Wifes out driving the car today, sent me a video showing the gear selection acting really oddly.

The lights dont line up with whats selected, and they jump about a bit randomly as you cycle thru the gears.

I presume theres some sort of position switch involved here? Where about is it likely to be and is it likely just a bad switch or potential wiring issues?

It does seem to be driving properly by all accounts despite drive and reverse both showing "3", and its also starting just fine, despite Park showing "2"

Cheers

So my old bus has always started lumpy.

It'll fire up with some cylinders missing, which is especially noticeable if you try to rev it up immediately after starting. If you just leave it alone, chuck it in reverse and back out the driveway, by the time you select drive and pull away its usually got all 8 firing just fine. Alternatively if you bring the revs up to say 2000rpm and just hold it there, you can hear it sort of sort itself out and the cylinders come online.

So cue the other day, i go out and start it at lunch time, after it having sat for best part of two weeks. It started, but sounded REALLY unhappy, like half the cylinders were missing. I tried to rev it up a bit, and the throttle was unresponsive, RPM's were super low and oil pressure light was on. Mashed the throttle a bit more and eventually the revs picked up a wee bit and oil pressure warning eventually went out but it was stumbling and generally running like absolute crap. It was about this point i realised it was pouring white smoke out the exhaust like a steam train.
Wondered if it had done a head gasket or something, but i had kids to collect from nursery up the road, so decided to drive it and see what would happen. Revved it some more to try and "clear" it up, and managed to fill most of the driveway with smoke, but it picked up a few cylinders and was now actually responding to throttle, so i set off.
By the end of the street it was running more or less normally, exhaust still appeared steamey, but its cold and well, not entirely unexpected given conditions etc.

Drove to nursery fine (perhaps a mile max), went in and got kid, and came back out, checked the coolant level which was low but ok (it leaks so its often low). This time it fired up easily and drove off without a problem. Drove to the sports center with no issues. Parked for an hour and a bit while in the sports centre.

When i came out of the sports centre, turned the key and it started, and again, wouldnt respond to the throttle, and this time was belching black smoke out the back... However after 5 or 10 seconds it sorted itself out and i drove home. Coolant level was still the same when i got home, so no massive water consumption.

So at this point i'm thinking head gasket or slipped liner or something... And its fixed itself...

Driven it multiple times since then with no issues whatsoever...

Any ideas?

Hi folks,

I've just fitted a new bumper to the rangey, and i've managed to break some of the nut-clip things that hold the foglights on (old and rusty!)

I would like to get some new nut-clips. The two that clip onto the metal beam at the top look pretty standard, i've properly got a box of them somewhere. But the ones that clip onto the foglights themselves for the lower fixings look a bit special.

I've tried to find them on the lrcat thing, but i just cant find them. Maybe they just come with the foglights? But i've noticed the blanking covers that go in instead of fogs dont come with the nut-clips (various places sell them new, and they clearly arent included in the product pictures, so that would imply they do come seperately.

Anyone know the part number?

Cheers
Kev

I appear to have left my LPG filler cap sitting on the rear bumper on Friday when i've filled it up and driven off.

I ordered packet of two off ebay for a fiver and they turned up today, but they're shite. The spring inside is far too strong requireing heman effort to install the cap, and then once latched it sits all cockeyed over to one side.

Anyone recommend where i can get a cap that actually fits and works properly?

I've had a persistant coolant leak from the inlet manifold for a while. There was always a puddle of coolant underneath the big fitting on the right side of the manifold that feeds the heater matrix. I had actually assumed the threads were leaking (theres signs of PTFE tape).
Inspecting it closely earlier i noticed some slightly worrying signs, firstly, it think the hose looks noticable swollen. Its ~19mm at both ends, but it bulges out beside the inlet manifold in a rather unnatural manner, and replacement hoses on ebay look nothing like that, they appear to be 19mm all the way along. Secondly i think its leaking from the cords... I tightened the clip up but it continues to leak. I think the coolants actually seeping along the reinforcement cords and out the end, suggesting the inside of the hose is compromised. A disaster waiting to happen for sure!

The small complex that feeds the heater/expansion tank/thermostat, also has signs of pink coolant leaking from the joints, so i'll replace all of those, and i think actually i should just replace everything. The lower thermostat hoses are drenched in oily ming which also isnt good for rubber hoses, and the main top rad hose looks a wee bit "uneven" though not swollen to the extreme of that heater hose.

So that leads me to the question. The heater o-rings. They arent (obviously) leaking, but i believe removing the heater hoses runs the risk of disturbing them? I've noticed when inspecting the pipes earlier that the top heater pipe that pokes thru the bulkhead was covered in the usual tell-tale pink deposits, suggesting coolant is leaking either from the pipe or the o ring. Theres no obvious dampness inside though.

I dont really have time to sort the o-rings at the moment, but i'd like to get this clearly knackered coolant hose sorted out before it leaves me stranded... What are my chances!?

Noticed the other day that my windscreen had cracked. The crack has appeared from the bottom edge, under the rubber seal and its working its way up and across.

I had booked autoglass for today, but unfortunately he turned up with a non-heated screen, so its now rebooked for next week.

However he did point out that it could be rust thats caused it... Something i hadnt even thought about.

Anyone know if the P38 tends to be susceptible to rust in/around the scuttle/windscreen area?

My console is a bit shonky, and I'd like to fix it.

First off the button to open the hatch is missing:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/pYWhcyy43hMMair59

But the hatch itself is also hard to open and kinda gets stuck when you flip it over to the cupholders. The hinge side has been messed about with.

But I don't know what bits I need to replace, I've looked on eBay and can't see where the button actually is?

Any advice would be appreciated.

When i had my door apart to fix the latch, i discovered two rubbers in the bottom of the door. I asked about it at the time and someone said they were the rubbers out of the window rails and will cause the window to rattle when they're missing and its open. Sure enough my window rattles and i'd like to fix it.

Does anyone have any pointers for refitting these rubbers? After todays efforts at trying to fix stuff, i'd like to be a little better prepared and avoid another frustrating day getting nowhere!

Cheers

Theres a lot of chat on the forums about changing the head unit on a P38 and various issues that it seems to cause, so i thought i'd post my own experience.

My car has the "high level" sound system with three speakers and an amplifier in each door.

I really wanted to add bluetooth for handsfree, and i had a spare Pioneer bluetooth headunit i'd removd from an old car, so ideally i would fit that and job done.

reading online all sorts of stuff, i decided to just have a go myself and see what i found.

First of all i just plugged the head unit in exactly as the original. the 10pin speaker connector doesnt fit, so i made up some short jumper wires to test things out.

This gave the first set of findings. A) the door amplifiers buzz like mad if they are powered but have an open input. For testing you can simply short the two leads in the plug and the buzzing will stop. B) driving the door amplifiers with the "speaker" output of the Pioneer worked fine, there was no buzzing or noise or anything weird, but it was VERY loud. On that particular unit "30" is usually a decent listening volume, and "20" is quiet. With it connected to the P38, 7 was loud, and 10 was rattling the door cards....

As expected, the speaker level output is much too high. Much to be expected, the door amps clearly expect a much lower level input.

A friend suggested i try using one leg of the speaker out from the head unit, and pull the other leg to ground. This is because most modern head units have the speaker outputs wired in a "push pull" fashion with a pair of transistors pulling the signal in opposite polarity. Using one output and ground would thus half the voltage. This worked, and did make it slightly quieter, but it was still too much, and also introduced a hiss (albeit a fairly subtle hiss) at lower volumes.

So i set that idea aside, and instead investigated using the "pre-outs" from the head unit. Clearly this is the "correct" thing to use, its intended as a line level output for driving another amplifier. For testing i cut the ends off some phono leads, crimped on some ferrules and stuffed them into the 10 pin connector on the range rover harness. Hooked it up, and well, it just worked. Nice crisp clear audio, no messing about with resistors and all that mess as posted elsewhere.

I just needed to make something a bit more permenant without making a mess of the wiring. I initially wanted to get a matching plug for the 10pin connector on the car, however they seem a bit rare and awkward to get hold of, and i was being impatient, so i grabbed a spare Deutsch DT20 series from the box at work and set about with the crimpers.

Replaced the car connector with a 12way DT, and made up a lead with a matching socket going to the 5 phono leads.

With that done, i had to repin the pioneer power flylead to get it to feed the "remote on" signal to the correct pin to turn the amps on. For some reason landrover didnt use the proper wire for that.

With that lot done and a final test, it all works as expected.

I now need to find a minute to install the microphone for the bluetooth part then i can get some photos of the finished installation.

I did my balljoints last year, and ever since the axle oil seal on the drivers side has been weeping.

MOT is due and the leak had reached somewhat silly levels, with the tyre and rim caked in axle oil, as well as oil dripping off the arch liner, fog lights and mud guard....

So I pulled the car apart last week, and fitted a nice new genuine seal, made 100% sure it was all fitted nicely and reassembled everything. Stuck my head under it this morning to check before i took it along to the MOT, and theres a drip of oil sitting on the axle end, and a streak of oil along the tyre. So clearly its continued leaking....

The only think i can guess, is the alignment of the balljoint is wrong? I know for sure the collet on that side of the axle was loose when i popped the balljoint free, so theres every chance its moved...

Any thoughts or ideas? Anyone know of anywhere that hires out the tool to properly reset the alignment of the balljoint?

Arrived home earlier and noticed the interior lights were on in the rangey.

Everything looked shut, so i got the key and locked it, and the dash booped and said "tailgate open".

Sure enough, the tailgate was shut, but not actually latched. Gave it a slam and locked it again and it happily locked and the lights went out.

Turns out the wife opened it at lunch time and got the pram out the back, mustnt have closed it properly.

But its left me wondering, shouldnt the interior lighting time out after 10minutes or so, so as not to drain the battery if a doors left open?!

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!

Noticed the last few times i drove the P38 that it was acting a little oddly. Its hard to describe, but its related to road camber and unevenness i think.

Essentially you'll be driving along, and suddenly it will pull to one side meaning you need to apply a bit of counter steer. Then just as suddenly it can "flip" to the other side, and you need to steer back the other way. Its all very slight, and i suspect the steering input is exaggerated due to the steering boxes typical dead zone.

Since i've had the car i've replaced most of the front suspension, it had new shocks, new steering damper, new tie rod and track rod, new balljoints and a new wheel bearing. Panhard rod bushes have been replaced, and its also had a replacement UJ on the steering column.

It just doesnt feel particularly sure footed, and often you feel your weaving the steering wheel around like some 1960's Routemaster on a comedy TV sketch.

Most of the time its most noticable round town and on more twisty roads. It'll generally sit quite happily on the motorway at 70+ without issue. Town driving is usually OK but the odd bit of uneven road can upset it. A twisty back road can be verging towards scary at times.

Perhaps related, perhaps not, but when i was under it the other day fitting the new CPS, i noticed the steering damper on the front axle seems to have been bashing the sump. Theres a clean area and all the oil and dirt has rubbed off, so its clearly a recent thing too. That suggests the axle is not staying central, yet thats the job of the panhard rod and its freshly rebushed...

Any ideas?

I bought myself a remote filter from Marty and decided to install it today. I also have a new door latch, which i havent fitted yet due to a missing connector that i'm waiting on coming.

So i tried fitting the filter today and havent had much luck. The remote isnt currently paired, and the RF module was disconnected to stop the usual battery drain issues. I plugged the new box in and reconnected the receiver, and tried to pair the key using the "turn it in the lock and press buttons" approach. It didnt seem to work.

So i figured i would disconnect the new filter, and just connect the receiver in its normal way and try pairing. That also didnt seem to work.

I dug out the nanocom, and opened up the RF menu, and it stated "The BECM has not received a valid radio code". I cleared it and tried pressing the buttons to see if it would change, but it just continued saying the same thing. I dont know if its supposed to update and show a code etc though.

Any idea whats going on? Theres a possibility that the remote pairing isnt working due to the dodgy door lock, it was locking and unlocking mostly fine when i tried, but the latch is iffy and intermittent so maybe thats affecting things, but the BECM saying it hasnt recieved a radio code seems strange?

Back in may i had an issue with the crank sensor. The engine would idle fine, but wouldnt rev at all, you could coax it upto 1500rpm, and any more it would start popping and farting. Got a new crank sensor, fitted it, problem solved.

The old thread is here:
https://rangerovers.pub/topic/930-strange-missfire-undrivable-when-warm-hot

Fast forward 6 months, its just done the same thing. Pulled onto the local dual carriageway, gave it full beans upto 70mph, and when i lifted and settled to a cruise it started bucking and the RPM needle dropped to 0. It flicked back up to normal RPM a few times and power returned, then dropped out again etc. Managed to pull off the road and stopped in a layby. As before, it idled perfectly. This time any throttle input at all would cause it to start spluttering popping and belching smoke. Just like last time, but at a lower RPM.

I managed to drive it home at 5mph by just letting it idle along on the torque converter.

So my first thaught was simply "these aftermarket sensors are fkn shit, i should just go buy a genuine landrover one..."

However when digging that old thread out i realised something. Both this time and the previous time, the thing has failed immediately after a full throttle high RPM blast up the same duallie. The previous time it died a bit further down the road right enough, after i'd turned off the duallie and was back on the local road. Which got me thinking, could high RPM's somehow be related? I mean clearly its not the first time in 6 months its been at max RPM, it gets full beans a reasonable amount, but it certainly got me wondering!

Thoughts?

Soo, the P38 has been laid up for a bit with a knackered exhaust. Finally got it sorted last week, and took it to work last Wednesday. All good, till i went to go home, and it did a repeat of the "harry potter incident". (Shortly after buying the P38 we drove it to the harry potter thing in Watford (from scotland), and after spending many hours there and leaving the place at 10pm, the bloody thing wouldnt unlock, i didnt have a clue what was going on (nor had the EKA code) and left the wife slightly pissed off!)

I avoid using the remote, because the copy battery door is a very loose fit, and often turns a bit while in my pocket, resulting in the key code being reset. Furthermore, the car has the crappy old battery-flattener reciever, which i was using for a while with the ariel unplugged and eventually just unplugged the whole thing to save any hassle. As a secondary point i would really like a working second key/remote, has anyone got to the bottom of that yet?

However in the two years i've had it, it has occasionally done this unresponsive thing and its usually fixed simply by unlocking and relocking it, and sure enough on wednesday that did infact work, albeit after a few goes. Used it on saturday with no problems. Today however it was booked into the exhaust place again for some rectification work (one tiny silencer is insufficient! :P) and same thing happened again. Except this time, no amount of turning the key was making any difference. I pulled the battery, reconnected, tried key again, nothing, tried EKA, nothing.

After much pissing around i took the door card off, and unplugged the lock, got the meter and belled out the wires. From what i could see everything worked. The only question mark was the "key turned" switch didnt work first time i tried, but then started working immediately after. Maybe a bad connection on the meter leads, not 100% sure. I plugged it all back in, reconnected the battery, and unlocked the door, and normal operation was resumed.

Clearly, i need to fix this properly!

Theres much chat about refurb latches from Marty, but his website suggests those are no longer available. Theres also some recent chat about MGTF parts, but i'm not actually clear on what needs done. Hopefully someone can tell me what the best approach is...

If i buy a RH LHD MGTF latch, i presume it fits the P38 door, but does not have the third microswitch that the P38 requires? Can this microswitch be sourced easily? Anyone have a part number for a suitable microswitch? Or am i better just fitting new switches to the P38 latch? The idea of getting a whole new shiney latch certainly appeals.

I would also like to sort the door handle. The handle itself is loose, and has the usual sticking stuff going on, so i guess i will pull it apart and try and sort all that out at the same time.

Lastly, can anyone think of any other issue that might be at play here?

Cheers Guys

Urgh typical. Few months back I changed all the ball joints on the front end, and also replaced the axle oil seals and CV joints.

While investigating my shit brakes, I found this:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VAGcqjiidzjs6neX8

Looks like the axle oil seal on that side has failed pretty badly... Which makes me concerned as they were genuine seals, not cheap shite. Either I've somehow installed it incorrectly or theres something going on with the ball joint adjustment collet thingy that's ruined the new seal rapidly.

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.

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?

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?