My P38 has been very problematic in the time I have had it. Have paid a small fortune to various garages who treated me like I was a numpty. I searched forums to find answers to other problems I have encountered and printed out the info for the garages, but mostly they told me not to believe all I read on the internet. They were not the least bit interested in any info I gave them, but if they had been I would have saved quite a bit of money as they would not have kept replacing stuff that did not need replacing.
The latest problem included poor starting, which has now been solved and it now starts like new!!!! The ongoing issue is the response from the engine which is struggling to accelerate/ pick up speed. The garage thought it was the throttle pedal but then discounted it after using info I gave them. Having now come up against a brick wall after checking airflow, they are now going down that road again!!! Already the bill is £760 plus vat. Could do with some advice to solve this problem.

Where are you based? Lots of people on here have nano Comms which should point you in the right direction.

I am in West Sussex. The car, at the moment is in Portsmouth.

Yeah - where are you and what variety of P38 is it? Diesel or petrol? If petrol what kind - GEMS (square inlet that says 4.0 or 4.6 on it) or Bosch/Thor?

Mazz

I'm in East Sussex (Crowborough) and have a NanoCom so may be in range for a visit.

Clive

If I were you, I’d get it back from the garage before they spend any more of your money chasing something they clearly don’t understand.

Are you mechanically minded? If so, I’d buy a diagnostics tool and some decent tools and start working on it yourself with the help from members on here rather then relying on garages.

David.

I love posts like this. A guy is being taken for a ride by know nothing numpties and he finds us and BOOOM. Two of you close by him both with nanocoms who can help him for a lot less and minus the VAT.

Wow guys. Thanks for the replies. Can I just make something clear. I am a 70 year old granny. Yes I think I am mechanically minded. I have learnt a lot from researching all the problems I have experienced with this lovely (not) vehicle. The garage bloke was quite complimentary on what I knew! Now if I want to get it back home from Portsmouth it would need transporting as that power problem is quite frightening. If you have to stop at traffic lights, slow down/stop at junctions or slow down for any reason, you then have to wait till it decides to go, and then it shoots off like someone has slapped it's arse. There are lots of traffic lights, roundabouts etc to get back from Portsmouth to my place. It is not a journey I would want to undertake and I would not want to risk anyone else doing it either. So. Stuck between a rock and a hard place. I am lost without my transport as I cannot get and do what I want. Have to use the bus to/from work. Cannot see this problem getting sorted anytime soon. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I wish I had left the vehicle where it was and not bought it. Feeling very depressed at the moment.

Firstly, I suspect, it's because you're a '70 yr old granny' that you're being treated so. Wait a couple of days and see what the guys on here come up with. I used to live near Pompey and my first reaction would be to trailer it to where it should be ie one of the guys who has a nano. Don't give up on it because the blokes on here really know their business. Have a read through some of the threads and it's amazing how often the solution to a major problem gets solved. We even have a guy from the States who regularly asks for solutions on here (JMCLumini).

So, how long have you had this vehicle and where did you buy it from. Has it ever run correctly in your ownership?
How far from Portsmouth do you live?
It also might be handy to know what problems you have encountered so far and what steps have been taken to fix them.

I have had the vehicle for 4 years. Private buyer. A previous horrible experience from a car dealer put me off from buying from one again.
Seemed to run ok until I started to get problems with battery drain. Two garages did not find the reason for this and neither did the so called diagnostics place I was told to send it to. After researching that particular problem I had printed out lots of info for them but they chose to ignore it. The diagnostics company told me not to believe all I read on the internet!!!! The main thing I told them was that the red light by the gear stick (automatic) was not going out as it should when the vehicle was locked, indicating that the BCM was not going to sleep. Once again they almost laughed at me. Told me that he problem was with broadband etc. Yes I know this can be a problem but to be fair that would surely have been happening from the day I brought it home. They said I needed an RF thing which they fitted at nearly £300 cost!!!!! It made no difference but of course you guys would know that. From wanting to get a new/refurbished hevac I found Marty.. Through finding him on eBay and who could refurbish the hevac and general chat about my vehicle, he said he could fix it. He kept saying " bring it to me I will fix it". Now. I did not know this guy. I was at the time, a 68 year old granny. Was I being sensible to do a 2-3 hour drive in a vehicle I could not turn off for fear of it not starting again????? to meet a guy I did not know from Adam. Damn sure I was. He is great and I trust him. He did, as he said he would, fix the problem. Need a break now from writing. Will continue later

The battery drain problems are well known but unfortunately many mechanics don't even understand electrics (it doesn't go up and down or round and round and you can't see it) so expecting them to understand RF is like expecting them to understand brain surgery. I'm coming up to retirement after 47 years of working in RF and it is a black art to most people so much of the stuff you read online is rubbish, it's a case of filtering out the rubbish from the facts. For instance, broadband or Wi-fi won't affect a P38, neither will cordless phones, mobile phone masts and most of the other things that get the blame.

By now you should have realised that you should have taken Marty up on his offer, but I can appreciate you not wanting to trust someone you didn't know. Anyone on here will be able to at least tell you what the problem is, if not fix it, as there aren't many things we've not come across before. One question you haven't answered is what engine, petrol or diesel, as that makes the probable cause different.

Sorry it is diesel. 2.5. vogue. Yes Marty did the business. BMW 51 engine
I have just written out all the other problems I have had and the system would not put it on. Cannot do it again at the moment.

For the forums:

If you are writing a long post, this forum will sometimes "time out" with a "CRF token expired" error. I think it's CRF. Anyway, if you hit back the text is usually preserved and you can copy/paste it into a new post after refreshing the page. This can be a bit tricky, so the best thing to do is probably to write out your post on Word or Notepad and cut/paste it into your post in one go.

Thanks Moray

Damn productive txt. Morat!!!!!

Am laughing my head off!!! Marty is a star on here!! He could more than likely take your car apart and put it back together again. Two blokes to trust are Marty and Gilbert. Anything LPG related, then LPGC is your man. Sloth and others on here also know their business. I guarantee if your car gets in one of their hands, then your problems will be solved.

Mazz1 wrote:

The ongoing issue is the response from the engine which is struggling to accelerate/ pick up speed

This sounds very much to me like what i found with a dodgy XYZ switch (this was on a Disco at the time so brought on the M+S lights on the dash), the basic problem was it not detecting the gear position properly, throwing it into limp mode as a result, so you'd be trying to pull away in 3rd gear rather than first. So another pair of questions - are you getting any errors or lights on the dash that wouldn't normally be there, and is it an auto or manual?

Does it do this consistently, or sometimes and other times its OK? (particularly if you stop the engine and start again?)

Hi BrianH.
No dashboard lights or messages. It is auto. The problem is consistent.
This is a recent problem amongst what seems like millions of issues since I have had it. Starting up was a problem, the battery went flat and the fuel pump under the back seat had a fault which all coincided with this power issue. Starting has never been a problem except of course when the battery went flat. So far just these issues have cost me £760 +vat Depressing!!!!!

Hi Mazz,
I am Dave. We spoke on the phone for over half an hour last night after Marty asked me to contact you. Glad you joined the forum.
Marty seems to think I am a diesel expert. Ha Ha.
I am actually a retired 72 year old Chemical Engineer. I have done a few things in my life. spent a lifetime in chemicals and mining both here and abroad. I joined REME (TA) as a vehicle mechanic in my 20's, but I would not describe myself as a diesel or p38 expert, but I have the ability to approach problems logically I think, so if I have come across a problem before I can advise.
This forum has a lot of clever buggers (technical expression) on here.
From what you said last night, the garage has been repairing leaks on the FIP.
This will involve replacing the seals between the top part and main body of the pump. The job can easily go wrong if they don't know what they are doing. I would guess your problem is due to the top/middle cover being put back incorrectly because they are not familiar with the engine.
The holes are slotted, allowing it to move forward and backwards, altering the settings for the FIP.
It could be something else but I think it more likely to be a problem with your FIP. The timing must be ok as the car starts instantly. so I would guess it is just the settings for the top/middle cover of the FIP.
If you tell the mechanics to set it in the middle of the travel, and see if there is any improvement. It can be done accurately with a Nanocom but I personnally haven't done it.