AlanP38 wrote:

my wife always says I'm shit at communicating.

Don't they all? I thought that was part of the job description? Much like we are supposed to be able to read minds......

I see this forum has mainly p38 stuff on it which suits me fine . I was wondering if anyone on it has used rick the pick . I had completely forgotten about him and sent a BECM down to turners who did a good job . I think his company was called calrover or something like that.
Rick used to get a good. name in a forum I was in years ago.

There's 4 people in the UK that claim to be able to do BeCM work, of those 4 there's only 2 I would trust. One of them is Marty who is currently in New Zealand, and the other is Callrova. I was surprised when I read that you'd used Turner and were happy in all honesty having seen a post quite recently that was, shall we say, less than complimentary. Then I looked for the post and found https://rangerovers.pub/topic/2216-odd-experience-turner-diagnostics-hemel-hempstead. So did they do a good job or was it all BS?

I did a google search and turner came up . Some of their reviews online weren't brilliant so I phoned them ,the guy I spoke to was great and promised it back repaired within a week . This timeframe was a big plus as the car had locked out on the local garage forecourt. The repair has solved many issues and I can only tell you my own experience. Unfortunately both cars were checked today and need some niggles sorted out before being tested on Friday. The one that had been in storage needed surprisingly little with all the brakes performing as they should . The one thing I love about p38s is they are so solidly built . If land rover had made the electrics more reliable I think these would of been the best cars of their day. I tried the Range Rover sports but have decided just to stick to a p38 as my daily driver. The sport was the worst of both worlds ,terrible electronics and serious corrosion underneath.

What you have to remember is that the electronics in the P38 were cutting edge at the time, far beyond what most other manufacturers were using so there are going to be teething problems. of course there is also the fact that those same electronics are now 20 odd years old and nothing lasts forever, contact tarnish and the bits attached to the electronics like switches, microswitches in particular, fail after millions of operations. Although most think that the introduction of the Thor from 99 onwards was a big change there were a lot of seemingly minor but very important changes for the 97MY where things that had been found to be weak were uprated and changed. I used to know someone in R&D and he told me about one car that had been tested for hundreds of manhours with no failures but within days of it being released to the public was being brought back with indicator stalks hanging off. Seems that engineers hadn't tried pulling on it because you wouldn't but the public had.

I've always loved p38s since the day I first saw one . I had a 200tdi classic which was actually a good car but my first p38 was a Biarritz blue 2.5 dse which I ran for 7 years covering 100,00 miles. I'm now on my fifteenth Range Rover and think I'll stick with the p38 . I tried newer ones and yes they are lovely to drive but I always held on to a p38 eventually giving up the newer ones. If I had the choice between a new Range Rover and a p38 for towing it would be a p38 every day.

About 12 years ago I had a need for something that could tow a loaded car trailer to the south of France and back regularly. I first thought about buying a doggy diesel Disco but as we had one at work and I'd driven it regularly, that meant I would have had to have the nice everyday car as well with two lots of MoT, tax and insurance. I'd previously been running a Saab on LPG and that was far preferable to going over to the dark side so I bought a Classic LSE, 4.2 V8 on LPG. That was good, towed superbly, but it was rotting away nicely and the original air suspension had been taken off and coils fitted so it sagged horribly when it had 3.5 tonnes hanging off the back. Decided I needed self levelling air suspension so bought my ex-police P38. Blown head gasket and a burst air spring but with LPG already fitted, I trailered it home behind the LSE and set to work. 11 years and a further 205,000 on the already high mileage and it is still my everyday car. I've driven it all over Europe, often with a trailer on the back, and, after many hours of work I've got it to the stage where I just get in it and drive it. My preparation for driving to the in-laws in Latvia in September was an oil and filter change and a set of spark plugs. The rear washer is the most troublesome part on the whole car and, despite blasting an airline through the pipe numerous times, it clogs up regularly. A couple of segments on the HEVAC display don't work when it is cold and I noticed a few days ago that my heated seat has stopped working again (passenger one still does so it keeps SWMBO happy). I don't reckon that's too bad for a 23 year old car with 411,900 miles on the clock (should hit 412,000 by the weekend despite lockdown). I doubt a modern one will ever get near that age or mileage before something terminal happens.

I used to tow a twin axle caravan from Scotland to Cornwall every summer with an lpg converted 4.6 no problem. We eventually left the caraavan down there permanently and just travelled up and down . During that period I bought a 4 year old sport hse with low mileage and full land rover service history. When I decided to sell the caravan I towed it home and blew the gearbox on the sport with only 38000 miles on the clock . Land Rover weren't interested as it was out of warranty and the company who replaced the gearbox said it was quite common and advised me not to tow anything substantial with it . Thankfully I'd hung on to my p38 .

Silly question but how does connector come off of temp sensor on front of inlet manifold on a Thor V8 I've tried can't get it to separate I need to due to sensor not working --- got replacement when can get damn plug off 🤔

Squeeze the little clip so the locking tongue lifts and pull it off (which I assume you have done). Outside of that, unsure!

Cheers Marshall8hp I'll have another go in the morning --- I'll try small scew driver to lever too --- stuck solid 🙄

AlanP38 wrote:

I was wondering if anyone on it has used rick the pick.

Yes. He's local to me and when my BECM went into nonsense figures he sorted it out - absolutely first class. (Thought I'd need him again actualy last week, turns out the starter was absolutely knackered).

I know his name from RR.net where he used to be a regular contributer but hasn't been on there for many years.
He is very, very, knowledgeable on p38's and probably the best BECM guru around. Glad to hear he is alive and kicking.
Try and get him on here.

My BECM was working intermittently and ended up totally locking out. It first showed up as a suspension problem and after much swapping of parts from another car left me a bit confused. Fortunately the place I sent it to have managed to sort it out . If I'd remembered Rik the Pik I'd have sent it to him and was actually talking to a fellow p38 owner today who has used him. He's said he sorted the BECM and was very helpful,happy to discuss the issues over the phone. He probably would be an asset to the forum. My jobs for the weekend include a new n/s bonnet catch ,rear airbag, seal 2 leaking rims, full service. At least running a P38 give you something to do during lockdown ( better than watching rain/snow)

P38s certainly keep you busy bit like painting the fourth bridge 🤪

The one good thing about tinkering with them is that spares are plentiful and not expensive. The other thing I've noticed is that even bolts underneath that look pretty solid come out without too much trouble. YouTube can also be a help with many videos for p38 maintenance. I'm no mechanic but don't mind giving things a bash.

I went through the painting the forth bridge phase in the first 2 years of my ownership of mine, since then it's been mostly routine maintenance as and when required. OK, so some things go beyond the definition of maintenance but with my sort of mileage I'm expecting to have to do the more major jobs, but I haven't had anything I would class as a breakdown or anything that has stopped me from being able to use the car in over 5 years now.

Wish I could say the same my diff blew up in front of a wedding party ,very noisy and very embarrassing. It started whining on the motorway,I thought it was the transfer box and was going to pull in at lay-by after the wedding party but the car had other ideas ,it got really loud causing everyone to turn round ,let off a loud bang and rattled to a stop just after them. My wife and son were so embarrassed they refused to wait for green flag and phoned a taxi leaving me sitting with hazards on.

I'm lucky really use disco 300tdi mostly --- my vogue is ok just sensor gone & 4.6hse got cut in half making it a pick up gems engine stripped to make coffee table The one fault with P38 is 20+yrs is electrickery yet newer range rover seems worse 🙄

@Symes did you get the temp connector off?