It's been totally fine since and i haven't even charged it yet, so it's nothing terminal like the alternator or even the battery itself.
So I assume it must be something kept the becm awake...
The ignition barrel has been sticking a bit and it will often say "ignition key in" when you open the door. I usually poke the end of the barrel and it clicks out, I guess maybe the wife hasn't done that and it's thought the key has been left in for a couple days?
I've got the RF filter box so generally don't have any battery issues with the P38. It can sit for weeks or even months and starts no bother... Except Sunday!
Wife used it on Wednesday/Thursday, it's sat for a couple days, went to start it on Sunday and it managed about half an engine revolution, then nothing.
Grabbed a spare battery and jumped it and away it went. Drove 5mins to the park and it restarted fine after the park, and it's been fine since...
I want to give the battery a full charge, but are there any other common issues that can cause drain like this? Couldn't see anything obvious like lights left on.
when my brother did this on his BMW (unopenable keyfob battery had died on his one) he dremelled it open. The replacement/aftermarket case clipped together.
Pic of the trim/overlap, you can see the bottom edge is all scratched from it rubbing
What I really want is a set of ash grey door cards with leather panels (anyone got a set?), but in the mean time I'm going to vinyl wrap the "wood" inserts on my granite cards..., does anyone have any spares knocking about? At least the drivers side two as I've ruined them with glue from a previous failed idea 🤣
I'm also trying to figure out why the dash trim is rubbing on the small trim next to the steering wheel? Any pointers how that piece comes off and why it's rubbing?
fwiw, i dont think i can hear the EAS compressor in the cabin at all. I do hear the brake pump though.
Yeah that looks like it. It looks like it clips to the bottom edge of the top section of the top of the tailgate. The top section is painted body color, then theres a black trim. That trim has a nasty dent in it, so if i'm going to buy the tailgate i'd like to swap it out.
Does anyone know how easily the black lip on the lower edge of the rear spoiler on the tailgate comes off?
The local breakers has a mint tailgate, but the black lip has a bad dent in it.
Mine makes generic wind noise. If you open it or tilt it a tiny amount the noise changes and you can sometimes "improve" it, but then the dash reports "Sunroof open". If you push/pull on the glass again you can make it quieter. Its clearly not sitting correctly against the seals. It probably would be improved noise-wise if the blind was closable, but closing the blind results in fabric and bits of foam falling into your hair and all over the cabin so gets left retracted.
Having tried to seal up a leaking sunroof on a previous car with silicone and polyurethane type sealants, the idea of trying to seal up this one in the same way doesnt appeal in the slightest. Removing it entirely and welding up the hole feels like a better solution but i suspect i'm somewhat under estimating the amount of work involved there. 🤣
yeah i do have a nanocom, but it'll still howl with the wind and potentially leak water into the cabin etc etc.
The shutter/blind thing will also need retrimmed as thats all peeling off and falling to bits, which requires digging into the guts of the sunroof mechanism...
Not sure which is the lesser of two evils, dismantling, retrimming and reassembling the sunroof assembly or welding up the hole in the roof... 🤣
This is why jobs never get done... i always over-think everything, but i really dont like sunroofs, and given it all needs to come out suddenly it seems like a good idea to pick up a non-sunroof headliner, retrim it and then "simply swap it over"
I need to sort the headliner out, and i've been thinking about the sunroof... I dont like sunroofs, they leak, they're noisey, and my one wont set so i have a permanent error saying "Sunroof not set" on the dashboard.
Seen as i need to rip it all out anyway to do the headliner, i'm wondering if i should just remove it permanently?
Weld something over the hole perhaps? Anyone tried anything similar (on a P38 or anything else)?
Anyone fancy cutting out a section of roof skin from a breaker?
The LPG stations near me are dwindling for sure. There are two in a nearby town 5 miles away, which is already annoying as its kinda off route for anywhere i usually go. However the last few times i've visited those they've had none. There are none in my own town. There used to be 2 or 3 shell stations i passed along my 40 mile commute and they've all gone now after Calor closed down Autogas, so theres no LPG stations along my commute at all any more.
Wifes been running it around at 12mpg on petrol for the last few weeks, which is very much "ouch" territory.
Another potential appeal of the L322 is actually fuel economy. Reports are they'll do 18-20mpg on a run. My P38 gets around 200miles to about 85L of LPG. With LPG at 80p and petrol at £1.60, the cost difference isnt actually that big. P38 is doing about 34p a mile (plus some extra for petrol at cold start etc) and the L322 would be around 38p a mile. Ofcourse a LPG L322 would be even better, but those seem fraught with issues, and given LPG is getting hard to find, switching back to petrol at roughly the same cost has an appeal!
Bleh, i think my immediate plan is to try and get my A4 thru an MOT, and then tackle some of the bigger jobs on the P38. Maybe feed it some gaskets and see if we cant relight the mojo. I figure if i want to swap to a L322, i really need to be able to sell the P38, which means fixing the worst bits like the head gaskets. I bought a drivers interior door handle from the scrappy at the weekend to replace mine as the return spring has broken. I'll probably be keeping half an eye out for a L322 as well though 😂
nigelbb wrote:
I live half the time in France & my 2001 Vogue is French registered. It's a bit tatty but basically sound with just over 170,000 miles on the clock. I'm torn between waiting for the engine to die then fixing it or pre-emptively spending £5K+ on a reconditioned engine.
If you wanted another somewhat similar vehicle I was very impressed with the Freelander 2 that I had as a loaner car when I took my P38 in for a service. The Freelander 2 is basically a Ford made at Halewood. They have a good reputation for reliability & the 2.2L diesel will go on forever. If I was in the market for another car I could go for a Freelander 2.
Yeah, i've been pretty much ignoring the engine even with its obvious head gasket failure symptoms, in part because i know just how expensive fixing it properly will end up. Ofcourse i'm aware that at some point, its going to fail catastrophically, either by the gasket failing more completely, or some part of the cooling system deciding its had enough of the excess pressure!
I'm not feeling the Freelander2, and try to avoid diesel if i can. The full size is also handy for towing my big car trailer, i imagine the FL2 doesnt have the same towing limits.
StrangeRover wrote:
I can assure you that the "weird old car issues" are replaced with why won't this bastard ever work "issues" the L322 is indeed coming down in price..
I'd drop 4k on a recon stage 3 V8 tomorrow if I had that kind of cash, P38 is a package hard to beat...
I think a big part of the reticence is your last point there, you'd be 4 grand into a RV8 rebuild and still be making under 250hp... Its funny, its not the outright performance either. It goes well enough if you wring its neck even with the existing engine. But the way the transmission is mapped in the range rover, and the engines power curve means that it just feels soooo sluggish. It tries to keep the rpm down to make it smooth and quiet, but doesnt have any power down there to actually pull the thing along. And sure, floor it in sport mode and it goes, but it then feels like your trying too hard, and the wife gives the look. I also think driving an EV daily means i'm very used to the instant torque, and no enginey noises means "the look" doesnt happen either.
The Supercharged on the other hand is making 400hp and 400lbft, and has a much more sophisticated gearbox. I havent actually driven one, but i would expect it to feel much more lively against the 220hp/280lbft of the P38 engine.
I also dont super mind "complex" so long as decent and competent diagnostic kit exists. P38 is much the same in that regard. And parts costing more isnt the end of the world either, its a complicated thing and depends on many factors... For example, a front radius arm bush on a P38 is £20. A lower control arm for my A4 costs £60 and theres four of them. I'd much rather swap those lower control arms than the changing the radius arm bushes on a P38 (which, incidentally is why i havent changed the front radius arm bushes on the P38!!)
The rot is a surprise, are there any particular areas of concern? I thought that has pretty much stopped being an issue with modern cars!!
So i'm at one of those dillemas where i cant really figure out the correct path. I think i've posted about this before, and it never really got resolved.
I've got my P38, and to be frank its pretty rough. The bodywork isnt fantastic with some rust in weird places (like on the roof above the tailgate!), the engine needs work (at the very least headgaskets and possibly many other gaskets, but its smokey at startup which might be valve stem seals, and probably needs fully going thru), and the rest of the car is needing a good overhaul, things like brake hoses, shocks etc are probably overdue changing. The interior is also a bit of a mess, with the saggy headliner, and bits of trim removed due to various half finished "projects"... For instance the plastic trims in the boot under the side windows were removed when i was messing about with the RF filter unit thats never worked properly.
I do like the old barge, but it feels like its at that point where old cars get to where it needs a lot of money and time spending. I've been throwing different ideas around, do i buy a better one? If i do, i know its still going to need a lot of work to get it up to standard. Its also thrown a few reliability issues recently one of them being the MAF failing, and there is seemingly no actual solution for that, as new MAF's are not available, meaning the only choice is fitting yet another 30 year old one and waiting for it to die... Aftermarket ECU would fix it, but thats megabucks. A later car with Thor would i guess be a better idea. I just have a niggle that i'm never going to be happy with the Rover V8, with its endless list of issues, and the idea of spending thousands on a full rebuild with top-hat block etc feels like a waste of money.
Another issue has cropped up recently, which is the centre lap-belt in the rear. We have three kids now. The modern child-seat rules dont gel super easily with an old car like this, we do have a seat that fits in with the lap belt, but its basically the one-and-only and the middle child has about outgrown it, but the smallest isnt really big enough yet to move from the rear facing seat into the one fitted with the lap belt.
With all of that in mind, i've been browsing ebay and noticed some Supercharged L322's are getting to be around the 4grand mark. So obviously the niggling itch has started and i'm thinking, do i buy one of those instead? I hear horror stories generally, but then i heard those about the P38 too... So how bad exactly are they? Obviously buying the cheapest-shed-on-ebay is a bad idea, but i can keep my eyes open for a nice one etc.
Thing is i think i prefer the P38, not sure exactly why, perhaps it feels like it has more "original" landrover DNA, but the L322 as a package with that engine, and being more modern with less weird old-car issues is certainly tempting me. The middle three point belt will keep the wife happy too. But if it manages to be even less reliable than the P38 the wife will be pushing it off a cliff and buying an Aygo instead
Sloth wrote:
Yeah I tried a cheap GEMS MAF - did not work properly.
Yeah, and this is my fear... Whats the solution? these parts are all 20+ years old, and clearly are all reaching end of life. Buying more used ones isnt a solution.
A while back i intended to attempt a translation unit that will convert the signal from a Bosch MAF to GEMS, but the issue is to do that, i'd need either a known working GEMS MAF to datalog, or a dump of the MAF/Voltage table from the ECU. No-one seems to have the ECU table, and who knows if any 20 year old used MAF is actually accurate enough to build a proper model from.
Marshall8hp wrote:
In theory they shouldn’t run without a MAF. The engine should start, run up to 500 rpm and then stop.
With the (broken) MAF connected it starts and then immediately dies.
With the MAF unplugged, First turn it fires then stops, if you try again it cranks for ages and sort of half heartedly stumbles into life. Once it gets to idle speed it then runs and drives totally normally. On the road you actually wouldnt know at all that theres no MAF installed. It accellerates and drives as you would expect. Perhaps a little down on power if you floor it.
Did 20miles in it yesterday with no MAF, started and stopped it 2 or 3 times. Same thing every time.
The problem is that on that second attempt, you need to fettle the throttle just right. Not enough, or too much and it wont go. Which is what the missus ended up doing. I think it then ended up flooded.
I was in a meeting and said i'd be along in 30mins. In the mean time some mechanic stopped to help and managed to get it started with just the right amount of throttle.
Anyone here running a pattern MAF on their GEMS P38 and how do you find it?
My third used OEM one has failed, and while it runs pretty well without it, its a pig to start, which left the wife stranded on the schoolrun this morning.
I've ordered yet another used one from ebay, but clearly these are all old and failing.
Pattern units for other cars have a very poor record for actually working properly, so i've generally avoided buying a pattern one for this, but maybe its time to have a look?
Just after going thru 4 pattern crank sensors on this car, i'm super wary!
davew wrote:
Back (more) on topic just why exactly are LPGs vehicles on the decline if they are effectively 'greener' than diesel/petrol ? Surely they should be encouraged more ? Or do we all have to buy electric/H2 cars soon because the car manufacturers are lobbying for this ?
I suspect a big part of this is simply the faff. Aftermarket installs simply arent as clean and tidy as something OEM. And your carrying around two fuel tanks and are having to top up with petrol and LPG.
Modern diesels closed the cost gap entirely, and the majority of folk dont seem to actually care about green/environmental issues, especially if it adds any sort of inconvenience. Price wins out at the end of the day. Which is also why the government ends up needing to "force" the issue by banning things, rather than hoping people will do it themselves.
davew wrote:
Fair enough Richard, in fact the small battery/shorter range EVs are aimed mainly at city folk of course. It may be unfair but as I have explained to many folks the 'big battery' models weigh so much it is like having four passengers in the car all the time. Still surprises me how many are attracted to EVs because of the (perceived) Car Tax/VED savings....
"Smart" Meters are something of a con of course, I suspect they will introduce 'timed tariffs' at some point... and those without are already paying for their roll-out too...
Back (more) on topic just why exactly are LPGs vehicles on the decline if they are effectively 'greener' than diesel/petrol ? Surely they should be encouraged more ? Or do we all have to buy electric/H2 cars soon because the car manufacturers are lobbying for this ?
This is what the Mayor of London thinks anyway...
A Tesla Model 3 weighs the same as a current BMW 3 series... My LEAF weighs 1600kgs, a bit fatter than a modern Golf, but only by 100kgs or so. The Enyaq i've ordered is 2 tonnes, but its also the size of a P38, so not really surprising.
As for London, the main issue there is getting the tailpipe emissions out of the city centre. LPG doesnt help with that.