Hello, All,
I've recently taken ownership of a 2002 P38, 4.6 Vogue, 59,000 mls in very good nick really.
Just getting my head round the inherent faults and and cosmetic aspects, so I will be picking your brains as we go along , Sorry !
One emmediate issue is the dashboard lights appear very dim and the rheostat on the stalk? does not seem to improve things.
Can you help anybody , Cheers , Lez
welcome to the group there are some good people in this group who will soon help you out
Welcome. If the contacts on the switches inside the stalk get dirty, no matter how much you poke the sliding button, nothing happens. You can undo the 3 small Torx screws from the back and get in there with contact cleaner.
If that is all you have to worry about though you're doing well.....
welcome.
Welcome aboard…
Gilbertd wrote:
Welcome. If the contacts on the switches inside the stalk get dirty, no matter how much you poke the sliding button, nothing happens. You can undo the 3 small Torx screws from the back and get in there with contact cleaner.
If that is all you have to worry about though you're doing well.....
Thanks Gilbertd ! I'll give that a go ! and thanks all for your kind welcome.
PS: She needs two new head gaskets or maybe liner/s , which I Have been reading all the helpful narrative and observations on the Forum/s . Does anybody know the best garage to head to for the diagnostic and repairs in the Lancaster / North west region ?
FYI, she is drinking coolant only, about a pint every 50 miles at low revs, temp guage normal, no creamy oil. steam showing via exhaust in cold climate.
As the coolant passages run at each end of the heads, the usual head gasket symptoms don't usually happen so you won't see oil and coolant mixing, although you might see steam out of the exhaust.
Take the spark plugs out and if any look steam cleaned compared with the others, there may be a weep around the outside of the line on that cylinder. If when started from cold it initially fires up on 7 with the last one chiming in after a few seconds, that again would suggest a slight weep on one cylinder. The cooling system will pressurise when hot but if that pressure disappears once it has cooled down, then there isn't a weep. The top hose will get hard when it is hot but if it is then left overnight and there is no pressure there, you're OK.
There's lots of places where coolant can leak from, heater core O rings, the multiple hose joints, etc, so losing coolant is more often leaking rather than anything else.
Yes, Thanks for that info...she seems to fire in regular prompt fashion, although i get a missfire when under load when warm, which i though was a different issue , I'm replacing the HT leads and plugs next week , along with a new set of airbags and suspension bushes. both these were flagged up as perished by a . I'll check on the old plugs for steam cleansing ! and make a note of cylinder/s.
I have a invoice in the file for new hevac o rings being replaced 10k miles ago
Lez wrote:
I have a invoice in the file for new hevac o rings being replaced 10k miles ago
That proves nothing. A friend bought a car recently, the carpet was damp and most of the dashboard wasn't fitted correctly. Previous owner told him he'd recent had the O rings replaced but from the state of what we found when taking it apart, can only assume it had been done by a gorilla. O rings had been replaced with generic ones which were too thick so has been squeezed out of the grooves and were still leaking.
Thanks Sir ! , yes all good info ..to be fair to the previous owner who i know, he left dash sides off to check on the o rings for a while , which remain sound to date ! ...there was dampness on the drivers side carpet well, which was isolated to a ruptured sunroof drain pipe..since rectified . The issue of original o rings being too big does concern me though ? The chap who replaced the o rings did a fairly neat job core drilling through the plastic housing to access the o rings sufficiently to remove and refit properly.
Gilbertd wrote:
As the coolant passages run at each end of the heads, the usual head gasket symptoms don't usually happen so you won't see oil and coolant mixing, although you might see steam out of the exhaust.
Take the spark plugs out and if any look steam cleaned compared with the others, there may be a weep around the outside of the line on that cylinder. If when started from cold it initially fires up on 7 with the last one chiming in after a few seconds, that again would suggest a slight weep on one cylinder. The cooling system will pressurise when hot but if that pressure disappears once it has cooled down, then there isn't a weep. The top hose will get hard when it is hot but if it is then left overnight and there is no pressure there, you're OK.
There's lots of places where coolant can leak from, heater core O rings, the multiple hose joints, etc, so losing coolant is more often leaking rather than anything else.
Would this point to a slipped liner/s instead then, maybe ?
If you have a steam cleaned spark plug or it is pressurising and the pressure is staying, then not so much a slipped liner as a weep around the outside of the liner. If they have slipped you will hear it as they move up and down with the piston and whack into the cylinder head but with a weep they don't move, the combustion pressure gets into the coolant passages.
The genuine replacement O rings are the correct size and it is worth spending £3 each for genuine LR ones rather than saving a few pence on aftermarket which are also the correct size) but on the one I took out someome has used generic O rings that were the correct diameter but too fat.
If the cooling system gets pressurised, when you switch the engine off, coolant gets forced into the one cylinder with the leak, hence asking if it fires up on 7 as the one with coolant in it won't want to fire initially.
Gilbertd wrote:
If the cooling system gets pressurised, when you switch the engine off, coolant gets forced into the one cylinder with the leak, hence asking if it fires up on 7 as the one with coolant in it won't want to fire initially.
That's interesting , I'll double check on fire up again, plus I'll report back when I swop the plugs out , Thanks again.
It started a good few times now after cooling down....she seems to fire up on all cylinders on the button ... There is a slight fluctuation on tick over revs but nothing that would indicate a misfire.