I have been getting the message that screen wash is low when there is ample screen wash in the reservoir. I thought that I was going to have to replace the sensor. As these are no longer available it would have meant a used part. When I was chatting on the phone with @Gilbertd I mentioned this & he said that it's because mixing different screen washes that over the years crud builds up in the reservoir & stops the sensor working properly. The fix is to ram a hosepipe as far down the neck of the filler & switch it on. I continued flushing until there was just pure water coming out with no trace of screen wash.

Success!!! The low screen wash message no longer appears.

I have been recommended to use low mode when manoeuvring with the caravan attached so I wanted to check that it was OK. Today for I think the first time in the nearly 13 years that I have owned the car I put the gearbox into Low mode. I fully expected the motor to be stuck or defective but it worked fine & I was able to engage low mode & progress in forward & in reverse.

There's a good reason for recommending Low range when shunting a caravan or trailer around. All trailers, whether ones you live in or ones that you put things in or on, over 750kgs, will have overrun brakes so as soon as you try to reverse a trailer, the brakes will come on meaning you are pushing it against the brakes. Reversing a trailer uphill on mud usually means the trailer wheels are locked by the brakes so you just do a bit of reverse ploughing, much easier in Low range. If you are doing a lot of shunting around, using High range means the torque convert will always be slipping so you run the risk of overheating the transmission fluid too.

At Marty's workshop yesterday, Jacckk turned up with a very nice Brian James covered trailer to collect the non-running 2000 Vogue that Marty was disposing of. To get it into a suitable location to line it up to winch it into the trailer, it had to be towed up a pretty steep concrete slope. Towing strop on the back of the 2000 and the front of mine and in low range reverse I just had to give it a touch of throttle to get it moving and after that I could just let the engine idle with Marty walking alongside to steer it and we got it exactly where we wanted it.

What have I done today? Only gone and bought another one......

I have always said that my ideal colour combination would be Rioja Red with the dark grey interior but most seem to have Lightstone which I honestly don't like. Then I found one, a '98 4.0SE in Rioja Red, with LPG, 134,000 on the clock, 9 previous keepers and no MoT as it has been stood for 3 years but with, you guessed, bloody Lighstone interior. However, the price was right and Dina said she liked the look of it. So the plan is to sell the Ascot (a 96 4.6 HSE with LPG) and keep this one instead. In fact, Dina has said she might even consider selling her Merc and running it all the time.

Picked it up today, battery had been put on charge by the seller (so he claimed) but it still wouldn't turn it over so got my spare Hankook MF31-1000 out of the boot of my car and fitted that. It also had very little, or no, petrol in it so bunged a gallon in out of a can also from my boot. Bodywork and paint is in pretty good nick but the interior is disgusting. No rips or splits in anything but absolutely filthy, bits of trim removed but most are in the boot, No idea why they had been taken off but even the cowl around the steering column was off. Started it on petrol as half of the LPG system has been removed and there's no power to the switch. Ran reasonably well but wasn't too keen on idling, AC compressor bearing completely shot so howling away all the time and the message centre (after it had told me about all the windows not being set, came up with EAS Fault, ABS Fault, Traction Failure and sometimes, Gearbox Fault. Nanocom told me that the RR height sensor was out of range and was showing a permanent 253 bits, ABS gave loads of fault codes but the engine was running, the gearbox fault only came up if I started it in P but not in N and the brakes stopped it, so it looked like I could drive it the 80 miles to get it home.

Fortunately I have a trade insurance policy covering me for any car I own or in my custody for motor trade purposes, so armed with a copy of the certificate for when it pinged up on the ANPR in a passing police car and having primed my tame MoT tester that it was booked in later today if a policeman phoned him to check if I really was on my way to a pre-booked MoT, we set off. First stop was for some petrol and while there put some air in the tyres and off we went with Dina following in my white one. It's got 19" L322 wheels on it (fitted with 20 year old tyres!) and started to shudder pretty badly between 55 and 60mph and at anything over 60 it got a bit unstable as the EAS fault had caused it to rise to High. Quite how anyone manages to drive one that has been lifted is beyond me....

At a steady 60mph, the trip computer said it was doing 21.6mpg and seemed to be reasonably happy but with about 20 miles to go, it started to misfire. Having the Nanocom plugged in so I could reset the EAS fault if it decided to drop me to the bumpstops, I reset the adaptive values which made the misfire far worse to the point it wouldn't do more than about 40mph but I found that if I poked the Sport button and floored the throttle, the misfire disappeared over 3,500 rpm and I got it home.....

Had a look through the bits in the boot, found a replacement AC compressor, so fitted that, now it ran without howling. Checked the idle air valve setting and after adjusting the idle screw got that to where it should be and it idled a lot better. Then thought I refit the steering column cowl but first, I needed to investigate why the steering wheel could be moved in and out but not up and down. It was jammed in the highest position so it wasn't possible to see the message centre without leaning forward and peering over the top of the driver's airbag. Having had a look at it, it soon became obvious why it wouldn't move. Some dickhead had welded it! Now I know that the system isn't perfect and often gets gummed up with lack of use (when I first got the Ascot I tried to adjust the steering wheel position and it wouldn't lock, driving along with a steering wheel that flops up and down is an interesting experience) but welding it in place rather than un-gumming the works is a bit extreme. I'll be attacking it with the grinder in the near future and will report on how I get it to work as it should or not as the case may be.......

I'd be interested in some pictures and tips on how to fix and un gum the steering adjustment mechanism. One of mine refuses to lock into place without a lot of fiddling. I mostly never touch it so I've never bothered to take it apart.

The steering cowl also is able to rotate slightly which I've been meaning to look at.

You got home then, or are you still heading north? I'll post pictures of my new acquisition if you post some of yours.....

I think I still have a spare steering column in my workshop if anyone needs it...

23rd April is when the shell of the 98 is being collected, and a scrap metal skip being dropped off.. so if anyone wants anything else before whatever is left goes, then let me know.

Lots of transfer cases, few transmissions, 2 front bumpers, one with GEMS fog lights, about 3 sunroof cartridges and 1 set of 18" proline wheels..

I thought you had a couple of steering columns there, so put one to one side for me in case I can't get the one I have sorted out. I'll be there on either 23rd or Friday 26th, whichever suits you best. I will also take one of the front bumpers as I had a call last night from the owner in Spain who has had an argument with a concrete post in a supermarket car park so wants one. He's prepared to pay money for it too but quite how we are going to get it to Spain is a different story.....

Other things I discovered on the new one, it only came with one manual key, no remotes but the BeCM is unlocked so I have the lockset number (and EKA), heads on the engine looked new and checking engine the number shows it to be a 46D, so not a 4.0 litre but a 4.6. It has another number manually stamped into it, JQ1035, so I suspect that is a number put there by someone that has rebuilt it. Anyone know who stamps a number in this format onto engine blocks as it would be interesting to see what was done to it, if we're lucky it may even have been top hatted.....

Richard, you need to update your signature to include the new acquisition. It looks like quite a project that you have taken on but I'm assuming with all the issues that you got it at a good price.

I quite like the Lightstone interior on my Alveston red P38.

We have been staying at our cottage in Brittany for a few weeks & the weather has been utterly crap with driving rain almost every day. It's my wife's birthday this week so on a whim I suggested a week in the South of France. We booked a holiday with a firm that have self catering residences all over France & beyond. We have had five holidays with them previously & highly recommended them. They often have special offers. Last year we had a fortnight self catering in the South of France for €469. This time it's €301 for a week self catering on the Med hard by the Spanish border. https://en.residence-nemea.com/summer/france/languedoc-roussillon/aude/port-leucate/holiday-residence-les-carrats-216.html

What has this to do with my p38? Well it's 1000km from Brittany to near Perpignan so a bit of a road trip. We stopped overnight in Bordeaux & the P38 hardly missed a beat cruising down the motorways. The one glitch was when we were about 300km from our destination I got the EAS fault error warning with all the lights illuminated. The car drove fine so when I filled up at the next services I got out the Nanocom & reset the 'Invalid fault code' & it didn't come back. It was fun to drive due South going from very early Spring to full Spring with leaves on the trees. We are enjoying our accommodation that is within earshot of the Mediterranean waves & yesterday evening ate our supper outside on the terrace.

I'm running the car on E85 (85% bioethanol) which is widely available even at the motorway service stations. It's literally half the price of regular fuel so while consumption at 14-15mpg is a little higher as like LPG ethanol is less energy dense than petrol it's still a great saving. I'm amazed that everyone in France doesn't run their car on E85. While the P38 happily runs unmodified for other cars you may need a €300 box that frigs around with the ignition timing but I really cannot see any downside.

The one mild annoyance is that the A/C isn't working as it needs to be recharged & I want to put some STP Super Seal Air-Con Stop Leak in to seal the micro leaks in the system. Before I do that I need to sort out the air con drains as in hot weather I get water pouring into the cabin. This is what condenses on the evaporator & should be discharged underneath. I've cleaned out the two tubes either side of the console that are the usual problem but this must be where the water is collected under the evaporator before it's directed down the drains.

We plan on driving into Spain while here then I think that I will probably try & do the 1000km back to Brittany in one day without an overnight stay. Our accommodation was a bargain €301 but even running on E85 with a 1000km round trip it still costs around €300 each way for fuel.

nigelbb wrote:

Richard, you need to update your signature to include the new acquisition. It looks like quite a project that you have taken on but I'm assuming with all the issues that you got it at a good price.

Signature updated. It was advertised at £995, I knocked him down to £700...... Once I've sorted the mechanics and Dina has done the interior, it should make a nice car.

Damn, signature won't update......

I’m waiting for the 500,000 signature.

So here it is, with the Ascot and the Merc it may replace behind it.

and from the other side.....

Spent today fitting a new centre silencer box to the Ascot as it won't go through an MoT with one that has split along the seam, then did a bit on the new one. It needed a rear height sensor but found I had 5 spare fronts but no rears, so swapped over the arm from a dead rear and fitted it to a front. Fitted that, after having to use the angle grinder on the bolts holding the old one on, and the EAS is now working as it should. It probably needs a full calibration but it actually looks like the heights are about right. It had a side step (non-standard alloy thing) on one side and two lumps of steel sticking out the side on the other. Of the 8 bolts, two came out, on 2 the rivnuts started to turn in the chassis so the grinder came out again and I just cut the heads off the remaining 6 bolts. Then, I broke the habit of a lifetime and gave it a wash. It has a scratch along the drivers door, a couple of small marks here and there and the LPG filler in the rear wing, probably because it has twin electric towing sockets so there isn't a spare space to fit it there as it is on both the others. Not really much that can be done about that but it is a shame.

So now it no longer has an EAS fault on the dash, it still has a LH front window not set message as the window appears to have been jammed shut and the motor can be heard doing something but not moving the window. There is also a LH window regulator in the boot too but I'm just hoping someone hasn't welded the window runners to keep it closed like they have the steering column. It also has an ABS fault but that one deserves a thread of its own so that will be appearing shortly.....

Harv wrote:

I’m waiting for the 500,000 signature.

So am I but when I try to update it, it won't let me......

Richard, could you let Marty know that I sent a PM, this evening, to him with reference the sunroof cassettes that he has ?

If he has a complete good one, with clean outer seals and the motor securely attached, and the price is right then I wouldn't mind one.

Pierre3.

There was at least 3 complete ones when I was there last week, I suspect having just been removed complete from cars being stripped. Unless his resident rats have nibbled on them, they should be fine.

I sent him a PM, but just if you happen to be talking to him then perhaps you could let him know that maybe I could do with one, if they are good.

Very many thanks,

Pierre3.

Gilbertd wrote:

You got home then, or are you still heading north? I'll post pictures of my new acquisition if you post some of yours.....

I ended up driving back up to the north east on the same day.

The car looks really nice externally, it's a real shame what has happened to the interior. That phoot is just from a quick pressure wash with no soap. Unfortunately the interior is in a much worse state than I expected. There is rust in the rear around the spare wheel well and wheel arches and almost every piece of wiring I look at has been chewed. I think that after having a good look over I'm going to take the engine and a few other bits and pieces for spares.

Great happy purchases to all!

...and the LPG filler in the rear wing, probably because it has twin electric towing sockets so there isn't a spare space to fit it there as it is on both the others. Not really much that can be done about that but it is a shame.
Well, not wanting to offend, but I think the installer of that system was lazy, or a bit of an animal. I have the LPG filler in mine "inside" the fuel flap, there is space under the fuel cap. It was not done by me, but I have seen another couple cars with the filler in the same position. Shame indeed.
I do not have any need to put LPG currently on any car, but if I had to, I would be very clear to the installer in what and what not to do.
Another favorite is the senseless drilling of helpless (and expensive) trim panels to put the switch/controller. I relocated mine inside the ashtray ...