Aston Martin owners often have concerns about when to have their emission system checked and the concern often originates from seeing their car's emissions control warning light come on.
Stay calm if you see the warning light on your Aston Martin
Drivers can be panicked into heading for their nearest Aston Martin garage, assuming their emission system requires servicing immediately. However, it's important to remain calm. First, check the oil and water levels and ask yourself, as far as you can tell is the engine running properly? If these are fine what kind of driving have you been doing? A leisurely drive around town from time to time?
Believe it or not, the first thing to try is a blast on the dual carriageway or motorway! We've often found this is all that's required to solve the problem. After a good long drive, come to a halt, switch your engine off and then on again, and quite often the light will disappear.
Notwithstanding the above, although there's no such thing as an Aston Martin emissions service per se, that light is telling you something needs to be checked.
So Why Does That Light Come On?
It's more common for the emissions warning light to be triggered by other things. A common reason for the light coming on is that your ignition coil packs and spark plugs need to be changed. Ignition coils create the spark for each of your engine's cylinder spark plugs. If you're experiencing problems starting, or backfiring or you're just getting a jumpy ride, it's probably due to an ignition coil failure. Replacing them should help with any worsening fuel economy, too; so, it's well worth doing.
A common reason for the light appearing is that your ignition coil packs and spark plugs.
The service interval for coil packs is approximately three years or 36,000 miles. One way to monitor this is to listen out for pulsing (rather than a smooth sound) from your exhaust pipes, especially when the engine's cold, as that's typically when coil pack issues are most noticeable.
Fundamentals - Looking After Your Car
So, if your emission warning light comes on, don't be alarmed by it, it's rarely anything serious. So long as you keep your Aston Martin serviced properly at the appropriate intervals, check water and oil levels are as they should be, make sure the air filter's clean and give the vehicle a good run now and then, you don't need to worry.
We've never known anything bad happen when that light comes on.
Although we strongly advise getting the light checked out, in all our years dealing with these beautiful cars, we've never known anything bad happen when that light comes on. It's natural to feel a pang of anxiety, but the truth is, while there may be something that needs looking at (we talked about ignition coil packs earlier) your car won't go into limp mode, and the light should disappear on its own.
Happy driving!
