I'm pretty sure that if you bought it from RSW you have V4, which also does ABS, and the ECU.

And HEVAC

At the end of the messing about & getting nowhere I took it to an excellent independent garage. £120 later I had in my hands 2 connecting blocks with most of the connections showing signs of going green, & a car that has been perfect ever since. It is a different car, running as it should be.

Sometimes there is no substitute for trusting someone who knows their stuff!

EAS wiring goes through a connector in the LH footwell behind the kick panel. There's another one on the RH side which has cabling for the OBD socket amongst others which also goes green and hairy.

Maybe this was why I could not get a decent connection to the laptop?

Anyway I now have a 2002 Westminster on LPG running great. In fact I am so impressed with this car [& I have had a few great older cars over the years], that I have thought of selling the 17 plate Volvo & just running the RR. It is my preferred drive to be honest.

By chance as i am stuck at home I bought a copy of Classic Car Weekly, & there is a double page spread on the P38, it gets a good write up.

My boss once queried why, if I am getting the train to London, the car park ticket always has the registration number for my car on it and not the works van. I pointed out that I'm not allowed to do any private mileage in the works van (and it's GPS tracked) so if I want to do some shopping on my way home from the station, I'll use my own car. The fact that I would rather drive it over a 15 plate Renault Kangoo any day has nothing to do with it.....

Ok - I think the primary reason is operator impatience... after watching an RSW vid it was suggested that you let the car run with a door open so that the EAS pump could spend all its time filling the tank...I let the pump run for 10 mins, it then cut itself off, I closed the door and it immediately climbed to standard height. Possibly the compressor needs a helping hand in future and so I'll rebuild the pump anyway at some point. Back to the air con again now !!

After a few months of inactivity its time to get down to a few jobs before winter.

First up being replacing the suspension air bags.

Is there a step by step process written down somewhere? I have watched a couple of Youtube videos, but they show different approaches, so a few questions.

Do you need to deflate the bags before removal, or is removing the pipe sufficient? I cannot get the software to work, so using the laptop to deflate them is out of the question.
Is it much easier if you remove the wheel arch liner, & is it necessary?
Are the front or rear bags easier?
Are the none OE parts OK, as they are about 20% of the cost of the OE parts?
Any things I should be aware of, or things I should replace at the same time as the bags?

Whilst no mechanic I have an engineering background, so is this a job that should be 'fairly' straightforward to someone who has a reasonable working mechanical knowledge & understanding.

Thanks

John

Step by step is in RAVE.

Unless you want them to be impossible to remove, yes, you need to deflate them but pushing the collet in and pulling the pipe out will do that. Suggest you put it on low height first so it doesn't plummet to the floor.
It is easier to remove the liner but by pulling it out and jamming something in to hold it out means you can get in there to release the top clips.
Fronts are OK and difficulty varies depending on whether you remove the liner or work around it. Bottom clip can put up a bit of a fight getting it out. Rears are often jammed in at the top and the clip will often break off as it will have rusted into place. If you don't want to keep them, a 1" wood chisel slid in between chassis rail and body and given a good clout with a mallet will chop the top off the plastic so the air spring just drops out.
What non-OE parts? Genuine Dunlop springs are around £50 a corner.
It's a good idea to trim a mm or so off the ends of the pipes as per RAVE. They will have a groove worn in them from teh old O rings so by trimming the end, the new O rings will be bearing on clean pipe. A squirt of Fairy Liquid/Water mix will help the pipes slide in easier and will also show if you have any leaks.

For removal, I lift the vehicle up to high for the extra clearance under it. Jack the vehicle up with jack under the axle and then support the chassis on axle stands so it's secure and can't move anywhere.

Remove tyre from the side you're working on, pull the air line to deflate that air spring, remove the clips and then if needed you can lower the jack a little bit to give a bit more clearance. The shock will ultimately limit the axle travel.

Replace the air spring and put the top clip and air line back in, jack the axle up to meet the air spring so it locates in the bottom plate. Clip it, put the wheel back on. Do the other side.

I then start it up with a door open, and then close the door to let it put some air in the springs. Shut it off, jack up a nudge to remove the chassis stands, and then lower it down and let the EAS do the rest once the springs are partially inflated.

As said above, is super easy even for the uninitiated - for me was an epiphany being able to do it by myself the first time! :-)
Please buy only the OE Dunlop ones, no need to go exotic and risk ... well you know what you risk.

Many thanks for that, much appreciated.

Only question is where is best to get the Dunlop air bags from?

Thanks

John

Actually just had a look m & they are £46 + VAT at island & LR Direct does not have them in stock.

So £55 a corner looks like a bargain!

Cheers Guys

That's where I got them from couple years ago - very satisfied.

On the subject (I don't remember, I may have asked this before), a couple of years ago it looked like you could buy just the replacement air spring rubbers (diaphragms?). I can't seem to find them now. It would be nice to carry a spare front and rear.

You can get the rubber bladders for the air springs on a Classic as separate items but I've never seen them for a P38.

Okay, thanks for the reply. Too bad, it would be fairly easy to replace one in the bush if you needed to.

I think is easier to replace the entire bag than taking it out, taking it apart, rebuild it and fit it ...

It seems to me that you could r&r the rubber bladder in situ fairly easily, but I haven't tried.

How? You'd have to disconnect at least one end.