I have about 800 miles on my 2008 Vantage and can't wipe the smile from my face! One issue has popped up a couple of times now and I wonder if anyone else has seen this: when on Sirius.....radio display reads "acquiring signal" yet continues to play uninterrupted. When this happens, I am unable to change stations whatsoever but can adjust volume and turn on and off. Anyone else experience this?
radio problems on 2008 vantage?
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Sorry this is so late. Just found the forum. I am a 2008 BMW M3 owner, but have been thinking about the V8 Vantage Coupe.
The Sirius receiver buffers the signal it is receiving so the radio will play, for the most part, uninterrupted when you pass under an obstruction (e.g., a bridge or overpass). During that time it is trying to reacquire the satellite. When not in view of one of the satellites, you cannot change stations because it is not receiving a signal, it is running off the buffer.
You would be very unhappy with Satellite radio if the receiver did not cache the signal in its buffer. Everytime the antenna looses site of the satellite, the radio would go silent. It applies to both Sirius and XM.
Radio Problems - Vantage
I came here thinking someone else had my problem: no AM radio reception (ironically, in my 2007 AM...) and only very patchy FM that goes out if I so much as drive under a bridge. And I'm in Los Angeles with a hundred stations. Is this just my car? Roof antenna makes no difference. I have the premium audio system. The dealer said something like, well you've got to expect that with Astons. Otherwise very happy with the car. Except that it's still backfiring at 9,500 miles...
I came here thinking someone else had my problem: no AM radio reception (ironically, in my 2007 AM...) and only very patchy FM that goes out if I so much as drive under a bridge. And I'm in Los Angeles with a hundred stations. Is this just my car? Roof antenna makes no difference. I have the premium audio system. The dealer said something like, well you've got to expect that with Astons. Otherwise very happy with the car. Except that it's still backfiring at 9,500 miles...
Sounds like a loose connection to the antenna.
And no, you should not have to accept that because it is an Aston.
Agree, you should not expect that from any car, let alone an Aston. Even the cheapest AM/FM radios will work under a bridge. Loose antenna connection is the most likely source of the problem. Beyond that, Aston owes you a radio.
AM radio reception
Okay, after a 3-day visit to the shop (apparently the radio's hard to get to) I have my '07 Vantage back with the AM radio working for the first time since I bought it.
But now all the right-side speakers keep cutting out.
And the radio intermittently self-mutes (3 times in a 20-minute drive): sometimes with the MUTE logo showing and sometimes without. The sound returns if it's switched to CD and back.
And the radio-cutoff-during-phone-use has stopped working. So I hit the phone command but the radio keeps playing, and the voice recognition system tries to make sense of whatever the announcer is saying.
... and with the radio muted the phone no longer recognizes any voice commands. It repeats everything back as, "Zero, Zero, Zero..."
A neighbor who bought a DB9 the week I did has had this "dead speaker" problem since he bought it.
Also: I'm not sure I understand why, with the extensive checklist returned to me, with scores of little boxes ticked off, and 11 miles of road-testing (it was also my 10,000-mile checkup) they didn't catch any of this.
Okay, after a 3-day visit to the shop (apparently the radio's hard to get to) I have my '07 Vantage back with the AM radio working for the first time since I bought it.
But now all the right-side speakers keep cutting out.
And the radio intermittently self-mutes (3 times in a 20-minute drive): sometimes with the MUTE logo showing and sometimes without. The sound returns if it's switched to CD and back.
And the radio-cutoff-during-phone-use has stopped working. So I hit the phone command but the radio keeps playing, and the voice recognition system tries to make sense of whatever the announcer is saying.
... and with the radio muted the phone no longer recognizes any voice commands. It repeats everything back as, "Zero, Zero, Zero..."
A neighbor who bought a DB9 the week I did has had this "dead speaker" problem since he bought it.
Also: I'm not sure I understand why, with the extensive checklist returned to me, with scores of little boxes ticked off, and 11 miles of road-testing (it was also my 10,000-mile checkup) they didn't catch any of this.
If this was not so pathetic it would be quite funny. Have you called AM North America ?
I'm willing to bet the radio was turned off during the road test and the check list did not address the radio as part of the 10K check-up.
If you've not already done so, it sounds like the time has come for a discussion with the dealership general manager (I'd skip the service manager).
update 3/20/09
Weird: I took it into the dealership and they were Unable To Reproduce. Actually the speaker problems were gone by the time I got it there...
They hadn't checked the phone/radio interaction originally because (of course) I hadn't left them my phone. And they did road-test it for the radio - with an Aston Audio Specialist - because that was my main complaint at the 10,000 mile mark. Again, they were very skeptical, as they've been for a year and a half, that anything could be done for the AM radio. But when I insisted, they spent 3 days and got it working perfectly. I paid the $2,400 and drove it home. (What's that nonsense I read on here about $800 tuneups? Mine was $2,950 at 6,000 miles - including 1 new tire - and $2,400 this time including new rear brakes. The freaking pollen filter alone is $330 and the air filter's $415. Labor was $1,370...)
So this time, after the problems described in my earlier post were deemed irreproducible, they "cleared the codes" and I drove it home again.
And the radio and CD player both began auto-muting again. Every time the car was started, they played for 3-5 seconds, then MUTE.
Rather than take it back, I kept driving it, and this problem too seems to have abated.
The whole deal reminded me of when I used to collect complicated watches. Your basic $10 Seiko will run forever, but a $75,000 Patek Philippe perpetual calendar chrono stops running once every 3 years and costs $2,200 and 18 months in Geneva to fix.
I've got to figure out a way to start admiring things with no moving parts.
Weird: I took it into the dealership and they were Unable To Reproduce. Actually the speaker problems were gone by the time I got it there...
They hadn't checked the phone/radio interaction originally because (of course) I hadn't left them my phone. And they did road-test it for the radio - with an Aston Audio Specialist - because that was my main complaint at the 10,000 mile mark. Again, they were very skeptical, as they've been for a year and a half, that anything could be done for the AM radio. But when I insisted, they spent 3 days and got it working perfectly. I paid the $2,400 and drove it home. (What's that nonsense I read on here about $800 tuneups? Mine was $2,950 at 6,000 miles - including 1 new tire - and $2,400 this time including new rear brakes. The freaking pollen filter alone is $330 and the air filter's $415. Labor was $1,370...)
So this time, after the problems described in my earlier post were deemed irreproducible, they "cleared the codes" and I drove it home again.
And the radio and CD player both began auto-muting again. Every time the car was started, they played for 3-5 seconds, then MUTE.
Rather than take it back, I kept driving it, and this problem too seems to have abated.
The whole deal reminded me of when I used to collect complicated watches. Your basic $10 Seiko will run forever, but a $75,000 Patek Philippe perpetual calendar chrono stops running once every 3 years and costs $2,200 and 18 months in Geneva to fix.
I've got to figure out a way to start admiring things with no moving parts.
Sounds very much like the stereo system in my old Ferrari 456 GT. It would work fine for several weeks, cut completely out, then come back to life suddenly. Had it looked at several times and no one could figure out what the problem was.
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It may be a speaker switch box located by the Central fuse box, there is no replacement available from Aston Martin as of yet.
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Thanks. It appears they are now available.
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