Not mine but one belonging to another forum member who lives just outside Paris. The car was parked, completely off the road, when a young lad who had only just passed his driving test, driving his mother's car and showing off to his two female passengers, lost it on a bend and did this......

But you know what they say, nothing that a bit of T Cut won't sort.......

OK, there was a few other steps in between. First of all, off with what was left of the front bumper which required the club hammer to come out as the sliding nylon fixing was jammed as the bumper was at an odd angle.

Then out with the light unit which, as they don't put salt on the roads in France, just unscrewed making the battery powered De Walt angle grinder in the boot of my car surplus to requirements.

Closer examination showed that the transmission cooler (as it is a diesel) wasn't damaged at all but the outrigger was bent back about 4 inches. Unbolted that and the cooler sprang back to where it should have been. Good job I had a replacement outrigger with me then.....

Then it was just a case of putting it back together with a few new bits. Replacement outrigger bolted on, new headlight unit fitted (apparently the only LH headlight for a LHD car left in Europe and was the last one they had at a supplier in Portugal, nobody else could supply one), both indicators replaced with 2000-on units, The front corner of the wing, while looking OK, had actually bent inwards slightly so with the strip under the headlight in place the grille was about 10mm wider than the gap it should fit in.... Headlight out again and with careful use of a pipe wrench wrapped in cloth and a soft faced mallet, the wing was persuaded back to shape. Headlight in, grille back on and it was time to offer up the bumper. With assistance from the owner's husband and me laying underneath to guide it in, it slotted into place nicely. The ends lined up with the ends of the wings perfectly although it was maybe 5mm lower in the centre than it could have been but by then (10am this morning) the sun was on us and it was getting a bit warm (up to 24 degrees even at that time of the morning), so fitted the blank on one side, the grille on the other and the number plate and we declared it fixed.

All she has to do now is wash and polish the rest of the car so it matches the newly painted front bumper.....

Oh yes, and find a blanking plug that covers the hole where the headlamp wiper would stick through if it had headlamp wipers. She thought she had collected all of the broken bits from around the car but not that unfortunately.

I wonder how impressed his female passengers were?

Not half as impressed as his mother was apparently, he wrote her car off!

It looks like the P38 faired a lot better.

What have I've done today?
I was in a rush with my mind turned off, and I went over a speed bump quite faster than I should have.
There was a nice loud "PAM" from the rear and the slowly sinking feeling of a rear axle going to the bump stops.
I was already late and with a lot of engagements for the day so I just returned 2km home and parked it for the day.

What awaits for me tomorrow?
Will jack up the rear axle and see what is the damage, but I ask what should I expect? All the rear sagged, could both springs (they are like 6 yrs old) have gone at the same time? Or if one goes, the EAS lowers the other side as well?
No faults or beeps on the dashboard ....
I was thinking during the day an air line perhaps, but I seem to recall they are independent to each wheel ...

Oh well, not the car's fault in any case :-(

Slowly sinking to me sounds more like you've got a small leak - like a pipe come adrift or joint come apart rather than a burst airbag. No answer other than to take a look really though.

I always thought that T-Cut was pretty good, but Richards use of it is amazing, you'd think that nothing had ever happened to the P38. I must recommend it to a friend of mine who wrote of his Ford Focus in a rally, recently. It could be his saviour 😂 .

Pierre3.

BrianH wrote:

Slowly sinking to me sounds more like you've got a small leak - like a pipe come adrift or joint come apart rather than a burst airbag. No answer other than to take a look really though.

Yep, but after six years it's probably worth taking a look at replacing the airbags. They may be OK but if you're jacking it all up and messing with the pipes on a system that is already deflated... you may as well?

Not today but yesterday...

As more and more things are refurbished or fixed, new little surprises appear! Every now and then the drivers side front window gets a little sticky towards the front when closing it, usually happens on warm days, but also completely random. Occasionally it would trigger the anti trap feature and I'd have to try closing it again and it would go slow at the midway point. I've checked in the past, but nothing looked out of place with the door card alignment and it stopped doing it for ages, so never thought much more about it.

Yesterday I popped out to the shop and went to shut my windows when I got there. It triggered the anti trap, but when I tried to shut it again, there was a loud pop noise and the window went out of alignment :/
Got back home, removed the door card and had a look around, one of the rivets holding the window mechanism had popped clean out.
Luckily a nice easy fix, I didn't have a rivet big enough, but I used a short M4 screw and locking nut to fix it for now.

It's making me think about little extras to carry with me as well as basic tools, in case I'm far from home when something like this happens!

ac6 wrote:

It's making me think about little extras to carry with me as well as basic tools, in case I'm far from home when something like this happens!

Been there, done it. Drove back from France in the middle of summer about 4 years ago with the drivers window stuck at a very funny angle due to the very same problem. I've drilled the holes out on mine and used M6 bolts and nyloc nuts instead of the rivets.

Gilbertd wrote:

ac6 wrote:

It's making me think about little extras to carry with me as well as basic tools, in case I'm far from home when something like this happens!

Been there, done it. Drove back from France in the middle of summer about 4 years ago with the drivers window stuck at a very funny angle due to the very same problem. I've drilled the holes out on mine and used M6 bolts and nyloc nuts instead of the rivets.

Haha, I'm sure you've experienced everything that could possibly happen on the P38!

Good idea, all I could find were M4 bolts yesterday, will have to get some M6 and do just that.

Yep, but after six years it's probably worth taking a look at replacing the airbags. They may be OK but if you're jacking it all up and messing with the pipes on a system that is already deflated... you may as well?

Indeed you are right, but here in the far hole of "Europe" everything is hard, takes ages to deliver, and is more expensive.
So one thing at the time ... domestic problems delayed any action, except I did check the springs and they are pretty fine so this is rule out. I also noticed the front does not raise as well, which means air line.
After a lot of digging, I found the "air harness" runs together air to tank, air to rear left spring, and rear right together in the chassis, and split around where the exhaust is.
Now I have a non-original that has a broken clamp and it was in the list of things to fix since awhile. It might have moved a bit too much and touch the line, and burst it - or them. Sounds plausible.
This week will get some ramps and drive it over them, at least to get my head/hands in the area and "feel" the pipes.
More to come, but as I guess, it is not the car's fault, once again ... explain that to a non-P38 believer :-)

Changed the front diff. Coming back from Paris last week I noticed a strange noise and what can best be described as a tingling through the steering wheel at 80 mph on a neutral throttle. It wasn't there under power or on the over run, only when cruising. Figured I should really do something about it as I'm driving to southern Spain at the end of the week. So, last Monday, I phoned Ashcrofts to be told there was a 3 week lead time so went for the second option of secondhand and called in at my local source of used bits, Avenger 4x4. They didn't have any as they sell all their diffs to a company in Halifax call Beaumont 4x4 gearboxes so called them. Yes they could have a rebuilt front diff built up for me by Wednesday at £35 cheaper than Ashcroft. They called me on Wednesday to say it was all ready and they wanted paying before they would ship it. I mentioned that I've been involved with P38s for 12 years and had never heard of them. Apparently they haven't advertised to end users but supply a lot of the specialist trade.

Anyway, Thursday morning a man staggers up my driveway with a very heavy cardboard box containing a spotlessly clean, shrinkwrapped front diff. As most of you will know, since retiring from the day job I've been installing domestic air conditioning systems and for some unknown reason, I have been particularly in demand just recently so today was the first day I've had free.

We all know that RAVE has extra steps that aren't really necessary but when something hasn't been taken apart for quite a few years, the shortcuts wouldn't work so followed the book. Took almost 5 hours to get both front driveshafts out,although surprisingly both ABS sensors came out easily enough (I was half expecting to have to drive to Avenger with the ABS light showing to pick up at least one replacement sensor) and be ready to drop the old diff out. Old one out and with Dina driving the jack while I guided the new one into place, it went in. Bolted it up and started putting everything else back together. As I was no longer fighting bolts that were last touched 23 years ago and hubs that hadn't moved in the same length of time, putting it back together only took an hour or so. Did the same mod on the front of the propshaft as I'd done on the back end and replaced the hex head bolts with Allen bolts, filled the axle with fresh oil and took it out for a quick blast up the A1(M). No noise, no vibration, just perfectly smooth all the way up to 90 mph. I think I can call that a success. Just got to give it a service now before Friday.

Another day without useful progress, managed to raise the P38 enough to access the rear pipes but visual inspection does not tell me anything meaningful.
In the afternoon I was going to look at it again in more detail, but I started to feel very weak and lo and behold I ran a test and came back positive for the damn covid. So now I am more or less dead in bed.

I will try to put the thing back together one of these days, and take it to a friend with a workshop, don't have the strength to crawl down and out of the beast.
Any tips to inflate manually the EAS to whatever extent possible, at least not to go around on the bumpstops like any lowrider of bygone era?
I obviously do not have a manual inflation kit and stupidly never got one and now an order will take weeks.
The compressor I hear it rumbling, but it could be not pumping and on its way out.
What course of action sounds more reasonable?

1) use nano to open all valves and put the "home compressor" nozzle on the pipe to the air tank (or dryer?), and then send to highway or normal with nano and see. The unplug the ECU to prevent any reset or adjustment.
2) send manually air thru the "home compressor" to each one of the four corners and see what happens, and then plug them back in in the valve block, unplug eas ecu to prevent rest/adjustment

this was not the time for this problem, unfortunately

Yesterday I drove my 2001 Vogue up to Lincolnshire so that V8 Developments can totally recondition the engine. It's been blowing from a leaky head gasket for a month or two & getting louder& louder. At least it made the 150 mile journey OK. The plan is to get it done over the next few months when they have a chance to work on it. Aside from reconditioning the engine they will be putting on a new Airtex water pump & a good quality OEM fan viscous coupling plus new HT leads for starters.

They showed me some engines that were ready to be shipped out. It's surprising to see the shiny aluminium rather than covered in oil.

Here is a list of what is going to be done:-

4.6L Top hat linered block
New pistons
New piston rings
New main bearings
New big End bearings
New cam bearings
New core plugs
Fully balanced assembly
Pocketing of pistons
Lapped and polished crank
High torque cam kit
Camshaft
Timing chain set
High rev Lifters
Running in oil and additive
Comp head gaskets
Comp head bolts
Fully reconditioned cylinder heads
Acid dipped and chemically cleaned
New valves
New guides
New valve stem seals
New valve springs
All required gaskets and seals
Labour
Fully refurbished rocker assemblies
Adjustable pushrods
Fit exchange front cover, including new oil pump gear and uprated oil pressure relief valve kit, fit exchange sump
Fully refurbished rocker covers
Uprated flex plate for flywheel
Removal and refit of engine including, plugs, filters, fluids etc

Should be good for another 300,000 miles!

Harv wrote:

Should be good for another 300,000 miles!

I hope so. I have owned the car for over eleven years. Its 21 years old & my aim is to spend a bit of money on it to make it as reliable as possible so it's good for another 21 years. I spend half my time in France where E85 (85% bioethanol) is widely available at about 80c/l versus E10 at €1.839 so running costs are much lower & I haven't had the cost of an LPG conversion,

Great work! With the engine properly rebuilt, you might even save on fuel as it becomes more efficient to run.
Any specific work on the heads, or they are rebuilt to standard spec?

Such activity is somewhere in my future plans, but will see when (mine sips coolant almost daily).
Might contact you in private to ask some details about the operation.

Not all today but over the past few weeks, I've finally got around to tidying up my LPG install. I replaced the vaporiser that I think it was a bit underpowered for the car and the seals protruding the edges didn't look too healthy either.

I should also mention I replaced the MAF for a new Bosch one, as I have had some errors related to fuel trims etc and on a closer look, it was actually a cheap one, whilst I'd been thinking it was a Bosch one :/ After this I reset the adaptive values and cleared the codes, but just like usual they returned after a short drive.

Last week I then continued with the LPG, cleaned up the hose routes to the injector rails, routing them towards the rear of the engine instead of straight over the oil filler cap... Plus replaced all the injector hoses and clamps, filter etc. Then cleaned up the wiring loom route too. Finally after buying a diagnostic cable eventually, I looked at the map and found the culprit of the weird dip in revs when idling on LPG only, with AC on. It was set to cut back to petrol at below 800rpm and over 3000rpm, whilst also leaving the petrol injectors open... So what I discovered was happening was, as the AC engaged/disengaged at idle, it would sometimes cause the revs to change just enough for the LPG to switch from petrol to gas and then immediately back again... As it would jump up slightly and hit 800rpm.

So I had a look online for some info on LPG maps for the controller I have and started to tweak. First I turned off the conditions for secretly switching back to petrol at different revs. I let it run an auto map at idle to start with and things were immediately a little better (also pretty far from the previous map!), then I adjusted the map manually a little. Cleared the fault codes for the engine, reset adaptive values again and when for a short drive on both petrol and then gas. Things look good on the map and the engine felt even smoother, gear changes feel almost unnoticeable too now, when sometimes I'd feel those a little more than I liked.

Yesterday I decided to look at another job I've been putting off, which was an error for a heater blower motor not working. First check, the relays... It's missing... I've never even given the 2 missing relays a thought, as I expected they'd be for features I didn't have installed. One is a windscreen heater (makes sense, as I don't have that) but the other was a blower motor! Popped one in and all working. Cleared the fault code and also had a look back at the motronic errors and after a week, no more fuel trim errors! Looks like the LPG setup that I thought was working relatively well but just messy, was actually pretty poor.

So now with those errors sorted, not a single error code :)

But... Of course new things to do, I've noticed that my front diff is leaking a bit, with a splash and layer of diff oil slapped around the underside. Looks to be from the pinion seal area, so need to get a pinion and flange kit ordered. I checked the breather hose and that seems to not be blocked though, so probably just a worn seal.

I also poked around to see where my minor engine oil leak is coming from. For a long time I've thought it was the rear main. However I opened the inspection hole in the bell housing and surprisingly it's perfectly dry in there, only a touch of oil on the removable plate itself. It gathers on the bottom of the sump and drain bolt, or a little on the join between the sump and bell housing. It leaves a couple of drops on the driveway, but nothing major. Looking around again, maybe it's from around the front cover area? The front seal was replaced when I recently did a partial engine rebuild with new cam etc. It looks like it might be from the cam position sensor or to the side of this?! It's completely dry above the cam sensor and all the heads, water pump etc, so it's not a valley gasket or rocker cover gasket. It also doesn't seem to be from the oil cooler lines either. I'm going to replace the seal again on the cam sensor to be sure and if it's not that, maybe it's where the blank plug things are in the front cover?!

nigelbb wrote:

Yesterday I drove my 2001 Vogue up to Lincolnshire so that V8 Developments can totally recondition the engine

I bet you overshot the entrance. I have every time I've been there......