Hello folks,

Been a Land Rover fan since childhood and once owned a 1965 88" many moons ago. I have hankered after another Land Rover product ever since and always had a soft spot for the Range Rover Classic. However, being a realist I knew that the P38 would be the more practical to live with and recently I finally managed to take the plunge.

I'm not very good at keeping threads updated on forums so I'm going to be cheeky and post a link to my project thread on Retro Rides.

P38 - Leap of faith

There are quite a few people on there who are curious about P38 ownership but are weary due to the scare stories. I'm hoping my thread might change that a bit. It would be pointless doing such on here as I would be preaching to the converted.

It might also get the odd bit of exposure in Practical Performance Car magazine as I have a monthly column with them, though the editor isn't a fan...

I will no doubt pester you all for help and guidance, I've already learnt a huge amount from many of you.

Cheers,

Smiler.

Glad you finally made it here and you'll find you get advice based on practical experience rather than out of RAVE and making it up as you go along. Regarding the scare stories, the P38 is no worse than any other car designed in the mid 90's and incorporating first generation electronics. Yes, they have their quirks but so does everything else. In the main the engines are reliable (and you've got one built by BMW and fitted in any number of saloon cars), the gearboxes go on forever and the rest of the transmission is nigh on bulletproof. You'll see adverts for cars that have been converted to coil springs with comments like, "converted to coils so no more troublesome air suspension" but the EAS only gives problems when it's neglected just like anything else will. Look after a P38 and you'll see why it was a £60k car when new.

To give you an example. I've got a mate that lives in the south of France. For the last 6 years or so we've been buying classic cars in the US, shipping them to the UK where I get them registered (you can't register anything in France that doesn't have an EU certificate of conformity and everything we have bought has been too old to have one if it could ever get one in the first place) and then putting them on a trailer and taking them the 953 miles from my place to his behind the P38. He's never understood why I use, what the scare stories suggest is the most unreliable car ever built, to do it with. Recently he was offered a straight swap, 200 Euros worth of Peugeot 406 he had for a '98 P38. I spent a couple of days down there getting the air suspension and LPG system working properly. He did some cosmetic work on it and started to use it. After a couple of weeks I got an email from him just saying that he got it. He'd realised what it is that sets the P38 apart from everything else he has ever owned and can see what the attraction is. So much so that the rules on insurance have just changed and he has made a decision. Up until now it has been possible to insure a UK registered car with a French insurance company as long as it has a French Controle Technique (their equivalent to an MoT). When his insurance comes up for renewal, he can only get cover for 2 months to allow him time to transfer a car to French plates. His old '93 (completely rust free) Discovery, his wife's Rav 4, his son's Porsche Boxter and an oddball thing called a Geo Metro (a 2 seater convertible which is basically a Suzuki Swift underneath) will all be coming back to the UK to be sold. The P38? He's going to jump through the hoops that only French bureaucracy can create and put that onto French plates. Despite taking the piss out of mine for years, he's realised that life wouldn't be complete with it.

Welcome! I'm going to enjoy your thread :)

Thanks for the warm welcome. Its first MoT since 1012 is booked for Saturday morning. I have the front airbags to replace, the handbrake to adjust and the door handles to free-off.

I moved it today in readiness for the airbag swap, it's on it's bump stops and the pump is only lazily clicking over. I have a pump and valve block service kit on its way but concerned about the apparent slow speed of the pump. It all worked fine when I bought it last week.

What do you mean by clicking over? The pump should run constantly to start with with a gentle hum (if the pump mounts are good, you'll need to put your hand on it to feel it running). The solenoids will be clicking as it's trying the raise the car but even a good pump will take 8-10 minutes running to get the reservoir filled and up to pressure. If you open a door with the engine running (so the pump runs), that will inhibit the air suspension so it won't try to raise, all the pump output will be going into the reservoir. Then when you close the door and poke the button, it should rise up to normal height. Unless you already have a door or the tailgate open in which case it won't raise as it's inhibited by design (no suspension movement if any door or tailgate is open or if you have your foot on the brake pedal).

Handbrake adjustment is simple enough. Big 17mm spanner on the adjusting bolt on the backplate. Tighten it up until the drum locks, then back it off one and a half turns.

Must be a solenoid I can here clicking then, I assumed it was the reed valve inside the pump.
Doors were all closed. The normal ride height light is flashing whilst the bottomed setting is illuminated. The suspension warning light on the instrument cluster is extinguished.
I guess that the perished bag must have failed, can't hear any hissing mind.

Let it run with a door open for 10 minutes and see if enough air gets into the reservoir to get it to raise when you close the door. The solid light is showing the height it is at and the flashing one is showing what height it is trying to achieve so that is correct. If it bored with waiting, both lights will be solid so you need to poke the rocker switch again to wake it up.

Cheers, I shall try that after work tonight.

Would a clicking solenoid valve be normal?

Yes, it's trying to do something but if the reservoir is empty there's no air to send anywhere.

Ok, ta.

Left the engine running and after about seven minutes it was up at full height.

Sadly I couldn't start replacing the air bags as I don't have the correct size socket for the wheel nuts with me.

I did however plug the new gearbox temp sensor in which has put off the gearbox overheat warning. I now need to figure out the quickest way to replace it properly.

I did however have the gearbox warning light come on when I try'd to engage low range which didn't happen on the test drive...

The gearbox light ought to flash while it's changing ranges, then go out.

The wheelnut socket is 27mm. You don't need to take the wheels off to replace the bags, they don't get in the way.

Mine has later L322 wheels fitted and the bolts have smaller heads.

However, if I don't need to remove the wheels then I could have got them done tonight after all! How hard is it to do in the dark by torch light?

The dash symbol I believe is the transfer box warning light and the display says to select neutral. It might be the battery getting a bit low causing voltage issues. Or it could be a sieazed low-range motor or switch due to lack of use (been stood for 4 years and looking at the lack of dents, never been off road).

From memory (again a bit hazy at the moment) the light on the dash with the gears in it should come on when it is changing range, and go out again when the range change is complete... along with the 'beep beep beep beep.........' whilst it's performing the change.

27mm is the size of the wheel nuts, if you need it for reference.

7 minutes is pretty reasonable to fill the tank enough to get it up to height... though if it keeps emptying the tank overnight, then hopefully the valve block service kit will sort that... as long as it isn't one with orange o-rings in it, you should be fine!

EDIT: Gordon got there before me... that's what happens when I go and have dinner before coming back to finish off my reply!

I find the front air springs easier to do with the wheel off, to help get to the bolt that holds the pin in, and to pull the pin out - especially if it's a bit rusted in there, but the rears are easy enough to do with the wheel on (but again a bit easier without to get to the air line connections)

Cheers, I will attack it tomorrow after work. Glad the gears light is normal, guessing the return to neutral message isn't though, or does it mean low range neutral? I had just put it straight into low range drive.

I am planning on a gearbox oil change regardless.

I have downloaded a RAVE zipfile but it doesn't seem to work amazingly well so may look for another one.

For RAVE, see the second post down in this thread https://rangerovers.pub/topic/355?page=9. It's an iso image of the full CD version so will need burning to a disc and installing but you can copy the disc contents to your hard drive and install and run directly from there.

To go to low range you select neutral, move the lever across to low range and you'll get a beep, beep, beep and the flashing light with a picture of gears. After a couple of seconds, the beeping should stop and the light goes out. At that point you can put it into gear. If the beeping and flashing light doesn't stop, that means the motor has either jammed or is seized and it is trying to select low range and failing.

The gearbox and transfer case are separate each with their own oil drain plugs and fillers. Both need Dexron 3 though.

As for changing the air springs, I've never felt the need to take the wheels off neither front or back. RAVE also tells you to remove the front wheelarch liner but I've never done that either. Just pull it out far enough so you can see what you are doing and get your hand in there and jam a block of wood in to hold it out.

The SELECT NEUTRAL message on the dash will come up if you move the gear shift from Neutral into a gear before it has finished doing the range change.

Likewise, if you try to change range whilst moving, you will get a SLOW DOWN message on the dash, and I don't think it will attempt to change range until the vehicle has actually stopped.

Awesome, thanks for all of the help and advice. This forum appears to be a goldmine of genuine useful information. Thanks.

Think of this forum as a virtual pub (hence the URL). It's a bunch of like minded people sitting around chatting and helping each other out. Most of the problems and questions you have, and the ones you may well have in the future, are all ones we've all been there and dealt with ourselves. I've clocked up 123,000 miles in my P38 in the 5 or 6 years I've owned it (currently showing 328,900 miles). It was a spares or repair job when I bought it and just about every fault that a P38 can throw at you I've had to deal with at some point. Then I went and bought another so I could start it all over again......