Is it hand carved out of a solid gold ingot? It should be at that price. Is it even the correct badge though? I don't recall ever seeing anything like that.

The early AMR3375 (94 to 96MY) superseded to AMR6405 which was fitted to 97MY cars and they are interchangeable. I'm not sure if the AMR6476 as fitted to 98MY cars are compatible with an earlier car but the fact that the 97 version doesn't supersede to the 98 version would suggest there are differences and they are not a straight swap.

If anyone has never seen the inside of a fusebox, have a look here https://web.archive.org/web/20180516002340/http://www.rangerovers.net/repairdetails/electrical/fusebox.html#dismant. There are two circuit boards that are connected together with wide copper strips so they open up like a book. Then there are the two rows of pins down either side that also connect the two boards together.

There are 3 part numbers for the GEMS fusebox. The original one (AMR3375) was prone to failure as some of the copper tracks on the board could overheat and eventually burn through. It was replaced with the second attempt (AMR6405) which was redesigned so the tracks that were prone to overheating were made wider and this one was fitted to '97MY cars. For the '98 model year (AMR6476), the design doesn't appear to have changed from the previous version but the copper tracks are thicker so increasing the current handling capacity. Whether a '98MY one can be fitted to an earlier car I don't know, I'd need one of each apart to compare the two.

For the Thor (YQE103410), they carried on with the thicker copper tracks so these are less prone to failure.

The diesel also had similar changes. An early one (AMR3376) which supersedes to AMR6406 (which was fitted to '97MY cars as standard) and AMR6477 fitted to '98MY cars. From '99MY onwards they got YQE103420, but for some reason they got another change very late in production so from VIN YA438098 they got yet another one, YQE000010. That isn't shown as a superseded part so no idea if that one will fit an earlier car (well, any of them will fit but whether they will work as intended is anyone's guess).

In all cases overheating relays cause the fusebox to fail as it overheats the connections in the fusebox so if any of them are starting to show brown marks, replace them with good quality 40A ones.

Not if it is still going to fit in the box. The circuit boards are the exact size to fit inside the housing so the connections need to be where they are.

Not on mine as I've run out of things to do with them now I've got the red one running properly on petrol as well as gas, but on one I was asked to look at a couple of months ago.

The problem was a permanent SRS light but although the Nanocom would connect to all the other systems, it wouldn't connect to the SRS ECU. Checked the obvious things like the connector behind the RH kick panel and could find nothing wrong there so ended up taking the centre console out to get to the SRS controller. Checking there showed only 3.3V at the supply line. Traced it back to the fusebox and still only 3.3V coming out of that, in fact, there was only 3.3V at the SRS fuse. So diagnosed a failed fusebox. Grabbed another from a local breaker, fitted that, the SRS light went out and everything was working as it should.

Quite why there should only be 3.3V on one fuse was a bit of a mystery so I pulled it apart a couple of days ago. It showed signs of burning around the output pin of Relay 9 but everything else looked OK from the outside. Getting it apart and it was obvious that someone had been in there before and had cut the pins between the two boards to open it up. Unfortunately, when they'd put it back together, rather than replace the pins, they had just soldered the cut ends together.....

When I did my apprenticeship (many years ago), I was taught that solder is to give electrical conductivity and not mechanical strength but whoever had done it obviously missed that part. You can see from the pic above that some of the pins just had blobs of solder on the two halves but the solder hadn't flowed properly between them (there's at least 2 that are obvious if you look). When I came to cutting the pins again, at least a third of them just came apart. I'm actually surprised that it was only the SRS that wasn't working looking at the state of it. Some of the board connections had been re-soldered but it looked like they had been done with plumbers solder or a soldering iron that wasn't up to the job.

So, I ground down the solder and punched the old pins through the board to remove them so I ended up with nice clean pcb tracks to solder to.

Once that had been done, I went round any iffy looking solder joints and did them again and cleaned up some of the pins and relay/fuse contacts that appeared to have been damaged by water getting into it at some point. Folded the two boards back into place and clamped them so they were parallel and fitted new copper 1.25mm straps between the boards and carefully soldered them.

Checked to make sure there were no solder bridges between pins and put it all back together.

So now I have a fully refurbished fusebox for a later (99 onwards) V8 P38 (part number YQE103410, the one that is no longer available) which I did consider putting on eBay but decided that I may as well keep it until someone needs it.

I've also get one that has been similarly fettled for a GEMS but that is going in my stock of spares as I have 2 GEMS of my own and I may need it myself one day.

Sorry to hear about Dave3d, he was active on here and on RR.net too.

Do you mean Keycode Lockout or Engine Immobilised? Keycode Lockout appears when the battery is first connected and goes out after 30 minutes. During that period you can't do anything. If it is immobilised, then you should be able to enter the EKA with Nanocom and hit the Disarm button.

It isn't just the tank though, it's a full system complete with pump and filling hose. Smiths pump are ridiculously expensive on their own.

Edited the post to try to get the image to appear but failed.....

Not sure what it is showing though other than the fact it looks very rusty under there.

Is there any chance of opening it up and replacing the well tired NiCd battery with a NiMH one? Mine doesn't have one, the Ascot and the red 4.0SE both had one but its been unplugged.

Are they nylon the same as the P38 EAS pipes? Could you buy a length of this https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/air-hoses/4834970, tape the end of the new one to the old one and pull the old one out and the new one in?

nigelbb wrote:

If we were to move & the new property had an existing LPG tank I wonder if we would be able to utilise it?

I don't know if tanks come with a blanked off bottom take off or if you would need a specific tank but yes, you would need a pump to transfer it to a car.

BTW I assume that using 47KG bottles or an LPG bulk tank we should really be paying 28.88p per kilogram fuel duty.

Strictly speaking, yes you should declare what you put in your car to HMRC and pay the fuel duty and quite possibly the difference in VAT too as domestic fuel is 5% VAT rated (so that is what you would pay your supplier) but road fuel is taxed at the 20% rate. That is one of my arguments against EVs, anyone that charges at home is using electricity intended for domestic heating and cooking so only has 5% VAT on it and no road fuel duty. Charging at a public charge point and it has 20% VAT on it.

It is but the rules are pretty strict as it needs to be a certain distance from the house and the boundaries and then it needs to have a bottom (liquid) take off too. So most people's houses aren't really suitable unless they have a huge garden. As for prices I can't find any of the suppliers that quote a price online, they all want you to enquire for a quote, but this thread from earlier in the year suggests around 50-65p per litre https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=207&t=2068231.

That would be a good call, even paying the MFG ripoff price at Morrisons for half a tankful would get you through the MoT.

I've got a Flogas depot that is nearer to me than anywhere else and they are selling at 90p per litre. As they are only open Mon-Fri office hours no good at weekends so I, along with multiple others in the area, will fill up on a Friday. There's a few others at anything from 81.9 (Milton Keynes) up to numerous places at £1.10 which, while expensive, is still cheaper than Morrisons now so if I need LPG at a weekend I'll use one of them and bung in enough to last me until Monday.

Even if the savings aren't enough to make it cheaper than petrol, I'll still run on LPG. That is what I attribute to the longevity of my engine (now at 523,000) and the recently purchased red one still runs like a dog on petrol but perfectly on LPG.

Ahh, there's the difference. I NEVER re-use the ferrules. They are so cheap it isn't worth making up new pipes and using old ferrules that are going to be less than perfect. Then a good dollop of grease on them to stop damp from ever being able to get to the threads.

davew wrote:

On a more serious note even just turning the fitting slightly with a vice grip - maybe half a turn - causes the fitting to leak and brake fluid is a
penetrating oil.

If you can undo it half a turn, its undone so you don't have a problem.....

Yes it does but it shouldn't allow the evaporator to go much below zero or ice will form on the outside of it which could potentially damage it. I'll have to wait until we get a frost, which if last winter is anything to go by, might be one day sometime in February, and see what temperatures are shown then. Don't have any plans to go to the In-Laws in Latvia this winter so can't test it in really low temperatures. I know you get cold weather in Canada, do you have a Nanocom to check yours out of interest?

Not today but over the last couple of weeks. Back in August I replaced the AC evaporator and all appeared well, but it wasn't..... Now I install domestic AC systems and to be qualified to do that did a full F-Gas course which includes how a system works. A mate did the cut down automotive course which tells you how to do it but not the finer points of why you are doing what you are doing. He gassed it and the pressures didn't look right. If a system is working correctly, it should have shown around 150 psi on the high pressure side and 50 ish on the low side but it was showing low on both sides (like 95 and 15 psi). Normally that would suggest a low charge but as we had just put the correct 1250g of R134A into it, we knew that wasn't the problem. But it was working so leave well alone.

Only it wasn't working, or at least not as it should. After it had been run for 15-20 minutes, the book appeared on the HEVAC and it refused to engage the compressor. Leave it for a few minutes then start it up again and it worked but the low side pipe (the thick one) was covered in ice. It should be cold, but not that cold. Not only that but the compressor seemed to be running all the time. Consulting the course notes this suggested a restriction somewhere. As it is always advised that the receiver dryer should be replaced if the system has been open to the atmosphere or the desiccant will solidify, decided that must be the problem. Both of us missed the obvious in this diagnosis, the dryer is on the high side so a restriction there would affect high side pressure not low side.....
Ordered a receiver dryer, the gas was recovered, and fitted it. Regassed it and it was even worse! Now the high side pressure was still just under 100 psi but the low side, the suction side, was going minus down into a vacuum.

That would suggest a problem with the expansion valve or evaporator. The replacement evaporator had come complete with expansion valve but, due to getting at it being a bit awkward (up against the bulkhead behind the throttle linkage) I'd managed to cross thread the bolt that secures the clamp that holds the pipes on and buggered the thread so had taken the expansion valve off my original evaporator and used that. That had been working perfectly before so it couldn't be that which only left my replacement evaporator. Not wishing to dismantle the dash again, I bought some AC Flush, a cleaning fluid with so many hazard warnings on the container the label is only just big enough for them all. Disconnected the pipes and noticed this.....

So it appears that my receiver dryer really had been shot and the desiccant had been escaping. Cleaned it out, pumped the fluid through the evaporator. A couple of bits of dirt came out along with a lot of green dye and it seemed clear so, after removing the high side (thin) pipe and blowing it clear, put it all back together again. Mate turned up, regassed it, and the pressures were still low so that only left the expansion valve and we figured it must have been damaged by being hit by lumps of desiccant with 100psi behind them. Gas was pumped out yet again and the AC Off button left switched on. A Britpart expansion valve is £65 but a pattern part from an AC specialist company ( https://www.autoairconparts.co.uk/ ) did one for £25, so ordered that. That arrived the next day so took the pipes off again (at this rate I should be able to whistle and they will jump off on their own!), removed the expansion valve, fitted the new one and put it back together yet again. Went over to my mates place and we gassed it for the umpteenth time. This time the pressures were spot on, air at around 4 degrees was coming out of the vents and the Nanocom showed an evaporator temperature varying between 0 and 6 degrees.

The way it works is that if the evaporator temperature is above about 2 degrees, the HEVAC engages the compressor clutch. When it gets down to 0 degrees the clutch disengages and it starts to warm up from the air being drawn through it but as soon as it hits around 6 degrees, the clutch comes in again to bring it down. It does this ALL THE TIME, even if you set the desired temperature to Hi. The AC still works to dehumidify the air and the temperature of the air coming out of the vents is controlled by the blend motors directing air through or around the heater matrix. I suspect the only time the AC doesn't kick in would be if the temperature of the air being drawn in from outside is below zero. So, as well as reminding me of stuff I learnt when I did the course, I've learnt more about how the HEVAC system on a P38 works.

If all else fails, blue spanner, they can't fight back when they are liquid......

The Dunlop branded one is cheaper in the UK while the Thomas is more expensive, so it will depend on where in the world you are which is cheaper.

If you look at the diagram in RAVE (or the EAS SID), for the reservoir to drain it also needs NRV1 to be leaking.