This is getting very confusing with the same conversation going on here and on the dark side......

Marty, any chance of having a DSP amp replacement-a-thon now? The 2001 Vogue that used to belong to OldShep and has been rescued by me and a mate has the DSP system with just the sub working. It did work intermittently but now not at all, or at least not in the 40 minutes it took me to drive it over to my mates place anyway.

I used to carry a can of gloop with the pump (as well as the spare) but, after using it on a trailer tyre, didn't bother to replace it. On the two occasions I've needed to use the spare the tyre was in such a state that the can of gloop wouldn't have done anything anyway. I'd rather have to change a wheel than wait hours for a foreign speaking breakdown man only to have him tell me he can't do anything as he can't find a local tyre supplier with one in the correct size in stock. Once I had to buy a tyre for a trailer when in France and could only find one place with the correct one in stock and at a price that was at least twice what it would have cost me here.

I would put money on one having given up long ago and the extra weight caused the other to let go recently.

I've got two runs to do in the next 5 weeks, the first a 4,000 mile round trip, the second a mere 1,800 miles. Like I say, there's no point in standing next to it at the side of the road thinking, "bugger, if only I hadn't left xxxxxx in the garage, I could fix this in minutes".

I have once stood the spare upright on one side when I needed all of the boot (and back seat) space. By leaving the stuff that lives inside the wheel in it against the side, I gained more space but I wouldn't want to leave it there all the time as it is taller than the boot meaning the cover can't be put on. But is was fairly full......

That was with the rear seats and rear footwells filled up too.

Probably not what you want to see but I've always found if you make a box for things, you don't manage to fit everything in or don't manage to fill it fully. Like you, I've got a wheel well full of gas tank so the spare sits in the boot, hollow side up so it can be filled with a blanket, rolls of tape, jump leads, gasket goo, spare bulbs, spare CPS, length of climbing rope, steel binding wire, electrical wire, tyre pump, magnetic amber beacon, weatherproof jacket, big torch and other assorted bits (including a spare starter motor and alternator when I do my cross Europe runs). Down the side of it is 4 litre container of oil, bottle of ATF, 10 litres of water, squirty bottle full of washing up liquid and water, and a couple of small ratchet straps. All held in place by a 3 tonne trolley jack with small magnetic LED torch stuck to it.

On the left side there's toolbox, fire extinguisher, wheelbrace and an additional power socket run from the connector intended for the extra power socket if you have dual trailer electrics.

Then in the space that once had the OE jack and wheelbrace, there's warning triangle, tow rope, set of Schrader valve adapters for the EAS, set of ignition coils and assorted lengths of coolant hose in different sizes with Jubilee clips.

Then under the rear seat there's an old Panasonic Toughbook laptop with RAVE, EASUnlock and LPG software loaded on it and in the front seat back pockets the Nanocom, cable for EASUnlock, and a bag of spare fuses. Under the from passenger seat there's a 300W inverter that can be plugged into an additional power socket under the back of the centre console.

As my car never had the CD changer, sub or sat nav taking up boot space, I've got the full width of the boot available. Plod had an axillary battery on the RHS (cables to the front are still there) where I now keep my bottles of liquids and the toolbox fits nicely in the space where the sub would be if I had one. Toolbox contains just about everything I need about the only things that stay in the garage rather than travelling with me everywhere are specialist stuff like the big torque wrench, axle stands and angle grinder. In fact, if the torque wrench was in the car I'd have everything I needed to change head gaskets at the side of the road if I needed to.

I appreciate not everyone carries their entire workshop around with them all the time but I'd far rather be in the position to be able to fix something at the side of the road when I'm 2,000 miles away from home. My view is there's no point in having something you might need only for it to have been left behind.

You are likely to have the door amps which you will see with the door panel off (fag packet sized box mounted lower down the door next to the bass speaker). That is supplied with power from the door outstations (the other box mounted at the top of the door). Door outstations get their power from Fuse 9 in the BeCM fuse panel. This feed doesn't go through the connector behind the kick panel but through one higher up at the end of the rubber tube between door and A post, however, as you say, a problem there would only affect one side not both.

Bollox, it's dodgy microswitches. People that know nothing will blame the BeCM for everything from the neighbour's cat dying onwards. Marty does refurbed latches http://p38webshop.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=60 which are a lot cheaper than brand new.

There's 3 microswitches as a block but with locating pins that don't match the normal microswitch mounting holes so not easy to replace. Marty has sussed it and does refurbed latches with new Cherry microswitches. I've done it once but it's a real PITA.

The first time I had a failing microswitch it would only do it when it was hot weather. Probably something to do with thermal expansion and there's been quite a bit of heat about over the last couple of days.

Here

Ahh, you got here.

Find a tablet that will fit in the space, you can then run Google Maps or Waze by tethering it to your phone.

Nice one, I was expecting it to go for much more than that. Once you get it you'll need to register it with BBS so you can get updates.

Once the inlet manifold is off, it's only a pair of 4 cylinder pushrod engines, may as well be a couple of Ford Anglia engines. People seem to think they are complicated but they're dead simple really. As long as the valley gasket arrives tomorrow, I'll be out in it by the evening. I've got to put 895 miles on it before the end of the month when it goes in for MoT. It's currently showing 399,105 and I want it to begin with a 4 by MoT time.

Tried tracking down an oil leak. It's always been a bit oily underneath but just recently it has got worse to the point where it was dropping oil on the floor. At £50 for 4 litres I don't want to be throwing it around the place too much and having to keep topping it up. Anyway, it's got the MoT due at the end of this month and then has around 6,000 miles to do in September so I'd like it to be as good as I can get it. Most of the oil seemed to be dripping off the starter motor and the back of the engine so I wiped it off yesterday and took it for a short run. Back home and there's oil dribbling down the starter motor and on the back of the engine and it seemed to be coming from higher up and worse on the RH side.. Figured it must be the rocker cover gaskets so, as I had a brand new pair in the garage, decided to change them. Did that yesterday and the back of the heads were a bit oily, so thought that maybe I had found the leak, wiped the oil off and went for another short run. Still the same. Wiped it off this morning, in the vain hope that maybe it was residual oil that was still dripping down and went to pick up my ramps. Got back, still oil dripping off the starter and back of the engine.

Got the front end up on ramps, suspension on high and got underneath with the pressure washer and Mr Screwfix's industrial grade degreaser. Having got the underside cleaner than the outside (it needs another wash), took the cover off the bottom of the flywheel so I could see if it was coming from the rear main seal and started the engine while laying under it. Watched carefully thinking that maybe it was coming from the oil pressure switch or somewhere at the front and the fan was blowing it back. Nope, after running for about 5 minutes a little dribble of oil appeared running down the starter motor between the motor itself and starter solenoid but nothing visible further forward.

OK, so it isn't coming from the rocker cover gaskets so that only leaves the valley gasket seals. Found a mirror so I could get a look down the back and it was dry. So off with the starter and see if I could see where it was coming from.

And the verdict is......

It was leaking from the bloody head gasket! A dribble of oil could clearly be seen running down the side of the block and had been dripping onto the starter.

It's done over 110k miles since V8 Developments rebuilt the engine for me but I put the heads on hence me suspecting rocker covers or valley gasket as they were done by me not them. But so were the head gaskets......

Fortunately I had a pair of brand new Elring gaskets in the garage so I've change both (because they were both put on at the same time and by the same bloke, me) and hopefully, if Rimmers next day delivery if ordered before 3pm works, I'll have a valley gasket here tomorrow so I can get it all back together. Either that or I pinch Dina's SLK on Friday as I need to be somewhere.....

I would expect whoever is putting the new sleeves (top hats?) in would pull the old ones and pressure test it anyway. Coolant leaks could well be core plugs but again, I would expect whoever does the engine work to replace those too. Degrease, pull the heads and ancillaries off and it should be ready to go.

Have you seen the price of that voltage sensing relay????? https://www.brit-car.co.uk/product.php/89705/4590/voltage_sensitive_switch____defender___discovery___range_rover_classic

I'd go for one of these instead https://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/product/925/category/149, may be overkill at 140A but will do the same job (unless you can find a lower current version at sensible money).

But it's a Vogue, it should waft along silently.......

That means it had a reserve but it's now been met. The last one I saw on eBay went for more than buying new.