DB9 Paddle shifters message...again

[Babyblu]

First time post on this forum. Ex pat residing in Canada, recently purchased a 2009 DB9 Coupe, 30,000kms. First time owner of AM having jumped from AMG. The car does have service history. Recently inspected and serviced. Battery was changed in June 2019 at an AM dealership. Car is kept in garage trickle charge when not in use. I have reviewed some of the posts on this subject and while the 'turn off the ignition' and restart worked the first time, a couple of weeks ago, that didn't work today. The message came up after a 50kms highway drive being driven in Auto and Sport button engaged just cruising between 120-130kms per hour.

While many of the suggestions in past posts of years ago indicate the problem maybe battery related; Are there other underlying causes for the message and paddle shifts being disabled? Has anyone with this problem actually taken their car to a dealership for a diagnosis and confirmed that the battery is in fact the root cause of the problem?

Thanks for your help

[ragpicker]

Bamdford Rose have done several videos on their YT channel recently posting about various bizarre 'battery related' issues which are in fact all to do with the Aston tracker failing.

Might be worth getting your local independent to turn the tracker off.

[anonymous-user]

ragpicker said:

Bamdford Rose have done several videos on their YT channel recently posting about various bizarre 'battery related' issues which are in fact all to do with the Aston tracker failing.

Might be worth getting your local independent to turn the tracker off.

Was talking to mike about this a few days ago, it’s a common issue on the very early cars due to their age, so an 09 car shouldn’t have this issue yet, but worth checking as you suggest.

[yvr]

North American car. No tracker fitted.

I've had that message 2 or 3 times over the past 8 years. Always cleared on next restart.

[Babyblu]

Thanks for all of your speedy responses . When I came back from my trip this morning, as usual I plugged the car in to the trickle charger and proceeded to post my question. A few hours have now since passed so I thought I'd check the car....started her up..no message, warning light cleared, totally weird! I'm just wondering if the alternator is not charging the battery while driving and the battery is very slowly draining enough to disable the paddle shifters? Although I still don't see the correlation between the battery and the shifters / Sport mode settings unless the battery must be 100% and nothing less?

However, reading the responses and those of previous years, some owners have simply restarted the car and have never experienced the issue again, so if a not fully charged battery is the cause of the disabling of paddle shifters and Sport mode surely the error would reoccur unless they changed the battery? ....I guess I'll have to learn and experience these nuances as Aston owner I'll get it checked out as some of you have suggested...

Really appreciate the responses. I'll update the thread if they find something else to be the cause.

[AstonZagato]

It is possible to trigger these messages by very quickly flicking the paddles (say: up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down in five seconds). Could the paddles be registering false positives?

[Babyblu]

AstonZagato said:

It is possible to trigger these messages by very quickly flicking the paddles (say: up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down in five seconds). Could the paddles be registering false positives?

Thanks for the info; on both occasions this has occurred I did not use the paddles during the drive so something is clearly triggering the paddles and Sport mode being disabled.

[AstonZagato]

Try cleaning the contacts on the paddles? No idea how you'd go about that but a quick look to see if they are easy to detach or access with, say, a detailing brush.

If you have no tracker, then I'd change the battery again (it could be duff).

Then you're looking to trace the wiring, I guess.

[Babyblu]

AstonZagato said:

Try cleaning the contacts on the paddles? No idea how you'd go about that but a quick look to see if they are easy to detach or access with, say, a detailing brush.

If you have no tracker, then I'd change the battery again (it could be duff).

Then you're looking to trace the wiring, I guess.

Thanks I'll check the voltage on the battery as the battery seems to be the common factor in most of the responses over the years.

[Squaremeal]

On mine, the message got quite frequent and was traced by BR to the microswitch assembly on the paddles needing replacement.

[Babyblu]

Squaremeal said:

On mine, the message got quite frequent and was traced by BR to the microswitch assembly on the paddles needing replacement.

Thanks for updating, at least there are a number of options for me to look as far as testing components goes.

[dancinginjapan]

My 2006 DB9 was fine.
i had the front window tinted gold.
when leaving the shop, i got paddle gear shift notification and they no longer work.

when i parked the car it was fine,
it was not started or moved.
when i left, they didnt work.

Maybe the soapy water got in the dash and shorted something.... maybe when it dries, they willl
be ok again?? i have no idea.
We will see.

[Craig elam1]

My 05 did this, I removed the paddle assembly ( you don’t have to take steering wheel off),
Once I got it on bench it’s a pretty simple set up, it’s just two copper contact arms that get pushed by the paddles, stripped it down pretty easily cleaned contact , they were slightly oxidised and mucky. Put back together spot on, I think the dirty contacts give an implausible signal to the ecu and it disables the system,

[Astontony]

dancinginjapan said:

My 2006 DB9 was fine.
i had the front window tinted gold.
when leaving the shop, i got paddle gear shift notification and they no longer work.

when i parked the car it was fine,
it was not started or moved.
when i left, they didnt work.

Maybe the soapy water got in the dash and shorted something.... maybe when it dries, they willl
be ok again?? i have no idea.
We will see.

I would suggest that they have probably had your doors open for an hour or so maybe also had the ignition half on and the battery would have suffered.

[chrisstern]

Mine have started to play up today whilst it has been away having some suspension work done for the last month at Vantage. Needless to say, they can't find what the problem is, so yet more time away - their tardiness on doing work on the car does make me question the point in paying so much to own a car I am unable to use!