I have 2 Range Rover's, I know, I must be insane. My P38 is the one I am in need of help with though please.
I have a few issues which I need to sort and pretty fast, and a cosmetic question that I know I will get ridiculed for.

Firstly before I go any further, Range Dog is a rough looking (at the moment) modified 1996 4.6 HSE with LPG.
These questions aren't in prioritised order, and I am limited with my disabilities which I have had from birth.

Problem 1.

My front passenger door card dropped stopping the door from shutting, it was raining, I was desperate to get home after picking my car up and driving for the 1st time in 3 months, so in a paddy (I don't have many, honest... lol), I yanked the door card off which bent the thing with the door lock pin on it that shows through the door card, slammed the door shut, and now it won't open from either the inside or outside. MOT has now run out, and it won't pass one for obvious reasons.

Problem 2.

Coolant loss from a location I can't quite see, (Above the oil filter housing), and the cooling system does not match that on the Rave manual for the Gems engine set up, although I have a Gems engine, and doesn't quite match the Thor engine set up but is closer to the Thor set up than anything.

Problem 3.

Using oil, I hope to have solved this, but not able to tell yet as I cannot drive the car, I found the breather was totally blocked and very thin and stretchy, I have bought new breathers already and the smoke that was coming out has more than halved, so hoping I just need to give it a good blast.

Problem 4.

Intermittent Electric Windows.

Problem 5.

ABS and Traction lights on despite new ABS sensors and replacement hubs on the rear.

The cosmetic thing.

Range Dog has a far from standard look anyway, and I love having it looking different, if I had bought it in factory condition, I would have kept it that way, but keeping it unique, I have been given a spare P38 Grill and have bought a very cheap RR Sport supercharged grill and like the look of the 2 combined, however I cannot see any guidelines on how to do it, does anyone on here have any photo's of one being built please?

Thank you for taking your time to read my post.

First thing is sorting out . Is it a gems or Thor ? Gems oblong chamber with 4.6 on, or Thor, bunch of bananas,, the leak if near the oil filter could be a hose, as a few run up there, can't comment on the lock, if yours is a gems, then abs lights ect need to go on a diagnostic,,

I'll reply per problem...

Problem 1: I've replied to your PM on this issue.. As mentioned in there, if you have access to the interior of the door, then post up a picture and then we can see if it is something simple like the sill lock rod being bent too far and jamming the latch - or whether it's something more complex

Problem 2: Above the oil filter housing could be a few things. Most likely if it's running down from the front of the engine is the water pump, or gasket. If from the side of the engine, then moving further up are the outlet to the heater (and probably LPG reducer plumbing) outlet to the top hose, and also possibly the temperature sensors - any of which could be weeping coolant from.

Problem 3: All of the P38's I've owned have all used a bit of oil - even my new engine in the current one seems to use a bit. I don't know where it goes, though the intake always seems a bit oilier than I would expect it to with the oil separator in the outlet from the rocker cover... but it could also be a lot of things. Probably best to observe it as/when it gets running again.

Problem 4: Is it all of the windows that are intermittent, or just some of them? Most common issue is the switchpack itself, whether it's one or 2 switches that go intermittent/fail, or the whole unit just stops working - it can be totally random.. I repair switchpacks and sell them on exchange for the faulty one back.. It must be the season for switchpack failures, as I've sold about 6 of them on eBay in the last week, and have another 3 on my bench in the process of being repaired, and one more already back to be pulled apart. Hence why I say the switchpack is a common issue! Check the obvious things first - that there is a good power and ground connection to the connector/switchpack.

Problem 5: - probably easiest thing is to try and get it hooked up and the faults read/cleared and see what comes back. It could be something as simple as the fuse to the ABS ECU (engine bay fuse box - there's a couple of fuses and actually the first thing to check before looking into getting it on diagnostics), through to a sensor not quite pushed home enough, or through to ECU failure (which is pretty rare on the early ones - it's the later ones that seem to suffer from ECU issues).

Cosmetics... at the end of the day, it's your vehicle and you can do what you want with it! I personally prefer the standard P38 grille - though I've seen L322 and Sport grilles which have been cut to fit... I've also seen the result of someone taking to a P38 grille with a drill bit to make it look like the sport grille..

Being as the grille swaps etc aren't a 'normal' cosmetic upgrade - as in a simple purchase and replace - there probably isn't any guidelines on swapping it over, so that one might be a case of you having to experiment and see how you get on. Maybe making a cardboard mock-up to see what various results will look like?

Hope this helps,
Marty

All windows and mirrors are intermittent, I have never tried the sunroof, but not ever worked for me, but the garage who were working on it for 3 months said they had them working. Damn car lol. Oh and every so often the dipped mirror function when I select reverse works, sometimes 1 mirror, other times both, always returns to the right position in 1 mirror but not the other. The switch pack has been tried on another P38 about a year ago and it worked fine on that car, just not mine. The last owner had the windows working and they gradually stopped. And the rear windows don't open from the independent buttons on the door cards.

Isn't the water pump on the right hand side of the engine? I am not sure how to post pictures on this site.

All the fuses are fine, brand new fusebox with new relays and fuses were fitted in December professionally. I know it was a simple plug and play, but the garage already had the car and it was easier at the time to just deliver the part lol.

The coolant system isn't a standard set up either. Needs to be seen in person really to see what I mean. It is supposed to be a GEMS set up, but has ended up with some THOR / GEMS hybrid setup with I think at least 1 custom pipe. This car is thoroughly baffling me.

I will try and get photo's of inside the door somehow, flat battery will mean I will have to try and get my other half to squeeze over from the drivers side and snap some pictures if the catch can be seen from that angle.

Thank you for your fast reply. I have photo's of the leaks etc... but not sure how to upload them on to this particular site.

Oh, and to add insult to injury, No diagnostics machine seems to be able to connect to my OBDII port. Comes up with unable to connect message, so something not right there lol

1996 is supposed to have Gems fitted. I definitely have the Gems air intake.

Someone has probably done a bit of bodgery on the cooling system using a mix of what they had laying around. Your best bet would be to return it to the original GEMS layout and while you are at it you may even find the leak anyway.

Diagnostics not being able to connect is often a sign of corrosion in the wires at the back of the the socket or in the multiway connectors behind the kick panels in the footwells.

I've got a hacked about RR Sport grille on my SE. I'll swap you it for a standard one if you want it as I think it looks bloody awful.......

Will happily do a swap Gilbertd, I have sent you a PM. Ignore the question about where you are lol, I have just seen on this post you are in Peterborough.

I have found the offending part for the coolant leak which was the thermostat to waterpump hose, it was badly perished. The central locking motor I received was the wrong side even though I ordered the correct one. Honest mistake by the seller who is sending me the correct one on Tuesday. Had it running for the first time in at the very least 3 or 4 weeks, it ran like a bag of poo. Misfired on several cylinders, after a while and some revving, got it down to misfiring on 1 cylinder. It had a minor random misfire before it was parked up, now it is a noticeable misfire throughout the rev range although once above 2500 rpm seems to disappear. Took it for a run and had it video'd, no blue smoke at all anymore, so it was just breather pipes that caused the blue smoke. Hoping I can resolve the misfire quickly.

Get the plugs out and have a look. Gap them down to 0.7mm. If there's any doubt at all about them, just stick in a new set. Likewise, if there's any doubt about the plug leads, stick in a new set. Especially on LPG these engines need a really decent spark.

Saturday, I spent all afternoon lavishing attention on the P38. New oil, window switch pack which solved the window fault, brake pedal switch which didn't solve the ABS and Traction control light fault, but annoyingly the misfire is still very much present. I could only get to 4 HT leads. The misfire got more profound after I went for a drive. But there is now absolutely no blue smoke. No coolant loss either. I found that the sump is weeping but not badly, and the passenger door is playing up again despite a new catch being fitted. And I tried to remove the window tint off the front windows with only partial success. But despite the misfire, it is driving beautifully albeit slightly under powered.

I cannot get to the coil packs either.

I am throwing it in for an MOT later this week anyway to see what happens.

At the beginning of the month, I had a failed operation which is being corrected at the end of the month so having another operation, so been very limited to what I have been able to do. As my OBD port isn't working I am going to have to go through the list the old fashioned way. So next on the list I guess will be to replace the coil packs and ht leads, if that doesn't solve it, I will try new spark plugs after they have been tested as they are under warranty still.

I dropped the car in for an MOT on Monday evening, it was supposed be tested Tuesday, but for some reason ended up being MOT'd today instead. It failed on the ABS light being on, Rear fog lights not working, no warning light illuminating on the clocks, headlight aim too low on both sides, passenger front door not opening from the inside, 1 reg light bulb and 1 rear brake pipe being excessively corroded. It had 3 advisories, Rear lights being flyeye tinted, and 1 rear brake pipe.

The fog lights worked perfectly 6 weeks ago when I parked the car up as I replaced the light units with the ones I had fitted the flyeye kit to, and had replaced most of the bulbs in the lights. I don't have front fog lights fitted anymore, so wonder if they were pressing the wrong button, or mistaking the fog lights for tail lights in the centre panel?

As the car is already in the garage who took it to another garage to get it MOT'd, I am not happy to drive it home as it is to carry out any work. So Tuesday next week, I will be going down to the garage and doing some investigating myself.

Sadly the car can't have any diagnostics plugged into it as the readers all come up with unable to connect. So the ABS fault is going to fun to hunt down.

The door is just winding me up now, I replaced the catch and had it working, then it stopped working on the central locking, So for the MOT I left it unlocked. But checked it opened from inside and out, And sods law says, it packed up again, specially for the MOT tester.

Still onwards and upwards, will some how see my way through this and get it back on the road within 10 working days.

Did they check the ABS light after driving it as it doesn't go out until you hit 5mph, has been known to fool the odd MoT tester who isn't aware of that. What warning light are they complaining about not illuminating? There should be a warning light for rear fogs but it's on the switch not the dash. As you say though, they could have been pressing the wrong button. Stick a bit of black tape over the one for the front fogs so they've only got one to choose from. The front passenger door on my SE (now wearing your old standard grille), locks on the central locking but doesn't unlock so you have to lift the button inside, maybe yours has the same fault and they locked it between you dropping it off and them doing the test? So all you are really left with is a brake pipe (probably best to do the advisory one too), a bulb and a tweak of the headlight aim.

Have people used the proper P38 diagnostics kit? Generic scanners dont work on these cars.

Yes they do although not all readings are correct on a GEMS. The GEMS has 5-0V Titania lambda sensors, and a generic scanner will display it as a 0-1V. Some correctly transpose so 5V (lean) is shown as 0V and 0V is shown as rich, others don't transpose and just show 0-1V but the wrong way round. Airflow readings are weird too but they do work and do show an increase as you open the throttle, just the quantity is wrong. It'll still show stored fault codes and allow you to clear them though. A Thor is fully OBD2 compliant though so any generic scanner will work and give correct readings.

It isn't an uncommon problem on the P38 because of where the OBD socket is. If water gets in through the pollen filter housing, it drips into the back of the socket and corrodes it.

Gilbertd wrote:

It isn't an uncommon problem on the P38 because of where the OBD socket is. If water gets in through the pollen filter housing, it drips into the back of the socket and corrodes it.

Or stupid, annoying kinked AC drains...

No, I would have thought they are too low down to drown the OBD port. Just been to Designation to see if they had a particular type of hose I could do with. They didn't but I did notice that if the Halfords discount vouchers include car cleaning materials, somebody might like to take advantage of it......