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!

"specially made" as in he put them in a pillar drill? Come on, its hardly mega fabrication work or hours of machining...

The bigas would be a straight swap, but its a pretty shabby/untidy install and the bigas unit has some quirks that are annoying. Specifically the water inlets are 10mm (most use 16 and as a result my car has a horrible mashup of pipework feeding it), and similarly the gas outlets are 10mm, rather than the typical 11 or 12 which makes things awkward.

I've currently got 12mm barb on the injectors, an 11mm filter, and 10mm outlets on the vapouriser lashed up with 11mm pipe.

Its a prime opportunity to tidy it all up and try to make a neater job of it all!

The coolant just appears on the top of the case. It can only really be leaking from the seam in the unit, theres nothing else up there.

The rebuild kit from Tinley for the Bigas reducer is £40. Given new ones are around £100, i think thats a poor approach, i might as well just replace the vaporiser.

Clearly though, i'd like something decent and dont really know what to go for:

https://www.lpgshop.co.uk/300bhp-and-more-autogas-reducer/

The LPG chap on here (simon i think?) did suggest i might need to bump the vapouriser pressure up a bit when he suggested the Valtek injectors, but thats something i never did as at the time i just wanted it working and had other stuff to sort out!

no10chris wrote:

the axle will move if the radius bushes are worn, sounds like the problem to me, I’m gonna get under mine in a minute and see how far away my steering damper is, only other thing otherwise is engine mounts ?

Its not the steering damper, its the harmonic damper on the diff housing!

Engine mounts are worth investigating i guess, they looked ok at a quick glance though.

no10chris wrote:

I wouldn’t remove it, find out why it’s hitting, I’m trying to work out why it would hit ?...

Yeh not sure either. It looks like a lump of steel attached to a bracket with a large rubber mount. Perhaps the mount has gone soggy?
Alternatively the axle itself has been moving around under the car, but thats controlled by the panhard rod, which was fixed within the last year.

So the P38 has an LPG kit on it. Its all quite old, and i'm not convinced its working properly. The vapouriser appears to be leaking coolant as well.

It has a BiGas SGIS ECU and the Vapouriser is an RI21 DOUBLE, and after some previous discussions on here when i got the car, i swapped the bigas injectors (which werent working properly) out for some Valtek Type-30's. Used the bigas software and managed to calibrate things and get it all mostly working. Its now perfectly drivable on LPG, and if you never switched to petrol you'd probably never have an issue.

So, the issues.

Recently i had a new exhaust installed, and afterwards was surprised that the car felt a lot snappier and more responsive. However it transpired it wasnt the exhaust at all. The car had simply run out of LPG, and was running on petrol. Having done 20-30miles on petrol before refilling the LPG tank, i realised that once on LPG it went back to how it was before.

Second issue, is that at WOT, the car seems to switch to petrol. It doesnt usually beep (though occasionally it does and switches the gas off), the petrol light simply starts flashing, which i believe means the LPG ECU has decided it cant meet the petrol demand, and switches back to petrol. This switch is also REALLY rough, especially if you lift a bit and it decides to switch back to LPG, you get a big jolt as the fuelling goes to shit in the transition. I dont see why 8 LPG injectors should be unable to meet the demand, given the woeful power output of these engines... The vapouriser is apparently rated to 375hp so that shouldnt have a problem either...

Yesterday, while driving on the motorway, i was sitting at 70 climbing a very slight hill, when the LPG ran out. First thing i realised was it felt like someone had opened the throttle about 30% more, the car immediately picked up and started accellerating without my foot moving on the throttle. As i thaught "WTF?" the LPG switch started beeping to say the gas had run out. That suggests to me that the LPG mixture was wrong, but also makes me wonder why, if the ECU could see the pressure dropping, why wasnt it compensating by opening the injectors more...

Clearly i need to sort the vaporiser leak, either by rebuilding the BiGas unit, or fitting something better. Perhaps the vapouriser is faulty or clogged up or something? I'm also wondering if the ECU itself is just too old and crappy and needs updated?

What are folks thoughts.... I often hear people saying the car should run just as well on LPG as it does on petrol, but thats clearly not the situation here!