Aloha,
Over the years I have seen some nice and not so nice P-38s at wrecking yards.
The one thing the breakers don't know is the mileage of the Rangies.
If you happen to have a Nanocom and a suitable battery, you can not only determine the mileage, but also test the stereo / amps
and unlock the doors, tailgate, and lift hatch without destroying anything. And without the key.
I recently had amazing luck reading the mileage on an 99 that had the dashboard and all the electrics therin
removed by what appeared to be a dull shark! A total shambles.
As I wanted the rear diff, I wanted the mileage, so using an 18v Makita cordless tool battery and a set of leads and clips to fit,
I gave it a try. To my astonishment, it lit up and I was able to read the information.
Just clip an 12-18v battery to the battery leads and fingers crossed, it will play!

I have tracked down an noise I have been hearing lately to the rear axle.
Upon draining the oil from the rear diff, I found it to be the color and consistency of milk chocolate pudding.
Not a good look for gear oil. Obviously water got in there, which is a real mystery to me as I have not been wading at all
since the last time i serviced the rear end. Vent tube is in place and routed properly as well
Be that as it may, I believe the diff to be stuffed!
I was able to get a decent used diff from the local breakers with 174k miles on it.
Rather than just drop it in, I was planning to replace the outer bearings as well since they share the nice wet lube oil......
Question is, How are the bearings best removed? Rave does not seem to get into the actual rear axle other than R&R diff assy.
Are they as difficult to press in and out as the fronts?
Any hints and tricks for doing this greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Tom

Aloha,
I have been doing battle with EAS gremlins.
Rt front would randomly go down sometimes in 15 min, sometimes not at all. For days.
Figured it as time to rebuild the valve block, so I got the kit and pulled one from my shelf, and did a clean rebuild.
Same issue. Exactly.
I had already done the soapy water test on the bag, but as I had a good spare, I replaced it.
Found that the old one, when inflated and soaped on the bench was a sieve!
Well, good. Job done. Not!
This one went down as well.
Grabbed my other spare front bag and Tested at 50 PSI for 4 days and no leaks on the bench.
Put it in. Same issue.
Had to go see the folks so did a 2500 mile round trip down south.
Problem persisted, but made the trip just fine.
As these were 14 year old Arnotts Gen II I contacted them and they sent me a pair of gen III bags under warranty as they no
longer make Gen II. They honored the fact that when I bought them in 2010, the warranty was unconditional.
Nice new bags for the front. Billet aluminum instead of plastic for the base. FREE!
Put them on, and guess what? Same issue.
SO, I changed the solenoid valve for the RT front bag for another good spare. Problem solved!
New issue, and the real reason for the post is that when the compressor shuts off, and I stop the engine, I hear a LOT of air hissing from the exhaust silencer. Not from the bags, from the tank. Let it sit overnight and it stayed up, but tank was empty.
Swapped the diaphragm valve and same issue.
Gotta be coming from the diaphragm I guess, but cannot see how it is getting there with the system off. Disc looked fine when I did
the rebuild, and it was not leaking like this prior to my trip
I have been staring at Paul P-38's diagrams for a while and am now cross eyed.
Any insights would be greatly appreciated.
Going to pull out the block again and replace the diaphragm, I guess.

Well, I seem to have pretty much run through all of the possible combinations of parts from 4 compressors to make good ones....
My 2 Frankenstein units are going OK, but I don't trust the stator on one of them.
So, I am going to bite the bullet and buy at least one new unit.
What is the latest bestest compressor to buy? Thomas 327 and retrofit? Viair? which one?
OEM Dunlop branded??
Next question is from where? Anyone got a lead on good pricing?
Rimmer seems to have the lowest on Dunlop even with shipping.....
Any advice is, as always, greatly appreciated!

The EAS Compressor on the wife's 99 was reported to be making a lot of noise, and indeed it was....
So, I swapped in a rebuilt pump, and thought problem solved.
New pump does the same thing.
It seems like the pressure switch is not operating and the compressor is jumping around on its mounts and struggling.
Tried sending it to access, then back to extended height, and compressor seemed happier. For a few minutes.
One of the valves is ticking constantly once it gets to height. Wife took mine, and nano is in it, so just guessing right now.
I have a spare valve body, so will swap it out. See if the issue changes.

Well, the good news is I finally found the really small leak in my brake system that had me topping up the fluid about every 10,000 miles.
The bad news is that I found it is the PCRV that's bolted onto the fender below the fluid reservoir. The source of the leak became obvious yesterday when it became a larger leak!
Apparently, the design is such that it will slowly extrude the O ring seal inside causing fluid to escape.
Of course, I found this as I am preparing for a 2500 mile trip South for Christmas next week......
The new part is on order, but will probably not arrive in time, so the question is:
Can this be repaired?
Seems like if it has an O ring that has an issue, it can be rebuilt?
Anyone done this? Know what the O ring size is??
Cheers.

This issue has been going on for some time now, and I am at a loss as to whats going on!
Both my '99 and '02 do the same thing.
When the compressors are running, they "short cycle". By this, I mean they turn on and off in bursts of 15 seconds to a couple of minutes.
Looking at the compressor state on Nano, it shows compressor as "ON", and thermal switch as "NORMAL". It will do this from
stone cold, so not a thermal issue.....
I have several good compressors here, and they all do the same thing, so not the compressors.
The compressor relay is new, and it does cycle on and off with the compressor, so it is getting a signal to switch on and off.
If I wait a few minutes, the system will get up to pressure and the pressure switch will change state shutting off the compressor as it should.
I am looking at the EAS ECU, and I suppose the MosFet driving the relay is possibly thinking it is overcurrent and folding back the output? Looks like pin 8 from the ECU has that signal....
This is no major deal except that when the missus is doing short trips to the shops, it will eventually come up with an "Unknown Fault"
and go to extended height whilst flashing all 4 lights on the EAS switch. Probably finally runs out of air??
While I am at it, has anyone come up with an answer from Colin and his merry men about why the Nano displays an EAS fault as "Unknown"??? It can clear it fine, but not knowing why it faulted does not assist in troubleshooting!. Annoying, at best!

I have an odd continuing problem with the EAS on the HSK.
The system works flawlessly, however, the compressor cycles on and off frequently.
Sometimes it is as little as a few seconds, sometimes it is on for minutes.
Nano reports that the compressor is indeed being commanded to switch on and off each time it does so.
Pressure switch remains at "Open" status and thermal switch reports as "Normal"
This condition persists whether it is first thing in the morning and all is cold, or after a long hot drive. Same behavior
Any ideas?
I have ordered a pump rebuild kit just in case, but I believe the compressor is fine.
Have a spare pressure switch as well, but as Nano reports that the switch state is unchanged, yet
commands the compressor on and off, I don't see that as probable cause..
I am baffled.

I was just getting a few old fobs I have accumulated over the years ready to send off to have their codes read.
The plan being to input a known fob code into the HSK's Becm and see if I can get a working fob for it.....
Going through the fob bin, I found I had an extra fob for Bolt making 3......The one in the bin said it was key 1.
This got me thinking I could test my theory before sending a parcel to the UK......
I have read somewhere that you can only change the first code number (not correct) so, I went into Bolt's (unlocked) Becm and read the 3 stored codes. The first one happened to be 64, so I went to the HSK to input that into it's (also Unlocked) Becm. I found that the first number in the HSKs Becm was already 64......Caused me to recall I had tried this about 2 years ago without success.....
However, being a bit tenacious about this sort of thing, and seeing as I had no working fob for the HSK, I went ahead and loaded all 3 codes from Bolt into the HSK....What could possibly go wrong??
In this case, nothing went wrong, and the Becm accepted all 3 codes. Figuring one had to be correct, I tried to sync the fob.....
It WORKED!!.
I pulled the key from the non working fob that came with the HSK and inserted it into the now working fob.
As this is the Missus' daily driver, I am now a hero in her books!
I am going to send the other 2 fobs off to be read as they work, but I have no way of getting the codes for them.

This means, of course that if you have a fob on the correct band, a Nano or equivalent, an unlocked Becm, and a way to get the fob code, you can very easily make any fob work! Even the ones that they sell on sleezebay!!
Now for a large celebratory Rum!
Cheers!

This started on a dark and stormy night last Christmas......
I was driving home from California on the Coast Highway so as to avoid a large Sierra snow storm on highway 5.
the coast route had snow and ice as well, and as soon as I hit it, I got ABS and TC lights on! Not sliding or braking, so coincidence????
Pulled over, cycled ignition, and issue went away for about 10 miles, then on again.
Pulled off again, attached Nano, and looked for faults. None reported for brake system??
So, as it was 3am and I had been driving for 14 hours, I drove on.
Oddly, the ABS and TC seemed to be actually working...

For the last year, I have looked into the problem a couple of times, and again, no faults are ever reported by Nano.
When you turn on the ignition, and without starting the engine all 3 amigos go on.
After about 15 seconds, the Brake light goes off, and the message center beeps telling me I have an ABS failure.
Once I start the engine, and move the vehicle a small distance, (the usual distance that is needed to extinguish
the TC and ABS lights) the message center tells me I have Traction Control Failure.
I have 2 2002s here, and a 1999, so I compared readings from the Nano.
I get 2.33 to 2.35 volts on all sensors on all 3 and the nano says I am doing 1.7kph at a standstill.

Since this is an issue of the system failing at self test and before even starting the engine, and since all initial
readings for all 3 vehicles are virtually identical, I thought possibly it was an issue with the ABS ECU. So,
I pulled the working ECU from the 02 Borrego, and placed it in Bolt.
The issue went away for about 100 yards, then came back with the same message center warnings.
Anyone have any ideas so far??

Now, it gets stranger......I took the known good ABS ECU back out and installed it back in the Borrego.
The Borrego now has the SAME SYMPTOMS!!!!!
Identical behaviour when I switch on ignition.
Installing the ECU in Bolt for 5 minutes seems to have affected it. Again, no errors logged to be read by Nano!
Now I have 2 02s with the same issue. One that started on the road, and the other started in the shed by swapping in the ECU to Bolt.
Can anyone think just what is going on here, because I am stumped!
I hesitate to try the ECU from the 99, because it works...... but may take the Borrego ECU and try it the 99 to see if the problem shifts as expected........
Cheers,
Tom

Does anyone know if it is possible to change any of the 3 fob codes on an unlocked Becm using a Nano?
Cheers
Tom

Aloha all,
I was nor sure just where to post this, as I believe it needs to be posted EVERYWHERE!
Recently, I was directed by KCR (Thank you!) to a bloke named Simon.....
He has come up with a nifty postage stamp sized board which, when inserted into the Bosch engine ECU will send the mobilisation
code needed for the fueling and ignition to function. There are 3 wires to solder on to the board and one pin lead to clip.
Install takes about 15 min start to finish. He needs to know the mobilisation code as it is pre programmed into the chip.
He can provide the chip preinstalled into an appropriate ECU which just needs to be swapped in. No soldering skills needed.
There is also a jumper to install at the Becm to disallow it having a say as to cranking, which it does indeed
disallow in an alarmed and immobilised state.
With this device installed, I proceeded to annoy the Becm by locking with the fob, and unlocking with the key in the door.
Normally, this will trigger the alarm and immobilisation mode will be activated needing either the EKA or a push of the button on a working fob.
To my utter delight, I found that the engine started just fine and there were no notices on the dash. All systems worked fine as well.
Of note, the dashboard alarm Led does continue to flash as if the alarm is going off. As I have unplugged the sounder,
this is the only indication I have that there is anything going on. I believe sounder can also be disabled in Becm with Nano....
I then locked the car with the key, and waited 2 minutes.....The Becm goes to sleep, so no unwanted battery drain.
I got 2 of these and will install in the Borrego tomorrow.
The peace of mind this will bring to me with regard to wife and friends using the trucks is priceless! No worries about the dreaded
"Engine immobilised, enter EKA or press fob" message to them when far from me and the Nano (Also, always seems to happen on a dark and stormy night) :)
I believe this little board could keep a good number of very nice P-38s out of the Knackers yards!
Especially considering the difficulty / expense involved in getting replacement fobs now.
Oh, yes, I do not work for or with Simon. Please contact him if you have questions. He is now registered on this forum, so should respond.....He is "PsiDOC"
I shall continue to report on performance as needed, but so far? FLAMING BRILLIANT!!!!!
Cheers, Simon!!
Tom

Some observations on random EAS and locking issues. I am hoping Gilbert can offer a theory.....
My friend is still here and using Bolt to run errands with. (He is the one who had odd issues with EAS a couple of weeks ago......)
A few days ago, he was parked next to the Borrego, and when he unlocked Bolt via Fob, whilst talking on his CDMA phone
the Borrego promptly woke up, and lowered just the rear end to the bump stops. (Timer relay is out, and just a 4 pin in place.)
It has had zero issues with EAS prior to this, and none since.
2 days ago, he was walking past the Borrego, and his phone rang. The Borrego locked itself. No fobs involved, but the dogs
were in the car, and wife had just checked on them, thus BECM was awake. Wife had left keys in the ignition, so had to use Valet key
and then fob to re mobilise.
Last night in Bolt, he turned in the seat to get something from the back seat, sat on his phone and butt dialed it. The doors locked themselves!
I am aware that CDMA phones can affect EAS as I was helping a friend in Australia figure out why his would randomly go to access
height for no apparent reason. It turned out that it was his phone and it only occurred when he was in a fringe signal area, thus phone was putting out more power to connect. Around town, no issues.
Here, his CDMA phone has effected both the 02's but only when he is in a low signal area.
I have GSM phones and have not had issues, that I am aware of. My Mate in Oz also had no issues once he switched to an GSM phone??
I know the factory phones in these were CDMA in US, so I am curious as to what has changed, if anything?
Maybe the factory phones were to blame for some folks EAS isssues?
Any clues?

Well, it's not an oily bit, but it will leak as soon as the tape comes off.......
I loaned Bolt to a mate for a few days and is seems it does not like him.
First, it started a slight front end wobble, that turned into a 60 mph "Wobble- O- Death".
Found LF tyre is a bit wonky and the stabiliser is knackered....Easy fix.
Next, the EAS decided it was going to be in extended mode, blink and beep at him and refuse to lower.
This showed as an "Pressure switch failure" on Nano.....This it has done before, however clearing the fault
fixes it, and the switch, and pump are fine, with recent pump overhaul.
On the way back here, he was driving at highway speed, came to a slow bit, and when he released the brake pedel, he said it roared off like he had hit the gas. This was only once and only for a second, so I am thinking I need to lube the throttle cable.
Annnnnnd.....Last but certainly relating to the title of this post: The rear glass spontaneously shattered as he was driving a low speed on a smooth road.
All this in just 3 days!
He found some small sharp bits of gravel just inside the glass on the lower left corner. This was from some concrete blocks we hauled last year. Somehow a few grains went into the area between the glass and the plastic trim piece on the bottom of the lift hatch and worked their way into a tight enough spot to scratch the glass. bang!
Question is:
I know the glass is bonded, but is it tough to remove one from another hatch and re install. I can get a hatch from a breaker for 50 bucks, but it is a horrid green respray, so if I can swap the glass I will be happy.
I tried searching, but came up empty.

Aloha,
Having a pair of 2002s, I have the opportunity to observe some slight differences. One of which is a real mystery.....
On the Borrego,when I press the wash button for the windscreen, the wipers start, the water sprays for as long as hold the button.
Once I release the button, the wipers continue for a few seconds to clear the screen, then park.
On Bolt, when I do the same, it does the wipe wash however, when I release the button, the wipers immediately park!
No delayed off.......
Is this an Becm setting? I would assume they should both act the same?? I know, assuming anything
on a Rangie is a short path to madness!!

Thoughts? Observations? Adjustments?
Cheers!

Well,it is DSP, but that part works, when it works....
I had both radios in both 02's go out within 3 days of one another.
On Bolt, the unit would play for about 2 minutes in the morning, then started showing "Telephone" and going silent.
There is no phone and no cabling for one....Sometimes, once it cooled down, it might give me 2 more minutes of music, before
doing the same thing.
On the Borrego, it started showing me all of it's pixels on the display, A couple of days later the display went blank, then shortly thereafter it went silent.....
I tried swapping the heads from one to the other and also swapped in known working DSP amps.
The issues switched with the heads, so it was the heads.....
So, driving Bolt with the dead stereo, it would occasionally start "Popping" from the speakers.
I could effect this by hitting the brakes, or turning on the headlights. Points to an ground issue (Imagine that?!)
I did get in a known good head, and this worked well in Bolt, until I hit the brakes, then it shut off......
So, I believe the common earth point here is C0708-0 per Rave.......I cannot however find the section that tells me where this is?
I suspect it is the earth point under the radio? Little help Gilbert?
On another note, on the Borrego, it crackles when I turn on the ignition whether or not the head is plugged in or not!
It is not the DSP as I have swapped in both my good spares as well as the one from Bolt. Same result.
Kick panel plugs are clean and shiny......Where is the "Other plug" on the way to the DSP?
I know on the "other side" this crackling has been diagnosed as failing DSP. I do not believe this is so.
But with the DSP amp, who knows! I could be wrong;)
Hope to get some tunes going again soon!
Cheers,
Tom

Edit: Sorry, should have posted this in Oily Bits....No coffee yet.....Please feel free to shift it.

Aloha,
I seem to be getting the old "Baffle them with Bullshit" routine from Allisport!
They sent me a tank for a gems, which takes a cap that looks like it is from a Classic.....They sent no cap.
It has only 2 nipples, and no provision for over pressure blow off.
The last 8 weeks, I have been waiting for them to send their
"New Design" which is supposed to use the existing pressure cap rather than a bayonet style........
It seems they now are under the impression that "Some" P-38s were made with "Different caps".
YEA, Right!
Before this devolves into a trade war, can anyone recall seeing a P-38 with a plain screw on cap?
Here was his response this morning to my sending him pics of the tank they sent:
Comments welcome!

Hi Tom
After seeing the picture that you have sent it looks as if you have the new design which has replaced the original typr as shown in your first picture. The new design should fit the standard cap however we have since found that a few cars were built with a different cap which I imagine yours has. I can send a cap to you asap or we still have a few of the old parts so we could make an old style header tank for you but we don’t have any of the ALLISPORT caps so it would come with a standard bayonet cap.

Please let me know your preference so I can get this sorted for you.

Well, the good news is it is not DSP related. I still have 2 working DSP amps and 2 spares......
After having zero issues with the head units, I now have one on each car!
Now that it is cold and wet here (Getting down to freezing at night) I have found that the Borrego's stereo now comes up with "Telephone"
and refuses to do anything.
On Bolt, the stereo had a few hours where you could not turn it off, change stations, or volume. You could shift it to CD to shut it up.
Next day, dead as a doornail......... No display, no response to anything. 3 days later, it is back and after about 15 min of being able to control it, it is now on, and stuck.................On a horrible station!
Cannot change anything, at all. Sat nav still speaks loud and clear when appropriate.

Full disclosure: LH pollen filter cover has been giving me fits as i have tried several different types of closed cell
rubber to get a new seal on it. No luck yet. Thus, there has been water trickling down onto the LH side. I have not removed the kick panel yet.
On the Borrego, I am thinking back by the amp? Where does the "Telephone" signal come from? I am imagining a loose plug that is getting damp?

This is one of those Things that make you go "Hmmmmm...?"

Actually it is not making me go Hmmmmmmm? any more, it is now making me go "ARRGHHHhhhh!!!"
EAS on Bolt (02) has been flawless for a long time.
It has been cold (28-40F) lately, as well as wet.
Loaded up the wife and mutts and took a run to our favorite Fish & Chips shop. Made it about 2 of the 3 miles back and suddenly got an
EAS FAULT message on the dash. All lights on selector flashing, and extended height indicator on cluster.
No worries thinks I, Just plug in the trusty Nano, and sort this out.....Easy....... NOT easy......
The Nano initialises, I select EAS with engine running and all doors closed, select faults, the fault screen comes up, and the Nano promptly reboots itself!. I tried multiple times and it either reboots, or just shuts down when i try to read faults.
If I try to look at any of the other EAS screens, it simply freezes on that screen, and does not display any data.
I have to unplug the Nano to get it to reboot.
Nano reads engine, SRS, HVAC, Trans, etc no problem. Just throws a wobbly on the EAS.

As it is a dark and stormy night, I did not get under the bonnet, but as it was sudden onset, I am thinking water in connector, but which one?? and why would this cause the Nano to have such a dramatic shutdown?
Any thoughts?
Cheers!
Tom

OK,
Full disclosure.
I was chasing a slight weep at the Left rear of the engine on the white 02 "Bolt".....
As I still do not have my full tool set to do head gaskets as they are still in Hawaii due to the virus related lock downs and quarantines, and
the fact that I needed to shift about 600 miles North with all of the kit, and needed to use Bolt to tow with.....
And, as Bolt has 156k miles on the clock, and has been a perfect performer in all other ways......
I very timidly added 1/2 of the small blue bottle of K-Seal to the rad tank....I know: Imminent disaster!!! Overheating, plugged heater core, ruined radiator...Etc....Ad Nauseum....
But wait! The weep stopped!......Then it returned a week later but much less....So I added the second 2 oz of K-seal (The other 1/2 bottle)
I have now done 2 major round trips 1400 mi each, and towing heavy trailers up and down the mountains
on I-5 and doing 75-90 mph in 100+ degree heat with A/C blasting with not a drop of coolant spilled, and no overheating issues!
I was, and am still fully prepared to replace both the heater core (with Audi) and the rad, which is factory......
However, as it is not blocked, and has performed much better than I expected on the towing trips, I will say:
"The stuff seems to work as advertised"
I will admit to being very surprised and expect to find a deep smouldering crater in my parking space sometime soon, but until then,
I am content to let things simmer along as they are.
I felt I needed to post this as the various snake oil quick fix "Mechanic inna bottle" type things seem to get nothing but bad reviews.
Could be I got lucky? Heck, I will take luck any way I can!
Oh, I am sure that some of the stuff will really ruin a cooling system, but hey! Just saying......
Cheers!