I haven’t done anything to my L320 today, not even opened a door. However, a few weeks ago I decided to rewire the backseat map lights and add some lights in the tailgate. Back in December 2021 when I bought the car I immediately wired up the backseat map lights to work with the doors (they don’t come on normally). It wasn’t my finest work and I wanted to redo it, but hadn’t yet. So I started acquiring parts, new diodes, factory style connectors, crimps, factory colored wire, lights, the works. Finally got it all together and took a day to get it done. From outside it just looks like it should. Behind the scenes it’s got a fresh new wiring job with a pigtail that can be removed to return it to stock. Diodes have been incorporated into the light housings with a third pin added for the door open circuit to turn them on. The new lights in the tailgate point down when the tailgate is open and light the cargo area very well, especially compared to how it came originally. Overall I’m really happy with the results.

Likewise, I haven't done a thing to either of my P38's. Green one is waiting for a wash & me to have a go with T-Cut on the hedge scratch down one side. The blue one is waiting on a battery via my son's mate using GSF staff discount !!

I drove it back from Hull, having previously driven it to Hull and then from Rotterdam to Antwerp, then to Mechelen and back to Rotterdam.
What a pleasant way to spend a few hours!

Nice one, how long did it take you to get round the Antwerp ring road? It usually takes at least an hour longer than Google maps says it will. Otherwise, Belgium has a lot going for it despite what people say, good beer, good chocolate and cheap LPG.....

It wasn't too bad this time! Probably because the meeting finished at about 3pm so I was nicely away before rush hour. I have less than fond memories of the Antwerp Ring and Kennedy Tunnel from when I used to drive back from Onsabruck at the weekend...

Today, I overtook someone on the way to the Physio and the exhaust decided that louder was faster :/ I dropped straight round to the local tyre and exhaust place (no, they're really good) and she should be sorted tomorrow.

I serviced the car a couple of days ago which included new pollen filters. The deal that I got on eBay was for two pollen filters plus the foam for the scuttle. I had never put new foam in before but it's pretty straightforward to get at. I know that some people have made a permanent job with perforated aluminium sheet which I night try in the future but as I had the foam I thought that I may as well use it.

I was able to reuse all the existing screws but would have preferred to replace them all with stainless screws if anyone has a link. I have some stainless self tappers but the screw heads are too small for the holes.

The car originally had a heated windscreen but sometime before my ownership it was replaced with a screen that didn't have heating elements but all the wiring is in place. I am not sure how many there should be of those weird little clips that secure the lower windscreen trim but I found ten in varying condition. It seems that they are NLA & even command a decent price used. I'm surprised that no enterprising bod with a 3D printer hasn't run off copies.

What Have You done To Your Range Rover Today? Well it wasn't yesterday but last Thursday & I took my car to see @Gilbertd again as I have had an increasingly loud rumble at the front of the car. It's been coming on for a few thousand miles. At first I wasn't sure that it was present at all but over time it has got much louder & I have become increasingly more conscious of it. Richard concurred with my diagnosis of a driver's side front wheel bearing that needed replacement. As it happened in his garage he had a whole half-shaft with bearing & hub that he had nabbed when Marty cleared his UK workshop a while ago. There was no provenance on the state of the used wheel bearing but as Richard pointed wheel bearing failure on the P38 is uncommon & that as far as he knows the wheel bearings are original in his ex-police P38 with over 500K miles on the clock so not risky.

Changing the whole half-shaft including the hub & bearing assembly is the easiest way of replacing a wheel bearing. For those without access to a suitable press i.e. most of us, the simplest option is to buy a hub with a new bearing fitted but for a decent bearing (non-Britpart) that's pretty expensive compared to the cost of a used part (£0 in this case😀. Changing the whole half-shaft also means that you don't need to get undone the big nut that holds the hub on the end of the half-shaft.

The work all went smoothly & while some of the bolts were stiff to undo there were no great problems. Just a long breaker bar & a lump hammer was all it took so no heat was required & no nuts or bolts got rounded off. The only specialist workshop tool was an old brake disc that was bolted on prior to being struck with a sledgehammer to get the old half-shaft with hub assemble out of the front diff. A new ABS sensor purchased in anticipation of destroying the old one while removing it from the hub proved unnecessary as it pulled out easily.

Once it was all back together again I took it for a spin up & down the road to confirm that the rumble had gone but now I have it back home I've been getting a bit OCD about noises related to road speed. I came up to a roundabout yesterday & convinced myself that I could hear the wheel bearing again but then realised it was the thump-thump-thump burbling of a 4.6L V8 at low revs.

I am once again immensely grateful to @Gilbertd for help with work on the car as my contribution this time apart from chat was not much more than holding the half-shaft vertical while he rolled on a new rubber gaiter & cleaning up bolts that had traces of red Loctite.

Today I haven't done anything to my Rangie because I've been coping with things being down because of AWS shitting its leg off.

None of the rrpub services were affected, because they're all hosted by Bitfolk in London Docklands, and while the database backups are AWS they are a) not essential to the site actually running, and b) hosted in AWS eu-central-1 which wasn't affected.

So, rangerovers.pub continues to clatter and rattle its way along the Information Superhighway at its own pace, leaving its little oily drops occasionally, but still working as well as it ever did.

Thanks Gordon!

I will add my thanks to the work done by gordonjcp post 1628. I have no idea of what he was talking about, and being computer stuff I prefer to not know. Hopefully rrpub will keep rolling along for some years as it has been a great source of information for me.

Like nigelbb my next comment is not, what I have done today, but what I have done over the past week and a half.
Living in Australia I couldn’t drop round to get Gilbertd’s opinion about the same noise in the front end of Bimbo, my red P38. However my long suffering wife told me to replace the either one or both front wheel bearings.
My previous green P38 is now a parts donor, and I knew that its previous owner had recently renewed both front hubs and as I found out an added bonus of two near new brake discs. They came off just by removing the holding screw so obviously not been on the car for long. I was able to remove axles and hubs with no dramas.
So to removing the units from Bimbo, to be short in description, it was all seized and took me a bloody long time.
Two new axle seals, a set of brake pads and all the good parts installed …… no noise, thanks given to wife for correct diagnosis.

I laughed at nigelbb’s comment on the roundabout, I too suffered the same thoughts …… the dual exhaust does sound nice!!

My work continued on to remove the official LR air con fix harness that I found was on the green car, and install it on the red car. Green car also supplied a near new air con compressor. My auto electrician is yet to install new receiver drier and 2 pin switch and recharge the system and he is confident I will have an operating air con system. Just as well as the day time temperatures are up to low 30’s C already so looks like a hot summer is on the way.

Tomorrow I start on removing foot well multi pin plug/sockets with soldered joints.

Andrew

Nigel's car is a 2000 or 2001 and I don't think the front end had been apart since it left Lode Lane. Brake Calliper came off easily enough but the bolts holding the calliper carrier on needed the club hammer and even when they started moving, still needed a breaker bar to move them until the last couple of turns. Brake disc needed the soft faced mallet from behind which meant jacking the other front wheel off the ground so it could be rotated. Disc backplate didn't have rusted bolt heads and all 3 of the bolts came out easily as did the ABS sensor but the 4 bolts holding the hub in place again needed the breaker bar until the last couple of turns. Then it was down to bolting an old brake disc on back to front and belting it with a sledge hammer to get the hub to move. But with everything cleaned up, it all went back together in next to no time.