I seem to recall that if the timer relay has been replaced with a standard one, it can stop OBD working.
Gilbertd wrote:
It does seem a bit odd. 255 is, or should be, the width in millimetres so that is what they all should be, although looking here https://tiresize.com/calculator/, the width doesn't appear to be the tread width but the sidewall width at their widest point. The red one I've recently got has 255/55 x 19 Goodyear Wranglers on it and the tread width on those measures 250mm but the sidewalls don't 'bulge' out beyond the tread by much at all and at the widest point would be around 255mm.
My car is on 7" x 16" wheels with 235/70 x 16 Kleber all season tyres, (which is usually a Disco or base model P38 size and that was what plod specified when it was new) and they measure around 210mm across the tread but 235mm at the widest point of the sidewall.
I'll try and measure the sidewalls, but that could well be it. Still a bit crap that these tyres pinch in so much giving you much less tread on the ground.
Indeed, For a more aggressive offroad setup i'd want to go larger 31-32" sort of range, and i had seriously considered some 255/70r18's from the new defender which are about 32", but once you get that far, there are certainly repercussions for EAS. I've seen folk recommend carrying some 2x4 offcuts to pack the bumpstops with in case of emergency, as the car wont roll on the bump stops.
The 30" tyre however isnt an issue at all. Its pretty much bolt on. Infact the rear was sat on the bump stops while i was installing them as the car was parked on a slope and it had let all the air out trying to level itself. Plenty of room.
My spare wheel well is filled with an LPG tank, so thats not really a consideration, though i have read slightly larger tyres will fit (sometimes only once deflated).
The V8 oil cooler will get a draw from the main engine fan, so essentially its always got airflow.
Most modern autos have a coolant loop in the main engine radiator. I'd say its rare to find an auto without a cooler!
Leaving it running really depends on wether the system has a sensible thermostat, if you over cool the oil the transmission wont like it. I know mine doesnt lock the converter when cold for instance. I'm usually a few miles up the dual carriageway before the gearbox oil finally reaches whatever temperature it wants, and you hear the RPM's drop as the converter locks up.
Perhaps you can find a good used switch instead of spending £100+ on a new one?
My P38 has been wearing some 19" L320 wheels for the past 5 years, shod with 255/50r19 Michelin Pilot Sport 4's. Obviously a full "on road" high performance tyre. but not so suited for off road use.
I've decided to change things up a bit, so i've bought a set of 18" L322 "twin spoke" wheels (https://www.landyzone.co.uk/attachments/img_1080-medium-jpg.43591/) and was on the hunt for some all terrains. I also wanted to go up a little to a 30" tyre rather than a 29". 255/60r18 would have been the original fitment on these wheels on the L322, and measures in at 30", so i decided on that size.
I decided after much searching, on a set of Continental Cross Contact LX2's, in 255/60r18. Mostly because i managed to find a used set for sensible money (bit over £200 for a pair with 7.5mm and a pair with 6mm). I initially wanted something a little more aggressive like the Michelin Latitude Cross, but i couldnt find any. I was also looking at the likes of the Grabber AT3 and Toyo Open Country AT's but i felt on balance it was probably still going to see a lot of road miles. And i also couldnt find any of those used either. On reflection, this tyre size is a bit niche/rare. I would probably have been better going with 265/60r18.
Anyway thats the back story. The tyres got fitted to the wheels midweek and i set about fitting them today. When i removed the first wheel from the car something immediately struck me, the tread on the Continentals was much narrower than the Michelins.
So much so, I went and got a tape measure...
The 255/50r19 Michelin measured about 240mm across the tread,
The 255/60r18 Continental measured about 210mm.
For reference i then measured a couple other set of tyres that happened to be nearby:
255/45r20 measured about 240mm (and these are also Continentals, but a road tyre)
235/55r19 measured about 210mm (winters)
235/40r18 measured about 210mm (Goodyear Eagle F1's)
So the continentals are certainly the odd one out here, despite claiming to be a "255" they're measuring up like a ~235 tyre.
Anyone else seen anything like this? Anyone fancy sticking a tape over their 255's to get some more data points here?
Not really sure what i can do about it at his point ofcourse, short of spending even more money buying some other tyres. But i'm intrigued to see if this is a particular quirk of these Continentals or maybe an "all terrain" thing?
the slope shouldnt really matter, at least as far as the calibration goes, as you lower the car down onto the blocks. So long as its not sufficiently uneven that it wont sit down on all four blocks.
The factory alignment/calibration uses a dowel that sits between the axle and bump stop pad.
The figures in nanocom will vary, which is why there is a mechanical alignment device.
You install the mechanical dowel, lower the car onto it, then tell the ECU that the measured height is now "correct" and it saves the current readings.
Thus if you want to check the calibration, the measurement between the axle and bump stop mount is what you want to measure/compare.
What were your CO and lambda figures when it passed?
The filter is before the MAF, a leak there really shouldnt affect anything? the MAF still measures all the airflow?
Keep an eye on your long term trims and see if anything creeps back in.
What you now need to figure out is wether its fixed, or wether the issue was somewhere else, like within the LPG system, or a bad sensor causing the fuel trims to drift.
Christopher wrote:
What I failed to mention in my original post earlier, was that fully serviced, tested and reassembled, it is sitting on its bump stops - full tank of air, ride height sensors in range - and when I switch on the ignition all the air is lost.
This has me completely mystified
So your saying you turn on the ignition, and it dumps the entire tank out the exhaust port?
Would the bigger one fit a Thor engine then?
Also, it was the seller of the one in your link that messaged me! Haha.
I've listed a spare torque converter on eBay. It came off the back of a 4.6 Thor engine I bought from the local breakers yard. Being from a 4.6 Thor I assumed it was a "medium" unit and listed it as such
Someone's messaged saying it's actually a large one, which ofcourse doesn't make a lot of sense, but I guess these are old cars and things get swapped about.
Can anyone take a look at the pic and tell which size it is? Is there a measurement I can take to confirm? I didn't see any part number on it.
I bought an alloy sump with the same plan, but havent yet got around to it, and i'm not sure i will at this point.
My understanding was that there were some small differences but nothing insurmountable.
As it happens, the Dacia is port injected. The Nissan HR engine is availalbe in both port and DI variants, with the DI versions used in the higher spec models. The factory LPG Dacias use the port injected version.
I suspect mostly for cost reasons, many small capacity cheap engines are still port injected, but these arent often the types of cars that attract LPG installs, as they're already pretty cheap to run.
You really dont see any newer range rovers etc on LPG these days, whereas it was super common in the P38's years.
I think the high output diesels over the past 10-15 years has really dampened the demand for LPG in large SUV's. In the P38's day and even into early L322 era, the petrol engines had a significant power advantage, making it worthwhile buying the V8 and dealing with the LPG setup... But once you got the likes of the TDV8's producing 300+hp the whole scene starts to shift. Most folk buying the petrol V8 at that point over the diesel probably arent particuarly bothered about fuel consumption, especially with the £735 a year in tax!
And you can see that looking at the numbers on ebay, most of the LPG equipped cars are before 2009, with only tiny numbers between 2009 and 2020, with a bit of an uptick after that which are almost all Dacias.
One positive is that working LPG means i can probably squeak thru an MOT with my worn out catalytic converters. Though i'm not entirely sure thats a good thing 😂
yeah i suspect if your doing plenty miles then it all helps. I only did 2000miles last year in it and we're half way thru this year and its only done about 200miles since its MOT.
I imagine LPG volumes are low at most of these filling stations, so they're increasing the price to help cover their costs. We're no doubt reaching the point where most cars on the road are Direct Injection and cant use it. So its only holdouts like us with 20-30 year old motors that are actually buying any, and those old cars will slowly whittle away.
The only places near me (within perhaps 25-30miles) with LPG at all are a couple morrisons and an asda.
My car has LPG, and it all works, however i'm beginning to question its continued worth, especially as its probably wanting some TLC.
The car doesnt run as well on the LPG as it does on petrol, feels a bit flat. Ofcourse thats typically offset by a huge cost saving that makes it worthwhile. Theres also a few drivability issues at high throttle demand.
However as LPG becomes harder to find, (the last few times i've gone to the local place they've been out of stock), i've also noticed the cost saving deminishing to the point of questionability...
My local place is now charging £1 a litre for LPG, vs £1.45 for petrol. However the car uses more fuel on LPG, which cuts into the saving. I recon it uses at least 25% more LPG than petrol. Plus its a bit of a detour to the next town over to buy it, and its the only place around that has it any more.
I've always reconned a tank of LPG at around 85L gets me 200-220miles or so. That works out around 12mpg and at £1 costs about 37p a mile
if we assume 15mpg on petrol at £1.45 thats 43p a mile
It used to be that LPG was half the price of petrol and meant the running costs were down in the 20p range, but 37 vs 43 seems barely worth it?
How are others finding it?
I don't want to jump the gun, but steel seal certainly did something
Flushed the system 3 times with water to get rid of the old coolant, then filled with clean water and two bottles of steel seal.
On initial startup it did gain some pressure, but I've just driven 60miles of motorways, a roads and back roads and the pressure settled in around 1 bar, dropping to about 0.85 bar at idle. Still rises with engine rpms but don't think I saw it over 1.2bar, certainly not the 1.4+ that I saw the other day.
I'll let I cool right down, top off all the levels etc with it cold and have another run tomorrow, see where we are at.
you can, but i suspect in such an extreme enviroment with huge temperature cycling etc it will fail.
The weld will also be susceptible to rusting.
I've modified stainless exhaust systems a few times with mig and mild steel wire, and it doesnt last long, the welds rot out quickly.
yeah the tubes are stainless, probably a low grade likwe 409 hence they can be a little "rusty" looking. Plain mild steel would have rotted away years ago!
Ideally find someone to TIG weld it. Its stainless steel.
yeah i ordered some steel seal, i was going to order the bare sodium silicate, but steel seal claim to offer a warranty, and will refund if it doesnt work... Granted they may well try to weasel out of it, but i figured that would be worth a shot.
I'll need to flush it a few times first though, as its not compatible with the Red/OAT coolant i currently have in it, so will flush thru a few times with fresh water and then run the steel seal with plain water and see what happens.
From memory, Sloth had very similar symptoms to me when we talked about this a while back.
Really its a sticking plaster either way. The engine is knackered, the bores are ruined and the camshaft is past it. But if the steel seal gets another year or two out of it then great.
I think longer term, i want to find myself a tidier shell. Ideally one without a sunroof. Then perhaps build that up with a nice BMW engine swap or something. If anyone has a non-runner with a tidy body and no sunroof let me know :D