When I originally got the Disco (brought as spares or repairs off ebay without viewing first) it did have misfiring as the reason for sale. The previous owner had tried replacing the spark plugs and come to the conclusion it probabbly wanted a set of spark plug leads and I suspect felt out of his depth. I drove it back from the outskirts of Gloucester to Milton Keynes and it was fine as long as you didn't give it too much throttle though clearly something was wrong very much like what you describe. That turned out to be mostly his half-assed attempt at changing the plugs as 3 of them were so loose you could move them with your fingers, I replaced the leads at the same time as I didn't like the look of them at the same time, though suspect very little was actually wrong with them then.

If you suspect 1 lead is going bad, your best to change the lot. 1 cylinder logging misfires would suggest its more likely the plug or lead than the coil pack etc - these usually fail on a pair of cylinders, if you look at the diagram the top pair of the coil is one pair, the bottom two is another pair and so on. So if you had 2 on the same side of a single coil pack, it would suggest the coil is at fault (I'd suspect a damaged plug or shorted lead might cause the same result though as it would short circuit the good plug on that one).

Also changing the rest of the plugs given you know they are ancient would be a good plan, Might also be worth resetting the adaptives and seeing what your then left with, given the other logged errors. Once you've done that, have a look what the trims look like with the Nano would be the next step just in case something else is wrong (vacuum leak for example might explain some of the symptoms, particually if its not constant - something like a pipe rubbing against something so its only leaking some of the time)

Its also got some oddities going on with the listing - the plates are shown to be V reg, listing shows its a 1999 registered car, but the partial VRM shown is a 51 (2001) plate. I wouldn't even describe it as Red, it looks to be orange to me. Or as you say, Tomato Soup!.

You mentioned it leaks - do you know where its actually leaking from? Or do you just see the level dropping and no sign of where its escaping to?

If its a reducer issue as Simon has described above, the simplest way to diagnose/fix it is to disconnect the water circuit of the reducer somehow and see if its stops the leaking. Either a pressure test on the cooling system, or run it on petrol and see if the leak stops like that (can't run it on gas without the water running through the reducer as it won't switch over anyway, and would freeze the reducer, which would probably cause it to fail anyway).

Also if you take the spark plugs out when its cold, are any of them shorted out by moisture? wouldn't need very much to cause them not to spark until enough petrol is thrown about when its running badly to get them working again.

I'd be inclined to pull the spark plugs and see what state they were in at any rate, if you have the kit to do it doing a compression test at the same time might give you a bit more to go on.

I've had a piston get damaged enough on another vehicle to end up getting oil going back into the intake as it pressurised the sump too much as well as only really running on 3 cylinders properly (rings were chewed up as well as a hole through the actual piston itself) and that didn't get enough into the intake to notice any difference though it did coat the lower side of the air filter and box to the point where it started running down the front of the bumper. But its easy to have a look and see if oil is getting that far in the intake all the same.

If its on LPG you get more steam anyway in the exhaust as there is more water vapour in there. Though it shouldn't be as bad as constant clouds of it all the same, neither would that explain the black smoke that was mentioned?

romanrob wrote:

Gents - in the vid the rev counter registers nothing even though the engine cranks - should it?

What does yours do? I don't have anything to compare with thats close enough, but your Gems looks like a good match to his. I would expect the crank sensor is whats used to drive that, so you might be on to something there, but need to know what a working one does to tell for sure.

What sort of smell is it? Sweet sickly smells are usually coolant, if its more like stale or damp smells I'd think mad-as is pointing towards the right area.

If it comes to the worst case, those spiral helicoil things do work, I had a plug make a bid for freedom on the Galaxy some time back and had to helicoil the remains of the thread in the head. Didn't want to take the head off as its a complete pain to do on that and would have involved buying head gasket etc, so thought it was worth giving a try. Not sure it made much difference, but the vacuum cleaner and some small pipe got used to pickup anything loose, and greased the tap beforehand. Its been fine since.

Its possible on the Disco (but an utter pain to do so) to replace the coil packs without removing the upper manifold. I'm led to believe that the P38 has a bit more space back there to make it slightly easier, but I managed on changing the second coil pack when it failed to do so by lying over the top of the engine and unbolting it from the bracket, then sliding it out to the side. You want to do it with a reasonably cold engine though obviously. Helps somewhat to have something to lie ontop of the engine if your doing that, and you might just find it easier to take the top manifold off instead (be aware that the bracket that holds the coil packs to the engine also attaches to the manifold so you will need to remove bolts from that as well - which are easier to find once you know they are there and start looking with the torch for them - if i remember right there are 3 of them, one in the middle on the top that you can see, and one either side at the bottom which are much more difficult to see)

Morat wrote:

ouch! Don't they make any changes for LPG?
Best of luck with the sale, sorry I can't help out - I'm still fighting hard to keep the one I have!

If you'd been over there, you'd soon realise there is little to no LPG availability over there, Theres more available in the North, but its scarce in the Republic, and a lot of the places it is available are office hours only.

Also the petrol was much more expensive than diesel when i was over there last, it was around €1 a litre for diesel, close to €1.40 for petrol!

The tax situation would explain why thats the case though. Reading that list is frankly horrific.

More reading on the EAS unlock here > https://www.rswsolutions.com/index.php/range-rover-p38a

I think if you have a Nanocom or similar though that you wouldn't need it? Its used to reset the errors on the EAS system as it will lockout until you clear the errors (and fix the cause of the original errors)

I think it was in the thread called eBay finery if I remember correctly.

Just a thought here, is it possible the low pressure is a leaking injector (or possibly more than one)?

Its really a case of which option do you dislike the least.

I'd be swapping the plugs then and see what happens. Wouldn't do any harm to have a spare set of leads just in case though. AFAIK thats the plug you want to use - whats in there currently?

CPS I've known to play up with temperature, but looks like you've ruled that out. I think Richard has said plugs need changing far before 30k, particularly so if its on gas. (I think, but not 100% sure its 10k they should be?). As Romanrob said those spark plug testers can help if your not sure, particularly if you think a coil pack might be the problem. If its just showing multiple rather than specific cylinders I'd suspect its not the coil pack at fault though.

Given its dark now - pop outside and lift the bonnet, and have a look while the engine is running for any signs of arcing round the plugs and leads.

davew wrote:

I understand what you mean there Brian but again it is easy enough (in theory !) to explain with spacesaver to "use for 10 miles maximum or somesuch", and even put that on information on the yellow label (?) If drivers are such idiots as to ignore this then perhaps we should have realised they would do that earlier and only allow full-sized spares (?)

Absolutely agree about all the other Manufacturers 'fiddles' too but at least that was not so dangerous (.....except to our atmosphere !.......)

The environment yes, but also to your wallet as the purchaser. If you state it will do 50mpg and realistically you have no chance of doing so, then its not exactly good. Worse still if some engage in that sort of dishonesty whilst others don't Only useful as a benchmark when others are cheating the tests in the same way really.

Its not just a case of 10 miles (or whatever is specified on the wheel/car) - its also at reduced speed but would anyone ever pay attention to that?

I get Richard's point about the spare, though its one of the few parts of the car that can suffer failure by damage quite easily, Its also alot easier to change the wheel on some cars than some of the bulbs. There are a few people I wouldn't trust to change either of those items though.

davew wrote:

(Again) Richard "Marketing B/S" would be if they said "you have to have one of these spacesavers because of Regulation changes"..... and (again) I will let you know what they say. I suspect it is down to Emissions changes and thus associated weight reduction or worse than that - eg. "car buyers are asking for more boot space" and similar nonsense... ie The real B/S: ~ 50% of new cars don't have spares and yet many drivers find this out 'the hard way' ?!

-And perhaps these manufactrers have not noticed all the potholes either - 'great' for sidewall damage - as these really don't seem to feature in their ads. !

Similarly I don't think the comparison with folks carrying spare bulbs (etc) is particularly valid, although isn't that a requirement in France ? (Along with a warning triangle... and which should also be compulsory too. along with a high vis jacket !)..... and a rubber mallet, long breaker bar for the wheel nuts, plus tow rope, shovel....bright hazard lights etc et. (or maybe that's just me !)....

Anyway, that Merc collapsable spare wheel is quite an expensive gimmick too of course.... and I hope they provide a good pump for it in the cars too (and presumably a vaccum pump is needed later so you can actually get it back in the well (?). Not a great believer in "runflats" either, another expensive gimmick, particularly as using them for 10 miles or so trashes them. 'Great' to get you to the nearets tyre fitter but guess what... "special order guv. - but we can get them in a day or two" !!

Perhaps overall the real answer is to ensure manufacturers for both ICE/Hybrid EVs quote MPG/range figures for real world..... a couple of passengers, some 'standard' luggage, a spare wheel and so on.... (and all the other things their lobby would avoid) !

Its probabbly more likely, that given a lot of people don't understand space saver spare wheels aren't suitable for use for an extended period (you must have seen cars running round on them which clearly haven't only just had a puncture, I see them fairly regularly, some of which you see more than a couple of times still with the spare in use) that they just stopped providing them. That and of course, that means if you damage a wheel you have to source another one from somewhere to replace it (and on a relatively new car, that will be a trip to the dealers parts dept to purchase one with plenty of potential for profit).

Bear in mind with the weight reduction it will make a slight difference - maybe only slight, but you only have to look at some of the other fiddles they were doing to boost emission figures to see it would be enough for them (testing with higher tyre pressures than normal, very little fuel in the tank, etc as was exposed with the VW situation)

How old are your spark plugs and leads? Sounds like damp leads to me or worn out plugs. Or a coil pack also possible?

If all of the above are OK, it could also be your crank sensor dying.

With the ones suspended underneath, the retaining mechanism can be a major problem as well once corrosion sets into it. As far as the spare is concerned and its presence for a test, if it was required to have it for the car to be roadworthy, you'd technically have a car that wasn't roadworthy after changing it on the side of the road once it had gone flat. Might sound daft, but sometimes things have to be made completely clear to avoid anyone (Plod mainly) misinterpreting them.

I'd agree with the comment on the flat on the side of the road, I've had to change a tyre twice on the side of the motorway (once on the m1, once on the m25) due to sudden failure. In both cases a tube of gloop wouldn't have worked, as one of them had a hole in it large enough to put 2 fingers into, and the other was a failed valve stem. But a preferable option to waiting for someone to turn up to assist at any rate.

davew wrote:

It is quite hard to write a response whilst I am also peddling hard (and charging my PC with a bike dynamo) so bear with me.....
(and YES, that is also a 'joke'...)

but I am quite disturbed now to be informed that some of the stuff on the 'Net is just lies though ! Presumably this is a subset of the statement that "Bad News Travels Fast But Fake News Travels Fastest" !?

So, and very briefly..... For the record I detest Microsloth and have also lost count of the number of CC kids I have spoken with about iPhones from China and also the whole "financial backstories" on Lithium and Cobalt .... but I reapeat kids do think differently that we did as kids (Surprise Surprise) Just why that is is a Long Story of course...
perhaps 1,.21 or 31 years

And I meant any 'advantages' for hybrids not actually having plug-in facilities at all...

Damn... a puncture.... lights dimming.... should have bought a plug-in bike, obviously !

Pedal harder!

The only advantage i can see with a hybrid with no plug in facility is that if you are crawling though very slow traffic, you'd do a fair amount of it without burning fuel. Not all of the distance by any means, as the batteries are too limited, but you'd typically find somewhere like the approach to the Dartford tunnels for instance you'd cut a chunk off the overall emissions in theory. In practice, it probably balances out to make very little difference overall, as the extra weight of the batteries you have to drag around is always there (and bear in mind that lots of manufacturers have got rid of things like the spare wheel to reduce weight and in doing so increase economy). But if it took you 10 minutes of moving very slowly though a queue it might improve the air a bit around it. Though again you could offset that against the startup emissions of a now cold catalyst that won't be effective until its back up to temperature again.