My track car has a "12200" wheelchair/golf cart battery and that starts it just fine. Granted thats a little 4 cylinder turbo compared with the big V8, but if its just assisting a flatish main battery, then you'll probably be fine. Motorbike batteries are quite a bit weedier and might struggle.
The most important thing is getting a decent connection between your little battery and the car. I've struggled to jump start my 330d, simply because i couldnt get the jump leads to make a decent connection.
yeh, your right, because you have actually looked properly and realised that. But they have a serious stigma, not helped by the fact that they were one of the first cars to run a body ECU, in a time when garages werent equipped with diagnostic kit and whatnot. That then grows arms and legs and turns into horror stories relayed by folk who havent a clue. Modern stuff is far more complex, but diag kit has vastly improved as well, and often has become more standardised, so its much less of a problem. Every garage will have some sort of fault code scanner these days.
A few landrover mates of mine did the whole "a p38? Are you mental?" when i told them i'd bought mine.
Having bought mine and started looking into the issues, i've realised its all actually quite simple, and really most of the common faults arent that big a deal. The usual problems are often a result of multiple issues, compounding together, due to careless owners etc.
EG someone will lose a key, but wont replace it as landrover made it awkward, then the remaining fob will die, so they'll use the door lock instead, then the door lock microswitch will fail and they're now stuck with a car they cant get into and has immobilised itself. At which point its "OMG P38's suck", when the reality is, they've created the problem themselves over a long period of months by not fixing things properly.
I think the electronics put a lot of the enthusiasts off. A good chunk of the landy fanbase think the 300tdi is the best engine ever made, and even the td5 is devils work. It's not really a surprise there's more classics, they're still regarded as a "proper" landrover.
So the p38 gets lumped in with all the newer range rovers, which essentially went towards the luxury car market than off roaders, and now they're too old to qualify as a luxury car so you hardly see any.
Worth checking the front panhard rod bushes? If they're gone, it might look fine when poking about but axle will be flopping around underneath when moving...
riddlemethis wrote:
What I find strange when it comes to MOT for belts is that if you have a child seat fitted they will simply put unable to test. If anything it should be more important to test it working properly.
Even more ludicrous, if i'd presented it for test with the rear bench folded down, they wouldnt have tested the rear belts at all!
My previous 4x4 got an advisory this year for having the rear seats folded (i'd been to the tip and hadnt put them back up), and when i queried it he said it was to cover himself as he isnt allowed to put the rear seats back up to test the belts, and must test as presented.
Managed to find a guy on lr4x4 breaking a P38 so hopefully getting the three rear clips from him. I did find a few on ebay but wasnt paying £20 each for used ones that are just as likely to be on their last legs as the existing ones.
Yeh, tbh i was a bit miffed it wasnt mentioned on the test sheet, but to be fair to the guy, it was slotted down behind the cable cover that you can see below it and wasnt immediately obvious that it was not actually attached to anything. I only noticed because it was touching the panhard rod. I thaught it had been bent, then realised it wasnt actually attached :P
I'm wondering if someones swapped in a later axle at some point, and just bodged it when they realised the pipes didnt work.
I guess i either need to somehow properly affix the pipes to the axle case, or modify the pipework on the car and switch to the newer layout.
Perhaps someone can snap a pic of how the later setup is layed out and where it attaches to the car?
Finally got all the bits and got stuck into it this morning.
Oil switch changed. Supplied o ring didnt seem all that great, so i swapped it for a slightly thicker one. I think something else in that corner is probably leaking, perhaps the oil pressure relief valve? but will revisit once the MOT is sorted.
Got the new belt tensioner on, and reinstalled alternator and serp belt and got the wires all reattached.
Installed the 8 new plugs found that plug 6 and 8 appeared to be oily rather than just fuelly, i guess something iffy going on with those cylinders, again job for later, will revisit after its done some miles! Using the BKR6E's seemed to make fitting them a lot easier, the smaller hex and smaller socket just seemed to fit easier, which is what i'd hoped.
Quick pic of the plugs:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/biarij5dwpuk06n/2016-09-17%2010.14.17.jpg?dl=0
Got the brake accumulator fitted last week, but i decided to run thru the full bleeding procedure before trying it to make sure it was all good, so went thru the guide from the other forum and got it all bled up. While under the rear end i discovered this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q09e3hbksz4n2bn/2016-09-17%2012.31.36.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hinsgnb8s5vdzsi/2016-09-17%2012.31.51.jpg?dl=0
Bit puzzled as to what its supposed to be attached to, its just floating in thin air. Theres not even the remains of where it might have been welded onto the axle case... I've stuck a jubilee clip around it to secure it to the axle for now, but needs a proper fix. Theres also strange metal shield things (i think they cover the ABS wires) that are just sort of floating around along the rear axle, held on with cable ties. Looks like they should be screwed on or something?
With all that done i fired it up and immediately noticed a significant improvement in the engine tone. It sounded much crisper, revved cleanly and no vibrations. Took it round the block for a spin, brakes now actually work, nice firm pedal and no spongeyness. I didnt take it out on the road proper just went round the block, but happy that its actually progressing :) Just need to rebook the MOT now, and ensure i've not missed anything else that was on the fail sheet!
Got it running today with the new plugs. Sounds and smells much better, revs cleanly and exhaust smells mostly "normal".
6 and 8 i think were actually covered in oil i think, so i'll need to keep an eye on those after i've done some miles and see whats happening.
See what the MOT man says!
Has anyone come up with a decent alternative source for these?
One of mine wasnt catching and failed the MOT, and ones missing its cover. I managed to find a replacement one in the scrappy for the MOT failure side, but it too has already been glued together, and its latching doesnt feel particularly positive. Of the three P38's the scrappy had, they were all in the same state, with cracked/broken/missing covers.
Hoping that some other car might be able to offer a compatible clip?
if your buying a chinese one, get one rated a decent amount above what you want to draw! The server PSU's are likely a better buy, as they're properly quality items and are pretty cheap. Few DPS-600's on ebay for 15quid.
I'd be looking at something like this:
They come in various specs and sizes. Proper branded ones would probably cost hundreds, but the chinese ones seem ok for the most part.
The other option you can find are redundant server PSU's which put out lots of current at 12v, theres a big thread here on converting them:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1292514
You can often find them cheap on ebay. Much higher quality PSU, and less likely to die like the chinese stuff, but require some "fiddling" to get them functioning.
Could be useful as spares, will send you a PM.
I noticed a big difference on my other car swapping the standard cat out for a sports cat. Granted its a very different engine and is turbocharged, but i suspect you'll see benefit from them, especially at the top end :)
Thor's run two lambdas on each cat anyway dont they? The third hole might have been a lambda for an adaptive LPG system?
Its got some weird denso plugs in it just now. I've ordered some NGK plugs, The NGK thing suggested BPR6E, with 6ES as an alternative (i cant even figure out the difference, as "S" means standard, and no suffix is also means standard...). I actually ordered BKR6E though which is the same thing as BPR6E but with a smaller hex on it, which means you can use the smaller socket which fits easier in tight spots.
I'll check the receipt for the leads to see how old they are, i think they were fitted back in 2010, but its done less than 10k miles since then.
As per my other thread about my new P38, when i took it for its MOT it seemed to be running very rich, reeked of petrol, had no power and was generally pretty rough.
In an effort to cure the thing running like a burst arse I've ordered some new spark plugs. They havent arrived yet, but i decided i would whip the old ones out and check them over to see if any of them gave any clues to it running poorly. Started on the left side of the engine, first three plugs were dark and sooty with a white tip, then i discovered HT lead number 7 sitting next to the plug, on top of the exhaust manifold... I think i've unplugged it when i was changing the crank sensor, and havent put it back on! Pulled number 7 spark plug and sure enough its wet with fuel as you'd expect. Fairly happy that i'd found something actually wrong, i started on the other side. No missing leads this time, but plug number 6 was also wet with fuel. Hmm!
At first i wondered if 6 and 7 shared a coil (being wasted spark i figured the disconnected lead might have disturbed the other cylinder) but no, 7 shares with 4, which was fine, and 6 shares with 1, which was also fine, so i'm unsure its a coil issue?
So 6 not firing is currently a bit of a mystery, but at least i'm getting somewhere with it. I'll maybe pull number 6 lead off completely and check it over for damage, they look like fairly new magnecore leads. I guess its also possible that number 6 injector is dribbling or otherwise not spraying properly?
Cheers, i know all about britpart, i'm about half way thru a rebuild of a 90 thats only taken me 10 years so far :P Having said that, i've just ordered an oil pressure switch off ebay and it'll no doubt turn out to be a britpart one. I'd ordered one from Eurocarparts but the part they got in was completely wrong, so got annoyed and just hit up ebay instead. The choice seemed to be £3 for a cheap one or 10 times that for genuine.
The leak appeared to start exactly at the oil switch, and removing the switch exposed a properly bodged seal where some idiot had fitted both an oring and a copper washer, and clobbed hylomar blue all over it for good measure, so fingers crossed that was the cause.
I'll probably fit a stainless system to it, as i fancy a bit of exhaust tone, but in the mean time i've bodged the two small holes with some epoxy putty.
My plan is to get it on the road and put some miles on it and make sure its all good, then if it seems alright, i'll look at tidying up some bits like it needs a tailgate and the exhaust etc. I just dont want to pour too much money into it and then find out the engines smoked or something. I've bought it to replace my Vauxhall Monterey, which i've used for 2 years mainly for towing, but its rusty and a bit knackered and i fancied something a bit more worthwhile. I've bought the monterey, spend two years fixing stuff etc, and realised its not worth a penny more than i paid for it, and even then i'm struggling to sell it. At least with the rangey i'm adding value.
I've found genuine NTK direct fit lambdas online for about £60 each, so not toooo bad if it turns out to be those... First job though is to feed it a new set of spark plugs.
The orange bits next to the fogs appear to be just reflectors. No idea if someones stuck them on or what.
The dangling wires are from the fogs. I had the bumper off removing the brackets from a nasty bullbar thing and just hadnt plugged them back in.
It was bought on ebay for £360. It was reported to have a crank sensor fault caused by a leaking rear main seal and had been parked up for a while.
Thus far i've given it a new set of front shocks (turned out the old ones were fine, one had just come off its lower mount?!), and a new crank sensor (the old one wasnt even oily) and stuck it in for an MOT.
It failed on brake issues (accumulator) some exhaust leaks, and a few minor things like bulbs and a broken seatbelt catch. There was a fairly significant oil leak which appeared to be coming from the oil filter area and seems to have been caused by the oil pressure switch. It also seems to be running very rich.
Just signed up after chris pointed me in this direction.
Need to get some pics of the new bus, only got this one for now:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/17arp9ht75e87z4/2016-08-29%2013.21.57.jpg?dl=0
