no not skye, central belt of scotland.

Those old volvos do seem to be a pretty cheap option, i guess they had a name for safety back in the day, and their general image alters the typical driver which probably means their accident figures are lower than the average.

every company has their own rules.

For some companies adding older experienced named drivers will bring the price down, some quite significantly. Others it makes zero difference.

When my sister in law started driving, she wanted to go on the mother-in-laws insurance as a named driver. It wasnt fronting, it was the mother in laws car and she just wanted to use it now and then. The insurer simply refused to add her, and said she would have to be put down as the main driver. Caused much hassle having to cancel and take out a new policy mid-term.

I suspect in terms of accident safety, you are very likely safer in a new car than a 25 year old landrover. Modern cars are designed to crumple and absorb the impact. They also deform in carefully controlled manners to keep the large chunks of metal away from the occupants. Clearly size still has an effect. They also have MUCH better ABS and ESP systems, which hopefully help reduce the likelyhood of getting into an accident in the first place. That said, something like a P38 isnt something that urges you on to drive quickly, so i guess that helps.

The trick is to play the insurance companies own game. A friend of mine got banned many years ago, and had obviously huge insurnace premiums upon getting driving again. He ran LOADS of quotes on different cars and had some surprising results. I dont remember the exact figures, but i remember a 2000 clio 1.2 was MORE expensive than a 2005. And a Volvo C70 was surprisingly affordable and not all that much more expensive than the clio. He ended up buying an old '96 Corsa, as thats all he could afford at the time. It was actually one of the most expensive cars he'd quoted on. Its all driven on statistics, so you need to find the loopholes.

When i started driving, a friend of a friend had a Volvo 940. At first we took the piss, we were driving Novas and suchlike, the typical "cool" cars back then, and there he was in his "grandad volvo". He pointed out it was turbocharged and had 200hp and was RWD. Significantly quicker than our crappy hatchbacks and was cheap to insure as well. He was doing it right :P

Fife.... only 7 hours and 413miles each way haha!

Performance? Probably not. But longevity? The Lemforder stuff will last, the other stuff? Who knows, but i've never had much luck with any aftermarket suspension bits. they manage a year or two, whereas the original bits managed 15 years or more.

Its certainly a tempting thing to do, i'm probably quite far away though, where does marty reside?

i did mine recently, and it was a ballache but it went ok in the end. Theres probably a thread of mine from when i did it detailling the trials and tribulations.

The main issue i had was when winding up the "G Clamp" style press thing as mentioned above, the press was actually bending. I didnt get to the "4 foot scaffolding pole" stage, but wound it up as much as i dared then smashed at the housing with a big hammer and eventually it came free.

the inner sleeve isnt usually all that tight. Never done a P38 one, maybe they're different, but on every other car i've dealt with it usually comes off with a cold chisel.

I would be somewhat wary going to all that effort and using a poor quality bearing. I've had nasty bearings fail within 6 months before, and its REALLY frustrating having to pull everything apart again because you tried to save 20quid.

I would stick to the big brands. SKF, FAG, Timken, NTN and probably a couple others. A google search for Saha bearings doesnt even find a website....

The ECU will compensate for vacuum leaks, to a point.

I had four 8mm holes in the bottom of my inlet manifold when i removed the throttle heater plate and didnt realise they were drilled right thru. The engine started, and ran like a sack of crap, but it ran. If you revved it up above about 2000rpm or so, it ran perfectly. Below there it got leaner and leaner as the proportion of air bypassing the MAF got larger and larger. It wouldnt idle on its own, but if you kept a bit of throttle on it'd sit happily enough at 1000rpm. Once warmed up you could just about manage to get it to settle to an unsteady idle, but it would often just cut out.

Thus a small leak in a vac line, or even pulling the EVAP line off completely, would not give the no-start symptoms you were experiencing.

The engine will also start and run with the AFM completely unplugged. Though it usually takes a few goes where it will fire, catch and cutout, before the ECU realises the AFM signal doesnt make sense and starts ignoring it.

Yeh that could work as well. I just figure i dont carry a spare key around for any of my other cars and its fine. If we go on a long trip, we usually both take a key, hers goes in her handbag out the way. Worst case its a 1 day special delivery to get the key posted to whereever you are (assuming someone can get to the house and collect it from the drawer!)

Sloth wrote:

I have the Silca part numbers of compatible blanks if not somewhere. Could get a decent independant key cutter to copy your key's blade onto one of those.

I think that sounds like a wise move actually, i think i will get a basic non-remote key made to keep in the drawer should the worst happen and the remote get lost.

An aftermarket replacement remote key however would be even better!

Just to report back, new crank sensor in and its fixed. Hopefully the genuine rover (LDV) one actually lasts this time!

I did turn the engine over by hand and inspect the teeth on the reluctor, nothing bent or out of place.

@Sloth: Do you know what comes out of the data line on the receiver? I think as a starting point, i'm going to try connecting up the scope to that line and see if something comes out when i press the button.

Its interesting you say you can code keys to the BECM, its one of the supposedly "impossible" tasks on a P38, and yet i've stumbled across a few mentions of it being possible online. Does this need some custom hardware? Or is it possible with normal diagnostic kit?

i very much doubt a hole in the EVAP line would cause a no start. Red herring!

Dont the LPG systems tie into the injector supply? If the LPG is faulty, it could also be causing the petrol injectors to be shut down as well.

Ok, so the latch is new, seems to work as expected.

Remote still wont pair.

I looked in the manual and it simply says "if car is unlocked, press lock button on fob then lock car with key" I've tried that, and every combination of that i can envisage. Holding the button before during and after turning the key, pressing the button before and after turning the key, trying lock and unlock in succession, but nothing seems to work.

The key LED does light up, and when i first got the car i did successfully manage to pair the key with the car, however due to the well known battery drain issues i unplugged the antenna, which limited the range, and then the battery door came loose in my pocket one day which reset the sync and i never bothered fixing it again as it was near useless with the limited range anyway.

Any ideas? I'm wondering if i can somehow see if the receiver is outputting anything at all when i press the buttons... Scope? Logic Analyser?

yeh the window does rattle! Need to see about refitting those!

The clip wasnt inside the door, it was in the passenger door pocket along with some other assorted parts that i'd removed from the drivers door like the tweeter panel :P I couldnt remember if it came from the door, or came from somewhere else. The knee panel bit under the steering column is off, so i suspect its related to that?

I've also managed to break the tweeter panel removing it, so i need a new one of those too. Feels like fix one thing and add more onto the bottom of the list at the moment!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SxGKhk5mA8BkJBj27

That's the two rubber seals, also a metal thing I found that might be off the door or somewhere else inside the car?

Bleh, sore fingers now!

So the latch is in, seems to work fine, door shuts smoother too which is nice. Also replaced the plastic piece in the handle when i had it apart, thats one fiddly ass job! Handle is much better, but still sticks out a tiny bit unless you push it.

Not all perfect though. The linkage going to the door pin seems to be rubbing on the inside of the door for some reason. Also found some pieces of rubber in the bottom of the door, will post a pic of it.

What i'd really like is a spare set of door handles to clean up and paint and install new cams etc, but they seem hard to get hold of.

Oh, and my remote still wont pair.

Check for fuel and spark and go from there.

If you have neither, then its potentially immobiliser related or the crank sensor has taken a dump. Potentially a power issue as well, but if the ECU is responding to fault codes that suggests its powered up.

If you have one or other then you can trace the relevant system.

Soo, an update!

Got a latch off marty a few weeks back, finally tried to install it today. As ever though, nothing goes to plan!

My car is an early one, which has a weird connector for the single wire. The original latches had the plugs on the housing rather than on a wiring tail. Someone had already converted it to the later type with the wiring tail, but instead of fitting the matching plug, they'd hacked it off and fitted a butt crimp. I already knew about this and was prepared, so first task was to fit the correct 2pin female econoseal to the car harness.

So i set to with the wire snips and when i cut the black wire the car locked all the doors. Hmm!

I continued anyway and neatly fitted the correct econoseal to the end of the loom, then started looking at removing the linkages from the latch. First thing i did was pop off the linkage that goes to the external door handle. Then i realised i needed a torch, and i should go have a look online at the best approach to remove everything as i didnt want to break any of the fragile plasticy bits.

I checked the drivers door was unlocked, and then shut it onto the first stage of the latch and walked away... About 3 paces... Then i realised what i'd just done. Drivers exterior handle was disconnected, and the rest of the doors were locked. Several expletives later, and 10minutes to think streight, i popped the window trim thing off, and managed to prod at the latch with a piece of mains cable until it opened. Phew! I reattached that linkage immediately!!

Anyway i realised at this point it was getting dark, and i didnt fancy peering into the gloom trying to fiddle a latch in and out. So i decided to call it for the evening. A quick bodge with a male econoseal tail i had lying and a chock block i reconnected the original latch, and that allowed me to unlock the car properly and i've left it like that for now. Window trim also went back on easily which was handy, and knowing how easy those pop off, i think i'm going to try and find a full set, and then paint them up nicely, as mine are all faded and horrible.

Check wheel balance first. That usually appears at a given speed and goes away if you speed up or slow down. Its simply a resonance between the out of balance wheel and its RPM. Sounds like what you have to me.

Death wobble was common on older landrovers with loose/poorly adjusted swivel bearings. I guess worn balljoints might cause a similar effect. Generally once it starts its really quite scary and the car becomes hard to control, which is not the same as wheel balance causing an annoying vibration. Its also usually triggered differently, rather than just speed it might be set off by a pot hole or similar.

Thanks. Quite a lot to digest there.

The car currently has an H filter. When i got it it had the pair of Y pipes instead. There was a visible puddle of coolant on top of the reducer the other morning after a short run to move it around the driveway, so it really does want fixing. I suspect the coolants evaporating off when running, but the cold run meant it stayed there. The car also seems to use a lot of coolant, it may also be leaking elsewhere, it seems every time i fix a leak a new one appears!

The Romano HD and the Palladio both look decent. I note you mention external solenoids.

The palladio here appears to have an integrated solenoid:

https://www.lpgshop.co.uk/emer-omvl-palladio-350hp-high-power-reducer/

I also note there appears to be two different gas line sizes, 6mm and 8mm. I'll need to measure up, but if its 6mm line does an adaptor exist to allow it to fit the larger inlet?

I dont know what the internal size of the valteks i have is, but i do know i drilled the nozzles out to 2.5mm so hopefully thats fine.

I suspect it might benefit from a tune up by someone who knows what their doing as well. Just now its running the "auto calibrate" map and nothing more. But i guess i'll get the mechanical bits sorted first then go from there!