i've bought a couple used original ones off ebay for mine. Wouldnt trust the chinese ones and the 800quid for a genuine one is ludicrous.

The easiest way to tell if its faulty, is simply to unplug it!

The original one would die once it got hot. you'd get about 15mins driving around, then it would cough splutter fart and die.
The first replacement one (used OE from ebay) worked fine, for about a year, then died without warning, with wild fuel trims and pouring black smoke out the back.
Second replacement one is fine so far.

Superpro are excellent quality. Amongst the best i've seen.

Touched on this before a bit but still not sure where i stand.

The brakes on the P38 have always felt poor. But its a big heavy car thats fairly old, and comparing it with modern cars is quite difficult, modern stuff always feels a LOT more powerful due to much greater power assistance (some might suggest too much). Its the heaviest car i own, and also has the smallest brakes of any car i own or have owned for a number of years. So i'm unsure if its right, or it has an issue.

When i bought it the accumulator was burst, so it got a new accumulator and a full system bleed following the instructions in rave. It all worked well enough, but the pedal always felt a bit "wooden", There wasnt a lot of bite to the brakes, and you needed quite a lot of pedal effort to stop quickly. If you heaved on it, it did stop, as we discovered when my mate was driving and didnt notice a motorcyclist, and full emergency stop spec braking had it stood on its nose.

Last year, one the the rear calipers had siezed. Upon inspection the opposite side had been replaced recently (it was shiney silver vs the siezed one which was very rusty) so i replaced the siezed side and bled the new rear caliper only, using the hydraulic pump (ignition on, open nipple, press pedal, wait till nice clear stream of fluid, close nipple, release pedal)

After that the brakes felt noticably better with a more positive pedal feel, which puzzled me at the time, given i'd only replaced one caliper.

When i did the front suspension a few months ago, i noticed the front caliper dust boots were all torn, and shortly after the drivers front started sticking, and also developed a horrible "warped brakes" vibration. I decided to fix it all properly, so ordered a pair of new calipers, and nice new brembo disks and pads (not fancy drilled or owt, just decent quality standard parts). I guess, after things improving so much when i replaced the rear caliper i expected big things...

Today i managed to get them fitted, and bled the system following the rave instructions, except i didnt touch the rear booster or rear caliper bleeders as i figured those hadnt been disturbed.

Took it for a drive and i'm still not convinced its right. Maybe the new parts just need some time to bed in, but the pedal feels (i think) softer than it did before, and not really any more effective. I had expected it would have improved a decent amount once i replaced the siezed calipers, instead its left me feeling a bit "meh". I did 20miles, mostly motorway so not a great deal of braking, and it did seem to be improving towards the end of the trip, so potentially it does just need bedding in.

I'll put some miles on it and see, maybe i should redo the whole bleeding procedure including the rears... what would be really handy would be having a go of a good working P38 to see how it compares. Unfortunately i'm not sure anyone on the forum is particularly local to Fife/Lothians area.

AFAIK Thor is returnless, and thus cant have a rail mounted regulator.

i had a loose tinkly rattle from mine over bumps/potholes.

Eventually traced it to some shit brakepipe work on the rear axle. Someones fitted a later axle case, where the brake hoses go from the calipers direct to the chassis at each side, but then clagged on the earlier pipework with the central pipe connection and hardlines across the axle. The hardlines have nothing to mount to and were rattling.

I wrapped some ducttape around them to stop them rattling about.

ah yes i know what you mean now :)

Whats Russells modulator upgrade?

The later sensors (97>) arent sided (which means you can extend their useful life by swapping them side to side when they start acting up, as it moves the wiper round to the un-used area)

I was mainly wondering if this kit simply converted the early cars to use the later sensor, by providing the required brackets and wiring tail, or if it was a specific sensor for the early cars that wasnt interchangable. I suppose it doesnt hugely matter, it would just be nice to know if it did act up again, i can simply buy the sensor on its own, than the full conversion kit.

Hmm i wonder if its worth pulling the linkages and checking/cleaning everything up before just fitting a new sensor? Or maybe replace this one, but remove, clean and grease up all of the others?

I've done the "back the nuts off a turn and drive round the block" trick before. Sometimes you dont even get out the driveway. I've had it where lowering the car off the jack onto the loosened wheel was enough and you get the satisfying "click" as it breaks free.

Probably not, but despite their reputation, most of the 23 year old electricals in the P38 do still work, where as the "Lucas" crank sensor i fitted a year ago died after barely 5 thousand miles...

Lemforder have been part of ZF since the 80's (and still are).

Its not like Lucas (and many others!) where someones bought out the brand and churn out shite with their name on it. Its a bonafide high quality OEM producing parts for many major car manufacturers.

for the third time, the car has popped a fault code for the front left height sensor, so i've gone to order a new one.

Seems that for early cars like mine, they sell a "Kit" which contains a new bracket, some wiring and bolts and things.

The kit is obviously handed, because the bracket is side specific, however what i'm wondering, is are the sensors used the normal 97-> sensors or are they specific to the conversion kit?

yeh its odd, i've bought numerous lemforder bits for my Audi and BMW, and they always come in a Lemforder box with all associated fasteners.

Whereas the various lemforder bits i've ordered for the Rangey (track rods and balljoints) have come unboxed with no nuts or anything.

mine was on 178k.

Boots were all split and the innards of the joints were rusty.

Given the absolute pig of a job they are to change, i would only be fitting lemforder or genuine. Lemforder manufactured the joints for landrover, so they're the only aftermarket manufacturer i'd trust.

Mine was all very rusty too, but the collets stayed put

I know its mostly a cosmetic issue, but i really would like to sort the head liner out. Its sagging in the rear load area, but more annoyingly the sunroof covering keeps falling on my head!
I've seen the kits from martrim, just wanting to make sure this is the right stuff:

http://www.martrim.co.uk/car-trimming-supplies/brush-nylon-headlining.php

I want the black fabric which isnt listed as a kit for the range rover, anyone care to suggests how much i need? I'll probably cover the A/B/C pillar trims as well if i can?

Finally got it swapped out on sunday. Not driven properly far in it, but had a few journeys and no recurrence of the issue thus far.

Old sensor looked totally fine, and the new one was identical right down to the markings on it, so despite the "OEM" claims of this new one, clearly it wasnt...

PDF drawings would be useful, always handy building a library of knowledge.

What you describe is exactly what mine does with the MAF unplugged. It'll start, then cutout, once maybe twice, then start with a bit of help from the throttle and eventually settle to a low idle and otherwise drive fine.

Have you got a fault code reader? These cars seem to never bring the EML on, so there could be faults lurking.

Sounds like he missunderstood the requirements.

As always with MOT's its finding somewhere decent that doesnt take the piss.

Clearly you want the guy to actually pick up stuff and not do a stevie wonder job, but at the same time, fails for stupid stuff "oh you've got a split wiper blade" is daft.

I think also, once they catch on that you fix stuff yourself, they can often change their tune a bit.