Better weather is on its way (despite a bit of a surprise cold snap) and we are all generally feeling that bit sunnier and ready to make the most of our beloved motors. Spring means it’s time to get your Aston Martin out of winter storage - and we've got a story to tell about the springs that can get pushed beyond the limit when driving those city streets. Intrigued? Well read on…
Since the last Diary we’ve carried out a lot of what you might call day to day work. That means more modern cars like Vantages and DB9s coming in to us for services and MOTs – we’ve had around half a dozen of those in the last couple of weeks.
At the same time, Ben’s been hard at work on the green V8 that used to be a red V8, if you remember that, working on hubs, brakes and the exhaust. He’s also tackling the manifolds, which can be a tricky job because they’re tucked away behind the front suspension and the hubs.
This means you have to be work-smart when it comes to the order in which you do things, if that doesn’t sound too big-headed. You don’t want to be putting stuff on and then having to take it all off again, and you especially don’t want to be scratching up all the lovely work you’ve already done.
So it’s a question of planning ahead, thinking about every bit of work you’ll have to do on the whole car and then working in a way that avoids the kind of chaos that would make our job harder and wouldn’t be very popular with our customers.
Remember the springs we mentioned? Well, these are attached to a DB9 we’ve got up on the ramp. This came in for a service recently having done between 3 and 4,000 miles. We’re replacing the springs on this one because while carrying out the service we found one of the springs was broken. Bad road surfaces play a major role when it comes to this kind of damage - whether in the country or the city. In this case, this vehicle lives in London, and has to cope with all the usual traffic calming measures and road defects associated with city roads - and there’s a certain amount of pressure to drive as if it’s a normal car even when you’re negotiating these obstacles.
Now we all know a DB9 or a Vantage is not a normal car, and if you drive it at more than 15 or 20 miles an hour over all those speed bumps and holes because you’re being pressured to get a move on, then the springs are going to give. If you’re driving a DB9 you’re particularly at risk, because that massive V12 engine adds a lot of weight. So we’ll get new springs on this car and send it back fully sprung ready to take on another year of city driving.
Another car we’re continuing to work on is the green DB5 that's been with us for nine or ten weeks. It’s now just awaiting the return of a windscreen wiper motor, which has been sent away for overhaul and repair. That’s especially important, because the owner’s off to the continent, and the alternative to a new wiper motor, as we all know, is the Fred Flintstone solution - tying a bit of string to the wipers so he and his wife can operate them by leaning out of the windows and pulling the string back and forth. Of course, we could offer to supply a length of Pugsley and Lewis branded string in an emergency pack, but it’s not quite the same is it?
The fact that Spring has now officially sprung means that the British racing green X-Pack Vantage we’ve been storing over the winter is ready to emerge again. It’s already been serviced and checked over and now the owner’s ready to take it back out on the road.
From our point of view that means getting it on the trickle charger, giving it a service and an oil and filter change and generally checking it over to make sure it’s in prime condition. That and keeping our fingers firmly crossed for some good Spring driving weather, because there are some things even our team of experts can’t control!
If we do have any Spring sunshine we hope you enjoy getting out in it and remember – take those speed bumps slowly and look after your car, no matter what the other drivers might think.
