Orangebean wrote:
Gilbertd wrote:
Don't worry about the cows though, it's nothing to the amount of Methane they produce.
More worried about them running around burning really. Farmer would be most upset if I attempted an impromptu barbecue with his prime milkers.
The field is at the top of a hill, so no worries there. Only problem is the village is in a natural bowl at the foot of the hill, so need to make sure the wind's not blowing in that direction...
You've not got the worst of problems there to deal with as you can at least run it to the point where it changes back due to lack of pressure - this would remove most of the contents of the tank (and 35l of gas would add approx 18kg to the weight of the tank anyway) just by using it up. Thats only a concern if you need to remove it though, looks like you could avoid having to do that.
I've found the few tanks I've had to deal with taking them somewhere out in the open and slightly undoing the solenoid post is enough to allow them to vent - you just leave it to do so until the pressure has gone. If the tanks staying inside the vehicle same process just put the gas tight box back on it and allow the vent tubes to vent it outside.
Don't undo it too far though, else it will shoot out! just undo it until you start getting gas hissing.
Gilbertd wrote:
Have you got a decent vice? Put a socket slightly larger than the hole of one side and something, a nut or whatever you can find, on the other side. Do the vice up tight and push it out. There's two chances, it'll start to move or you'll break the vice.....
Good plan there, assuming your not doing anything with it tonight I'd also stick it in something to soak the end where the bolt is. Bucket of diesel would work!
blueplasticsoulman wrote:
Finally got the trailing arm off.
Had to cut the rear most bolt as it just wouldn't come out. Even with it off the car, plastered with penetrating oil, braying like mad and having heat on it, i still can't get it out. I'm up shit creek here cause clearly the car is now in dry dock until i can fix it. Any ideas how i can get it out please?????
Only options I can think of are either to press it out (if you have one/can get access to one) or drilling it out - you might find a small hole down the centre of it to begin with gives you a chance of drilling out a bit bigger if your lucky, the action of doing so might be enough to loosen it.
GeorgeB wrote:
I know I'm going back a bit, but my UK '38 - with LPG - was insured via my little local high street broker for a good few years. Gave up trawling the net for cheaper in the end. They always came with a better quote each year. Same when I bought my 17 year-old son an early 2.5 LR90, cheapest by far for fully comp (3rd party was dearer).
And they made you a brew and bikkies at renewal time!
Most of those type of brokers have long since disappeared thanks to the likes of comparethemeerkat/Moneysupermarket.com etc. Theres a local branch of Swinton where i live, most of the others have disappeared due to people shopping only on price alone (and finding out later why the likes of Swiftcover.com are cheap when it comes to needing them)
Martyuk wrote:
Interesting... Mine comes up for renewal early January.
Currently with Admiral, and paying around £470/yr fully comp for mine...
Looking to switch, as they max out their NCB discount at 5 years (or at least did) - and coming up this will be the 6th year I've insured with them, so hence not expecting any form of additional discount - so going to shop around a bit more...I'll definitely be checking out Mustard to see what they throw up..
It can be worth giving Admiral a call a few days before the policy is due for renewal - I've had to do so to alter things (removing cars from cover etc, swapping vehicles/milages around etc) - When i've done so they usually look if they can apply any discount at the same time, last couple mines ended up lower than the renewal quote was.
Orangebean wrote:
Don't forget, you're a youngster Marty, whereas I'm geriatric :)
As I said at top, I've now gone to Admiral. They wanted proof of my 20 years plus no-claims- not easy to do as most places stop counting after 9 years, so I inundated them with 20 years worth of consecutive renewal notices, which shut them up. If that number was so important to them I wonder if they're just trying it on with you by stopping counting at 5?
£470 seems a lot. Obviously one of the few benefits of being old is cheap insurance then!
Edit- they didn't even ask for my LPG cert, and didn't load me for my stainless exhaust, both declared as modifications.
And yes, they still max out their discount at 5 years, but would guess they would still have to have evidence in the event you change in the future to pass onto someone else at renewal. Though they would normally just need details of who you've transferred from...
Its also worth being aware that some of Admiral's call centre staff do not know what they are talking about with LPG - they will ask for any assortment of random bits of paperwork to be sent in or just say we don't cover lpg cars. I'd recommend hanging up in this case and calling back, hopefully to speak to someone with more of a clue!
blueplasticsoulman wrote:
no10chris wrote:
Low water level, lift the expansion tank up, stuff a rag under, top up the system
Level is to the line. When you say stuff a rag under, is that to raise the height or mop up spilled water??
Orangebean wrote:
Under bonnet pipes will do. Feed to matrix is the one closest to and fed from inlet manifold. Return from matrix is the one that runs down to thermostat. Speaking of thermostats, yours isn't stuck open by any chance?
How do you check astuck thermostat? It won't blow cold?
Easiest way is to check the temp of the pipes either side of it when your warming up - If both sides are warm before its fully warmed up then its probably stuck open.
More accurate way is to stick it into water and see what temp it opens at - but you'd have to remove it for that, and probabbly quite difficult to tell as you can't remove it from its housing anyway.
Thermostat is used to control when it allows water into the radiator - effectively used as a way of dumping excess heat. To get cold air from the blowers the heater will close flaps to stop the air going through the heater matrix (which is just another smaller radiator anyway).
Sounds to me like the vapouriser isn't getting hot enough quickly enough - If its too cold then you will get the liquid gas coming though and it won't vapourise where it should do and instead ends up injecting far too much gas as it begins to expand in the pipework/injectors etc.
It might be worth checking you have a decent flow of coolant through the vapouriser - Easiest thing to check firstly is how warm to the touch it is when its left on idle, if the heater is warm it should be at least fairly warm to the touch, Ideally you want it hot enough that you don't want to touch it once the engine is warmed up. The temperature itself isn't as important as keeping it warm enough to prevent it freezing up.
blueplasticsoulman wrote:
Based on that logic, I best keep an eye on the radiators in my house. There's 17!
Not really - your radiators probabbly aren't made of rubber, nor do they significently expand, or are expected to deal with sudden shock loads whilst being filled with air.
Richard did say further back that the britpart ones (as opposed to the dunlop ones in britpart boxes) didn't have as good a seal, it might be worth looking at that with the soapy water test, though the leak rate is so slow you might not be able to detect it anyway.
Lpgc wrote:
I'll try another browser. Currently using Chrome in W10.
Firefox on Windows 10 is fine here.
Gilbertd wrote:
Yes, I suspect that the fact that both axles are driven on our cars is the reason why they are plated to tow a greater weight than the car. As far as trailers go, it's the MAM, or Gross Vehicle Weight as it used to be called, that is relevant. So even a little box trailer that may weight about 100 kgs when empty, will have a MAM of up to 750 kgs so doesn't need to be braked (and can be towed by these youngsters). It also means that every trailer must now go through an IVA test so it can be plated and certified to show it's MAM. Technically, gone are the days when you could just weld together a few bits of angle iron, stick a pair of wheels and a tow hitch on it and use it (even though lots of people still do).
There was a big fuss a few years ago within the motorhome fraternity who are in the habit of towing a small car behind their mobile 3 bed detached. Even though quite a few smaller cars weigh less than 750 kgs unladen, it's that MAM that is important and with all other than the Smart car, their maximum loaded design weight is over 750 kgs. The law states that a trailer with a MAM of over 750 kgs must have brakes on all wheels so a simple A frame isn't good enough, they have to have a mechanism that applies the brakes on the car being towed. That also means that a braked two wheel dolly that lifts two of the towed cars wheels off the ground still isn't good enough as the other two wheels aren't braked.
The rules are completely different for recovery as opposed to transport, where a dolly or spectacle lift are good enough. The emphasis being on getting the dead or damaged car off the road as quickly as possible. So when you see one of these transporters loaded with scrap cars off to the crusher with an extra one on a spec lift on the back, that is actually illegal as the car on the spec lift is being transported rather than recovered.
Yes - I've seen ways of applying the vehicles own brakes in this situation, but at best they appear to be a bit of a bodge job (some sort of mechanism to push the brake pedal down by something else wedged against the drivers seat, looped in through the window, the better ones appear to use a method of hooking to a modification to operate the brake via a cable through the engine bay. Neither would have any vacuum assist though, which could be argued as not having fully working brakes etc).
It seemed to me having looked at it that the best bet was if you wanted to drag a car around behind you either get someone else to drive it, or use a trailer (in either case adding the advantage of not having to have a Smart car!)
Gilbertd wrote:
BrianH wrote:
In either case 750kg is a heavy trailer,
No it isn't, a P38 doesn't even know it's there! I regularly tow around 2.5 tonnes and my car will cruise at 75 mph (on the continent where they don't have this stupid reduced speed limit if you are towing) with that on the back, it just takes a little longer to get there. Heaviest I've towed was a boat on a trailer with a combined weight of around 4.5 tonnes. Other than it being over the maximum weight for the car it was made worse by the trailer not having any brakes. I had to remember to only apply the brakes when pointing in a straight line.......
I'll rephrase what I meant - An empty trailer is unlikely to be 750kg by itself, though yours probably is, but the MAM it appears comes into play as well - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/towing-a-trailer-with-a-car-or-van/towing-a-trailer-with-a-car-or-van-the-basics for anyone looking for further info, but put as simply as possible its down to what the trailer can be loaded to. That would be the convoluted bit as its not as simple as it could be or you might expect it to be to understand.
And yes, the P38/Disco 2 etc do tow like there isn't a trailer on the back, biggest problem I find with the smaller trailer I've got is seeing it behind mine. The Focus I've got on the other hand your reminded its there all the time your driving it.
Gilbertd wrote:
As an observation, the P38 (and the Disco too I think) are one of the few vehicles certified to tow a trailer that weighs more than the car.
With this point i think the same applies to the defender and some other vehicles as well as the Disco (the towbar on mine is rated for 3.5t even though it only weighs 2, but I couldn't drive it in that situation whereas you could). Something to do with having a second driven axle if my mate is correct.
RutlandRover wrote:
Picking up the sofa from Coventry today and taking it to Huncote. At the weekend I need to take the sofa from my house, swap it with the one in Huncote and then pick up two matching arm chairs from Coventry and take them to Huncote.
It's all a bit convoluted but my driving license doesn't include permission to drive with a trailer rated for morr than, I think, 750kg (
Use of a trailer on the Sunday would definitely cut down on the number of trips needed if you could also spare the time to drive as well. My car has a tow bar if your insurance covers you to drive other cars?
I can provide manual labour to assist you on Saturday and a financial contribution towards the trailer hire cost :)
Its not quite as simple on the trailer rules as you state above - its 750kg or a combination of 3.5t in total, with the trailer weighing less than the towing vehicle. Quote from the dvla share driving license below (this would be assuming a Category B license is held, depends when you passed your driving test). - you can check your own license on the share driving license page and goto the vehicles you can drive tab to see what each category covers.
"You can drive vehicles up to 3,500kg Maximum Authorised Mass (MAM) and up to 8 passenger seats, and a driver, with trailer up to 750kg; trailers over 750kg if combined weight of vehicle and trailer isn’t over 3,500kg and the fully-loaded trailer doesn’t weigh more than the unladen vehicle"
If you took your test before 1st Jan 1997 then the rules are different (less restrictive) - See > https://www.gov.uk/towing-with-car
In either case 750kg is a heavy trailer, and you should be fine with somewhat heavier than that given you'd be using a heavy vehicle to tow it with anyway.
Gilbertd wrote:
GEMS uses 4 separate double ended coils instead of the Thor which has two blocks, each consisting of a pair of double ended ones in one block. If the GEMS was capable of giving individual misfire codes per cylinder, it would be easy to spot one iffy coil, unfortunately it isn't so it's down to the more traditional methods. The problem with the spark testers is that if the misfire only occurs when under load, you'd need to drive with the bonnet open and someone sitting in the engine bay to look at them.
I'd expected to find that to be the case to be honest, but with 4 on a bank there was a noticable difference even sat stationary at idle on cylinder 2 and 3. If Super4 can borrow some from somewhere it would be worth a try at least.
super4 wrote:
Yes - coils sound possible - and what you describe is more or less exactly what happens - but perhaps I did a daft thing - months ago I got a second hand coil pack and changed it. When I started the engine it sounded smooth and ok but that was also the case with the old coil pack when cold. So I don't have a definitive idea that the changed coil pack is 100%. Since then I have been through all the LPG setups and problems which are back to normal. But despite new plugs, leads - fiddle with TPS (still old), the acceleration was still showing a problem at times. If you were in the car at the time I have no doubt that any of you would spot the problem. After all my fiddling with TPS and other bits it does seem a lot better but as I explained, the heat is off the summer and it is much more like normal. But since the only significant thing I have moved/played with is the TPS it may be that that has reset something now that it starts its signal from the base/start on the pot. Still not able to do a reset with a Nanocom/ testbook thingy.
Given the rat activity it would be helpful to prove it is or is not an ignition problem - The testers i posted earlier (even a single one would be of some use) would at least let you prove there is or is not an ignition fault, and narrow it down to which cylinders etc.
Does the GEMS use a pair of coil packs like the Thor? When you changed them was it a single one or the whole lot?
super4 wrote:
Just to keep you in the picture - been rather lazy since getting the car to do more or less what it should and it is not bad. The idle is a touch lower than what I regard as normal but when I tried to rotate the TPS slightly to speed up I found it very hard to get the slight increase needed - a fraction of an inch seemed to make too big a difference so I let it sit back at the zero position. Meanwhile, the loss of power at low revs -typically in the 1000- 1500 range (throttle more or less closed just traveling on flat) - when calling for power for slight hill is slightly less noticeable. But this does seem related to ambient heat - it has become much cooler now September is here and instead of outside air being 37 ish it is more like 27. I have yet to change the CPS - it will be interesting to see if that is affecting it - but if it is a heat related fault I'd better do it soon otherwise it may not show. I think I have seen people say that the CPS can be faulty - coils failing ? as a result of heat and age - anyway it does seem related to a sensor information being wrong or variable.
The cps would be whats telling the ecu when to fire the coils - so either might be the cause, though I'd expect a cps to be more noticeable all the time.
The coils I've had fail are usually barely noticeable at idle, but like being kicked up the backside anywhere between 1500rpm and 3000ish and usually not very noticeable over that, particularly bad on acceleration (worse so on gentle acceleration). And played up with temperature as well.
super4 wrote:
Mine is GEMS whatever that means - yes your comment is relevant because I did have a lot of oily muck in the entrance to the throttle area and I did a bit of a clean on that. There is lots of muck around the cruise control and throttle cable where they act on the leverage but they seem to seat ok . But remember - I had no idle problems until I changed the TPS and now, having followed advice from Gilbert and others have got the idle ok again by elongating holes on TPS to adjust position for idle. So that gets me back to the original reason for fiddling about - the rough/strange running at certain speeds.
I'm wondering if the Latest EAS software v4 from Storey would help solve my problems - At about £160 it seems affordable and would pay for itself in terms of garage bills ?
Does it log anything for misfires? (any obd reader will tell you that if you have access to one, even a bluetooth dongle and phone app would be enough, doesn't need to be landrover specific).
EAS v4 may help generally, but you need someone whos used it to advise if it does all it claims. Nanocom Evo certainly does a lot more than the generic odb possibly could, but is somewhat more expensive (but doesn't need a laptop to use it, and can fit in the glovebox). Either would seem far more sensible to me than spending time and money on garage bills that don't fix the problem as your finding.
super4 wrote:
Right - many miles - it still drives note, but Range Rover Malaga - marble floors - shiny new cars with Range Rover labels which I would never recognise as a Range Rover - only 70 thou euros, says - in broken Spanish/English big problem - they can't reset anything or words to that effect and said something about problem with mariposa which means butterfly and they would need it for a big checkover. So drove home having escaped without having to pay anything !
Stopped at 'Tune Rite' - german guy in village who assures me he can reset things but said when I changed the TPS I should have disconnected the Battery (does say this in the manual) but I didn't think it necessary. Anyway, he said go home, disconnect battery for at least 24 hours and the computer devil should reset to basics !!!! What do you make of this ? He said I can go back and he will reset things if that doesn't work !
Orange, this EAS unlock old freebie that I have is only for the Air suspension - are you saying that v4 does all the code reads on our P38s
Butterfly might refer to the throttle butterfly so may not be as daft as it first sounds?
super4 wrote:
Well when I first got the P38 - second hand but in good shape it very soon started problems with running and in those days I could afford to take it to the RR garage and they quickly found the coil pack was faulty which surprised me and changed it at a cost of around 4-500 pounds ! The car ran perfectly afterwards. This time with a similar problem but ten years on, I cleverly bought a second hand coil pack for £35 and changed it in case. Car started, ran smoothly but having warmed up and driving quite slowly in traffic the engine seemed to 'hunt' or run unevenly as if missing again as it had before so I judged that unless the second hand coil pack was also faulty I had not found the fault. I have renewed plugs, leads, coil pack- trued up the LPG with help from wonderful people here but still have this problem on both petrol and LPG.
Repaired what I can see of rat wires and that is a possibility but this is an intermittent fault and seems related to heat.
Haven't had spark tester for years - so now you need 4 but is it just a question of being able to see a spark/light and can you then judge if it is working ok ? Thanks for pointing me to them.
Lurking in my post yesterday is the new Crankcase sensor which I'm scared to touch after my experience with the Throttle position sensor. Assuming it is the right one I read that there are critical washers fitted for different spacing on Manual and Automatic gearbox. I was planning to take it down to Dave on the coast because it is not easy to get at under the car on my sloping dirt track here on the mountain and I'm trying to avoid my 'Army operations in the field' which I have done in the past.
Anyway- going out to try and get the throttle position thing right - hoping that by driving round it will 'self adapt' to the correct idle speed again - crossing fingers but just don't know what that ECU gets up to or how it thinks.
i found it easier with 4 as you have a whole side to look at then - if you have all 4 you can easily see any difference between them, both on timing of the sparks and how bright they are. In my case 1 was entirely missing on cyl 3, and cyl 2 was very faint.
You could use a single one, but its a lot more faffing around (and with 4 you have them all on the engine so you don't have to keep it running so long, which means you don't have the exhaust so hot when trying to put them on the other bank!)
super4 wrote:
Yes - I think I was careful about refit - the original which I put back on has a slight 'start' on the travel so when throttle closed the potentiometer has started on track a little bit and this was running idle correctly at about 600-700. When I put the new one on there was no 'start' tension and that is when it ran at 2000 idle. I connected the plug on the old one again but took it out of the throttle housing and the idle was ok - presumably because the pot was at zero. When inserted the plastic key is started on track a little bit and this was obviously set at zero volts and ran fine before.
As you suggest - it needs to do the Adaptive thing or be set by testbook or other I think. Grateful for your extensive knowledge but what a nightmare these cars are when old and breaking. My friend here said dump the P38 and keep the classic going - much less trouble he said ........
The spluttering you describe a few posts back (particually with the revs around 1500-2400 rpm) I've had the same, kept chasing round the fault as I'd suspected it was a petrol injector at one point. The solution was in the end a coil pack, but to find that I ended up putting a set of these on the plugs https://www.amazon.co.uk/Laser-2780-Ignition-Spark-Tester/dp/B003AN1VPW/
That showed which cylinders were a problem - you should get all 4 cylinders showing the same on the plug testers (a single set is enough to work with, do one bank/side at a time) If they don't (mine was visibly different at idle though ran okish at idle) then either the coil pack itself, or possibly given your earlier comments about rats the wiring going to it (the 3 pin plug side) may be at fault. At very least it should allow you to rule an ignition fault out.
no10chris wrote:
Didn't realise urs was a disco, does the bonnet fold up like on a p38 ? ( nearly touching windscreen)
It's the LR gremlin keeping you on your time toes
Unfortunately no, the hinges prevent it doing so as they hit the bulkhead and wipers before getting much above the level it would be at with the bonnet prop. I know what you mean though, as my mates series III will allow you to get the bonnet vertical against the windscreen once a pivot pin has been removed, as long as he removes the spare wheel first.
Some padding helps with lying across the engine from the front, but its not something you want to do for very long!
I'd probably get a p38 if one came up at the time i brought the disco, or if the right one appears. Did get offered one though someone else but it was on coils, and the owner decided they would rather keep it as a garden ornament (it hasn't moved in some time apparently, so don't know what state it was in, and having experienced the disco which has been vandalised onto coils on the back I'd rather have one as it was intended to be really).