The Old beast has been sat a while, and needs some work,
Being the Guru's and lets be honest Geniuses you are,
What would you refurb/replace to make it reliable?
she has knocking on the door of 130k.
Henry..
Did 1,600 miles in 4 days in mine last week, bringing the mileage up to 388,200 miles so yours is barely run in. To make it reliable service it regularly and if anything doesn't seem quite right, deal with it now before it gets worse and bites you in the bum.
If you click on my username on the left of this post, you'll see the list of what I've replaced between 98000 and 130,000 miles - some might be on your list too!
Morat wrote:
If you click on my username on the left of this post, you'll see the list of what I've replaced between 98000 and 130,000 miles - some might be on your list too!
Oh my.. "whistling"
I think my list is going to be around that length!!
Remember its an old car so "do it once, do it right" rules. Fixing the immediate fault usually means the Gremlin gang have pushed the potential one behind up to the front. Sort complete systems or sub units and always but always verify that electrical connections and contacts are good.
Frankly a lot of issues are due to things ageing out rather than wearing out. Regular use and decent miles are generally pretty effective at stopping things getting old. Just sitting around seems to be stressful.
My list is close to that of Morat except for the diff issues and some of the cabin electrics. But I'm in mid 80,000 to mid 90,000 mile pre-emptive attack mode and, generally, not waiting for things to go wrong.
Clive
When I got mine I didn't trust it as far as I could throw it but after replacing the air springs, blend motors, discs and pads, etc I started to use it. Since having the engine rebuilt 4 years and 100,000 miles ago, it's been a rear diff, front axle with new top and bottom ball joints (it was easier to swap the ball joints on another axle then swap the whole thing in), front propshaft, alternator, radiator, water pump, viscous coupling, serpentine belt, steering ball joints (twice), tyres (twice), more brake pads, radius arm bushes and anti-roll bar bushes (at the last summer camp), replaced the throttle body heater pipe with silicone hose and a change of oil, filters, spark plugs every 10,000 and plug leads every 20,000. There's probably a few other odds and sods I've missed out, but you get the idea.
I've done other odd things like repaired the heated seats, new headlining, fitted the DAB radio (along with JBL speakers replacing the original door speakers) and an underseat sub under the drivers seat, reversing camera so I can hitch up a trailer on my own but these are all niceties and not things that will stop it from running.
I'm pretty sure that if my P38's previous owners had paid attention to the drive shaft UJs and viscous coupling I wouldn't have spent anything like as much on the front suspension. I don't regret it now, because I have a fresh front end but it has been a bit frustrating at times.