous owner did not take care of this car as you can see. The driver seat was missing two bolts that mount to the chassis. After taking the seat out, I found out that the two bolts were missing because the rivnuts that are in the chassis had stripped threads! I chased each rivnut with the correct thread pitch with a tap, and put in two new bolts for the seat. The driver seat module was just laying on the floor with the pigtail cut off and noticed that the previous owner used speaker wire and many relays to force the seat controls to work. The seat harness was too damaged to salvage. After opening the seat module I noticed that the citcuit board had burn marks and a few capcaitors were burnt out. The plan is to send this to a module repair shop to be able to reuse this module and not have to reprogram the ECU with a new module. I found a new seat harness on eBay for a good price and ordered it. The plan for this winter is to dismantle the seat, replace the harness, put in the module and get the leather on the seat reupholstered.

I had a good friend of mine build me a pair of forged carbon kick plates for the car. The OEM plates had many scratches and the carbon look fits the character of the car better in my opinion. My friend took my old kick plates and built a fiberglass mold, inserted the carbon material, put in the resin to let cure, and then sanded the part down smooth. All bolt holes line up and the plates are the exact dimensions as OEM. I couldn't be more pleased with the end product.

The most difficult job of this car so far was replacing the alternator. This car has a dry sump, and the oil tank sits in the front of the engine, getting in the way of the alternator. The oil feed and return lines had to be removed by using a massive 1-13/16" crows foot. After removing the lines, the coolant hose going to the water pump needed to be removed in order to allow yourself enough room to remove the oil tank. The oil tank is held on by 4 10mm bolts and the tank can now come out. The alternator is now exposed, however the alternator is held on by two 12" long bolts. The top bolt is easy to remove, but the bottom bolt is where the alternator becomes an issue. The bottom bolt hits the front subframe and doesn't allow room to come out completely. The process for this matter is to loosen the motor mounts, put a jack with a piece of wood under the sump, lift the engine up. After that, you must remove the two bolts holding the steering rack on the subframe. Be careful and make sure the steering wheel is locked before doing this, as you could alter the front alignment of the car. After removing the bolts, insert a wedge in between the subframe and the steering rack, and the bottom alternator bolt will have just enough room for it to come out. After cross referencing, the alternator is from a 2003 Ford Thunderbird. After putting in the new alternator and everything back together, the car was no longer dropping voltage and all is good.