The big red beast, a model year 2000 4.0 HSE, has gotten especially "lumpy" in roll over the past year or so. Particularly noticeable over nearside humps and hollows. Initial suspension movement seems a little too free then the dampers seem to catch up with a soft but sharp bump settling into a smooth but over damped feel. Currently just over 88,000 miles on the clock so I guess its suspension parts getting old. But which ones?

First noticed a couple of years back primarily appearing to be back end sway related. New OEM Panhard rod bushes in the Land Rover pack toned it down for a bit but obviously not a full cure. OEM Boge shockers went on this year as Mr MoT man was getting antsy. Seemed to do the trick and toned things down considerably but a couple of thousand miles down the line problem is back to seriously annoying again. Plan A for next step is to blitz all the other suspension bushes in one or two goes. Does this sound reasonable? Are there any unexpected issues with getting things out and undone. My usual practice is to replace all the bolts when doing this sort of job so if the quick, easy and effective way is "just destroy the nuts and hit it" thats fine by me. Recommendations for OEM quality bushes? I usually mail order from BritCar. No particular reason, just habit from when they were the only folk who had it all in stock for a job some time back.

I have the Laser Tools P38 specific bush fitting kit, a 12 ton press in the workshop and one of those Chinee universal bush removal kits so should be no tooling issues. Bought the Chinee kit primarily for the sleeves. Saves the mucking around looking for big sockets or making something up. Two decent lathes in the shop so making is no great problem but finding the material can be. Classic 10 minute job that takes an hour too.

I've contemplated getting a second set of suspension parts to re-bush and, where appropriate, re-paint at my leisure. Worth it or not? My MoT man is pretty good and only 50 yards round the corner so I can drop it off and walk home but has a thing about advisories. Especially paint and surface rust underneath so the occasional bit of re-decoration keeps him happy.

Anything else to be done whilst its all hanging loose. Recent airbags so no issues there. Maybe fit re-con prop shafts or at least change the UJ's given the miles. I figure that by 100,000 miles we will be in the zone where replacement should be expected so its not overly early.

Clive

Oh lor. Does this mean I have to get braces before I can do mine.

Braces really don't go with the proper Rohan Bags experience y'know.

Clive

Did mine with everything in situ. And bonnet at normal opening height 'cos nobody had told me that a P38 opens extra wide just like a Full Fatty does.

Having size 6 hands helps.

Jury out on the verbal encouragement. But it made ME feel better!

Clive

Sounds like temperature sensor issue to me. When a P38 decides to properly overheat they boil up in short order.

If its full of water, got proper circulation and has the fans running full time it ought to be pretty much physically impossible to overheat. Maybe point a IR temperature sensor gun at the top water outlet.

Frankly on a car of that age I'd change the sensors as a matter of course when doing such extensive work. If you are still on the original ones they are 20 years old which isn't a bad innings.

Clive

P38 plus LPG means a double helping of bollox from folk who don't know what they are talking about.
Still mumbling about conversion for mine, or, more likely getting on with Plan A (next year) which is proper "car to keep" rebuild on higher spec than my HSE including all new LPG. Unfortunately closest LPG to me is 15 miles or so away and retired guy doesn't get out much.

Clive

Callrova is my kind of guy. Does a proper job and willing to go the extra mile to verify that everything is working properly rather than just fixing the "simple" fault. I was very pleased with the service and results when I went to see him. Superficially simple issue flagging up ageing components in the BECM. Given the age of everything on our cars a proper health check is probably good idea.

Unpretentious cafe down the road was pretty decent and not expensive when I went.

Only 25 miles to Brighton for me so hardly an expensive trip in my case.

Seeing the SAAB 9-5s on dazer2000's car list reminds me there is a set of suspension poly bushes for a 9-5 and maybe a few other odd bits hanging round the workshop. Free to a good home.

Clive

Thanks for the information. Another one for the winter projects list.

Clive

Glad its all working well for you. Which one did you buy? Contemplating fitting one to my HSE (no DSP to worry about!) but retired defeated from the sheer apparent choice out there.

Clive

I use red rubber grease. Mainly 'cos I bought a tin of Castrol about 40 years ago and it seem a shame not to use it up!

Silicone oils are good but possibly a bit too slippery in some places. Had some bad experiences with (other folks!) inappropriate use. Its the very devil to get rid of it completely when its got in the wrong places.

Clive

Another cat hater here.

Went for a Lynx because it could also be unlocked for an early L322 should her ladyship get real problems with hers. The "made by Omitec who did test book" billing seemed re-assuring despite the Britpart label and implied that promises of function upgrades down the line would be met. Both brain cells resting hard at purchase time. Had I thought I'd have realised that no way would Omitec be allowed to use Land Rover Testbook code or data so underneath its just another reverse engineered hack. Turns out that Omitec now isn't, in real terms, owt to do with Omitec then.

As Marty says interface is crap. It does do what it says it does but ofttimes thats rather less than you expected. One or two gotchas that can really have you thinking before you figure the way out. One crash landing too. Using the transport height setting to help deflate the EAS is not safe as it can lock the car into transport setting so it won't come back up. Found out that the hard way and had to make up a lead for the free EASUnlock to get it unlocked.

No technical help available. Britpart won't answer, Marty must have upset them, and Omintec can't be got hold of. One trivial upgrade and now its abandonware. The bluetooth enabled module for tablet use is the new great thing.

I've seen the light and bought a Nanocom. Lynx will probably go for landfill eventually.

Clive

If you have mains electricity where you are working might well be worth investing in one of the inexpensive electric impact wrenches. Mine was around £50 from Lidl. Magic. Bought it to do the rear dampers on mine after an investigation last year with a 2 ft breaker bar showed that the top bolts were going to be stubborn. Put the impact wrench on the left hand side, pulled the trigger and the bolt shifted so easily I thought the socket had jumped off. Just as easy t'other side. Only downside is that its a bit bulky so might not be able to get onto everything underneath.

Darn sight better than the windy one I have in the workshop.

Beat the hell out of arranging supports for the long extensions so I could go postal with my super breaker bar. Short 3/4 extension welded to a 5 ft scaffold pole, with a joiner piece for another 5 ft of pole when things get serious.

Clive

What Orangebean said. Get a new one. At that price its not worth mucking around, especially as the end joints must be past their best. Can't get over how inexpensive in real terms so many mechanical parts are these days. Hafta keep remembering to check prices before putting serious work in. Especially on things that back in the day would automatically be considered un-affordable.

Clive

Several cycles of heat and penetrant blast on this sort of thing over a few days usually gets there for me. Get it good'n hot, not red tho', blast with favourite penetrator, I use Plus-Gas, leave to cool then blast again. Repeat a few hours later. Same again tomorrow. Doesn't hurt to spend a week on it, once in the morning once in the evening.

If it still didn't want to go my ultimate plan would be to make up a pair of overlapping clamp spanners with a hefty bolt to push them apart undoing wise and have at them with an impact wrench. Something will shift! But then I have the workshop facilities to make such things. Wondering if its time to get under, measure up, then make one for the tool-box in case of need. An afternoon in the shop making chips is, at worst, amusing. An afternoon under t'motor hammering, squirting and swearing is, at best, not fun.

Off topic but I have a bank of Mikuni carbs off an XJ900 on the bench at the moment halfway through the heat' blast treatment to free off two seized pilot adjuster screws. Customer Dork sheared the slotted head parts off the brass screws before screaming help! Fortunately there is nice little reservoir for Plus-Gas on top. Got the drain time down from never to overnight after a week of heat'n blast. When its down to under 4 hours they are going on the mill for new slots to be cut so ready for screwdriver time.

Longest one was a Bridgeport ram seized in its turret. Too big to heat properly but I set up with the ram on a decent slope and it slid down overnight of its own accord after 3 weeks of morning and evening treatment.

Getting rush headed on this sort of thing always seems to end in tears. Followed by a frantic search for someone who can manage an unorthodox fix. Done enough such fixes for other folk not to risk my own stuff.

Clive

Gilbertd wrote:

I couldn't find any mention of an Ascot edition either. I was going to buy the P38 bible but Amazon want £60 for it! Paint is Altai Silver (code 567) but it has a blueish tinge to it and it looks more blue under a blue sky but much less so on a cloudy day. V5 says colour silver too.

Looks like Ascot is a Land River badged push bike these days!

Prices for "Range Rover, The Second Generation" by Taylor are through the roof and into orbit these days. One optimist wants £165. Mine was £3.50 off E-Bay, free postage too, a couple of years back. 3 or four to choose from.

Clive

Great pictures. Thanks. Stolen to help me plan where best to lift car if doing work underneath. Axle stands and ramps don't give enough height for a proper view of where stuff is.

Clive

This forum seems pretty good for L322 information :- http://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/ . The official unofficial kid sister has had a 2003 TD6 for 3 years now and expected me to know about them!

Clive

I use a little plastic syringe to pull it out. Came with a two stroke oil pack for the strimmer I think. Holds 10 or 20 cc.

Clive.

Early ones don't have the flexi bit. Later ones do. Must be a reason why they put the flexi bit in but you don't hear of earlier vehicles being significantly more prone to manifold problems than later ones. Maybe to do with improving gasket security. With no continuous flange between all the ports its possible that things could be shuffling round a bit to accommodate different thermal expansion between the alloy head and steel manifold causing gaskets to loosen off.

Probably an edge case thing. Some did, some didn't and putting the flexi in was intended to shift the edge so the some did percentage got lots smaller.

I'd go for it taking great care to have everything properly lined up with no stress before and after welding.

Clive

Still got the old bolts? Give the threads on a couple a really good clean. Wire wheel on a bench grinder is best way but make sure the rest is sturdy and closely adjusted. Flexy rest and / or excessive clearance may well either jam things up or do the high speed ejection thing. Run a hacksaw down one side of one thread and repeat the clean up process to clean up the cut edges.

Try the bolt with the full thread first. Should screw in OK by hand. I pop a socket on to give something easier to grip or, if small enough use the screwdriver handle attachments I have for my 1/4" and 3/8" drive sockets. If at all stiff use the bolt with slotted threads as a clean-up / re forming tool. You can actually by thread fixing tools of this sort from the likes of Snap-On et al. But you really, really won't like the price.

On a job like that I'd make a proper set of restorers from scratch if really worried about condition. A little safer and a bit more effective.

Clive

If its a plain copper washer just anneal it and pop a bit of sealant on the bolt thread for good measure. It will be fine. I grabbed a mixed set in a nice box on special offer from a plumbing shop over 10 years back for emergency purposes. Yet to use one!

Copper is funny stuff to anneal. Most things its heat to red and cool slowly to anneal or drop in water to cool rapidly and harden. With copper either way leaves it uber soft. I prefer the drop in water bit as it comes out real clean.

Clive