Halfway home from visiting the British Motor Museum at Gaydon Rangie developed quite a throaty rumble. Now whereas this made Rangie sound a bit more meaty than usual and was not unacceptable sound there was clearly an exhaust blow somewhere. Made it home without anything banging or falling off and investigation revealed this:

The exit from the rear of the centre silencer had given up just behind the weld - this had lasted for 13 years but it is a stainless steel exhaust that is guaranteed for life! Center section was duly removed:

Claim made on the guarantee and this was duly delivered:

Installed today with new hangers and all back intact:

This section of exhaust failed previously in 2018 but just behind the joint where it couples to the tailpipes above the rear axle - that was repaired back then under the lifetime guarantee as well.

The LR V8’s sound really good when allowed to. I have a Magnaflow muffler on the P38, which is probably a tad loud even for me, but it sounds great.

My wife drove it - it's her car afterall! She loves it when she's not in a hurry...

Yesterday we drove down to Brittany again. This time I took the ferry from Poole to Cherbourg. It's a bit further to drive than my preferred Portsmouth to Saint-Malo route but we had been over in the New Forest for a college reunion so I thought that I would give it a try. When I checked in at Poole I chatted through the open window with a chap who was giving us directions who commented that my P38 sounded a bit noisy but I didn't think that it was any worse than normal. It's had a loud ticking from the engine for 8-10 years. It's probably a tappet but has never seemed to get any worse. Oddly it was even an advisory on the MOT last year. However I became aware as we were driving from Cherbourg to our cottage that it had developed a throaty roar when accelerating.

This morning I had a look to try & figure out what was up. It's definitely noisier when the engine is revved up but it's hard to place exactly where the sound is coming from. It sounds like a blowing exhaust but I clambered under the car & can't see any obvious holes. I couldn't feel any leaks either but the front pipes heat up quickly so it's not easy to get your hand in position while lying on the ground. I'm reassured that I probably don't have anything as deteriorated as @Garvin's exhaust in the photo above so for the moment I shall just keep on driving until it reveals itself by deteriorating further. If it doesn't get any worse then when I am back in the UK I will take it into the independent Land Rover garage that I took it into last & get them to have a look up on the lift. I've ordered some exhaust bandage & mastic from Amazon which will be delivered on Monday. Even if I don't get to use it next week it will be a useful addition to my emergency repair box in the boot.

I’ve had similar ticking issues on 3 other, non LR V8’s and loose exhaust manifold bolts were the issue each time.

Not on Nigel's. It is definitely tappet noise coming from the top end and not an exhaust blow. It's probably one knackered follower but as it has been doing it for years and he maintains it has never got any worse, then it hasn't really been a priority.

Not so much as done to it, more what have I done with it. Drove it from Den Haag (The Hague) in the Netherlands back home via Calais-Dover (P&O, another story). Had a little Audi A2 that needed taking to its new owner who was then going to drive it to Latvia and a load of stuff that needed bringing back so flying back, while it would have been a lot quicker, wasn't an option. We set off on Thursday and Dina insisted that she was driving my car while I drove the A2. Her argument was that she hadn't driven a manual for a long time and getting onto the ferry may have involved driving up the ramp. Recently she's used the Ascot quite a bit but only for fairly short journeys and usually only drives mine for a couple of hours at a time when we do our long trans-European trips and I need some kip.

This time we had 3 hours to get to Dover, a ferry crossing, followed by what should have been 4 hours but became 5 due to road works on the Antwerp ring road. She's sitting there quite happy, or as happy as anyone can be while creeping along at 10 mph every couple of minutes, as she's got an auto gearbox and fully functioning air conditioning. Me however, I'm sitting in a car that has a large, sloping, windscreen that makes it like a greenhouse, with an outdoor temperature of 23.5 degrees showing on the dashboard, no AC and a manual gearbox so having to keep exercising my left leg......

But, when we finally arrived she commented that she now understands how I can drive for hours at a time and not get tired. She reckons it's just like driving a sofa.

I’m 63 years old and have had quite a number of vehicles over the years. The P38 has been my favourite driving vehicle of all of them.

Removed this.

And added this.

Helps having a spare in the right place, the first time its been there since 2003.

But the tyre will never stand the 10 bar pressure of the LPG and you won't get much in it either......

Been working on fixing my audio system, converting from "high line" to "midline" and replacing the door cards at the same time.

Ofcourse its slow going. Rear cards are in, but one of the plastic bushes that holds the handle to the door has exploded. Rear speakers also rewired, and 10uf filter cap added and thats all working as expected. Started on the front and discovered the tweeters built in filter cap is completely useless, so i'll need to fix that!

Managed to run the battery flat twice working on the car. Not sure exactly whats going on but seems like a few hours of opening/closing doors and the odd ignition cycle is enough to run it flat. For now, i'll keep attaching my bench supply while working on it as i dont want to ruin the battery completely.

Every time you open or close a door, the BeCM sees that as a change of state so wakes up. Leave them open and it will go to sleep after 2 minutes but not if you keep opening and closing them. I take it you are doing away with the door amps? I did much the same and upgraded mine from lowline to midline by adding the midrange speakers and the filter caps. Been considering putting crossovers in there instead but don't know if it will be worth pulling all the door panels off for a marginal improvement. With the JBL Stage 600C speakers in all doors and a powered sub under my seat, it sounds pretty damn good as it is.

Yeah it may just be the becm staying awake enough. However I was generally just sitting with the door open working on it. Maybe 3 or 4 open/close per side as I went to get tools or whatever. It's certainly a little odd though, doesn't feel like enough activity to drain the battery. Battery might be tired i guess. I need to stixk my clamp meter on the battery cable and see what's being drawn.

Yeah deleting the door amps. Routing everything to the head unit for now, but as a second stage I will look at an external amplifier to drive everything along with the sub. Just running the factory speakers for now, they have not disintegrated yet!

Saturday I checked the oil, coolant, tyre pressures and crawled underneath with a grease gun to give the propshaft UJs a seeing to, then yesterday, and a couple of hours of today, I did this.......

Trip says 748.1 miles and took far longer than it should have done due to a 3 hour wait to get through security at Dover (8 lanes of cars and only 3 Immigration posts open) and the standard hour and a half delay getting round the Antwerp ring road.....

I don't miss the Antwerp ring!!

Nice little trip that, Richard - well done! :D

Day 2. After a good nights sleep and a 6 hour ferry crossing to the land of Volvo and Ikea, I then started driving again.....

Arrived where I needed to be and unloaded my delivery, the chassis and body kit for a Ronart W152 kit car (Google it), got taken for lunch and a guided tour of some of the other cars the guy has, before setting of on the return. So far I've had to run of petrol for around 700 miles and if anyone complains petrol is expensive in the UK, think again. 23 Swedish Krona (SEK) a litre for E10, that works out at fractionally under 2 quid a litre! Sweden has a grand total of 76 LPG filling stations but they aren't at normal filling stations, they are places that refill and supply Propane bottles for heating and cooking, they just plug in a long hose with an automotive filler nozzle on it and fill the same as they would a bottle. Unfortunately they are only open 10am to 5pm so no good at all if driving through the night. You get a short fill too as they go on pressure rather than waiting for the shut off to do its thing (presumably as bottles don't have a shut off).

Finally a question before I get back on the road. What wiper blades are people using? I've always used Bosch but I changed them a few months ago as they started juddering across the screen in anything other than a torrential downpour and were really annoying. Having driven through said downpour, or more than one as it happens, that means lots of spray after the rain stops and these are juddering too. Had a look to make sure they are sitting square to the screen, which they are, and the drivers has the original wind deflector on it. The rubber is nice and soft but obviously not soft enough for them to 'flip' when changing direction. Surely somebody must make them from silicone these days but anyone got any idea who?

PIAA make silicone wiper blades, which last a lifetime..

Expensive though.

i was told that a swipe from a rag with brake fluid on it will soften them, never tried it myself but brake fluid dose soften rubber. might need to leave it overnight . just an FYI

Try removing the wind deflector - it stopped my Bosch wipers juddering and they still clean the screen nicely!

Rangie now back from MoT today with a clean bill of health and, get this, no advisories! Yay!