... in my endless quest for understanding the intricacies of maintaining a P38 Range Rover, I've came across this forum some months ago, while researching the (evil) magic of the RF "green dot" "blue dot" and similar, and attracted by Martyuk's knowledge on the matter, I took note of his website and send him an email (which he never answered lol) and though nothing more of it ... yeah, bad, I know.

Time later, in one of my numerous email exchanges with Phil (known here as 'Holland&Holland'), I've noticed in one of his videos this place was mentioned, and I did notice the curious fact I was again redirected here ... so this time I've decided to look more carefully.
And I've found something I was looking for since quite a while: a close community of 'aficionados' to this neglected and fascinating vehicle, which is really much more than the sum of its parts - especially taking into account its history and heritage, development, and giving a lot (in all sense) still over 25 years.... (I also did learn why Marty might have never had time to answer my email as well!).

There are plenty forums online (I am not into FB WH and the like, old fashioned I am), some of them pretty rich in info and people, but there is always a certain 'distaste' getting into them as you belong to the much fabled hated distasteful "black sheep" of the LR family (actually time shows there is plenty dark in many of its siblings also, but less talked about). Also, forums age as cars and people age, and much info is being lost which cannot be maintained if not by those with true spirit of sacrifice. Which from some initial reading (soon will be more), here seems to be plenty lol!
So I hope then to be able to be part of this, and amuse you with some tales of my love and suffering for my beloved Rangie.

She is a 00 4.6 and is my third RR, l had in the past two Classics (a 2-door '85 which I regret deeply losing, and a 4-door EFI Vogue '89 which
I also regret selling). I've also had a Disco 300 '97 (also very much remembered), after which I made a long stint in the Dark Side, where I was dazzled by American and Japanese starlets (some amazingly capable), but somehow I always longed to get back to the Green Oval. Must be the 'imprinting' of those Sandglow vehicles full of mud jumping through rivers and jungles when I was a kid ....

Well, I guess this was long enough for an introduction (I tend to write a looot!). Will see how to post images online to provide more grounds for entertainment, and after gulping a drink or two will find sufficient courage to explain why of all available I've chosen a P38 to return to the fold :-)

Thanks for having me!

Hi Leo

Welcome... you're right, rr.pub is less trying than the other RR sites, more support, less abuse... Where you based? Did you come over from LZ?

Hello mate :)

Why you've chosen a P38 is pretty obvious to me if not to others. I needed something I could use as an everyday car that was also capable of towing a 3.5 tonne trailer long distances. Having had a Classic and watched it rust away around me every time it rained, that was out. I'd driven a Defender and wouldn't fancy driving one of them 100 miles let alone, 1500. I'd used a works Disco 1 (200TDi) and considered it almost as agricultural as the Defender and a works Disco 2 (TD5) and while it wasn't bad, I just don't like diesels. An L322 was, at the time, too expensive and I've since learned that they have so many interconnected parts that a failure of something that you can do without will stop the engine because it can. So a P38 on LPG was the only thing left and that was 10 years and almost 200,000 miles ago. Still use it every day, still tows big trailers around Europe and I honestly can't see myself replacing it. Well, not entirely, just odd bits at a time as they need it.

Agree totally on the benefits of a forum over the likes of Faceache. With a forum you can search and find threads from long ago that deal with a particular problem (well, you can on this one anyway) but with fb, once it's fallen off the bottom of the page it's gone. I know two owners that swear by the wisdom of 'experts' on fb, one overfilled his engine with oil by 2 litres because the expert told him it needed 7 litres while I'm finishing off one tomorrow where the owner has spent a fortune replacing parts that didn't need replacing (ignition coils, engine ECU, crank position sensor, MAF sensor, spark plugs, leads and probably a few more bits that I've forgotten) when the problem was down to a broken wire that meant the main ignition relay wasn't operating so none of the ECUs, except for the BeCM, were receiving any power. Power up the BeCM and nothing else and all the dash lights come on except for the Check Engine light. No Check Engine light so, on the advice of the expert, he bought a Sync Mate only to find that wouldn't work but it wouldn't because the engine ECU wasn't powered up. He's owned the car for 6 months and driven it 18 miles in that time. Once I'd worked out the problem (big clue was turning on the ignition and the ABS pump didn't start up) and ran a temporary feed from BeCM to fusebox and it fired up immediately.

(Interesting story Richard, indeed the "just throw parts at it" methodology rarely works yet folks still do it - and main stealers actively encourage it...)

Hi Leo, Not sure if you resolved your blue/green dot alarm issue but searches on " YWY500170 P38 receiver " etc will reveal more evil.....
and you may well have also/probably realised have the Green Oval/Evil folks want c.£350 from us to resolve their bad design....

Hi Leolito, many moons ago I was offered a 6 wheel LWB Classic that had a roof conversion, it was at one time owned by a pop group - not the Beatles though!
At the time I was driving round in a lovely Commer Campervan that had an Autosleeper conversion - it was mint and I saw no reason to change motors.
The Classic was petrol and a runner, as I recall it had no MOT - bottom line is I didn't buy it, but often wonder what it would be worth today.

Hi all and thanks!
I realize the location is not noted under the username, although it is in the profile. I am Italian and currently reside in Bulgaria since like ... er many many many years. But I like it here, made bit of a quiet and happy life. Playing with cars, took a while but I got where I wanted to be: a very very very scaled down version of what Gilbertd does, mostly with youngtimers audis and with a very nice crowd, very passionate and honest and friendly.

I did not hail from no other English-speaking LR/4x4 forum, I did spend many hours in all main places to suck in info, but as I say, there was always this strange feeling. Plus not easy to associate with US or AUS guys, their access to parts and suppliers is radically different from Europeans....

As Gilbertd, I wanted to return to LR, but after years of Diesels I really wanted back a petrol engine ... LWB, and tow easily at least 3t ... not many viable options out there, basically Cruisers, Pajos, and Discos and Rangies.
No American junk (I already gave with a Wrangler and it was enough), and no half-stuff like X5, T-reg and that rabble.
Cruisers i did not want a V6, so that rules out the 95 (I guess you know it as "Colorado") and I tried a 100 (Amazon) which is an impressive piece of machinery (I have great respect for HD Toy vehicles, they are really above all except in rustproofing lol), but very very heavy and unwieldy ... a boat to ride, you feel the suspension struggling with the bulk of the vehicle. The Pajo 3.5 is a capable vehicle, but sticking to the V2x series (I am convinced of the advantages of a real axle) means finding very old vehicles ... plus they are smallish!
A RRC? Is a dinosaur, lovely but ... plus can't tow 3t (paperwork) and it is smallish as well ... D1 same, D2 is a very good option but never really convincing for me ... I wanted a Range Rover, and a V8 to that. Ah! and I wanted adjustable suspension!!!
The L322 is a great rapper and soccer player magnet (now outdated even for that!), and amazingly complex and not DIY machine ... that leaves the real last British Range Rover, with its pluses and minuses - all of them very well known!
We will indulge more on that ....

davew I left the RF matter for later on, I have now stripped all the interior and once done will address that! :-)

hugh - you will always have these thoughts ... seems like every past opportunity would have been a good one!

I am horrified by the beautifully looking Rangies in the "show us..." post ... I have no pic in decent looking shape so I will abstain to post there until I have something meaningful ... just here couple shots of mine, these are old but at least to show

at work on a loaned trailer (mine is single car)

Main thing with a P38 is that you can wash it, polish it and use it to go anywhere and it doesn't look out of place, even our Queen uses one! But you can still take it out and get it muddy, drag big trailers around the place, use it to uproot trees, climb mountains and, unless you damage the bodywork, all you need to do is give it another wash. Contrary to what many American owners seem to think, you don't need to fit it with big wheels and tyres, winches and lift the suspension, it's perfectly capable of going places where the driver chickens out long before the car has reached the limit.

Welcome Leo - you sound like exactly the sort of nutter who fits in well here :)
I wish you many happy miles on and off road with your P38!

I have to confess that I also own a Jeep XJ (4.0 Auto) so I'm not quite a Green Oval purist - but I do certainly get the attraction.

Interesting post this welcome to the PUB!!

I bought mine because i fancied one, still love it!!

As above they're just as if not more capable than most 4x4's and IMO the last RR with the country set look, modern LR's are curb crawlers!

All RRs after the P38 have independent suspension and so definitely biased more to on-road performance than off-road.

I love mine and mines a diesel!

Smiler wrote:

I love mine and mines a diesel!

Still putting that out on public forums? :-)

Welcome leolito!

ROFL, bad man George! Everybody needs somebody :)

Welcome!

And apologies for not having returned your email (I think I might have replied now - I've been trying to catch up - but if I haven't, then more apologies and I will get around to it...)

I have been stupidly busy with work, and not been on any forums, and had trouble finding time for anything outside of work other than eating and sleeping - yet alone checking and replying to emails!

This is the first day I've been on this forum in probably nearly 3 months!

Welcome again, and hopefully I've either replied to you, or will in the next few days whilst I'm going through my inbox and trying to catch up!

Marty

Marty thanks for your reply! I've read about your life (will post there separately!) and no, do not worry you never answered but you don't need to ... now that we are sharing this wonderful grazing ground you can read here my woes, and I'd rather contact you again for specifics and ...goodies :-)

To all: I promise after explaining how I got here, soon to narrate how and why a P38, mine specifically, and my eventful life with my queen so far :-)

Gilbertd wrote:

Main thing with a P38 is that you can wash it, polish it and use it to go anywhere and it doesn't look out of place, even our Queen uses one! But you can still take it out and get it muddy, drag big trailers around the place, use it to uproot trees, climb mountains and, unless you damage the bodywork, all you need to do is give it another wash. Contrary to what many American owners seem to think, you don't need to fit it with big wheels and tyres, winches and lift the suspension, it's perfectly capable of going places where the driver chickens out long before the car has reached the limit.

O Gilbert, still spouting that xenophobic nonsense are we? I guess it must be a British thing to insult people for what they do with their money to their own cars, or maybe its just you.

Winches, big tires, and lifts all serve a purpose when you actually offroad on trails like the Rubicon and Moab. But I guess us Americans, Russians, Australians, New Zealanders and pretty much everyone else from around the world who doesn't consider driving down a gravel road offroading, don't know what we're doing.

I'll be sure to check in with ya Gilby, next time I want to modify my rangie to make it more capable off-road, since you know everything ;)

When it comes to doing Crazy Sh** in a P38 I don't think there's much we can tell this guy :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR0_V6H3Jk4

Tnx for the vid Morat - that was pretty impressive. Kultur- fight xenophobia with xenophobia, that's what I say, you must really get wound up by Top Gear. 90%+ of these off-road mods are just for on-road posing. There are a handful of people, like your good self, that make use of the mods, but i don't think Gilbert D was referencing you - us lesser mortals just end up watching youtube off-road videos. Anyway the P38 is a poor choice of off-road vehicle, for as long as you have the terminals of every electronic system in the car lying on the floor.

kultur wrote:

Gilbertd wrote:

Main thing with a P38 is that you can wash it, polish it and use it to go anywhere and it doesn't look out of place, even our Queen uses one! But you can still take it out and get it muddy, drag big trailers around the place, use it to uproot trees, climb mountains and, unless you damage the bodywork, all you need to do is give it another wash. Contrary to what many American owners seem to think, you don't need to fit it with big wheels and tyres, winches and lift the suspension, it's perfectly capable of going places where the driver chickens out long before the car has reached the limit.

O Gilbert, still spouting that xenophobic nonsense are we? I guess it must be a British thing to insult people for what they do with their money to their own cars, or maybe its just you.

Winches, big tires, and lifts all serve a purpose when you actually offroad on trails like the Rubicon and Moab. But I guess us Americans, Russians, Australians, New Zealanders and pretty much everyone else from around the world who doesn't consider driving down a gravel road offroading, don't know what we're doing.

I'll be sure to check in with ya Gilby, next time I want to modify my rangie to make it more capable off-road, since you know everything ;)

Before you get yer arse in a twist.

Let me remind ya that RR.net is full of people "mainly americans" that like to lift and add loads of offroad accessories to their motors..

Well it's their money, Gilbertd was saying that the P38 is more than capable in stock form..