GEMS, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/range-rover-p38-exhaust-system-p38-V8-exhaust-system-complete-front-rear-94-99/272214722398 or Thor https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/range-rover-p38-exhaust-system-p38-V8-exhaust-system-complete-front-rear-99-02/262391772282 or direct from Maltings website https://www.maltingsoffroad.co.uk/parts/4570888410

Not sure what car it is that Simon is talking about but I suspect Japanese and someone has come up with the same implausible theory that affects early versions of the Toyota 1ZZ-FE engine fitted in the MR2 Roadster. The theory is that the cat innards start to break up and somehow make their way back into the engine so wear the bores. My daughter bought an early MR2 Roadster with a blown engine, owner had driven it about 250 miles across country and it had ran out of oil. He reckoned it had been using a bit of oil and after it had stopped with a bang, he had checked the oil and none was showing on the dipstick. We got a replacement engine, put that in and I pulled the old one apart to see how bad it was. One big end had seized and the conrod on that cylinder had snapped due to it being run with insufficient oil.

The MR2 Roadster has two cats and after a period they will start to burn oil and a number of people have suggested the same happens with them. Now I found it hard to believe bits of the cat could get sucked into the engine against the flow of the exhaust, it didn't seem to make a lot of sense. A lot of websites quote this as the cause of high oil consumption and recommend gutting the front cats to prevent it. However, only pre-2003 cars suffered this problem, later ones didn't and when you looked it seemed pretty obvious that Toyota didn't think this was the problem either. Pre-2003 engines had two tiny holes in the pistons behind the oil control rings and the recommendation was to use semi-synthetic oil. If the oil wasn't changed regularly, the holes got blocked and the oil control rings stick in the grooves so did nothing, hence the thirst for oil. On the engine I pulled apart, the oil control rings on the 3 pistons that remained in one piece were all firmly gummed into their grooves. From 2003, the pistons got 4 larger holes behind the oil control rings and Toyota recommended fully synthetic oil and these don't suffer the problem even though they still have the same cats fitted which would suggest the cats have nothing to do with it, it's the fast and furious generation that don't seem to understand the benefit of oil changes and routine maintenance....

Brian has now identified the car but I would still suspect it's the same problem as affects the Toyota engine.

Lpgc wrote:

Is there no in-between - A mild steel system that lasts nearly as long as OEM but cheaper than stainless? The last exhaust I bought was for a Grand Voyager, cost me £90. Went for that instead of a stainless system that would have cost many times more.

As I said, it's a bit of a lottery. Having had my car for over 11 years and 210,000 miles now, I've been there. On what I assume was the original system, the middle box started blowing after I'd owned it a couple of years. I bought a Britpart middle box which lasted no more than 2 years before it looked like this

Box not leaking but the pipe had come away from the box and was perforated along its length.

Bought a EuroCarParts own brand Klarius middle box which lasted at least 3 years before the (original) tailpipe boxes started to go so I decided to buy a complete system from Maltings Off Road. That was around £300 including downpipes with cats. The parts were a mixture of Bearmach and Allmakes branded items but within a couple more years, one of the tailpipes had gone the same way as the Britpart pipework while the rest of the system still looks good. The replacement section Maltings supplied was Allmakes branded and appeared to be the same as the rest of the system which makes me think the bit that had failed was the Bearmach branded section but I can't be sure.

So, at the moment, if anyone asked, I would say an Allmakes system will last but they don't make them, the same as ECP don't make the Klarius systems. So who is to know if a particular reseller is using the same manufacturer or has gone to someone that can supply something that looks the same but is cheaper?

Maybe they are fitting single points?

Odd, obviously a taste thing but the Vogue I'm half owner of has the same system on it as yours. We were sitting looking at it the other day wondering what we could do to make it look less vulgar. Considering painting the tailpipes black so they aren't as noticeable or even getting a mild steel system to put on it but the bumper has been cut to clear the tailpipes so it would then need a new rear bumper too. It's also got an aftermarket towbar on it so there's a big lump of ironwork on the back and not the nice discreet swan neck. It's a Vogue, it's supposed to be whisper quiet.....

Interesting. Using the link on the RAC site, I'd have to pay in Birmingham but not in Bath.

Speedo gets it's input from the ABS ECU so if there is a fault on the ABS system, it can affect the speedo. Do you get an ABS error on the dash? Odometer error will occur if the car has been driven with the instrument cluster disconnected or it has been changed as the mileage is stored in both the instrument cluster and the BeCM and it has detected that they don't match.

EAS should drop to motorway height after 30 seconds at more than 50mph and then size back up after 30 seconds at under 35mph. However, if the EAS ECU is not seeing any speed signal (as well as the speedo) it will also confuse it. Dropping to the bumpstops, accompanied by EAS Fault on the dash and all 4 lights flashing, shows a hard fault but you will need diagnostics connecting to identify the fault and reset it.

BrianH wrote:

Can't find the email now but it was asking why one of mine was ok for the Ulez but not Birmingham when the same standard is applied to both places.

Be interested to know which one is OK. The P38 meets Euro 3 so shouldn't be ULEZ compliant but there is obviously an error in the TfL database as it shows a 2000 or later, 4.0 litre P38 as complaint but a 4.6 isn't, even though they both meet the same standard. One other loophole was filled when they changed from the T-Charge to ULEZ. Under T-Charge an import, which doesn't have emissions data on the V5, was considered exempt, whereas under ULEZ, it isn't.

Because pattern mild steel ones are a bit of a lottery, you may get one that lasts or you may get one that rots out in a couple of years. You know a stainless one will last and it's a lot cheaper than a genuine Land Rover one (£1,893.60 inc VAT for the front downpipes alone, a mere £401.57 for the middle box though). My original lasted the best part of 20 years before the middle box rotted out, the Britpart replacement lasted under 2 years.

Just a shame none of them give the same concessions to LPG vehicles as France, Germany, Belgium and Holland though. Classed the same as a hybrid so allowed into all the zones.

Diesels have to be 2016 or later to avoid the charge, whereas petrols have to be post 2000 with no concession for LPG. Bristol are planning on going one better and banning diesels completely from the City Centre. The other exemption is anything with the tax class of Historic, so anything over 40 years old, is also exempt from charge.

You can try it, that will prove if the motor has enough grunt to move the range change spindle.

I drove mine with the motor removed (long story) and as I lifted off the throttle the revs dropped to tickover and I found myself coasting with no drive. It had put itself into transfer neutral......

Maybe that would free it off? Although mine was in high at the time.

Good point. The flock coating on the pillar trims gets dirty, comes off in places and generally looks a bit crap. I cleaned mine off, initially with white spirit then found that warm soapy water and a plastic scraper works just as well. Once off it leaves a clean surface which initially I was going to cover with something as I noticed reflections from other cars lights in the shiny pillar trims. But, after a while I got used to it and have left them as they were.

If the motor is trying to turn (if you unbolt it completely does it turn fully?) but not changing range, it sounds like something is stuck, probably due to lack of use, in the transfer case. With the motor off, you'll see a triangular shaped bit of metal that the motor engages on. See if you can persuade it to turn with a pair of Mole grips. It turns a cylinder with a cam groove cut into it to change the rotation into a forward and back movement which slides a dog to engage high or low ratio..

Getting back to the SUV argument, they are complaining that SUVs are bigger than they need to be so making congestion worse. Have they looked at the size of the Tesla? One of the biggest cars you can buy yet they are OK apparently......

As some may know my partner is from Latvia and Riga has a fleet of electric trolley buses running around the city (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C4%ABgas_Satiksme#Trolleybuses) but that involves miles of power cables above the roads and on the older ones the pickup points regularly come away from the cables so they just stop. Seeing the driver with a long fibreglass pole trying to reconnect the pickup is quite amusing but does nothing for traffic flow. No idea what voltage they run at and never felt the inclination to find out.

For cracked ABS bits, I've got a bottle of this stuff, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Plastic-Cement-Stick-Plastics-Weald/dp/B00QQNNWIW/. Paint it on with a small paintbrush and it dissolves the surface of the plastic and melts it back together. You can get the backing out without bending it but it does involve reclining the front seats, taking the headrests off, folding the rear ones and opening top and bottom of the tailgate so it can come out the hole diagonally.

The latest version of the London double deckers are Hydrogen powered according to the stickers on the side of them.

There's a spec here https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Motor-Man-Bosch-Fuel-Injector-Upgrade-D1830GA-ERR722-Land-Rover-4-0L-4-6L-V8-/301374020357 but not sure how accurate it is.

davew wrote:

Apparently it is nothing to do with raising revenues - it is about Climate Change !

Much like the ULEZ charges then. I paid a one-off €4.20 to France and €6.00 to Germany for a vignette that allows me to drive into their equivalent ULEZ areas. Without them, I simply wouldn't be allowed to drive in or, if I did, first time would be a hefty fine and the second seizure of the car. That is about cleaner air, unlike the TfL scheme where you can drive whatever you like, wherever you like, as long as you are prepared to pay the fee isn't.