DB9 Shock question

[OC Brit]

Hi!

Just bought a 2007 DB9 Volante, and am so excited i can barely sleep at night...

The car is immaculate but has 20000 miles on it, and the shocks are all over the place. The dealer agrees that they are unbalanced side to side but are within Aston specs. Either way, the car corkscrews as it goes over speed bumps.

Has anyone experimented with non-OEM shocks? I’m not sure I want to spend $1100 a corner in the first week of ownership. It feels like it could go a bit firmer but it’s difficult to tell what they were like originally - plus the fact I just came from an Elise so everything feels soft after that…

Thanks.
Rob.

[Josh@ECS]

The Aston's do ride soft, most especially compared to a Lotus...but it shouldn't be getting bump steer like you're talking about.

No one offers an aftermarket shocks for this car, just sprtier springs. Some of the shocks in these higher end cars (Bilstein/Koni) can be rebuilt which saves a lot of money.

You may want to explore that option.

[OC Brit]

Thanks Josh,

I replaced the front left and it made a lot of difference. Still clunks a bit on the speedbumps, but much firmer in the corners. I may look at firmer springs down the line.

I’m loving the car in every way, and my only negative angle is it does feel a bit slow. 450bhp is a very conservative number from a 6.0 V12, and it really doesn’t feel much faster than my Range Rover Sport, which admittedly is the 2010 Supercharged with 510bhp – bizarre that my “truck” is more powerful than my “luxury exotic supercar”.

I’m running with fuse 22 pulled and there does seem to be some discussion as to whether it reduces power or not (local dealership says that it doesn’t) but perhaps I’ll put a Quicksilver exhaust on it, ideally with a few more horses and a better noise.

[Josh@ECS]

The clunk may be a worn bushing, either control arm or sway bar. Have a good look at them, as either of those will give you that washy handling also. Glad the shock replacement helped though.

I agree, the output of these engines are surprisingly "conservative". The exhaust bypass valve is really just a sound function and not power. Doing a full catless exhaust from the headers back, BMC air filter and an ECU tune will give it some grunt and will definitely strengthen the sound.

The exhaust and ECU flash I sell is from RSC Tuning. Take a look at their site and let me know if you have any interest, I can offer a price break.