One of the P38's useful traits that helps justify me keeping it around is its towing capacity. I have a 3T twin axle car transporter that i use infrequently, which goes nicely behind the P38.

The last few times i've had it out however, towing it has been bloody awful. When unloaded, the trailer seems to transmit some sort of vibration or oscillation into the car, which causes a vertical "jiggling" at a frequency which feels like someones shaking my internal organs to bits. Did 100miles in it on satruday, 80 of those unloaded and i was feeling verging on ill by the time i stopped after 40miles. I was having to sit forwards off the seat back to minimise the vibration. Road surface certainly played a role, with one section of road being incredibly bad, but the vibrations were there the whole time.

Now, i know the trailer hitch itself has some wear in it. The draw tube wiggles up and down inside its bore. I've been meaning to buy a new hitch for a while, but its expensive and hard to justify for something used so infrequently. The part i'm trying to figure out though is why its changed. The draw tube has always had this play in it for as long as i've had the trailer, but its never been that bad to tow with.

In the past, the hitch slack seemed to causes the trailer to sort of "kick" the back of the car when the trailer hit a bump or similar. Uncomfortable, loud and annoying, but not continuous. It would also get unsettled over uneven road and the hitch would kinda rattle and bang around, but again, it would only happen over the bit of rough road, not continuously for 40miles!

With the trailer loaded with a car it gets MUCH better, though its still not the most pleasant thing to tow, and it seems to like "snaking", not violently, but enough to mean that your sat there on red alert the whole time.

Anyway, enough waffling, i'm trying to figure out if ALL of this issue is with the trailer itself, or if the vehicle could be playing a part? Perhaps tired shocks or wear in bushes or something? Anyone experienced anything similar?

I've thought about this a bit with mine.

Getting a motor isnt too hard, though there are some questions around what you'd do with the transmission. Most EV's end up with a single speed reduction of somewhere around 9:1. You could use a manual trans and lock it in 2nd/3rd to get the right reduction, but thats a lot of weight.

I've seen a conversion using a Tesla drive unit mounted sideways where the transfer case would go, with a new set of gears made to replace the built in reduction (because your driving the stock axles). However when i did the sums the resulting gear ratio still wasnt right for a P38, seemed better suited to a 90 with bigger tyres etc. Tesla bits are also mega bucks. A LEAF motor is a grand, Tesla one is 10.

The most appealing setup I've come across recently was using the hybrid gearbox from an GS450h... With some simple mods it can be run as a standalone motor, is pretty powerful, and costs about a grand. Theres also a 4wd version with a transfer case on the back, though those are significantly rarer!

The big sticking point for me is batteries. My LEAF has 30kwh pack, about 25kwh usable and that gets me 75miles or so on a decent day (faster motorway driving etc) i suspect 25kwh in a P38 is going to get 50miles, or maybe even less, just with the relative inefficacy. Thus for it to be a useful vehicle i recon it'd want 60-70kwh minimum.

a 30kwh LEAF battery costs around 3 grand. a 60kwh LEAF pack is more like 10. 75kwh Tesla packs are 13+ which feels like a lot of money to be pouring into an old landrover.

Maybe in a few years battery prices will come down a bit and it'll look more sensible!

Thanks, i'll take a look around there.

Not surprising the recent weather might have caused some water ingress, but i'd quite like to fix it before it turns into a hole in the floor.

I've noticed the car was generally "damp" recently, but it doesnt get used frequently so i had just put it down to usual condensation etc. However i'd noticed it was really steamed up after a drive last week, and it didnt clear even sitting with the windows open all day in the sun.... Happened to reach into the front passenger footwell to grab some gloves when i went to the dump the other day and realised the gloves were soaking, as was the carpet...

So, anyone got a list of the likely culprits? It seemed most wet right on the front left corner near the kickplate.

i find the lights on the rangey pretty reasonable, and given my other cars all have HID/LED systems thats decent praise.

As mentioned above, might be worth inspecting the reflector chrome. It can become tarnished and blackened with age, which really kills the light output.

Is this the "silver can" style ECU, or the later black one?

If its the silver can, its very likely dead. I chased around trying to fix mine, following all the steps in the RAVE etc. In the end the fix was to replace it with the later black plastic cased unit instead and its been flawless ever since.

Oddly enough, about 10 years back i had exactly the same issue with exactly the same cruise control unit in an old Audi. Chased around for months trying to find a good silver unit, and eventually did find one after going thru about 3 or 4 from ebay. You definitely get to that point thinking "it cant be the ECU, i've tried three!"

Given the Autobox output shows the same voltage as the Cruise, you can conclude that either a) they're both dead, or b) they're both working. Given the autobox isnt complaining about missing road speed, i would personally be suspecting that B is the case, and your meter for whatever reason is giving a weird reading.

Given my previous experience with these Hella units, once i'd gone thru the rave instructions and found nothing obvious, i just went directly to replacing it.

Buy a genuine crank sensor. I went thru 4 shite ones before i realised my folly. I managed to find a new-old-stock sensor listed for an LDV van which worked.

i suspect thats a "danger will robinson" moment, most of those hoses and fittings arent rated highly enough for PAS use.

Working range of the 200 series goodridge hose is a bit under 1000psi. The PRV on the P38 pump is set at 1500psi

I'm sure hose will exist thats highly enough rated, but something to be careful of!

Additionally, the PAS hard lines are used as radiators to cool the fluid, and i'm not sure how that will be affected using a braided line instead?

Its also expensive stuff, by the time you've bought the hose, the fittings and the adaptors you inevitably need to fit the ends, i suspect you've pretty much spent the cost of a new OEM hose anyway...

In quantity, sure. But a single drip wiped onto my slightly grubby paw, it simply appeared transparent.
Whereas the same single drip from the engine oil was immediately black.

did the oil cooler today, wasnt too bad a job. The fittings were solid as expected. so i just hacksawed them off just after the union and pulled the cooler out.
New cooler in along with new lines all went fine just a bit awkward getting at the engine fittings and everything under the front of it was dripping with oil too...

Having done that job though, i think i need to change the gearbox cooler as well, the gearbox cooler was covered with oil and there were concentrated patches on the radiator where its presumably been dropping off while driving. The end of the radiator was clearly covered in engine oil (black when rubbed with a finger) but the drips in the middle of the rad were all "clear" so i presume ATF.

The engine cooler was mostly leaking from a rusted out line at the cooler, so glad i bought new lines. I guess i'll need to do the same with the gearbox cooler, replacing both the cooler and the pipework.

I also really need to buy a new PAS line, its very rusty and i dont like the look of it... And ofcourse, its the HP line thats dealer only thats the worst of the two :(

i was thinking about changing the condenser anyway, as it would be nice to have the AC working again, but its good to know i can swap the oil cooler without touching it.

I was also half wondering if i should do the Auto-box cooler at the same time? I guess i need to have a good look over all the pipework and see what needs refreshed. I know the PAS lines are extremely rusty and i've been meaning to do those for a while.

i have a similar early model. I bought a stainless "straight thru" rear box for it, used from ebay. Someone presumably had it made at a local exhaust shop. It was just a piece of 2.5" stainless pipe bent up to fit the bottom of the car. I wanted a silencer, and happened to have a small one from a BMW knocking around, so i cut the pipe, welded in the small box, and then instead of the streight outlet, i tacked on a polished stainless 45 degree turn-down tailpipe from an Audi diesel.

Looks neat and tidy and suitably OEM without being shouty. I'll snap a photo tomorrow for you if you like.

I guess the take-away is, find a local exhaust fabricator and get them to make one. I've had a few systems made (my local guy made the mid section for the rangey after it rotted away) and actually, its more or less just as cheap as buying from DoubleS, and you dont have to crawl underneath it.

sounds pretty similar in terms of location, obviously no intercooler, but its in the same gap between the condenser and rad.

The v8 has its gearbox cooler mounted below the oil cooler, but i think the diesels have the gearbox cooler elsewhere as the intercooler sits there instead.

The old barge has sprung a leak from the engine oil cooler. Its been weepy for a while so been on borrowed time, but today i realised there was oil bloody everywhere and a constant drip drip drip from the pipe into the cooler.

I've ordered a new cooler and pipe kit from Maltings Offroad, but i'm wondering a) how exactly to get into it, and b) if i should change anything else while in there... I've been considering swapping out the AC condenser too,

I've had the main rad out before and the oil coolers dont seem to be accessible from that side, so i'm assuming i need to go in the front and remove the AC condenser to get at them?

Looking at the pipework around there, the PAS hoses also dont look great, so i will price those up too. Any tips or pointers or "defo change X while your in there" jobs?

Cheers
Kev

What is water glass?

Morat wrote:

There's a lot of thought going into this, so I'll just make two points.

1. It's hard to forgive corrosion on a P38 as there are plenty around with good bodywork
2. As you're already set up for EV, don't sell the P38 before the much rumoured (trailed?) scrappage scheme comes into effect or you might be losing £3k or £6k depending on how you look at it.

Yeh, its a fair point. But i guess the other side is, If i sort the engine and mechanicals, then worst case, when i come to actually sorting the body, the option is there to buy one with a tidy body and rooted engine/mechanicals and swap things over. Wether that means an actual body swap, or putting the good engine/axles etc into the other car.

as for 2, yeah i'll certainly keep an eye on it, maybe i can trade in the TT instead. Not sure how realistic buying a brand new EV is though. Would need to see the numbers. I quite fancy the e-niro, but its a bit too expensive and impossible to actually buy.

leolito wrote:

The A4 is a long term project. Its a 1.8T Quattro which i've got a 4.2L V8 to swap in
This is a project on its own, and not a small one. Might got very off topic in here ... many pro and many cons to that.
If you have the engine and it is running nice and fine and you crave only the throaty V8 sound go for it, but for me the 2.7TT is also a sensible proposition. Equal power, fantastic run-up if you tune it properly, fairly robust, and all in all equally expensive to run ... you'd miss the V8 roar but instead you get the whine/hiss of the turbos ... equally deadly :-)

I have the 4.2 already. Been around B5's a long time and the 2.7 just doesnt press my buttons. Everything in it just costs a fortune. My brother had one for a few years. I broke a C5 A6 for its engine so i've got everything needed for the swap, its pretty much a weekend bolt-in swap at this point. Even the wiring harness pretty much just plugs in. The only thing i need to buy for it is service stuff like belts/waterpump/thermostat and filters.

Symes wrote:

Well what about Cummins diesel --- just a thought --- I got a 4.6 HSE gems P38 the engine is fubar -- I'm thinking of going Cummins diesel or chev V8 I can get a 300tdi with manual box(disco 2) whole thing £200 but am seriously considering Cummins

Diesel isnt for me.

Martyuk wrote:

Hmm... I want to look at your RR in person then at some point and try to sort the key sync out... things like that bug me when they should all work! lol... maybe if I host a summer camp, then if you wanted to come over to that we can try and get a few bits ticked off... I have the press and tool to do radius arm bushes... people have the knowledge/experience to do the headlining, I can take a look at the key/locking stuff...

And probably get a few more things looked at too...

Yeah i'll keep an eye out on the forum and see what gets arranged. I'm in Fife, Scotland, so its a fair old trek to make...

I guess the fact that theres only one key is also annoying, dunno wether to try and get another key-set with a pair of good fobs or something.

yeah i figured as much. I'd end up with a nice reliable modern V8 and everything else knackered around it haha.