Good Morning all!
(well, here in South Africa it is now morning)

I've been lurking here for a while getting to know the P38's a little in anticipation of buying my first one. This past weekend I found one that matched my wants and I pulled the trigger. Collected her yesterday:

She is a 2001 4.6 HSE in Blenheim Silver with a Lightstone interior (I think I'm correct with the colour names, correct me if I'm wrong?) and 252000 km on the clock. The previous owner rebuilt the engine about 13000km ago including tophat liners, new bearings, reground crank etc. He also out her back on air, rebuilt the valveblock and EAS compressor along with a bunch of other maintenance items like refreshing the brake system, new oil in the drivetrain etc.

She drives beautifully and I'm really excited about owning her! I've been eyeing the P38s for about a decade now and I've finally decided to pull the trigger.
I'm planning to use her for road trips exploring Southern-Africa as well as just pottering around town. I'm very comfortable with electronics as well as automotive maintenance in general having rebuilt a LR Series IIa as well as a Fiat X1/9 in the past.

My first few bits to sort are the following:

1. ABS pump runs on every press off the brake pedal. I'm guessing the best pace to start will be a replacement accumulator? Anything else to check before I order a new one?

2. I parked her in a level garage last night and this morning she had lowered herself to the bumpstops. My guess would be a leak on one of the corners is causing this. I drove her again this morning and the compressor runs regularly without me adjusting the ride height. My first check has been to park her on a known level surface and I've pulled the timer relay to see which corner is the culprit. I'll start hunting for a leak from there. Any other suggestions?

3. Trim clips! A bunch of these are missing from the interior, especially around the seat bases etc. Any suggestions for suppliers? These are interior colored (lightstone).

4. Radio volume knob and HVAC fan speed control knobs are erratic in operation. Can I just strip the head unit and HVAC unit apart and clean up the contacts on the internal PCBs? The HVAC has some dead pixels so the zebra strip needs doing also.

5. The indicator stalk is wait too eager to self cancel when turning right and doesn't self cancel when turning left. Is there and adjustment somewhere?

Any other urgent bits I should be checking out to get and keep her reliable? General advice or suggestions welcome!

As an aside: this seems like a superb forum with some great advice and lovely vibe (not so common online). Excited to be here :D

Cheers,
Justus

Hi Justus welcome to the pub ,one thing you didn't mention was do you have a working fob and good door locks?

mad-as wrote:

Hi Justus welcome to the pub ,one thing you didn't mention was do you have a working fob and good door locks?

Sorry yes, I have two working FOBs and the accompanying EKA code. All the door locks are functional and seem to be working as they should.
If I come across a drivers door lock at a breakers then I'll probably grab that as a spare.

thats good ,all the other things are easily fixed, having working fobs is posiblly the most important thing with these vehicles, for lots off reasons

Well done and welcome. It's morning here too, I think SA is on the same timezone as UK or at least very close. Sounds and looks like you've got a decent one there. Listing your queries one at a time.

1. Assume you mean every time you press the brake pedal? Yes, accumulator will sort that.
2. You've got it. If only one corner drops, that is the one with the leak, if they all drop then the most likely place for a leak would be the diaphragm in the valve block. Some overhaul kits only come with the O rings and not a new diaphragm or it might be that the PO only replaced the O rings you can get to with the block in one piece rather than replacing the internal ones too. A squirty bottle filled with a mix of water and washing up liquid is you best way of looking for leaks.
3. https://www.island-4x4.co.uk/clip-seat-base-trim-beige-large-britpart-awr2539smk-p-32993.html will get you started.
4. HEVAC fan speed is a wiper on a track with segments on it so a squirt of contact cleaner and working it back and forth should sort that out, or, if it also has dead pixels it might be easier to get a fully refurbed one from Marty (http://p38webshop.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=75_80). The head unit, assuming the original Alpine unit, isn't quite so simple as it uses a BCD controller so no contacts to clean. If your steering wheel controls work, use them instead.
5. At some point the steering column has been off and hasn't been put back centralised. There is a notch in the column itself which should be at the midpoint so the same amount of turn either way cancels the indicator. If it is off slightly it gives the problem you have. I don't know if there any markings to show you when it is right (I suspect there may be) but to correct it you would need to disconnect the column at the steering box, turn the wheel slightly so it lines up with the next spline, then take the steering wheel off and move that on the splines to get it correct again. Problem with doing this is if you go too far you will damage the rotary coupler and lose the steering wheel controls, horn and SRS connection.

I'll echo mad-as, make sure you have working key fobs and if you find that the door locks start to lock and unlock themselves when driving, deal with it immediately rather than waiting until it locks you out. Do you have any specialists in the area just in case or it might be worth investing in diagnostics of some sort.

Thanks for the welcome and the information so far!
(Yes, I did mean the pressing the brake pedal. Haha, I should have proof read better. Edited the post and fixed it).

I'm planning to use and get to know the vehicle for a while and then I'll start ordering some parts in. I don't want to place a order or a few odds and sods now and then find out next week that I actually need a bunch more stuff!
A local supplier has stock of the accumulator so I'll get that sorted before I wear out the ABS pump (which is probably near the end of it's life anyway).

Any suggestions for a good quality overhaul kit for the EAS valveblock (including the diagram)?

This https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RANGE-ROVER-P38-EAS-AIR-SUSPENSION-VALVE-BLOCK-O-RING-DIAPHRAGM-REPAIR-FIX-KIT/321451232414 is the kit that includes the diaphragm although there is also this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RANGE-ROVER-P38-EAS-AIR-COMPRESSOR-SEAL-LINER-VALVE-BLOCK-O-RING-DIAPHRAGM-KIT/321451243072 which includes new seals and gaskets for the compressor so you can overhaul the whole system. There's an excellent write up on how to do it here http://paulp38a.com/range-rover-p38/eas-valve-block-renew/.

My ABS pump decided it had reached the end of it's life at about 270k miles so yours still has quite a bit of life left in it.

Using it is the best way of doing it. I bought mine after it had been almost completely neglected so in addition to the blown head gasket and burst rear air spring which I knew about, using it threw up lots of other, not critical, but annoying faults. The same goes for my spare, the Ascot. Took it for the MoT test about a month ago and everything was fine and working. Next time I used it I had the book symbol on the HEVAC so sorted that and now it is showing an SRS fault. They don't like not being used.

By the way, you'd be welcome to join us for a pint tomorrow evening https://rangerovers.pub/topic/1775-a-night-out-at-the-pub

Welcome!
You've got most of your questions sorted out ... if you can differentiate between an electronic or a pneumatic issue with the EAS, is a good start. If it stays "up" with electronics disconnected, you already have a number of culprits ...
I recommend your find and download the workshop manual and the electronic troubleshoot manual (which holds diagrams and connections), and give them a "pan" read just to get acquainted with the various sections and with the systems in the car, layout and location of major components, and so on.
Will make your life easier and also easier to pinpoint areas of possible trouble.
Get a lot of clips! If you come across a breaker with parts and get a lock, you can send it to marty and have it refurbished as reserve.

RAVE, the workshop manual can be found here http://rangerovers.pub/static/rave.zip and while you are at it, bookmark http://new.lrcat.com/#!/1234 which is the online parts catalogue.

Gilbertd wrote:

By the way, you'd be welcome to join us for a pint tomorrow evening https://rangerovers.pub/topic/1775-a-night-out-at-the-pub

No need to rub it in if he can't currently buy beer in SA? lol..

He can still get virtual beer for a virtual pub........

Thanks for the ebay links and links to the RAVE and catalogue. They'll come in useful!

Found a leak this evening. Used the EAS Unlock software to compare the actual suspension heights with the programmed heights after leaving the vehicle standing with the timer relay unplugged for a few hours. The right rear height sensor was lower than it was supposed to be. This was confirmed by the lean towards the right rear, so I guess the software diagnostic wasn't really required ;)

Got her back up to standard height and started spraying all the connections with soapy water. The connection to the top of the right rear airbag was leaking. Cleaned up the connection a little, trimmed the pipe shorter (it was scored) and refitted it. Leak seems sorted now.
I've put the timer relay back in and will see if she self levels herself back to the bumpstops again, hopefully not!

I might also have an issue with the EAS compressor though. It comes on for few seconds every minute or two and then cuts out again. I'll dig a little deeper and see what is causing it to come on and turn off again.

Thanks for the pub invite, I'll even have a real beer. Alcohol sales were un-banned yesterday so I've got a few cold ones in the fridge.

You wouldn't think something as simple as soapy water would be such a useful tool. I've used mine to locate a tyre leaking from the valve, an AC leak on a Toyota and a leak on a domestic AC system. All from a window cleaner bottle that would have been thrown away.

A ban on alcohol sales? That would have caused riots here, with nothing else to do alcohol consumption has rocketed.....