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First off, a little background. I bought this car without a pre-purchase inspection because I fell in love. (I'm sure I'm not the first to do this). This was just over two months ago. The car has 38000 miles on it and its a 2005 DB9 with flappy paddle shifters. In my personal inspection I found several cosmetic issues with paint, trim, upholstery .. but I love doing that kind of thing myself, so that wasn't a problem. On my first test drive the car gave me a coolant level warning message which gave me a sudden case of the eeebeee jeebies but otherwise the car was simply breathtaking.
OK, now onto the good stuff.
It appeared I had fixed the coolant warning with a quick flush and refill up to the appropriate level (a good thing).
The first time I drove the car in bright sunlight, I realized I could barely read the LCD dash readout... it was really dim and the light control **** would dim it further but never get it up to a suitable level.
Then I got my first "Gearbox Fault. Park Lock Failure" message which I was able to get around by turning off the engine and restarting. But I have had several reoccurrences since.
Then yesterday I got a "Emission System Service Required" message which I cleared with a "Read" command.
Then today I got both of the above followed by a "Gearbox Fault No Drive" message. I had just got back from a test drive where everything seemed great but once I got this message, I decided to park it in the garage and do some research. I could get it into gear by switching the ignition off and on and selecting Drive immediately on engine fire up.
I had read on here about various issues like a failing battery giving bad codes (I made sure my battery was fully charged). Connection problems with the actual shift buttons and harness. A poorly tensioned parking brake cable. And corroding fuse boxes.... but does my list of woes lead anybody to any other conclusion? I guess I forgot the transmission fluid leak theory...(I haven't checked that one yet)
I love this car and enjoy the challenges of owning exotics, so I am hoping that the combined knowledge and experience on this forum can point me in the right direction.
(Sorry about the book I just wrote!)
I think you are on the right track with checking the battery, and maybe even replacing if there is any question of condition. Odd things happen when batteries start failing.
Matt
+1 on getting a new battery if there is a remote possibility it's not up to standards. . Ownership and issues with your Aston can make you very nervous. I've been amazed of the help available on this forum. Contributors are super helpful. There is a good FAQ section that will be helpful. Take a deep breath. I will say if you have the original coil packs & plugs and mileage near 30,000 changing them is in your near future. DB9's are for the most part pretty solid.
You did a good job doing research on this issue before posting. It's worth bolstering the notion that you should always start with your battery on these cars if it's older than say 3-5 years. I would do that first and then work from there.
For your dash LCD issues, this may be expected and common as this was a common complaint with early DB9 Volantes, as the sun would more easily wash out their LCD panels with the roof down. 2005's have the yellow LCD's vs. the later White LCDs. If you've noticed them to be dimmer than in the past though, you may have another issue, but this is the first I've read about this issue on the forums myself, so it may not be very common.
Another +1 on looking at a new battery. That having been said, my 2009 DB9 would raise Gearbox Fault messages if I was too gentle with the Park, Drive or Reverse dash buttons. Once I began pressing them in a determinate manner, vs an almost incidental tap, those messages went away.. It was as if I needed to press harder on the buttons to make a better connection.
I specifically had a Gearbox Fault. Park Lock Failure message the first few times I put the car in Park after the car sat had unused in storage for several months. Putting it in Drive, then Park, then Drive, then Park seemed to make the problem go away, as if there was some mechanical sluggishness to the Park Lock that freed up with a little use.
I recently bought mine without a PPI, so no you are not the first, or I'm sure the last.
I am fairly new to the Aston Martin club but can already attest that weird things happen with a questionable battery. After sitting for some time and being moved short distances repeatedly my gas door would randomly open while sitting in the garage. Battery is less than 2yrs old but after a good long drive to get everything charged up and all is well again. My XKR has similar quirks.
My experience with the transmission comes mostly from the Jaguar usage but it is a variant of the same ZF 6HP26 and they can be a bit picky about cable adjustments. There are a couple of threads below that mention the park engage cable specifically as a trouble spot for early DB9 cars. I would add that despite ZF claiming they are "sealed for life" a fluid and filter change has been known to clear up many a shift issue and that seems to be universally true for all of the different makes and models that have used that box.
Concur with 62Jeff said - if you are too gentile with the push buttons, you can get the gearbox fault. I had that issue too and it scared the crap out of me - that was 3K miles ago when new. You need to make sure of positive engagement with the buttons. Sometimes I was too gentile with the buttons. Being firmer with the buttons has eliminated this issue. I suspect it is because of contact issues in the button.
Thanks for all the great feedback you guys! I took the back seat out to check the battery condition but found the battery had no obvious date of installation on it. So I don't know how old it is. (Am I missing something?)
I plan on putting my meter on it and seeing what kind of readings I get. But a few days ago I charged it up on the trickle charger overnight and still had problems the next day.
The car has been babied since new, even though it has had multiple owners... and it has lived in warmer climates for most of its life, so I'm thinking the corroded fuse box might not be an issue. But I will check it anyway.
I would really like to know more about this park brake cable issue that I have seen on the forum. Do I get to the problem area by lifting up the carpet in the rear 'passenger' area and looking for slack or tightness in some kind of lever set up? I'm wondering if the automatic transmission parking pawl is not releasing completely and causing some kind of jam (?)
Have any of you had experience with checking the automatic transmission fluid level? (Daft question...sorry) .... but is this do-able without removing the exhaust? How do I tell if the front transmission cooler hoses have been updated from the recall? Is there an original part number I should look for if the originals are still on there?
I think this weekend I will have a go at removing the waterfall panel and checking those switches and harness routing. I had pounded on the buttons pretty good when I got the last round of failures! So I don't think it's a pressure issue! But I will certainly check that again, as a couple of you confirm that that is a possibility.
Thank you again for the great advice. This forum is a gold-mine!
!
The date sticker on my battery was on the side by the positive cable where it is impossible to see. Had to take the battery completely out to find it. You bet I pealed that sucker off and put it on top where it should have been in the first place!
Puddlian, that looks to be an AGM battery so make sure you're using a battery tender that works with AGM batteries, else you could have issues. I recommend C-Teks (as does Jay Leno). Your manufacture date sticker may be on the side of the battery or nowhere at all (as was the case with mine). In either case, I still recommend replacing it since you don't know if the previous owners routinely let it run to empty, improperly maintained it, etc. For me it's a small financial risk (under $150) with a large possibility of reward (fixing your issue). Even if it doesn't fix your issue, you'll have a new battery and you'll know when it was last replaced. Otherwise, you could throw thousands of dollars chasing issues that may have been easily solved by a fairly straightforward repair.
Update: I did a battery check with my meter. Initially got 12.66 V and then turned the headlights on for 3 minutes. I then got 12.40 V. So I connected my meter again and started the car. The reading dropped to 11.30 V for a fraction of a second, then bounced back up around 14.00 V while the alternator was running. When I turned it off, it fell back to 12.66 V. So I think that shows that the battery is pretty good, right?
I found a date sticker (I think) which shows it being installed in December 2017, so it would be two and a half years old. I am going to replace it anyway, as AstonCarma suggested. Just for peace of mind.
So then I took out the back seat squab behind the driver's seat and revealed ...... what I am assuming is the world's most complicated method of pulling a cable!
So, how do I fiddle with this and check that nothing is amiss? Is this in fact the area that may be causing me a problem, with a sticking parking brake warning on the dash display? From behind the bracket, looking back toward the front of the car, there appears to be an elaborate bracket and hinge point configuration, that pulls on that cable, that I'm assuming pulls out the parking brake pawl(?) How does a person reset it after you pull on it? Is it magic and you just click your heals together and pull on the cable again?
If you were a betting man or woman, would you tighten the cable or loosen it?
Well, I had better get back to the gym, so I can get in shape to lift that damn battery out of there! I'm excited to see if the alarm goes off when I disconnect the battery. (I'd better warn the neighbours.)
Watch the vent tube when you replace the battery. When I pulled the battery out of mine, I found that the tube was far too short and also pinched under the battery so it couldn't vent at all.
The tube should extend not just through the hole in the bottom of the battery compartment but also through a 2nd hole to the outside of the car through a rubber grommet. If you look from underneath it is not too far from the rear jack point.
I found it easier to feed a new vent tube up from the bottom rather than down from the top.
Puddlian, that cable is out of my knowledge area so I can't comment on what to do with it. I looked at the workshop manual but it didn't yield me any clear-cut answers. However, I am hopeful that you accidentally found a fix for this by going into the battery area. I'd wait and see what the more experienced Aston owners say about it.
Puddlian, that cable is out of my knowledge area so I can't comment on what to do with it. I looked at the workshop manual but it didn't yield me any clear-cut answers. However, I am hopeful that you accidentally found a fix for this by going into the battery area. I'd wait and see what the more experienced Aston owners say about it.
Thanks for the feedback. I have some bits and pieces of workshop manuals for the DB9 but have nothing that shows details of Automatic transmission and ancillaries. So I'm running blind right now.
I am ordering a new battery this evening, even though my current battery appears to be fine... I have used Odyssey batteries in my STI and Elise and have had great results. So that is what I'm getting (Their 49-950).
I'm hoping someone will help me out with the cable question. I am thinking that the cable in my photo is purely used to disable the auto-park feature if you need to tow the car and not the cable that was mentioned in a previously linked post. I will probably need to scramble underneath the car and find that cable to twiddle.
I just miss driving this beautiful machine
The manual doesn't really explain how to adjust the park lock release but does give some context for the transmission and it also includes the oil level check procedure. The oil level procedure is a bit fiddly because of the temperature requirement but you can use an IR thermometer to make sure you are in the right range.
Agree that the service documentation is patchwork, I downloaded everything I could from the AM technical site and there are a lot of things that just don't seem to exist. If they really do such a shoddy job with training and documentation it would explain all the complaints people seem to have with the dealerships. In the procedure above the black and white pictures are copied strait out of the ZF training material and it is not even the same transmission as is used in a DB9!
I think that is a BMW example and the AM version of the cable connection might not look exactly the same but the idea should carry over.
From the parts catalog looks like the cable is on the right hand side of the transmission. #44, 45, 47
Looks like so:
Looking at the schematics, other than the emergency release, the TCM is controlled electrically via something called the CCM and the ECU. There are signals coming from both that go to the TCM. It is unclear exactly what each of them do but while you are under there, you can check the electrical connector on the mechatronic. These are known to leak around the seal and might be dirty.
08-04-2020 | 09:20 PM
but otherwise the car was simply breathtaking.
