About 3 months ago I started hearing squealing from my engine bay every time I would start the car. The squeal would go away once the engine was warm. This persisted until 2 weeks ago when all of a sudden a grinding noise came out of nowhere.

I had the car towed to the AM dealership and they discovered that the main crank pulley has rusted and needs to be sanded/painted in order to have it spin freely. That was done plus a new belt.

Upon picking up the car, I heard a faint tapping noise that was unusual but was told its no big deal. After another week, the tapping noise would happen every time the car was started and would go away once engine was warm.

Today I am driving on the highway and all of a sudden an extremely loud clanking noise came out of nowhere. Almost sounds like pistons slamming into something. I have the car being towed to the dealership tomorrow.

1. I hope that it's something to do with the belt and not engine internals. The pic shows the belt falling apart.

2. How would a shop miss this if they were supposed to be evaluating and working on that specific area of the car.

3. What could have been overlooked or caused this.

Hopefully its nothing terrible...

 

Found pieces of the belt on the ground...

 

I'd guess that they installed the belt wrong, or installed the wrong belt, or messed up something with the crank pulley.

Looking at how it split at the ribbing, my immediate thought is that the belt wasn't properly seated, so the rib climbed over the wall of a pulley and it split apart.

 

Best case is that the pulley was not sanded smooth and it tore up the back of the belt. Worse case is that something happened in the engine and the pulley seized. Did you try turning the engine over?

 

Yeah, engine turns over just fine. No check engine light. Now that pieces of the belt have come off the noises have lessened.

Unfortunately a new variable: there seems to be oil leaking...not much but definitely some and comes from the front of the engine bay near the bottom of the accessories.

What would cause an oil leak there?

 

Timing cover gasket...

 

Oil will sweat from the separator above it seems on most. (Mine does) hard to tell but does that idler pulley have the lip on it that would indicate the updated pulley?

 

Not sure how the lip is supposed to look like?

I was fearful this is the infamous timing cover gasket issue now, perhaps the belt strained the pulley... I thought this only happened to 4.3 engines...if it happens on 4.7 how are we confident the fix will stop this from happening again since the engine should have the new updated valve cover...

I'm starting to lose confidence in these engines if this ends up being serious...

 

Hope not, but you are probably right. Apparently this issue, all but certain on the 4.3 engine, is still a problem on some 4.7 engines.

Unbelievable that Aston Martin can't get this right. I have an appointment this week to have mine done. I purchased the car with 3700 miles on it. The car now has less that 5K on the odometer.
The leak started with the original owner because an attempt was made to apply sealant to the leaking joints (see pic)

 

See that little hard line in the pic? The oil from the separator can run down that and possibly appear it's coming from the cover? The idler pulley will have almost like a wall on both side to keep the belt from walking if it's the updated one.

 

The leak from the air-oil separator is a seeping leak. It doesn't splash, just slowly coats the return hose in oil, which collects grime. Here's a bunch of info on it:

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...separator.html

If oil from the AOS is getting on your FEAD belt and pulleys, something has gone seriously wrong.

 

If you look at the pic closely you will notice no oil trail from the pipe. I am afraid this leak is the timing cover

 

I couldn't agree more. The notion that Aston knows this is a consistent issue and widespread on 4.3 engines is worrying but ultimately drove my decision to getting a 2012 under few months of warranty as I was assured this is not an issue for late 4.7 engines. Additionally, the first service bulletin of fixing the leak at the joint with sealant is an absolute joke and almost seems devious in nature as to avoid the correct fix and put the owner outside of warranty periods (as to avoid paying for the correct but more costly engineered solution).

To look at the bottom of a car and see sealant would just have me concerned that a performance/Luxury company thinks that is appropriate. It's like a fine watch being slapped on with some masking tape.

I can easily see this turning into the infamous Porsche IMS class action lawsuit (that I was a part of). If this actually becomes a timing cover issue I welcome that endeavor. i'm sure I can rally enough troops around this well established problem. Should have easily been a recall years ago-this is a non maintenance item served by a design failure from OEM.

Well the car just got picked up by the dealership...will let you guys know more by tomorrow!

 

So I was able to talk to the dealership service manager.


Looks like the oil drip was caused from a piece of the belt that was unraveling smacking a bolt loose. It was re-tightened and seems to be of no concern (thank goodness it's not the timing cover leak although I was actually told that 4.7 engines are vulnerable to this issue as well--no vantage engine is 100% protected from the poor timing cover design)

As for the belt, they don't know why the belt unraveled. It shows that the ribbing has come off and the belt started to deteriorate. They verified that it was put on in the right direction, and is the correct belt.

Could have been a faulty belt? They are checking the pulleys but they seem to be running fine without play (they are running the engine for a while to make sure).

bit perplexing...

 

Stranger things have happened!