So my old bus has always started lumpy.

It'll fire up with some cylinders missing, which is especially noticeable if you try to rev it up immediately after starting. If you just leave it alone, chuck it in reverse and back out the driveway, by the time you select drive and pull away its usually got all 8 firing just fine. Alternatively if you bring the revs up to say 2000rpm and just hold it there, you can hear it sort of sort itself out and the cylinders come online.

So cue the other day, i go out and start it at lunch time, after it having sat for best part of two weeks. It started, but sounded REALLY unhappy, like half the cylinders were missing. I tried to rev it up a bit, and the throttle was unresponsive, RPM's were super low and oil pressure light was on. Mashed the throttle a bit more and eventually the revs picked up a wee bit and oil pressure warning eventually went out but it was stumbling and generally running like absolute crap. It was about this point i realised it was pouring white smoke out the exhaust like a steam train.
Wondered if it had done a head gasket or something, but i had kids to collect from nursery up the road, so decided to drive it and see what would happen. Revved it some more to try and "clear" it up, and managed to fill most of the driveway with smoke, but it picked up a few cylinders and was now actually responding to throttle, so i set off.
By the end of the street it was running more or less normally, exhaust still appeared steamey, but its cold and well, not entirely unexpected given conditions etc.

Drove to nursery fine (perhaps a mile max), went in and got kid, and came back out, checked the coolant level which was low but ok (it leaks so its often low). This time it fired up easily and drove off without a problem. Drove to the sports center with no issues. Parked for an hour and a bit while in the sports centre.

When i came out of the sports centre, turned the key and it started, and again, wouldnt respond to the throttle, and this time was belching black smoke out the back... However after 5 or 10 seconds it sorted itself out and i drove home. Coolant level was still the same when i got home, so no massive water consumption.

So at this point i'm thinking head gasket or slipped liner or something... And its fixed itself...

Driven it multiple times since then with no issues whatsoever...

Any ideas?

My experience of buying "Lucas" stuff recently is that its utter garbage. As an example i've been thru four crank sensors on my GEMS. The original chinese cheapy one that the PO fitted, one in a Lucas box and one in a Facet (i think) box, all looked identical. Clearly from the same chinese factory and all failed within a few months in the same way, losing signal when hot.

In the end i found a new old stock Rover part that came in an LDV box, and it looked quite different to the three chinesium ones, as well as actually working correctly.

I'm fairly sure at this point its just a box/brand thats rebadging chinese junk.

yeh, speed nuts is the name.

Like i say the ones on the metal bit are standard, and i'm sure i have a box of them in different sizes.

But the ones on the plastic are much larger than normal and are thick to go around the plastic frame. Normal ones that size would take a much larger screw, which is why i was thinking they were application specific.

The releif valve is in use all the time, and bypasses oil back to the sump.

The oil pump is fixed displacement, but pressure varies with viscosity as well as flow. So for instance at high rpm, the releif valve opens and bypasses the excess oil back to the sump. Or when the engines cold and oil is thick, it could well be operating from idle.

Every engine differs, and i dont know the exact figures for the rover V8, but on my Audi A4 for instance, a healthy engine will reach maximum oil pressure at around 3000rpm when fully warmed up, and when cold maximum pressure occurs at not much more than idle.

The valve can stick partially open, giving symptoms like you describe.

Hi folks,

I've just fitted a new bumper to the rangey, and i've managed to break some of the nut-clip things that hold the foglights on (old and rusty!)

I would like to get some new nut-clips. The two that clip onto the metal beam at the top look pretty standard, i've properly got a box of them somewhere. But the ones that clip onto the foglights themselves for the lower fixings look a bit special.

I've tried to find them on the lrcat thing, but i just cant find them. Maybe they just come with the foglights? But i've noticed the blanking covers that go in instead of fogs dont come with the nut-clips (various places sell them new, and they clearly arent included in the product pictures, so that would imply they do come seperately.

Anyone know the part number?

Cheers
Kev

A lot of trailer instability issues comes down to nose weight. Most cars have a limit of between 75 and 100kgs on the towball. Simply looking at many cars towing, with the arse of the car scraping the floor, shows they're running waaay over that. If you stand on the towball of a typical car the suspension barely moves.

Obviously something with air suspension doesnt sag down at the back, but excessive nose weight still has the same effect, and gives the shocks on the rear of the tow car a much harder job to do.

I have a big car trailer which i use for my track car, its well under the weight limit, but even so, i actually got a set of scales out and carefully positioned the car to achieve the right nose weight, then marked the trailer bed so i know where to park it. I see many car transporters loaded with the car right against the front of the trailer, and this is almost certainly far too much nose weight. Most cars are front heavy, and assuming they're driven forwards onto the trailer, the car usually wants to be positioned fairly rearward on the trailer.so the weight is centred over the axles.

Interestingly enough, i used to tow with a short wheelbase trooper, and that was MORE stable than the rangey is currently, which i suspect is 100% down to the condition of the rear shocks. The trooper being shorter and lighter should be inherently less stable than the rangey. But the trooper had new shocks fitted when i bought it, the rangey is on ancient rear shocks. Yet another item on the list of stuff to fix!

I've had a wheel bearing do the "wah wah wah" type noise before, but in almost every case it was at much higher speeds and would notably change if you applied steering input.

Given your noise is related to road speed, but also seems load dependant, i would probably think its something in the driveline? A noise from a tyre wouldnt change if you lifted off the throttle, but a noise from a diff or prop would. My rear diff makes a howly sort of drone type noise if you lift off the throttle at motorway speeds for instance.
My old car had a damaged pinion on the front diff and it howled under load but went quiet when coasting.

I guess check the front prop and its flanges and the output/input bearings?

My towbar does have twin electrics already. Theres a stainless plate between the towbar and swan neck part which has the two towing sockets. I guess i replace that plate with one that has a space for the LPG filler. I suppose i'll get the cardboard out and template something up!

And yes, the shit caps were branded All Ride.

Its funny what people think might get stolen... I leased an electric car for the last two years (its recently gone back) and you would often see new owners on the forum worrying about other people stealing electricity from their home charging point... Yep, beacuse someones going to park on your drive and steal electricity at 30p an hour. And infact even if they DID do that, its likely the parking-on-your-drive part is actually much more of an issue than the theft of the electricity, given that parking spaces in some areas can cost many pounds an hour....

I dont know why people jump to these negative thoughts. Surely "it just fell off" is more likely than "someone else with an LPG car with a missing cap came along, happened to notice my car also has LPG, and nicked the cap"

well i've gone full retard...

fitted the shite one, drove to asda yesterday to fill up the LPG, and drove off without refitting that one either. What a fucking muppet!

I will order a good Autogas branded one from one of the stores, and i guess see about fitting a tether or something!

The chat about the square fillers is interesting. My current ones in the bumper, and the bumpers fecked and needs replaced, so theres a possibility to swap it out. I was considering some sort of bracket on the tow hitch where i could fit the filler? I guess i need to investigate swapping it out for a different one when i do the bumper.

I appear to have left my LPG filler cap sitting on the rear bumper on Friday when i've filled it up and driven off.

I ordered packet of two off ebay for a fiver and they turned up today, but they're shite. The spring inside is far too strong requireing heman effort to install the cap, and then once latched it sits all cockeyed over to one side.

Anyone recommend where i can get a cap that actually fits and works properly?

And to make it even more confusing, did 150miles today, including 20-30miles of greenlaning, and a total driving time of about 6 hours, and it didnt use a drop of coolant?!

If the tank is empty and it's otherwise happy just waiting for pressure, the desired height led will be flashing, and current height will be solid. If pressure doesnt appear in X minutes, you'll get a fault code.

If mines been sat for a few weeks the tank gets empty and it can take a few minutes of driving before it actually gets to ride height.

i had mine gassed last year and it all leaked out of the o-rings on the compressor, and those two are very easy to swap.

yeh i guess that sounds like a plan.

Things are becoming clearer.

There was a small puddle of coolant on top of the water pump, in a small nook between the pump/front cover casting and the block. I assumed it had gotten stuck there when i changed the rad hose and coolant doesnt seem to dry out like normal water and can sometimes hang around for ages, so i had kinda discounted it. So earlier i dried it up to make sure, and also dried up the coolant mess on the underside, making sure it was all nice and dry.

Puddle: https://photos.app.goo.gl/gwMSxFKvf2CgNjv78

Got home, and a) the puddle is back, and b) the coolant drops are all back on the panhard rod and damper etc.

So i guess that means either the leak is at the front of the engine, and some of its just tracking rearwards with wind etc, or there are two leaks. One leak spreading around seems more plausible, but i cant figure out where its coming from.

The pump itself doesnt appear to be leaking, and for water to get up into that puddle, i think it suggests the gasket on the pump, or the gasket on the front cover is leaking? Theres also a lot of oil around the offside front of the engine which again might point to the front cover gasket (or at the very least a bad crank seal.

I will order a new cap, and then modify the old one to take a tyre valve as mentioned and see if i can actually pinpoint the leak on a cold engine.

Had another look at lunchtime. Really cant see anything around the water pump bearing itself, its just grubby with oil, no dampness.

Removed the round hatch from the gearbox bellhousing and had feel around inside, couldnt feel anything wet.

The panhard rod and steering damper had drops of coolant on it again, suggesting the leak is at the front. but the only drips on the ground were at the rear of the engine in the bellhousing area. I cant see any coolant on the actual engine at the front.

ran it up for 10minutes and had a good look around. No obvious leaks anywhere, and no additional drips on the ground either...

righty, so i swapped that dodgy T piece out last night. It was definitely the cause of the "river", i managed to visualise it leaking a few times and it was pissing out of there. Filled it up and had a 20 minute drive around, mixture of town and dual carriageway then back home. All seemed fine, no obvious leaks, no puddles of coolant on the ground.

Coolant level had dropped about an inch after the drive, but i figured that was probably just the air bleeding out of the hoses i'd changed etc. After being parked for a few minutes, i noticed there was a few drips appearing off the gearbox bellhousing. It didnt form a puddle, but engouh water dripped out that there was maybe a 6" damp patch on the ground. I wasnt sure at this point if it was a leak or not, as i'd blasted the underside of the car with the garden hose before my test drive to get rid of all the coolant drips.

This morning i filled it back up to the line (no pressure in the bottle when i opened it), and then drove to work. On arriving at work, again the level was down about an inch, maybe a wee bit more. And again, a small number of drips off the rear of the engine/bellhousing flange.

There doesnt appear to be anything leaking at the front of the engine that i can see (well, i lie, its pissing engine oil and ATF/PAS fluid everywhere, but not coolant!).

Rear Core plugs? ;(

it'll be like an engine mount. there will be two studs moulded into the bush, one poking out each side, but the only thing in between is rubber.

the diff damper thing is because the damper is held on with a rubber mount. If the rubber fails, the wire stops it vanishing out from under the car and thru someone elses windscreen.

if you know what signal it wants, just tap into the loom and give it grant for testing purposes. It'll likely either just apply ground or 12v to the wire for instance. I'm sure i recall that you can actually just connect the request line to the grant line and that works.

hmm i'm not sure it is leaking LPG, its just a shit plastic T piece that has got all distorted and isnt sealing properly against the new hose and fresh jubilee clip.

As it happens, the vaporiser itself IS leaking coolant though a very minor leak, and its on my list to replace. I didnt actually consider it could be mixing LPG and coolant though, maybe i need to bump that up the priority list a bit.