7J rims are supposed to be for 205 or 215 tyres, max 225, so the 235 is oversize on those too. Has to be a reason for the specifications.

Oversize puts more curve into the sidewall which will alter the stiffness and damping. Most likely in yaw or sideslip as when you run along the size of a lorry rut.

Given the known issues of a P38 on inadequate tyres, like the "death wobble" I don't fancy experimenting. I wonder if there is any tyre size link with the death wobble? I can see mine trying that sort of trick in a few thousand more miles.

Probably doesn't help that modern tyres are designed for independent front suspension systems.

Clive

The road manners of mine are definitely not what they should be, especially when well loaded, and have been dropping off over the last couple or three thousand miles. Bump steer and tilt steer effects plus general skittishness. ABS cutting in when it shouldn't too.

I figure the 9 year old Gabber HTS tyres are past their sell by date with around 4.5 mm of tread left despite having covered less than 30,000 miles.

Time for new Vredesteins I thought but they don't do the 255/65 R16 size called for in the book. 235/70 R16 they do do but RAVE says 255/65 are the size despite being 8J rims which, officially, should carry 225 or 235 although a maximum of 245 is permitted. 255 should go on 9J.

Presumably there is a reason why the official fitment is oversize.

Do I go for 235/70 R16 Quatrac 5 as per the Vredestien list, find some 18" wheels so I can use 255/55 Pros or settle for something different.

Gonna be a pain binning the unused spare but I don't trust the Grabbers any more.

Clive

Best to get the slip rings really clean whilst you are in there too.

One gotcha issue with brushes is making sure you get the right composition. Hardness varies considerably between apparently same size brushes initially depending on the voltage and current involved. Wrong composition can either wear the slip rings (or commutator if its a motor or old school dynamo) or jam up in carriers. I've seen some where a DIY fix using "some brushes he had lying around" worked fine for a while then jammed up in the carrier. With witness marks to prove it. Then there was the guy who filed down some oversize ones, but not square.

Yet another reason why I tend to steer clear of real economy range replacements.

The only really nasty gotcha with aged alternators is a poor joint between slip rings and coils. The back joint is usually well buried and a total PIA to deal with. Fortunately its not common but something folk forget to check on an iffy alternator as it should be done at operating current. Had to fix one on a BMW flat twin alternator once. Idiot Germans bolted a near standard car alternator onto the end of the crank so the shaft was different. No exchanges, new price sky high and the local rebuilder wouldn't touch it "they don't come apart mate". Really. Hold my beer!

Clive

Its had a cheapy replacement screen job.

Went to a local independent supplier when my original screen had to be changed due to stone damage as the insurance company I was then with worked on the find your on supplier and we will pay basis. Not the best idea in the world as the "We're super good and know everything technicians" struggled and clearly didn't know what they were doing. Came that close to chucking them off the job halfway through but paying for two screens rather than just the excess on insurance was gonna be painful.

Put the impulse down to standard Clive being unreasonable and sucked it up.

But it never seemed dry inside afterwards.

Three years down the line a stone chip straight in front of me killed that one and Direct Line set everything bar the date up with National Windscreens. The technician knew what he was doing, had the proper gear and put the screen in in a quarter the time. Very uncomplimentary about the previous fitting job. But a lot more polite than I was when I saw how badly it had been done. I'm surprised it didn't fall out! So little sealant so badly applied.

Apparently crap screen change jobs aren't that uncommon on a P38. The National technician said screen changes are actually quick and easy if you have the gear and do it by the book. But if you are short on gear and scratch around bodging it takes longer and rarely lasts. Just like every job on P38 I guess.

Clive

If mine is anything to go by you have about 3 years before it dies.

I'm down to 2 maybe 3 segments about half the time but about 1 in 5 starts, if its not that damp chill cold, they all come up and wave "Hi, I'm still here."

Then go away on the next start. Even if it was an "go to .." morning run and next start to come home was midday or early afternoon so its actually warmer.

Not to mention the occasional few minute to half hour appearance mid drive once the car is nice'n toasty inside.

Frustration may be good for the soul but not blood pressure or vocabulary.

Clive

Thanks for the zebra strip link.

Mine has just decided to go from very occasionally not all there to almost nowt. So its got to be done now rather than waiting for summer.

I expect the zebra will turn up same day as the snow!

Clive

Best to get it properly cleaned out about once a decade.

Had a SAAB 9000 with a non functional air con system due to the fan, duct and sensor being totally closed up by dust bunnies so it basically didn't register any temperature changes. Ex dust bunny is good insulator.

Clive

Yep, mix of speednuts and the expanding square nylon thingies.

If the screws were originally good quality drilling rarely works as the screws spin before the head is fully penetrated but don't get slack enough to lever out through the access holes in the rubber.

Total bastard to shift in one bit as per book. I tried to save mine which were good rubber over corroded steel and, basically, wasted a weekend getting them off in one piece. Binned about a week later under "life is to short to fix 'em" rules.

If there is ever a next time I shall do some careful cutting to remove enough rubber to see WTHIGO before going seriously medieval with added eval. Probably hit the screw heads with a grinder once der rubbered.

Clive

If the kunifer has been run correctly to mate up with the standard lines on the standard brackets there should be adequate room to work.

The original fittings on mine had corroded beyond the point of being undone so I had to cut the kunifer and fit new threaded connectors. All done working under the car with only modest verbal encouragement.

What did miff me is that I had to mix'n match parts from two different toolsets to get the right shape of end. So glad I didn't bin my cheapy "wont hold the brake line securely" device when I upgraded to a proper trade rated kit.

Clive

Problem is that the original Boge quality units don't seem to exist any more. I fitted a set of OEM Boge units with the correct Range Rover part numbers and got maybe 15,000 miles out of them before they clapped out. Rough pull'n push comparisons with the orginal 80,000 odd miles ones off the car, which I'd not got round to binning, revealed a similar lack of damping. In both cases the front end was rolling and pitching around in a scary manner. Bad enough to affect the steering!

I agree that the Bilsteins are a bit on the sporty side and would rather have the originals.

C;ive

Just had look at my "mid-life improvements" spreadsheet which I've been compiling in a rather desultory way to separate running costs spending from replacements.

After subtracting some, in the event misguided, spending that I'd not do next time round I get around £4,000 on parts for the major ticket items viz

Front ball joints & steering arms (Lemfoder), all suspension bushes (factory), all dampers (Bilstien), airbags, EAS compressor and valve block overhaul, height sensors all round (Dunlop, possibly not actually needed), stainless exhaust, new brake callipers all round (TRW), new disks all round, replacement air con condenser and drier, new tyres, new battery and a bunch of smaller stuff.

Obviously the details may be bit different depending on the actual state of the car but, I think my suggestion of being prepared to invest £4,000 to £6,000 in parts if you just want to go out and use it for the next 100,000 miles as if its a decent ex-lease or similar standard 30,000 to 60,000 mile modern car is realistic. The big question being do you invest £2,000 or so in an engine refresh straight out so its done. Assuming its not a well worn mess underneath I'd be unsurprised to cut that investment in half to get 50,000 no worries miles.

Because I got mine with 78,000 or so on the clock doing things as needed with preplanned extra work at service interval time made sense.

Clive

Well I got my costings from what I've spent on mine so far and what it would cost to do what I've not yet done. Basically the engine and an auto transmission refresh, possibly a diff if I'm unlucky, would be left to do if I were shooting for your mileage. Which I'm not.

What I am aiming for is not to have to futz with it as I get older.

Figure I suggested is for setting the lifetime clock back to as close to 20,000 miles as possible in one hit really.

In reality I've done things as and when needed like everyone else.

My spread sheet says around £6,000 in fuel (too many short trips!) and £7,000 for everything else, including tax and insurance, over 9 years and 27,000 odd miles. 20/20 hindsight says chop maybe £500 - £1,000 out of the repair parts list doing it as a one hit wonder fix. Things like going straight to a stainless exhaust rather than an intermediate change to "good brand" steel system and a second centre box. Nanocom is in the list too as well as the shelf queen Lynx & ToughBook. Can't see me hating anybody enough to sell the Lynx to them.

But Chez Clive is an expensive garage. I'm ruthless about changing out whole sub-systems when one part goes. Figure that at 20 years old its mostly age out not wear out so when one thing dies most of the similar things are getting old and cranky too. Getting into anything much beyond routine servicing once in a lifetime is quite enough thank you.

Clive

PS The money the official unofficial kid sister spends (wastes) on getting vehicles fixed makes me look like Scrooge McDuck!

Guide price is fantasy.

Realistically its too leggy to buy and run unless the buyer is in hobby car mode. Run a few miles to show it off, fiddle around every other weekend fixing bits then run a few more miles to show off.

But if its fundamentally sound, basically unmolested and cheap enough it might be a candidate for the "throw £4,000 to £6,000 and a months work at it to fix everything" then do 100,000 miles before a mid life improvement session to get another 100,000 miles on it. With basically no fiddling along the way. Just routine work as per the book. If it goes for a grand or under be looking at maybe £10,000 spend over 200,000 miles. Could well be less. I'd take that.

But if, like me you just want one to run at relatively low annual miles, about 4,000 for me, it's way too leggy when 100,000 mile (ish) ones can still be found.

Clive

Great to hear that your big red beast made it through the MoT so you can enjoy the fruits of all your hard work.

I find it hard to believe that a P38 braking system can get into a state bad enough to fail an MoT whilst still remaining driveable. Even with the seals on one calliper completely blown and those on another being in the process of downing tools in sympathy mine still had plenty of brakes.

Tripped over some very rough notes I made when initially planning to go for braided lines after the calliper failure and subsequent full set replacement with new TRW ones. The brake lines running down the car had previously been replaced with Kunifer so a sensible option seemed to be to replace the frontmost, body mounted, bracket ANR5917 with one holding a through bulkhead fitting set parallel to the chassis and conveniently accessible to both the main Kunifer line and braided hose down to the calliper. A couple or three clips attached to the other bracket mountings would hold the braided hose in a nice smooth, very lazy, S shape run from calliper to bracket. Close to a straight line really.

I don't care for tight clamp supports on braided hoses. Last time I did such a job I found a source of hollow "rubber" sleeve mouldings maybe 3/16" wall thickness about 1 1/4" long with a 1/8" or so ridge at both ends. Bore was nicely sized to take the braided hose with just enough clearance to loosely support it. simple sheet metal bashing to make sone P shape clips to hold the sleeves.

Only significant deviation from straight in my planned pipe run would have been the obligatory anti-vibration curves in the Kunifer as it swung up to the bulkhead connector. Anti vibration curves are probably not needed in Kunifer but are a good idea if your Kunifer turns out to be copper brake pipe. As was supplied to me despite specifying Kunifier. In a practical world either is pretty much as good as the other but copper, even brake pipe copper, can work harden from vibration leading to possible fracture. Eventually.

In the end I decided staying standard was faster and easier. Especially as I wanted the car back quickly.

Clive

Maybe time to give the connectors for the abs sensors a squirt of contact cleaner. Things stay remarkably clean behind the wheel arch covers but they are under the car so its a pretty hostile environment really.

Clive

12 point bolt on the panhards is to accommodate the locking washer tab thingy. Basically gives 30° of rotation between fitting points which, in conjunction with the slot means it will always fit when the bolt is torqued up. Regardless of the angle the head ends up at. Can do the same with a 6 point if the hex cut out is rotationally offset to the washer centre line so flipping over gives a 30° shift.

Given the dire consequences of loosing a panhard rod bolt its probably sensible to make some serious efforts to ensure things don't come undone. But in comparison relying on a basic nylock nut at t'other end is a bit underwhelming. I try not to contemplate how little holds the car to the axles!

Objectively I think the guys who designed that 12 point head and locker system had been on a "Really Sophisticated Engineering for Pundits" course the week before and wanted to show off.

Clive

Fingers crossed that an update works. Its the sort of silly issue that tends to get left until one is needed.

Anyone know what the current firmware/software versions are and what the latest version needed for full P38 functionality is? Mine is maybe 4 years old and I've never updated it.

Need to find out why my Nanocom won't talk to the HEVAC system as I've had an intermittent book symbol for ages. Usually happens on first start in hot weather.

Clive

If its of use to you I'm quite happy to sell for a very modest number of drinking vouchers. I'll see if I can find it and unearth the vital instructions to find out what it actually does.

As I recall things I got it about 9 years ago wanting to run an iPod through the audio system but the supplier only sent half the kit. Apparently it needs two leads for the Range Rover. By the time I'd sorted out the issue, got the missing bits and dug proper instructions out of Connects2 enthusiasm had waned down to nowt.

I'll PM you soon!

Clive

I have a Connects2 harness that is supposed to do the universal audio deed for the Alpine head unit which I shall never use which really should go someone who will.

Far as I can see its supposed to piggy back everything onto the CD input. I'll need to dig out the instructions to find out exactly what it does. If I'm going to mess with audio I shall put a tablet in or at least a modern radio.

Clive

As another old fashioned grumpy old guy type I'm slowly assembling my own paper printout version of lrcat files in MS Word format. The parts catalogue drawings are also a great resource when you want to know where parts are in relation to each other.

I'm untrusting as to the ability of t'net to be a safe repository of such data. Besides the lrcat one part at a time number retrieval system drives me nuts sometimes, especially when I'm not sure exactly which parts I need.

I use a Mac so its not stupidly difficult to transcribe. Just slow. My process is to pull the diagram over from Safari (the native browser) to TextEdit ( the standard text editing app, albeit well souped up) then copy and paste the individual part picture ID reference numbers, part numbers and descriptors below the drawing.

I have a standard basic Word file with appropriate header, footer and page number slots ready to populate for each section. I throw the picture across from TextEdit then save that file in text format, rather than the native rtf, which strips all the gumph. Copy & paste the text into Word then reformat from lines to a table.

I knock off a few pages when I'm preparing a parts order or when I don't want to do nowt but don't want to tackle the "everything to do" list. Prolly be done in about a year or 18 months. Which is about what it took to do RAVE but that was just a PDF print job.

Clive