Well finally taxed the rangey today and took her out for a spin, only 6 miles over to a nearby cafe then home again, but enough to make sure everything worked.

Theres still an arm-length list of niggles and no doubt some other things will pop up as it starts being used. Some notable things from today:

The steering feels a little wandery, i know these are steering box cars and they arent as direct as racks, but not sure if its normal or showing signs of wear. MOT tester didnt mention any play anywhere in the suspension. Steering also makes a strange groaning noise when manoevering at the extremes of travel, i half suspect the damper for that, but unsure.
Doesnt feel hugely powerful. I guess its a heavy car, but i'd expect a bit more from 220hp. I didnt thrash it, infact only applied full throttle once for a short time, but less urgent than i'd have thought. My old Diesel Trooper i think went just as well and it reportedly only had about 120hp... :/
Theres a whine from the transmission. Again, maybe normal, sounds exactly like a public service bus gearbox. I topped up the oil before i went out, as there was nothing showing on the stick when it was idling, put maybe 1.5L down the dipstick hole, but was really struggling to tell what the level was. Maybe it got quieter after that. I plan to replace the sump strainer anyway and give it some fresh new oil, so maybe that will help.

Anyway the thing that stuck me as "i should really fix that" was the air compressor. It was replaced not long before i bought the car, as the old broken one was in the boot. I've noticed it acting oddly after its been parked up, and i'll do my best to describe what it does. When you start the car after its been sitting a while (despite it having been parked in "normal" mode) the Access mode light is on, and the normal mode is flashing. It sits like this for ages, several minutes, before eventually the light goes solid normal. As i was planning to drain the trans oil, i then put it in high mode, and it raised up just fine without any delay. It started lashing down, so instead of draining it i decided to simply top it up. Left the engine running and went under the bonnet to pour oil in the dipstick hole. Noticed that the compressor seemed to run for the whole time i was under there, though no clicking of valves, and obviously got quite hot.

I figured it might just be due to me jacking it up from high, so went out for a drive and decided to keep an eye on it. When we got home, the compressor was properly toasty-hot. I'm not convinced its a leaking bag. I've parked it with the EAS relay removed for a week, and it didnt really seem to "deflate" itself. though its parked on a bit of wonky gravel so maybe one of the rears was deflating.

Any words of wisdom?

Cheers
Kev

They're nice to drive but yes - not exactly rapid.
You're going to need to start tracing the air lines and look for leaks - starting at the compressor. You might find it with a wet finger, you might need to use soapy water/bubbles. There are lots of possible leaks where the air lines go into the valve block. I found mine underneath the air dryer which is the next port of call after the block. After that you'll probably need to remove the relay and see which corner drops to narrow things down, but I'm no expert I'm afraid.

Thinking about the operation, i think the flashing LED on startup is indicating the ECU wants to raise some corner, but cant. Which i'm also guessing is because the air tank is empty. Thus you have to wait a few minutes for it to charge up the tank, at which point it then manages to inflate the bags?

That indicates potentially two leaks, one at an airbag itself, and the other between the receiver and the valve block (or maybe even inside the valve block) thats allowing the tank to drain down.

Pulling the relay will potentially show which bag is leaking, but wont show if the air receiver is bleeding down.

If the non-return valve inside the block is leaking (and it usually is) it'll drain the tank. You can check this by unscrewing the silencer and sticking your finger in the hole.

You've definitely got a leak or two. When you first start it, the lights show the height it is at (light on steady) and the target height (light flashing). I can leave mine 3 or 4 days at normal height and it is still at normal height when I get into it. If it's parked on the piss so it self levels, it comes up almost immediately.

I guess i could pop a pressure gauge inline with the tank to see whats going on there. Will plan out some diagnostics. I meant to get it levelled off and park it on the flat driveway overnight last night, but apathy set in and i couldnt be bothered :P Will see about doing it tonight.

I've also found a melted hose that runs from the passenger side corner of the bulkhead down under the car. Looks like someones spliced or repaired the original black nylon pipe with something less heat resistant, and its melted on the downpipe. Dont think its EAS related though, Maybe an axle or trans breather line? Need to trace it, and get some new pipe!

Might be the cruise vacuum line that runs (ran) from CC to brake pedal

Soo finally got a spare half hour on saturday evening and took the P38 to collect a carryout.

On return i parked it on the flat driveway, and pulled the EAS relay.

Measured the distance from arch to ground at each corner (i know ideally i'd measure bumpstops, but this was quicker and my dinner was waiting :P) and i got roughly 81cm on the drivers side (front and rear) and 82cm on the passengerside (again front and rear). There was slight differences in the 5mm range but i ignored those.

Left it there a few days and re-measured this morning. Drivers side front is down to 79 and rear is at 80.5, passenger side front is at 80 and rear is at 81.5.

So all four corners have dropped a bit, but none of them are on the bumpstops, so clearly theres no significant leak in the bag circuits, though there are some minor leaks. Oddly the front bags have dropped the most despite looking significantly newer than the rears.

I dont think that level of leakage is anything to worry about at the moment (though i might be wrong?), so i need to move on to looking at the tank side and potentially the NRV.

Dropping that amount is nothing to worry about, in fact it could even be down to the air in the circuits cooling down and contracting slightly allowing it to drop a mm or two. If you park it in the same place so it is on the level, it shouldn't drop even with the timer in place as there won't be any self levelling to do. If parked on the bumpy stuff it will though but even then I wouldn't expect the tank to be emptied. If you have a leak from the tank, then even after it has sat on the level with the timer removed, the tank will still have lost pressure. If you haven't dome anything with it since it has been left standing, try starting it and immediately putting it on high and see if it goes up straight away. If it does, the tank still has plenty of air in it, if it doesn't and has to wait for the tank to refill, then you are likely to be looking at a leaking NRV.

I'll do that this evening and see what it does.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tub1jpsjw518xwp/2017-04-11%2016.18.01.mp4?dl=0

Quick video.

That was first startup after it having sat since saturday evening.

I reversed out the drive after making the video, and drove to the end of the cauldesac and the lights finally went solid.

Hmm, that would suggest there was nothing, or at least not a lot, in the tank.

yeh, i should have pulled the exhaust silencer out and had a feel/listen, thats the next job.

Tried to get a video of mine this morning to compare with yours but failed dismally as I've never used my phone for video before. Mine had stood since Sunday morning on a level (ish) bit of ground. It had dropped from normal to motorway height (or had been at motorway height when I'd parked it) but as soon as the engine was started it was back to normal in 5 seconds or so. Poked the rocker for high and it went straight up to high with no delay. So I still had plenty of pressure in the tank which it seems you hadn't.

So yesterday i moved it back into its usual parking spot, having sat for 24hrs. This time it immediately lifted itself up.

I tried removing the exhaust silencer and feeling for a leak but i wasnt really sure what i was seeing.

I couldnt feel or hear any hissing, i jammed by thumb over the hole and felt pressure build up behind it then release with a hiss when i removed it. However after doing that twice, it stopped doing it any more...

Well i decided to take the truck in to work today. My commute is 40miles each way, so a decent road test for it.

No breakdowns, everything worked as it should which is a good start!

Highlighted a few things that need sorted though.

Primarily there was a vibration at higher speeds. 55-60ish i guess it was most pronounced, but it wasnt entirely consistent. The steering wheel didnt seem to shake, it felt like the whole car was vibrating. At 70 it went away a bit. It was still there but less pronounced. One thing that was consistent, was that lifting off the throttle at 70 made a very distinct deep droning noise. The noise went away with reapplying the throttle.

Brakes felt lacking, as mentioned in the other thread. They worked ok, but i wouldnt like to have to stop quickly in it. So i'll need to strip the brakes down and check the pistons and sliders etc.

Achieved 15mpg on petrol. Not tooo bad i guess, but need to get the LPG system sorted out!

Vibration through the seat of the pants at around 60 ish is usually down to a rear wheel out of balance. I used to get it on mine between about 62 and 70 so got the wheels balanced. One thing that was noticed was that my offside rear doesn't have a centre cap so there was a build up of corrosion on the face that bolts up to the hub so it wasn't sitting flush. Cleaning that up and getting that wheel balanced again cured it.

Drone on the over-run is a diff, probably the rear. Changing the oil may reduce it but as long as the oil you drain out doesn't come out looking like metalflake paint, it'll carry on for years.

Brakes can be almost completely seized but will still work due to the amount of pressure available from the pump. Sliders do seize too and are another candidate for a good wire brushing and grease.

15mpg seems a little low - were you gunning it quite hard?

My commute is 26 miles each way and it easily tops 19mpg on that route, I've seen 21mpg at times too. I think it's currently sat at 17-18mpg after several hours of off roading last Sunday.

Mine has the really annoying wobble felt through the seats too. I'm changing the rear brake pads tomorrow so, while the wheels are off, I'm going to wire brush the mating faces then take it for a wheel balance once the work is done. I can let you know if that makes a difference.

not thrashing it particularly. One blast off a roundabout (full throttle from 30ish upto about 70), otherwise just sat on the motorway doing 70-75 indicated, bar a stretch of 40mph average cameras thru some roadworks. There was a bit of traffic on the way home, but that didnt seem to effect it too much (average on way in showed 14.7, and 15.1 on the way back)

Oddly, the front wheels arent balanced (the tyres were fitted in a rush by the guy i bought the wheels from), the rear tyres were ruined, so i bought some part worns and had them fitted by a local respectable garage and they appeared to be balanced up as you'd expect.

So unless it is a front and its just not detectable due to slack in the steering or something, it seems a bit odd.

I want to get underneath and check/grease the propshafts, who knows when they were last done.