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The only place for a coil spring is up Zebedee's arse

News

Alpine radio not waking up after battery change

Put a new Hankook battery on yesterday as, after 6 years, the old one had decided it wasn't holding charge above 12.5 volts giving various "I'm not happy" beeps and messages.

Now the Alpine radio won't wake up. Power present on the connector and fuse is good. Is there anything else I can easily check or should I assume it's toast. Could have been dead for some time as I rarely use the radio. Likely a year or two since last used.

If it is toast the easy option is a radio from a breaker but not sure that £200 + is worth it for something I use so little.

.I have a brand new Kenwood KDC241 SA kicking about the place that would do for now. Powers up OK from the grey connector but obviously will need the outputs re-worked to suit the P38. Fortunately I have door amps, not DSP complexity, so making the mods is more tedious than difficult. Or can I buy something to just plug'n play. Mrs Google and E-Bay imply that such things might be around from the likes of InCar Tech et al.

If I'm going to do serious messing around the most attractive option is a large floating screen unit for a reversing camera and big navigation display. Pioneer SPA-EVO 950 DAB looks good to me but £600 for name brand reassurance plus a centre dash to rework makes it a serious project. I know the Android screens can work well. But which brand / supplier is good right now. I have never been lucky with affordable import electronics.

Clive



Clarion Diversity Radio Service

I have recently obtained a Clarion Diversity Radio with a GOOD screen. Sadly the back light has failed and no sound. I used to use David at Clarion-Service then they changed names and I used Rob at I-Car North Wales to service / repair. Both numbers no longer work. Any suggestions? Philip



Downtime! And that whole PHP thing

... doesn't directly affect the pub, because it runs on FlaskBB, which uses Python.

However there is a different security issue affecting the software that the server itself runs on, which the hosting provider is going to patch. This looks to be quite a pig of a job, which I'm sure we're all familiar with, and so at some point over the next week the forum is going to be down for a couple of hours.

If I find out when, I'll update this post. But yeah, if the site's down for a bit, it's "meant to be like that".

Great when they work, eh?



Been a while.. my new DSE

I still have the old Blue V8 however I had a moment of weakness in April this year and dragged an old DSE home.

Poor thing was set to go to the scrappy, however under the filth a good motor was waiting..

only payed £800 for it.....

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it was very sad..

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Bonnet was rotten and didn't close soursed a 2nd hand one
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EAS was on its arse and the interior was absolutely vile, however after cleaning it for 3 days straight it came up great the seats are like new,

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She became my daily driver and has since april been a very good car..

It has spent some time in Europe I believe as it has reflectors stuck to the headlights and the MOT history has a Gap from 2014 to 2019!!

cheers



Viscous coupling for radiator fan-diesel P38

Hi,
I'm trying to install a VC coupling with the plastic fan from a L322 (BMW 57 engine) to my diesel P38 (BMW M51 engine). Can someone tell me the M57 VC coupling thread will fit onto M51 ? I already have a M57 fan with me and thought of buying M57 VC coupling. The fan is about 1 inch wider than M51 and hope that it will increase the airflow without much noise.



New P38a Owner

Hello New to this forum and Range Rover Ownership , scratching an itch i have had for a while ,
few issues to deal with , the main one is eas issue , Nanocom on the way so hopefully wont be too long off the road .
have owned series Land rovers for 20 + years currently have a 1979 s3 station wagon and a 1965 series 2a 109 truck cab .
be gentle with me and stupid questions.



Rear 'Quarter Light' Window replacement - tips ?

(ie. the one on the body not the door)

Any tips/techniques on replacing this appreciated !

Glass appears to be simply bonded onto a plastic surround/frame and this surround.frame is bonded to the body.....

(Council worker helpfully used his strimmer to cause a high-velocity gravel projectile.....)



Northumberland viewing request

Bit of a funny request this one;

There’s quite a nice vogue to match mine for sale in northumberland for what appears to be a very handsome price and was wondering if there was anyone in an accessible radius to go and inspect for me (for a fee) if practicable.

I live in kent and fly to greece on saturday, however after missing out (frustratingly) on another clean example this weekend, i don’t fancy letting this one pass by if i can help it.

If there is anyone that would be happy to fulfil and has availability this week, let me know :)



Holland and Holland inspired seat colours.

My P38 is currently SORN’d, so I’ve been thinking about a few little projects while it’s off the road.

One idea is to recolour the leather seats to something closer to the Holland & Holland interior, ideally a dark saddle/bridle brown.

Has anyone done something similar, or know of a good leather colour/shade that would suit the P38 and look fairly OEM?



Engine Disabled press fob on dash

Hello all,
long time listener, first time poster,
"Engine disabled, press fob" on dash -> I press fob "start engine" -> engine starts fine,
happens irregularly, more often than not, however not every start.. never any other issues, engine always starts.. started happening a few months ago now..
wondering if anyone knows any causes? issues? fixes? Just gets rather annoying!
vehicle is 2001 p38 4.0l
Thank-you for your help
Chris



Fixing Imgur's nonsense once and for all

So Imgur have blocked users in the UK from accessing their site, have done for a while.

Miah reminded me the other day that I'd mentioned something about putting some mitigation in place. I have a couple of things in mind, either:

a) modify posts containing imgur links to point through a third-party proxy

b) download photos from imgur and host them locally where possible

Or I guess c) some combination of the above.

Both would require the content of your posts to be edited to change the link, which obviously I'd do with a script, damned if I'm doing every single one of them by hand over and over.

A further refinement would be to devise some sort of plugin for the forum that would just sort this automagically in the background, which would involve upgrading the forum software, which would involve me taking a bit of time to actually package up the updated software.

Thoughts, anyone?



Time To Go !

.
.. Yes, the Greater London ULEZ finally takes its toll on my P38 ownership....
.. as after three years of ULEZ in OUTER London at £12.50/day (or £18.50 with Congestion Charge) it is time to go; SAD !

1995 GEMS 4.0 and I have owned it for 25 years - less than 90K miles; Any suggested ballpark prices ??
(It has all kinds of the usual issues, ding/dongs and lacquer peel etc - as per m/any 30+ year vehicles)
Runs ok/MOT etc

PS: NOT "We Buy Any Car dot Con" !



Leaking rear crankshaft oil seal

Looks like the big red beast has a leak from the rear crankshaft oil seal, messy rather than serious but Malcom the MoT man is stating to suggest that it ought to be done.

So which is the best way in?

Gearbox out or engine out? Looks to me that engine out is more straight-forward. as my lift is only a half height type. Begin at the front and just keep taking bits off until you have clearance. Looks like a day to get out and a day to get back in working at a sensible pace. I'd prefer to have it done for me but no one round here wants to take the job. Usually the stupid excuse way rather than honest refusal. Which is annoying but helps to show who an be trusted when I finally have to admit I can't mange.

Anything else that ought to be done whilst it's out and get-actable. Exhaust heat shields obviously. Also the big red beast has always used a little bit of water on start-up but basically same amount per trip whether it's 4 miles or 400. Investigate or don't poke with stick? I'd put money on it having had a gasket seal nostrum put in before I got it which isn't quite up mot the job.

Going by what I've been quoted for doing the seal its tempting to take the engine up to V8 Developments for a refresh and stage one tune once its out, but dunno if I can loose the car for a month. Probably won't be that much more expensive than local quotes for doing the rear seal.

Clive



Chasing down a rhythmic gruntching/ growling noise....

2002 with 120k miles on the clock
I continue to run through the 02 Borego here and knock off the various minor issues.
The last thing I am chasing is a rhythmic rotational growling noise that manifests between 30 and 50 mph. I think its always there, It is just loudest between those speeds
I have replaced the Ujoints as a matter of policy on any P38 I get, and confirm those are good. I seriously suspected a bad tire or 2 as the sound is exactly
what you would get from a bad tread. Tires are new Yokohama Geolandars, which I have always used and never got a noisy one. I eliminated that by taking
all 4 tires and wheels off of Bolt and swapping them to the Borego. New tires from Borego smooth as silk on Bolt and the vibration is still there on Borego.
Wheel bearings feel very good when jacked up and twisted and torqued in all directions with a breaker bar. No play and smooth rotation.
Diff fluid was changed on both when I got it, and it came out crystal clear with no shavings on the drain plug magnet.
This leaves me with CV joints, but again, no noise and smooth when rotated .
As I was under there this evening checking the Ujoints again, I noticed a bit of slop in the transfer case forward output shaft bearing......
I think this may be the source of the noise. Anyone have other suggestions, I am glad to hear them.
So, looking at it, it appears that it can be removed from the transfer case without dropping the whole thing?
Has anyone done this to replace bearing or shaft seal? I have done a transfer case R&R in the past, so not intimidated, but I am now older and lazier, so
if it can be avoided, that would be great!



Squeaky Sound

Good Morning from Switzerland

I hope everyone had a great weekend without to many mechanical issues so far! :) I noticed that my RR started making this noise when slowly driving. I'm not sure if this is related but on higher speeds (around 100kmh) when releasing the gas pedal, a vibration can be felt for around 10 seconds.

I know it is very hard to make a diagnosis without checking underneath the car. However, I'm wondering if this might be an urgent fix? I'm not driving the RR daily and will be in Germany around Christmas with access to a car workshop (I would be able to save a lot of money if it can wait this long). Thank you very much for every suggestion.

In case the sound does not work: Video with sound

enter image description here



Battery died

I went to start the car to go to the garage to fill up with fuel prior to setting off for a week in Wales. Unfortunately the battery was utterly dead. The voltmeter showed 2.7V It is a Hankook MF3100-1000 purchased from Battery Megastore nearly five years ago & had shown no signs of problems before. I tried charging overnight but it only showed 10.7V so looks like it is totally knackered.

I have an old battery I bought form Halfords about nine years ago. It worked well in the car for four years until I swapped it for the Hankook as BMS had a good deal. This had last been charged over a year ago but still showed 11.7V. I put this in the car & was able to jump start using the another old car battery I have that won't fit the P38. I put the Halfords battery on charge overnight & in the morning it showed 12.7V & had sufficient charge to use the remote locking/unlocking but not to start the car. I decided to order a new Hankook MF3100-1000 from BMS & have it delivered to our Welsh holiday cottage. We set off for Wales making a detour via Halfords to buy one of those Li-ion jump start battery packs as unfortunately the one that I bought about ten years back was knackered & no longer functioning. My wife sat in the car with the engine running while I popped into Halfords to collect the device which cost just over £100.

We made a couple of stops on the way. Once for coffee & a sandwich where I was able to start the car normally but when we stopped for petrol about half an hour later I had to use the jump start battery pack. When we arrived at the cottage I had an email form BMS confirming the order but with the delivery address as my home not the holiday cottage. I think the mess up must have been with their ordering system as I recall setting a delivery address different to the billing address & even added a note explaining why the delivery address was different to the billing address. I briefly considered ordering another Hankook MF3100-1000 from BMS delivered to the holiday address then return the other battery when I get home. I then decided the hassle & expense of shipping back a 25kg battery didn't make sense.

We have now been in Wales for five days with a nearly dead battery but have been managing OK. The car always starts easily & when hot usually doesn't need the jump start pack. Using the jump start pack only takes a minute or two & hasn't been much of an inconvenience but I will be glad to get back & fit the new battery that was delivered in under 24 hours. Lead acid batteries don't usually suddenly fail without warning but it does happen sometimes & this one was outside its four year warranty.



Is my fuel pump dying?

Hi all, looking for some advice on a starting/fuel issue with my P38 4.6 V8.

Today it suddenly developed a very consistent starting problem:

  • If the car has been parked for around 30 minutes or longer, the first attempt will crank normally but won’t fire.
  • I stop cranking, turn the key again, and on the second attempt it fires up normally.
  • If it’s only been switched off for a few minutes, it seems to restart fine.
  • I was running fairly low on petrol, so I added 20 litres, but the problem remains.
  • There’s also now a confirmed strong smell of petrol inside the cabin.
  • Once it starts, it appears to run normally.
  • Car is LPG converted but starts on petrol.

I’m wondering if this could be fuel pressure bleeding down after shutdown, possibly fuel pump/check valve, pressure regulator or a leaking injector. The petrol smell obviously makes me concerned there could be an actual leak somewhere as well.

Has anyone experienced this exact first crank = no start, second crank = immediate start behaviour on a 4.6 P38? Anything specific you’d recommend checking first?

Thanks!



Torque converter creeping quirk (more like strolling)

So today we have my first call to you lovely lot as googling my symptons doesnt seem to return any results that match…

After a quite worrying phantom throttle incident last week (promptly fixed by re-attaching the cruise control apparatus which was just floating around in the bay), i seem to be struck by a very light involuntary throttle input while in drive.

Any other normal torque converter car in my experience will quite literally idle creep, however for “the duchess” as we shall remain calling her, this isn’t enough. The revs will actually pick up and the car will creep along until it breaks into a brisk walk and it will even upshift itself into second. All the while my foot is nowhere near the go pedal. Now the weird thing is that the car will idle very steadily at the 700rpm that it should be, yet as soon as drive is selected, it goes up to 1000 and acts as though i have ever so slightly teased the throttle. This immediately tells me my throttle cable is not under any more tension than it should be.

I plugged the nanocom in at the weekend when i was sorting my previous throttle (cruise control) issue out and was met with a myriad of old stored codes (none current), however just to be sure i reset the throttle adaptations to give it a clean slate with my fix.

I shall now open up the floor, any experience with this issue before? Any pointers as to where i should be looking, whether thats IACV, TPS or even adjusting throttle cable despite a correct idle? Would it be a calibration issue with the ECU? Is my TC simply locking up far too soon and prompting the ECU to apply a voltage to the throttle to save a stall situation?

Any advice is dearly welcomed :)



Fuel line connection

I needed to change the large rubber hose from the fuel filler neck to the tank. In the process a 10mm (ED) nylon line which goes into a rubber hose (8mm ID )on top of the tank came out...and i cant ger it back in...and the rubber is inaccesible for boiling water...i was thinking i could put a warm jacket on the rubber to heat it up? Or should i just insert a quick fit connector in any case?

Any other bright ideas?



Any takers…??

I’d like some…. But not that much 😆

https://ebay.io/m/IaUrjV