And an area that can be hard to avoid, I've seen a fair few posts and comments from people and in the effected area getting rid of their relatively newer diesels as they don't meet the required standard to drive without incurring the charge

Lpgc wrote:

hugh wrote:

A similar thing happened to me last week, poor tickover and a struggling throttle response and variations between normal and abysmal
Tested the battery voltage with the engine running - oh oh this doesn't look good.
Gave the alternator a whack with my trusty hammer -and she's been OK ever since.
As a precaution I've ordered up a spare alternator from a good P38 breaker on eBay and will get new brushes + voltage regulator (if available) to overhaul the existing

I've told the story about when I had to drive back to Yorkshire from mid Scotland using a generator to power vehicle electrics due to a failed alternator on a bank hol weekend a few years ago (different model vehicle but same problem) lol.. At first that alternator started working again if given a whack but the period of working between whacks became shorter and shorter until it wouldn't work even straight after a whack. When home I fixed the alternator myself the next day for pennies, just fitted new brushes but not available in Scotland on a bank hol weekend.

I've had an alternator fail just like that. It really chose its time to do it - in the middle of Belfast the day before I had to drive to Dublin to catch the ferry back on the Saturday morning after. Finding an alternator over there off the shelf for the car seemed impossible, ended up finding a place that could either fix the alternator or get a rebuilt one (Also hampered by having no tools with me to take the alternator off to do anything about it). The replacement ended up coming over to them from Huddersfield!.

dhallworth wrote:

For some reason, D2’s rot horrendously compared to P38’s too.

David.

I gather they treated the chassis on the P38 (possibly galvanised it?) and didn't on the D2 to stick with Land rover traditions (like the series vehicles). So the body stays reasonably ok (except for the boot floor in my case, though that was minor compared to the issues the RR Classic or D1 have there) whilst the chassis rots from both inside and out. Supposedly something that BMW ownership made happen in the case of the P38?

You also lose the chassis to rot on the D2, suffer with poorly designed sunroof that will leak when the rear end of the car is lower than the front, and the ACE system on a lot of them can be a bag of problems due to pipes rotting away I gather (not got ACE on mine but that seems to be what some end up scrapped for).

Personally I find the handling on the D2 hideous at times, though mine has coils on the back which probabbly doesn't help any. I've not been in one with aigbags. The other D2 I've been in was a sickly TD5 (Failed head gasket) and it seemed slightly more pokey than the p38 diesel I've been out in, though both seemed to be noisy and slow compared even to the D2 with the V8. I'm not sure the P38 diesel in that case is in the best condition it could be though, as it starts with cloud of smoke when warm so maybe that isn't the best one to judge it by. Owner doesn't seem to want to do anything about it, hes been driving it with a suspected blend motor fault for over a year, so heater is stuck on the hot position (for some reason my Nano won't connect to his hevac, it just sits there flashing as soon as you try, though it will connect to other modules just fine).

The Chassis on mine is a mixture of welded repairs, rust and oily bits up the front end. The p38 we have had on the lift and the difference between the state of the chassis on that (which is a 98 model so is older) and the chassis on my D2 is very noticable - slightly scabby in a couple of places, but nothing that you'd really worry about and could easily be sorted with a wire brush and some paint.

Of course some will have brought the D2 ES to get the extra seats in the back as well, an option that wasn't there for the p38.

Lpgc wrote:

You could use a schraeder valve tool to remove the valve temporarily while you have the pressure gauge connected. Some such tools look a bit like a radiator key but with a forked end.

Example of them on this Amazon listing
https://www.amazon.co.uk/pengxiaomei-Valve-Repair-Single-Remover/dp/B07T6SF2N5/

I think you'd find the screwdriver type a bit easier to get onto the port though that kit includes both types.

Main difference between the two is the corrosion inhibitor, the Oat stuff is supposed to be good for 5 years, the blue one only 2 years. Downside to the oat one is that it's not compatible with some materials, I think copper is one of them. And obviously mixing them isn't recommended either.

If you haven't already tried it, some high revs can be enough to clear loose bits out of the y pipe to stop rattling. I had the same after having a coil pack go, stuck it in 2 and took it onto the local dual carriageway for a few miles. No more rattling after that!

davew wrote:

Typically dave3d these types of policies have a fixed minimum/'set up' fee of about £200, and then 4p/Mile

Not for real ££££ classics either - lots of better normal/classic insurance deals for our p38 available anyway.

As far as I can tell these policies are mainly aimed at young/very low mileage drivers (?)

Definitely aimed at those sort of drivers to bring the cost down. Plenty of blackbox policies around (one of my neighbours had a policy like this with LV - self installed sensor that plugged into the lighter socket and requirement for mobile data availability).

I don't think it was particually cheap either, considering he was driving a Corsa at the time and was over 50, I think it still cost him more than my business use insurance for 10k miles on the Disco at the time.

They aren't hosted on the pub, merely linked from other sources. So if anything happens on that service, like photobucket when it started charging the photos disappear. I think Marty had his hosted on his own server and he is probably aware they aren't available at the minute.

Whilst there are public charging points here, I'd be surprised if they were free? I was under the impression that you had to have some sort of account to use them? Though the VED situation clearly isn't going to stay free for them forever either, something will replace the lost revenue from it.

The thing is, to do the head gaskets, you need to replace the valley gasket anyway. Thats probabbly the reason for doing both as most of the work is already done. I wish I'd done the head gaskets on mine when we had it apart as they are now leaking oil from all 4 corners of the engine so it needs to come apart again to sort that. Though its not leaking quite as badly as it was when the valley gasket ends had decided to fail, both had gone so hard they snapped when removing the rubber seals from the valley.

It took us the best part of a day to get the valley gasket out, and back together again and thats the first time either of us had tackled anything beyond the top manifold on it (its a Thor Disco 2 in the photo above but engine is the same as the P38, Don't know if yours is a GEMS and can't see any photo in the thread to tell me either but the bits below the manifold level are the same either way). My mate is more of a diesel engine person and runs away screaming at the idea of taking the heads off any V8 engine for some reason though is perfectly happy to pull a gearbox apart...

There is a coolant passage either end of the valley, looks like its leaking from there (which will be the valley gasket). Some of the coolant passages are used on there (2 if I remember correctly) and the others are capped by the valley gasket.

Photo shows where they are, which might help you track them down. A pressure tester and good look with a torch and mirror might allow you to see them

Given also that it could be said to be leaking (water from outside to inside) when I spoke to Autoglass regarding exactly that, they said it would be a windscreen out and replace it job and that was no issue on the insurance for it. Haven't actually done so as yet in my case, as have discovered the actual source of the leakage (hole corroded through the body right next to the screen, my guess would be the paint got scraped on a previous screen repair and allowed the rust to get into it, been filled with windscreen sealent to stop the water coming in for now, but screen is going to get replaced sooner or later as its starting to delaminate in that corner as well and has a chip over the other side, but that will probabbly be a case of get it removed, fix the corroded bits by welding etc, then get a new screen fitted). But it didn't seem to be an issue either way, just one of those things that happens.

Ah yes your not wrong there now I know who you mean!

It might be worth speaking to Martrim and asking about what can be used that you can source locally if your going to get the material from them if you are struggling to find something suitable. They may be able to advise or have an alternative option you can get hold of easily.

Who is Riland????

It might be worth a good squirt of contact cleaner into the obd socket if your still having problems. I gather that EAS uses different pins to most of the other systems so you can find it can just be bad contact in the socket.

I'd suspect some of it is having something to show off for the kind of folk that work in places like Canary Wharf. Or used to when they still went to an office for their job. I used to see some proper classics driven around that area when work took me down there, and theres no way the driver of them would have even known where to put the oil in to look at them, let alone deal with something as basic as changing a tyre etc.

I'd also wonder how messing with the weight distribution on something like that would effect the suspension as well, I would imagine the suspension would have to be seriously gone over to make it handle in an acceptable way to someone parting with that sort of cash for one. Though only ever been in one RR classic and didn't find it was a particually nice journey (very bouncy from what I remember)

I'd have a look on Ebay for that tool if you want it. I'd suspect that you'd find shipping it both ways to cost you more than the tool would cost you to get hold of and keep. https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Drive-Shaft-Socket-Wrench-with-9-16-Inch-Nut-3-8-Inch-Drive-Tool-DA1065/264094265801 This one looks to be in the US ? You'd probabbly also get hold of it alot quicker that way.

You'd need at least the rear wheels off the ground and the handbrake off to turn it as well as being in neutral. Not sure how the D2 differs in that respect but we had mine on a lift when we last had the propshaft off so you might need the front wheels loose to be able to spin it around.

Looks like Pierre thought his way round that with the Edinburgh location for exactly that reason, to get round the problems you highlighted. Though maybe he could find his way down to the summer camp if its allowed to happen if his plans change?

Also found that before the current obstacles (Brexit) getting couriers to send stuff to ROI was interesting. Tended to be a case of "it will get there when it gets there" was the attitude of most. To the point that when I was installing tills over there, I had to bring back a load of kit and ferry just as much about the place to get the job done, whereas anywhere else it would be sent to site and picked up from site in most cases. Came back with the back of the car stacked out to the point it drew the attention of the customs folk till they actually looked more closely at it, and realised most of it wasn't of any real value and was clearly packed for disposal purposes. I can only imagine it would be much more difficult now with the added paperwork to deal with.