By this i mean mistake!!
In my case it was Jan 2018 when i put the bonnet up slightly to charge the battery on a dry cold winters night..
But as it happens overnight, this happened...
Whoops..
If that's your biggest one, you're doing a lot better than me! (Sad to say).
Nowt to worry about, it'll melt as soon as you start the engine......
hoho.... I managed to order the wrong brake drums for the Defender. I had the first one fully torqued up before I worked out why the wheel wasn't turning properly. Took me six months to sell a pair of mint Brembo drums on ebay... However, I'm sure I'll think of something else - which I've suppressed the memory of. Well - there was the time like a complete idiot when I was working on the electrics of the wife's Audi I got +ve and -ve the wrong way round to a remote battery (mitigation: it was dark)... two melted croc clips later and all that needed fixing on the audi was the master fuse (thank God).
I scraped The Duchess on the wall of a pub carpark - rear wheel arch. So that's never getting fixed :(
The biggest cock-ups will have been committed by those have not contributed to this thread... Come on, 'fess up
I've fixed a few of them...
Mine probably comes down to backing into a wall, and putting a crunch in the rear bumper... or when I was offroading and bumped the RH Rear on part of a hill which has put a bit of a ding in it, but is mostly hidden by the finishing trim...
Or there was that one time I got my first P38 airborne, and the passenger (who was stupidly not wearing a seatbelt - but was actually surprisingly ok!) cracked the windscreen with his head...
The only one recently, which Sloth can attest to was somehow bending a pin when putting an ABS Modulator in and then having an all night mission to either swap the modulator back out, or try to straighten the pin. We got it straightened, brakes bled etc - and then a couple of weeks later I had to swap the modulator again as the brake pedal would sometimes just lose pressure and sink when you put your foot on it. If you hit it to stop, then it was fine. Deduced there must have been an internal leak in the replacement (I'd rebuilt it, and there was one part which was a pain to do - so probably that which caused it). Not got around to having another look at it.
I was changing the diff fluid in the rover. As I usually do, I jacked up one side of the axle to drain the last bit of fluid. Once all the fluid was out, I went to put the magnetic diff plug back in, but I could not find it. I spent about an hour tearing up the garage looking for it. I seriously contemplated over-nighting one from Atlantic British and then, out of no where, it hit me. The plug is magnetic, the jack is metal. Lo and behold attached to the side of the garage jack was the missing diff plug.
Needless to say I was pretty happy it was only a minor cock up.
Martyuk wrote:
I've fixed a few of them...
Mine probably comes down to backing into a wall, and putting a crunch in the rear bumper... or when I was offroading and bumped the RH Rear on part of a hill which has put a bit of a ding in it, but is mostly hidden by the finishing trim...
Or there was that one time I got my first P38 airborne, and the passenger (who was stupidly not wearing a seatbelt - but was actually surprisingly ok!) cracked the windscreen with his head...
The only one recently, which Sloth can attest to was somehow bending a pin when putting an ABS Modulator in and then having an all night mission to either swap the modulator back out, or try to straighten the pin. We got it straightened, brakes bled etc - and then a couple of weeks later I had to swap the modulator again as the brake pedal would sometimes just lose pressure and sink when you put your foot on it. If you hit it to stop, then it was fine. Deduced there must have been an internal leak in the replacement (I'd rebuilt it, and there was one part which was a pain to do - so probably that which caused it). Not got around to having another look at it.
Well Marty fixed my front prop shaft... I guess you could call that a cockup, although I'd put it down as ignorance and incompetence :)
I've told the story on here before, but suffice to say - if you suspect your UJs are gone, it's probably not a great idea to drive 4hrs on the motorway. In my defence, had I just swapped the UJs myself or at a local garage I'd still be looking for issues in the front end because it was Marty who decided to test the Viscous Coupling while he was under the Duchess. The VC was the root cause of all the worn out components and dodgy handling.
About 6 years ago my car developed a vibration from the rear. I had recently replaced the, very worn original, rear diff so it couldn't be that and after changing propshaft UJs, rear discs, pulling half shafts to check wheel bearings, getting rear wheels balanced and nothing seemed to make any difference although no matter what I did it seemed to reduce slightly with each job. A couple of people suggested the transfer case and although I couldn't see it myself, decided to change it anyway. Bought a secondhand one and set about fitting that. After spending an entire weekend under the car and having roped in my son in law to assist with getting the replacement in, took it out and tried it. No difference, still had this vibration which, by then, was only minor at around 60 mph with nothing below that and stopping once I hit 65. Decided I could live with it and gave up. Shortly afterwards I had to take evasive action which involved a rapid change of lanes and flooring the throttle resulting in the well known machine gun sound effect from the transfer case Morse chain. Decided that as I knew the original transfer case was in better nick than this one obviously was, and changing it hadn't made any difference to the vibration, I'd swap them back and put the original in again.
This time, before taking it off, I made a bracket that I could bolt to the bottom of the transfer case to hold it at the correct angle when getting it back in. This made refitting it a one man job but it still took me a full day to swap them over again. So now I could floor the throttle without the chain skipping but still had the vibration between 60 and 65mph. Decided I would have to live with it as by now, it was noticeable but not too objectionable.
Then I had a towing job to do, not my usual 2,000 mile round trip but a fairly local one but when I stopped to fill up with gas, noticed that the entire rear tailgate and the trailer A frame were covered in spots of liquid. Had a look underneath and there was oil, or in actual fact, ATF, from the front of the transfer case rearwards. Deciding this needed looking at fairly urgently I had another look in RAVE. It was only then when I noticed that in block capitals it tells you that whenever the transfer case it removed, you MUST replace the gearbox output shaft seal. Guess who hadn't seen that bit before......
So, that resulted in a further day spent underneath the car removing a perfectly good transfer case so I could replace a seal that I should have replaced the first (and second) time it had been off. I did eventually find the source of the vibration though. The one thing I hadn't suspected, the rear diff that I had replaced not long before it had first started. The nose bearing had seized so the whole thing was turning in the housing. This time, rather than a secondhand one from a breaker, it got a reconditioned one from Ashcrofts, and the vibration immediately disappeared.
That sounds like a real mission!
I have had my p38 for 18 years now. Is that a record? I bought it 2 years old from a main dealer.
Hadn't had it long when we decided to go on a food and drink themed holiday in France with the caravan. My favourite type of holiday.
I remember visiting a village for lunch somewhere, the Dordogne I think, and there were some open fields and a woods next to it. I hadn't had the car long and was eager to explore off road and see what it could do.
I went hurtling across this field in long grass at a rate of knots, like about 30 mph, and suddenly right in front of me was a drainage ditch right across the field hidden by the long grass !
I skidded and plunged down into the ditch and hit the bank on the other side. The car nearly sumersaulted right over. We were wearing seat belts otherwise we would have been catapulted out. We ended up at 45 deg. Wife was hysterical.
It forced the valance back and bent the gearbox oil cooler, otherwise it was OK.
I have also reversed into my trailer A frame which I had left in the up position. The dent in the upper tailgate is still there.
I had had the car a couple of years and was still not really familiar with it. I previously had a classic and a discovery 1 but done no work on a p38. I bought it with 12 months factory warranty still on it and the dealer put a further 18 months on it. I had not joined any forums at that time so was green as far as p38's were concerned.
One day I was charging the battery and for some reason I had taken the plastic cover off the engine ECU box next to it. One of the charger clips came off and touched the metal ECU case causing a spark. Engine wouldn't start and I ended up getting it towed to an Independant Landrover Garage in North Wales. The warranty had expired by this stage.
Diagnosis was that I had spiked the Bosch engine ECU causing it to fail. It looked as though the BECM was OK.
Keeping a straight face, as they all do, the mechanic behind the counter said a new one is £1200 !
WTF !!! I said I will get back to him.
I rang my insurers and the girl who dealt with it, bless her little heart, said it is an accident just like filling your car up with the wrong fuel, so you are covered. I ended up paying a £100 xs as I remember. The insurance company picked up the tab for the rest.
After that I got more familiar with the car and bought the diagnostics. I have also built up quite a stock of spares off Ebay. I have bought engine ECU's for about £25 and programmed and chipped them myself.
my biggest mistake i made was to let the girl friend at the time (now wife) drive my classic. she ran into everything , cleaned up a painters van ,plowed into the rear of it ,bull bars are handy not a scratch, got cleaned up by a builder in his ute ,once again the bull bar coped the brunt of it small repair at his cost , chased down a pain in the ass teenager on a tredly (push bike) and ran over his bike , that was funny . ran into a log on the beach , yes it was a big log you could see it from 50 yards away but she still got it, she loved that bull bar . finally retired the classic and brought the p38 which she damaged on her mayden drive by catching the plastic bumper on something and tore the bottom of it . her comment when i pointed it out to her was well you scratched it as if it doesn't matter anymore....
I’m starting to feel my biggest cockup, was buying a p38,, this battery drain I have is beyond a joke, killed a battery in 23 seconds yesterday, no smoke, no sparks, driving me insane.. yes the batteries are tested ( one is new ) and both good
23 seconds has to be a record Chris!!!!
I’ve changed so much, I just can’t suss this one out, so it’s strip down time and find once and for all where the problem is, sometimes it will sit for weeks and fire up first time, but you can literally turn it off and it won’t restart, every time I’ve put a meter inline I get nothing 🤯🤯😡😡
Chris, I am no electrical expert but I have been there before with electrical drain.
The most useful bits of kit I have bought are first a DC clamp on ammeter. It will read a wide range from 100's of amps down to a few milliamps.
DC meters are not cheap, unlike AC clamp on meters which are no use on cars. I have used it many times to check if the BECM goes asleep.
In my case I eventually bought a Mk3 receiver.
Also useful is one of these for checking individual circuits:
Just take the fuse out and plug the probe in instead. It tells you the current flowing in that individual circuit.
I have also invested in a professional battery tester. Bought s/h on Ebay.
Must be a hell of a current to see it off in 23 seconds !
This is turning into a very entertaining thread.
There was also the time 20+ years ago in my Series 3 when I was towing my dad's double axle trailer along with cattle crush... Started snaking about 50 mph...of course you shouldn't slow down so I didn't. Started getting worse and with a ditch to the left of the road, and a ditch to the right, I decided enough was enough and it might be better to stop. I ended up 90 degrees across the road, and the LR did a big heave to one side, before settling back on its' springs. Drove away from that, rear 1/4 of the LR took a beating, but was a DIY fix. Luckily it was fairly straight road so oncoming cars had seen what was happening and not piled into me. My Dad's comment was - didn't I mention that the over-run brakes aren't working?
Yeah. It is a bit like a confessional. Very therapeutic.
Changed the coil pack in the H&H. Had removed the manifold and all sundry to get to the bloody things.
Replaced the lot and went to start vehicle. Nada.....
“Bollox” says I... must be faulty coil pack.
Mate who just showed up and was drinking a cuppa tea asked me “you did check the wires were all put back in properly to the coil pack right?”
“Course I did,” says I “it’s probably shitty coil pack”.
That night after he left I removed the lot only to find both main leads into the packs had not been connected.
Still never told him it was my cock up.....