If its particually cold where you are, that sounds like a failed capacator inside the head unit to me, would probabbly account for the popping as well. It may improve if the temp rises a bit. Given the likely age of the head unit is is the kind of failure you might expect to see with age.
It might be worth taking the head unit out and keeping it indoors overnight to let it warm up a bit and see if its any better, that might at least help you isolate where the fault is.
The line from LR appears to suggest the P38 is fine from 1996. Possibly questionable before that time? (I think some of the P38's are older than that?) https://check-vehicle-compatibility-e10-petrol.service.gov.uk/manufacturer/Land%20Rover
As Simon's said, super unleaded will still be E5. There is a surprising list of newer vehicles that have problems with it - VW have a lot of them.
On the water front, I don't find a problem with the current E5 sitting in the tank for ages. I have known it to go bad in the mower, where its more exposed to the air than in a sealed tank on a car. I'd think the occasional top up on it would be enough to keep it in good order personally. Older cars might have more of an issue with the water side of things, particually if they have metal tanks rather than the plastic ones used by most vehicles. Also if its a GEMS, I'd think the fuel filter would catch most of what you'd worry about, I've known filters that haven't been changed in a very long time to have very green looking fuel trapped on the intake side of them, whilst the other side looks fine, and they are still flowing ok at that point.
Anyone wanting more info theres a summary here > https://www.gov.uk/guidance/e10-petrol-explained
Or an article here > https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/104126/official-e10-petrol-launches-september
At the bottom of the Auto Express article, is a listing of the various vehicles with issues.
If the rotary coupler in the p38 is like most other vehicles, they are usually a long coil of ribbon cable that winds up and unwinds as you turn the wheel. Horn ones tend to be a lot simpler and are just a couple of tracks and a pair of contacts, but obviously its less critical if the horn doesn't work than an airbag I guess. Some cars seem to suffer more with problems than others though.
I've known a couple of cars with wet batteries in enclosed areas (one a Mazda Eunos) to have pipe connected to either end of the battery and then a tube (looked like windscreen washer tube in size and appearance) running down to vent under the car. Presumably for the reasons you mention above.
VGH17M last V5 was issued in 2012, suggesting it was still around at that point, although its not been seen by an MOT since 2005 so isn't on the road. Not to say it isn't being used somewhere offroad of course but still appears it might not have been scrapped.
This might be worth a try
https://www.gov.uk/request-information-from-dvla
"Information about you or your vehicle
You can ask for information that DVLA holds about:
you
your current vehicle
a vehicle that used to be registered in your name
It’s free.
Information about you
You’ll need to include:
your full name
your current address"
If it doesn't list it on the DVLA vehicle checker website, that generally means its either been scrapped, or possibly exported (Gillbertd would be the one to confirm if that might be the case?). It will still list it on the MOT history if thats the case.
The reg hasn't been transferred, as if it had the MOT checker doesn't list it (The Disco I have used to have a different reg which was kept by the person I brought it off and that shows the history only under the new reg).
If its been scrapped by the older method (ticking scrapped on the logbook and sending to DVLA) then it may stay on the vehicle checker website. Equally that might indicate its parked up somewhere offroad though on SORN.
By weather stations it could be anything like a temperature sensor with an outside sensor. If you have anyone with a greenhouse that might have one. My mate has one that detects the temp in his greenhouse with a gap of around 50 metres between the two. So it may not need to be particularly close...
The madness of the current UK situation I saw summed up by Stonemanor in Belguim (A shop serving British food to customers) now having to import from Ireland as they can't get stuff from the UK. https://news.sky.com/story/brexit-irish-suppliers-called-in-to-save-bacon-of-uk-supermarkets-serving-expats-in-europe-12213189
Pierre3 wrote:
Lastly, LPG was a big thing in Ireland about 15 years ago. Just about every taxi in Dublin used LPG but it never really gained any great support, and I don't know whether there are many garages in Ireland still selling, commercially, LPG on the forecourt. I have heard of people filling their LPG tanks from home heating tanks, but I don't know if that is just hearsay.
Anyway, I still like my DHSE, so there, although I see the day in the not too distant future when it will just be left in the drive as a nice place to sit in the summer, because the repair costs are too high and no one will buy it - except, perhaps, for our friend in Manila.
Pierre3.
On the LPG front I was over there around 4 years ago, and found LPG was very scarce on forecourts. There were a few places then, but literally a handful of them. Over the border in the North, there was a fair few forecourts with it. Here upto late last summer, it was fairly easy to find. The last 6 months or so has seen Shell remove around 200 locations, and now a load more appear to be at the point where they need work of some description (tank life reached at a guess) and its unclear if they are going to replace them or just remove them. At one point within 30 miles of me there was around 25-30 stations. Thats now down to 5, with a further 4 currently out of order.
The Irish equivilent of VED is insane and has been commented on to mean you rarely see vehicles there that are commonplace elsewhere.
The only diesel I've been in was as a passenger, and it seemed a bit gutless and noisy. Though that might be an indication of what sort of state that particular one was in rather than a good example (certainly seeing the cloud that comes out of the exhaust when it does start suggests all is not well with it).
YUG102480 is listed for Vins from XA310482 and is the Black switch
AMR2691 is listed for Vins upto WA410481 and is Red
They obviously changed them, but I don't know if they can be swapped over or why they changed them.
Gilbertd wrote:
You can put white bulbs in but with the LEDs being that much brighter they look a sort of washed out red. Red behind the red looks right (or as right as LEDs ever can).
One of my neighbours has discovered the same thing - I ended up with some spare reversing light bulbs for one of my cars thanks to that, as he found they were surprisingly wrong for the brake lights, so ended up buying red ones instead. Its a Porsche 924 he has but it was defintely not the right choice.
The reversing lights are much better with LED though so worth it for that. I've mainly changed some of mine to avoid having to change bulbs that can be a pain (sidelights particually as they seem to go fairly often for me)
It may be as much down to the area that StrangeRover is in - Herefordshire is very rural and somewhat lacking in decent bits of road. It also greatly depends how cheaply you can buy LPG for - Theres variance between stations I use of 52.7p-69.9p. Quite a difference when your buying 100 litres.
Probabbly this > https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Laser-Tools-6485-Alignment-Tool-for-JLR-Automatic-Gearboxes/272202241280
That seems to be the cheapest listing, but have a look for Laser Tools 6485 or 307-498 or LRT-44-011.
Microcat is the tool used by the dealships to access parts catalogues. Not the most friendly bit of software to use, but can be a very useful source of info.
If you can get what you want by just bolting onto the provided flange you should be ok?. At least you can remove it and revert it back to how it was before then?
Simon's suggested test above seems a sensible way to go, if you don't want to drive for an extended time on petrol beforehand, if you have a single hole tank turn the valve on the tank off and let it run till it runs out of pressure. Or switch it to petrol and let the pressure out of the front end by releasing the hose clip to the injector supply should also work. Or even just check for any pressure coming down the vacuum line or out of the injectors when there shouldn't be.
Morat - have you got a lead for your lpg system? If so can you actually see any fuel timings when your cranking? Or alternatively can you force it to start on gas? Thinking you could rule out crank sensor if you can see timings or start on gas.
Alternative way to rule that out would be to verify you have sparks, if you haven't already done so (when the problem is present).
Is there actually a filter on the Thor P38? There isn't one on the Disco 2 (though ECP do list one) and I was under the impression that the Thor doesn't feature a return either, at least on the Disco 2 it doesn't?
Gilbertd wrote:
That sounds like the brushes are getting towards the end of their life and are sticking a bit until it has warmed up.
Finally got it inside today to swap the alternator over. Got the alternator off except for the cables, go to do that and discovered the smaller brown cable wasn't connected at all. There appears to be a black cable thats been added which heads back towards the battery. When its warmer going to investigate that better, it was too cold and wet today to get further into it, but reconnecting the brown cable to the point on the back seems to have stopped the low voltage when first started problem. And now I have a spare alternator plus the parts to fix one just in case as well!
Gilbertd wrote:
What is you you send Paul? Customs get upset with certain descriptions and simply putting Car Parts isn't accepted for some reason, you have to put exactly what car parts you are sending.
I know sending "car parts" domestically some carriers don't like either - the reason seems to be that some car parts aren't allowed - Airbags, glass panels, seatbelt tensioners, some carriers also won't take tyres, steering wheels and other things. I'd guess its a combination of that, plus customs if they are looking to calculate duty etc like to be more precise as to what they are dealing with, potentially without having to open said package in most cases.