I BOUGHT AN ASTON MARTIN DB9 FROM COPART WITH 1 MAJOR PROBLEM

[@PaulRogers-pp5rk]

Interesting video, I've got an early DB9 and I've worked on my car for years. Most of the issues you have encountered are common on all DB9's, unable to remove rusted in undertray/wheelarch liner bolts, use copperslip when you put new screws back in. The bumper steel supports are all rusty, use POR15 on them. Try to rotate the crankshaft pully as the engine might not be seized, these cars are sensitive to a poor battery, I would get a new one. The engine will be very difficult to remove from the torque tube without removing alot of front panels, Good luck.

[@herrrechtschreibpruefung]

Thats thanks to the UK weather

[@itsalexbaldwin]

Thanks Paul - I’ve just removed the wheel arch liners now and the undertrays yesterday. Horrible jobs! At least they’re off now and whizzing through the Workshop Manual on prepping the body to be split from subframe. Decided to do it this way so I can follow the guide!

[@marcdeschryver7687]

What beauty it is… I used to own a 2009 model in the same colour. It was lovely to drive. I had it for about 3 years and during that time got the opportunity to buy a DBS Carbon Black Edition, which was the car I really wanted from the start. So I finally sold the DB9 but as I had done a lot of work on it, making it look as good as new, it was with a bit of sadness that I parted with it. The DBS is so different to drive and much more agressive as well as more comfortable…mainly the seats and suspension give you a much more comfortable drive than the DB9. That is not to say that the DB9 isn’t great to drive because it is. I used it as a daily driver during those 3 years

[@itsalexbaldwin]

That’s awesome, Mark! I can’t wait to give it a first drive - I’m some way off that though haha!

[@teepi280]

Scrapes under front bumper are standard for any sports car that's been over a speed bump. Rust on the discs is probably no problem, any car left standing for a day will accumulate a bit of rust on the disc. Normal brake action will clean them up. The underside of any car will have rusty screws.

[@GB9Garage]

Exciting project ahead. Can’t wait to see this back on the road. Thanks for the shoutout! Much appreciated. Hopefully you can avoid some of my mistakes.

[@City2_vanlife]

Congrats on 10k Buddy! Excited to follow this one and see you get it back in the road 🚀

[@itsalexbaldwin]

Cheers Charlie! Can’t wait to get it driving again

[@robertmoss9468]

Hey Alex, you have yourself a new sub. Now after watching this video on your DB9 (what a worthy car to get back on the road) and this being my first comment and really not wanting to offend. With the expensive cars you have chosen to work on worth thousands, I’m wondering why on earth you have not got 1 a decent jump pack 2 a borescope 3 a huge breaker bar All these basic tools would help you greatly. You have mentioned that you found no oil coming out of the sump and if there was water in your engine you would have seen it exiting before the oil. I do hope that you check again for the engine to be totally ceased before going through the trouble of yanking it out. Good luck and will watch all of your other videos too. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@itsalexbaldwin]

Hey Robert, thanks for the kind words! Thankfully I’ve now finished the project and you’ll see I do pick up another jump pack and borescope during the rebuild series! I should get a breaker bar as well though, good idea. I did get the borescope down in the next episode and it was quite the sight 😂 appreciate it!

[@seedsaboveitall608]

All you needed to do was drain the oil! if the water got into the engine the water would of come out of the drain plug first b before the oil!

[@itsalexbaldwin]

Drained the oil yesterday - seemed to just be oil which confused me! Was expecting some water like you said. Tried to then manually turn the crank again but it definitely doesn’t budge. All a bit odd but we’ll find out what the issue is soon enough!

[@seedsaboveitall608]

I would remove the spark plugs and try again turning the engine over by hand also put diesel down the bores before you turn the engine over@@itsalexbaldwin

[@mppower5141]

Congrats on new project 👌🏻

[@AndrewLister-yj5hi]

Great car Alex. 🙂 Very lucky that the interior mostly stayed dry. There is a drain hole in the battery compartment that most likley let some water in there. Hopefully you've thought of this - water is heavier than oil - so if you remove lowest plug from sump, gearbox, fuel tank and rear diff if there's any water in there at all it will be first out. Then you will know what to investigate further internally or not. 🙂 Hopefully it is only you're starter motor that's the problem and not the v12. MAF sensors are low down at front of a db9 and most likely did not enjoy being underwater. Check out aston1936 youtuber for great tips on dismantling/ cost savings on db9s. Suggest see if you can dry the internals of the headlights out asap - they also hate swimming. Keep the great content coming. 🙂

[@itsalexbaldwin]

Thanks Andrew, can’t wait to drive it! Makes a lot of sense about the drain hole in the battery, cheers. I have tried to manually crank the engine from on top, as well as underneath, and I cannot for the life of me get it to move at all. She’s seized! Already started the process of preparing the body to be split from the chassis this week though 💪🏼

[@laurah8852]

Lovely car Alex - use a grinder to cut a notch into the head of the bolts and get then out with a flat head?

[@itsalexbaldwin]

Gave this a go just now but very seized on! Ending up cutting off the heads and then grinding a notch into the actual thread part of the screw - seemed to do the trick but the undertrays weren’t too happy about it 😂

[@briansimon4363]

Looking at the water marks and front end scuffs my guess would be it was parked in a large garage which flooded with some current. The weight of the engine would have submerged the front end whilst the back end floated. The scuffing could then occur as the water pushed the semi-floating car around.

[@itsalexbaldwin]

Yeah I initially thought something similar until I looked inside the engine later on in the rebuild process; I now think it’s an insurance job!

[@briansimon4363]

@@itsalexbaldwin So what part of ‘beyond economic repair’ did you not notice!🤣

[@itsalexbaldwin]

@@briansimon4363 😂😂 I turned a blind eye I guess haha

[@rupertwaters9137]

Hey, why not put a socket & bar on crank pulley and see if its locked that way. Starter may just be shot & battery low as you mentioned? just a thought..

[@itsalexbaldwin]

Hi Rupert - I actually did off camera but alas, no dice! Happy to quickly show this at the beginning of the next episode though. It makes sense, in truth, that it was sent off to a salvage auction if the engine was seized! If it was just a bad starter, I would have won big time 🤪

[@markchip1]

Looks like we can assume that Astons have pretty damned good door seals then!! Was there any dampness on the underside of the rear seat squabs in the little holes that would allow water into the foam? That would be very slow to dry out if it got waterlogged... And what about the boot? Any water in there?

[@markchip1]

And no, you haven't bitten off too much - at least based on your previous series of videos! I have every faith in your ability to get this one back on the road!

[@itsalexbaldwin]

Haha yes, the door seals must be pretty good! I think the weight of the engine probably helped navigate most of the water towards the engine bay, whilst the middle and rear floated

[@itsalexbaldwin]

Thanks Mark, appreciate the vote of confidence! Currently prepping the body to be split from the subframe

[@Nostalgiaengineering]

Why did you take the injectors out and not the spark plugs? If there was water in there, it wouldn’t come back up the inlet valves 🤷‍♂️

[@paulanderson4894]

I would check the starter motor and solenoid first

[@Magnet.M.A.D]

Oh wow, nice one Alex. I think the sealed interior has raised in the water and floated and the heavy nose has been dragged in the water. Hence the bit of damage on the front skirt. Glad you’re back and look forward to the next one 🤗👍

[@itsalexbaldwin]

Think you’re spot on there Roger! Big V12 has to be weighing the front down whilst the middle and back of the car were floating. Would explain the dry interior and boot space!

[@Magnet.M.A.D]

Yeah, when I saw the part where the battery goes was dry as a bone. It means all the wiring inside the car will be good. I think you should consider taking the heads off the engine before you swap it out for a 6K engine. You can then just turn it over by hand and see if the pistons are doing what they should. Might save you a lot of money. The way the last click of the ignition took all the lights on the dash off could also indicate a short in the starter motor. Rule of thumb is fix the cheapest first. 🤗👍

[@itsalexbaldwin]

@@Magnet.M.A.D yes agreed - the plan is to see if this engine is salvageable first. A crankshaft is a lot less than a whole engine but it could be a bit rusted inside the heads. We’ll see! I’ve also tried to crank the engine by hand but it’s stuck solid, even with all my weight on it! It did similar things with the lights on a Range Rover Sport I had where it seemed like a short. Turned out the crank had gone on that!

[@Magnet.M.A.D]

Well I will definitely keep my fingers crossed for you 💪👍

[@stuff31]

If it was a Lotus Esprit it could have survived! Haha.

[@itsalexbaldwin]

Alas though, I'm no Roger Moore!

[@gavinporter9376]

How do you expect to get the water out the cylinders by removing the injectors? Valves closed and spark plug in the engines not going to turn over… you need to remove the inlet manifold and the plugs.

[@itsalexbaldwin]

Yeah you’re absolutely right Gavin - I do actually remove the inlet manifold and plugs in the next episode that went out last week. It was a brief oversight on my part! I’m new to all this, ha

[@kaineburchett3947]

Watch Sam crac video on his Aston Martin dbs convertible, pretty sure some of the waterlogged computers were actually Volvo parts and cheaply replaced

[@itsalexbaldwin]

I have actually, I’m a fan of his channel! Liked his rebuild of the Ferrari with Ratarossa recently.

[@andrewf7822]

You are very brave. Respect.

[@itsalexbaldwin]

Thanks Andrew! It’s a thin line between brave and stupid though 😂🤷🏼‍♂️

[@stampydragon2739]

Or the cylinder rings have rusted to the block

[@theCDmf]

Looks the business !!! That will require a whole lot of fettling to get it back on the road, Atleast this one will be slightly more familiar than the Ferrari.

[@itsalexbaldwin]

Haha Ferrari a lot nicer to work on - got all sorts of cuts on my hands already from this week alone working on this Aston!

[@frederickbowdler8169]

Parts car or strip whole car and start rebuild.

[@itsalexbaldwin]

I did the latter and the car is now back on the road! The car was split in 2 and engine swapped - hopefully you’ll enjoy the series ☺️

[@craigmcbride526]

Nice car. Great video.

[@itsalexbaldwin]

Thanks Craig!

[@mjjr1000]

Probably drove into a ford and sucked water up killing the engine

[@itsalexbaldwin]

It's definitely one theory! I'm leaning towards insurance job...

[@Nick-from-norfolk]

Definitely would have wd40 all of them before I even tried the key

[@tonyjones7372]

if that car had been under water, that interior would stink!

[@itsalexbaldwin]

Agreed! I think it’s been pushed into some water

[@petemelanyevans9162]

Omg how to drag out a video FFS...just pull the plugs out ..then turn it over ...then fully service it ....not a big deal ..

[@itsalexbaldwin]

Haha blimey mate, speak your mind. Was my first time doing a project like this, cut me some slack 😂

[@Jasonj___8]

Less talking more doing please! 👍👍

[@itsalexbaldwin]

Sorry bud, 1st episode is often diagnosing and talking! This car ended up needing an engine swap so hopefully you’ll enjoy the rest of it!