Finally got my release papers from Manchester signed on Saturday night. Herself working into tizzy about snow issues. It's a P38 for chrissakes, not an Audi A6 Quattro like hers. Snow is not an issue. But anything for a quiet life!

Took about 15 minutes to lift up before setting off on Sunday but held fine at lower setting for the motorway leg. Dropped during a 10 minute pit stop after 200 motorway miles tho' and took about 10 minutes to come up. Once off the motorway he took nearly half an hour to climb back up to normal setting. Which was worrying. Frankly I expected the thermal link to go after running the pump that long. About 3 minutes to drop once home. Effortlessly under 5 hours for the 300 mile run so everything else is just fine tho'.

Pulled the valve block this morning and was surprised how much air there was still in the system. The front two pipes were a right pain to get off.

Two blocks to rebuild, this one and the spare, so nice warm workshop jobs. Dunno whether it's worth inspecting the pump. I have a re-con kit just in case but it's maybe 12,000 miles and several years since I re-conned it last time I had valve block issues. Cheated and bought a re-conditioned valve block that time after the original refused to let the pump turn off despite replacing all the O rings and seals. Now wondering how good that purchased recon job was.

Is there a way to part fill the EAS system from an external compressor so the pump doesn't have to run so long when coming up from empty?

Clive

Clive603 wrote:

Is there a way to part fill the EAS system from an external compressor so the pump doesn't have to run so long when coming up from empty?

Tee with a Schrader valve connector in the purple sleeved pipe that runs to the reservoir. That way you can fill the reservoir and take the strain off the compressor.

I'd do a rebuild on it as a matter of course as it has been caused to run that much. Even if it isn't knackered now it will be getting well worn.

Pulled the compressor today and started rebuild process. On closer inspectionI'm not happy with the motor. Clearly been run way too much with the usual "hot" smell. Internal inspection showed well worn commutator and tons of carbon dust inside. Surprisingly the piston seal looked fairly good but the cylinder liner was seriously scuffed.

Island will sell me a new Dunlop branded compressor with two year warranty for £180. I know these are said not to be as durable as the original but, as a low mileage user will it be good enough for long enough. or should I get a used real one and re-build that as I have the kit.

2026 is shaping up to be a bad year all round!

Clive

I'd go for a used real one. Never seen one of those where the con rod bearing has collapsed but seen it on 2 of the Dunlop branded ones.

Eeek. How on earth do they manage to make such a lightly loaded bearing so badly that it collapses under intermittent use.

Used real it is. Off to E-Bay tomorrow.

Clive

OK so now we know what killed the compressor.

Right hand rear airbag has gotten a significant leak. Collapses in about a short minute when doing the quick and dirty EAS disable by leaving a door open when ignition is off. With everything running and the car up to height the replacement compressor is cycling on for a bit under a minute and off for a bit over a minute to keep up with the leak.

Original issue was clearly the diaphragm, it was seriously manky and the car was settling level before the EAS could properly get its act together obscuring any individual air bag problems.

Best guess is that that rear airbag either had no leak or just a tiny one when the problem first showed up. Seems that the leak got worse over the two 300 mile runs until it was all that the old compressor could do to bring the car up to normal height during the last 30, non motorway, miles. Finally managed it about half a mile from home. How often it was cycling on and off during the motorway legs is anyones guess.

Looks like I'm about to find out how well my anti-rust efforts around the top of the rear bag were in 2012 when I last changed them. Getting the rear ones out then was a right battle. 20/20 hindsight says "Why didn't you do them back in the summer when it was warm and dry?"

Clive

Not today but Saturday. Got up at the sort of hour I would normally only be going to bed to drive to Dover. Ferry to Calais, then drive to Charles de Gaulle airport to pick up the wife, her sister and 2 small puppies who had flown in from Riga. Then drove back to Calais and, after a quick visit to the hypermarket to stock up on wine and coffee, back to the docks for another ferry and the drive home. Almost exactly 24 hours from leaving home to getting back and another 630 miles on the clock and most of the run done at 75-80mph.

However, all was not perfect. About 40 miles into France, I got the dreaded beep, beep, beep and a dash saying EAS Fault, 35MPH. By the time I'd pulled into a refuge, I was on the bumpstops, which, even on French billiard table smooth roads, isn't comfortable at 70 mph. Plugged in the Nanocom (which permanently lives in the car) and saw a left front height sensor fault. Cleared the fault and the car immediately rose back up to Standard height then poked the inhibit button to force it back to Motorway height and looked at the Inputs. At Motorway height the stored settings were Left Front, 98, Right Front 99, live readings were Left Front, 71, Right Front 122! Got out to the car expecting to see it leaning heavily to one side, but no, it was sitting perfectly level.

Carried on driving with the Nanocom plugged in so I could see what readings I was getting and found that in Standard height the Right Front was reading what it should most of the time while the Left Front was still reading about 20 lower than it should. However, in Motorway height, both would read correctly some of the time, usually after going over expansion joints in the road but on a smooth road, the Left Front was reading too low. So about every 30 miles, it would give me the fault again, clear it with the Nanocom while still driving and before it had chance to drop to the bumpstops again. Oddly enough, after dong it 4 more times it stopped doing it and went back to behaving itself for the rest of the journey. Checked it today and our crap English road surfaces are bumpy enough that it reads correctly just often enough to stop it from faulting but decided that a pair of front height sensors are needed. I remember I changed the front right for a used original one about 8 years ago but as far as I know the front left is the original and has been there for 548,000 miles so I can forgive it for starting to get a bit worn.

But the question was, with what? Island 4x4 have Dunlop OEM at £240 each, I've known a number of people who bought cheapo eBay ones that haven't worked from day one, but Rimmers have aftermarket (but not specifying who makes them) at £78 each and at least with Rimmers, I know there won't be a problem if they do fail, so I've ordered a pair of those.

What about changing htm from left to right ? That´s the trick I learned from you but havent´t done myself yet. Worth a try, maybe the original sensor will reach the million miles then :-D

For a change this really is "What I Have Done To My Range Rover Today" as I dropped it round the garage for an MOT at 09:30 & they called at 11:00 to let me know it was ready for collection. It passed with a few advisories which was nice especially as when I took it out for a run to get it warmed up prior to the MOT the EAS had twice spontaneously changed to Wading Height while driving along. Given the weather today with it raining so hard that there are deep puddles standing on the road that may be the car exhibiting AI. I will put the Nanocom on & see if there are any error codes but won't worry too much about it for now.

Incidentally I know that they have a check list for the MOT but some of the advisories are useful e.g. brake fluid at minimum which I knew about as I checked it yesterday & then realised I couldn't top it up without buying some DOT 4 today. I guess that I should have a look to check that it's not obviously leaking anywhere as I don't recall ever topping it up before.

Mirafiori-Max wrote:

What about changing htm from left to right ? That´s the trick I learned from you but havent´t done myself yet. Worth a try, maybe the original sensor will reach the million miles then :-D

I thought about that but that just moves the worn section to a different height. Fine as a temporary fix but not ideal long term. As the problem only appears to show itself on smooth French roads, I'd rather know it is fixed permanently rather than wait until next time I am in France. I can test a height sensor off the car easily enough so will know if the new ones are good before fitting them. Got a 4,000 mile round trip to do in July so if they are still working by then I think I can say they are good.

Nigel I agree that you should look for leaks, but the level does slowly go down as your pads wear and the calipers retain more fluid. (This doesn't necessarily mean you have a problem).

I used to regularly get the "random wade height" thing on mine. Usually I caught it in time while the extended LED was flashing & pressed the down button before it faulted, but occasionally wasn't quick enough & got the fault. Strangely it never did it with Nanocom plugged in & showing the actual heights ?

Found the rear left sensor arm was rather loose on the spindle, so replaced the pin & glued the arm to the spindle with some sticks like sh1t. Readings are now much more stable & it rarely jumps to wade. Planning to do the other three in the spring.

Just had to enter the EKA.... Every evening I will lock the house front door and press the lock button on the fob to make sure I've locked the car and not left it unlocked. Indicators flash to tell me it has received it but last night they didn't. Fairly sure I'd locked it when I'd last been out so ignored it. Went to it a few minutes ago and the fob wouldn't work so had to unlock with the key which immobilised it. Put the EKA in with the key rather than the Nanocom and realised I should really get some lube in the door lock as it was a bit stiff having not been used for quite some time but still took the EKA. Synced the fob and all back to normal but wondering why it had lost sync in the first place?

Because it's a P38?😉