Glad you made it in the end!

Yes, many thanks for the links. In fact, thanks also for your thread in Retro-Rides that convinced me a P38 was a viable proposition and a risk worth taking. Hopefully my thread in there will help to back up your good work.

Hello folks,

A couple of updates:

1) Air Suspension - To recap, it has four new air springs fitted and both pump and valve block have been rebuilt for a second time, this time with a much better more reputable kit.
No signs of external leaks through the soapy water technique but I can still hear the faint hiss of air escaping from the system from the valveblock area.
I carried out a bit of investigative work with the PRV which appears to be ok but have ty-wraped the finger from a disposable latex glove over the end to see if it inflates. I need to have another go at this as I can't see the blumin thing with it all back ogether. I shall assemble it all outside the box so I can get to the underside.
The front end tends to sag first and sometimes after parking on a slope the back end raises itself to off-road position. I'm wondering if maybe the servo valves themselves are getting a bit tired and not sealing properly when closed.

2) HEVAC - This weekend I started removing the dashboard. I was at an advanced state when I decided to have a play to make sure that there was definitely no movement in the two heat controlling blend motors. Guess what, they're both working! I can only presume that they are reacting to the signal that they are receiving and something is making the HEVAC controller drive the drivers side temp to full hot.Time to plug it in me thinks. Also found that the passenger side fan isn't working but is free to rotate so suspect a supply issue. Marty has already given me some pointers on this.

Finally, yet more dodgy wiring from this professional (Ha!) car phone installation... Turns out I could do with a new upper centre console panel as apart from a couple of broken mounting points the mounting lugs for the cabin temp sensor are both snapped off.

HEVAC self tests the blend motors at start up. It expects to see them reach the end of their travel within a certain amount of time. If it doesn't see the expected feedback signal, due to either a motor that has got sluggish or a feedback pot that isn't doing anything (both common failures), it logs a fault and doesn't bother trying to move them again. Once they are out, you may find that a squirt of contact cleaner in the motor and pot can cure the problem, at least temporarily.

It also depends on the version of HEVAC controller, as some of them move the blend motors straight away, and some almost 'boot up' before trying to move the motors.

Also from the test rig I set up on my bench, the controller doesn't seem to move the motors to the ends of the travel on startup, but on some versions, it moves them a little bit either way, and other versions it will only move them if the position they are supposed to be in for current temp settings etc is different than where they currently are.

The blend motors are easy enough to test with are multimeter and a 9v battery to make sure the feedback pots are behaving properly.

Thanks for the replies, so I might not be out of the water with the blend motors just yet. I was hoping I'd managed to avoid pulling the dash.

I have cleaned up the fan connector in the footwell as the contacts were a bit corroded. No change. Tapping the drivers fan brought it to life so I'll look at its plug next. As for the passenger side, a quick pull of the relay revealed a heat damaged relay and holder so it looks like I need to repair the fuse box.

No need to pull the dash just for blend motors. With the side panel off the centre console and the instrument binnacle out, you can get to the ones on the drivers side easily enough, glovebox out for the passenger side. You'll need either a right angle pozidrive screwdriver or a small ratchet with a pozidrive bit. Others will say that if you pull the dash you can then get the whole heater box out and replace the foam in the joints in the ducts, free up any sticky flaps, etc but you can get to most of the joints and seal them with duct tape (possibly the only time you will ever us duct tape for it's intended purpose) and I've not found one with flaps that sticky that they have warranted that amount of work. Have a look at this http://www.rangerovers.net/repairdetails/blendmotor.html for blend motors and this http://www.rangerovers.net/repairdetails/electrical/fusebox.html for the fusebox.

Thanks for that, that fuse box looks just like mine, only my connector hasn't come completely adrift yet.

The drivers fan I wiggled all the plugs but it would not come on until I tapped the housing. I may have to try to remove it to look at it on a bench.

Sounds like the brushes are worn right down. Snip the tie wrap that secures the plastic trunking that the wiring loom passes through and you can move the loom out of the way to get the drivers fan out. It's tight, and one of the screws is a bit awkward to get to, but it can be done.

ok, I shall take a look. cheers.

Just a little spot of news.

We have just returned from a camping trip to sunny (ha!) Weymouth. The loaded up DSE pulled the loaded up trailer tent without complaint, but it did like to kick down quite a lot. I think if we end up doing this more often and upgrading (?) to a caraph, crapa, cara.. oh sod it, if I become a caravan wanker - there, I've said it, then I might have to review the choice of engine.

On the one and only occasion I've driven a diesel (quite recently), I noticed it did seem willing to kickdown at the slightest opportunity. Revved to 3,000 rpm before changing up too. I figured it's just a characteristic of the different power delivery to what I am used to. There's times when I think my V8 hangs onto a gear for too long and doesn't kickdown soon enough. I think they are just different that's all.

The diesel lump doesn't produce much until the turbo is spinning (comes in near 2,000rpm) and mine always goes up past 3,000 in normal driving. The BMW 525 TDS I had in the past with the same engine showed the engine to be a good performer (once chipped) that actually liked to rev and drove like a petrol.
With the added weight this time it tended to kick down two gears when it felt an incline raising the revs up towards 5,000!

If you become a shed dragger, please confine yourself to the uncivilised bits south of Watford ;)

lol @ Morat. You live in prime caravanning territory. Rife with it!