And now the truth is out. Replacing the timer relay has a number of effects, some good, or at least useful, some not good.

The Good.
The normal operation is for the timer relay to power up the EAS every few hours and drop 3 corners down to the same height as the lowest one. Normally that is fine except if you have a slight leak on one corner which results in the car sitting on the bumpstops after it's been left overnight. The corner with a leak drops and the others are then lowered to the same height. If you temporarily fit a 4 pin relay (or just remove the timer relay), it doesn't power up periodically so only the corner with a leak drops and you know exactly which one has the problem.

The not so good.
When someone gets out of the car or you take a heavy weight out of the boot, the suspension will obviously rise but when you switch off and close the door normally you hear the tick, tick tick from the solenoids and it self levels. Without the timer relay, the power is removed as soon as you turn off the car so it doesn't self level and will sit on the piss.
Some people have also found that with a 4 pin relay in there it will default to high rather than the height it was left in when parked. It may be something to do with the height it was at when the relay was changed or it might just be showing its displeasure.
Diagnostics won't connect. The diagnostic line is connected to the timer relay so if it isn't there you never will get EASUnlock, Nanocom, Faultmate, Testbook and any other diagnostics to connect.

It was designed the way it was for a reason so quite why people seem to think they know better than the man who designed it is beyond me.....

Totally agree with Marty, the contrasting colours better (doesn't look like it's been dipped in paint). Painting the bit below the actual bumper looks fine and accentuates the contrast but not all of it. This is the Ascot with the two grilles, above and below the bumper, along with the bumper done in bumper black and the area under the bumper in body colour.

You could always paint the bits below the actual bumper but leave the bumpers themselves black. Don't forget though that you can't just use ordinary paint as it will flake off without a plasticiser in it to make it stick and remain flexible. That's why you need to use bumper black on bumpers and not just plain old satin black paint.

Don't know what the actual percentage is but the Direnza has a greater capacity than standard. My car runs at around 90 degrees normally, I've never seen it go above 96 since fitting the alloy rad.

It would invalidate the warranty but the only difference between a GEMS and a Thor is the top hose spigot. If you can weld alloy it shouldn't be too difficult to move the spigot on a Direnza one.

Not the Chinese ones, I've got a Direnza in mine (https://www.direnza.co.uk/range-rover-p38-4-0l-4-6l-v8-94-99-aluminium-radiator) and they do one for the diesel too but not for the Thor unfortunately. Beautifully made, keep the temperature down and with a lifetime warranty.

I've also supplied two to France and a couple to the US too. Direnza won't ship to the US so a couple of owners trusted me enough to buy one, have it sent to me and I then forwarded it on. Even with the carriage they still worked out cheaper than buying one in the US.

Give it a couple of months......

Although if it is only the ARB bushes you've replaced then they may last a bit longer.

Poly bushes???? You've just fitted new shocks and transformed the ride and now you fit poly bushes?

Does it always run for roughly the same length of time before dying? Will it die even if you don't touch the throttle? Fuel pressure maybe? Fuel pump primes when you turn the ignition on but doesn't run once the engine starts? Put a gauge on the Schrader valve and watch what it does. Does it show full pressure when you switch it on and then maintain it while running or does the pressure drop off?

Drove to Screwfix and noticed the village East European hand car wash is open, so dived in there and got it cleaned. With the windows cleaned on the outside noticed the dog nose prints on the inside so got home and cleaned the insides of the windows too. Then, in a fit of sun induced madness, pinched a can of Vanish carpet and upholstery cleaner from the kitchen cupboard and cleaned my (cloth) seats too.

No need to separate the coils to test, just unplug them at the multiplug. MAF is another one that can cause weird things to happen, unplug it and see if there is any difference, if not, that is you likely problem area. Bear in mind that the fuel injectors, MAF and Camshaft sensor are all powered from a common Brown/Orange 12V rail while the coolant temperature sensor, fuel temperature sensor, lambda sensors, intake air sensor and throttle position sensor are all powered from a common 5V rail on a Red/Black supply,

Idling fine but dying when you open the throttle may also point to the TPS as it controls the idle air valve making it open at small throttle openings to raise the revs above idle. TPS voltage can easily be tested with ignition on and engine not running just by moving the throttle while watching the voltage on the Nano.

I was wondering how long it would last before rubbing off (or turning your hands beige) but with a sealer on it, it should be fine. Neither of my cars have got the posh wood and leather steering wheels but definitely of help to those that have, well done.

There's 4 coils but each fires two cylinders so one coil going down would cause you to lose 2 cylinders, but it would be one on each bank. They are paired as 2 and 3, 4 and 7, 5 and 8 and 1 and 6, so to lose a whole bank would mean all coils have gone down (in which case you'd lose the lot). If it was just a case of one bank not firing I would have been looking at the common power feed wire to each fuel injector which would result in no firing on that bank but it wouldn't affect the sparks.

See what you mean about the white sheathed pipe, I've never even seen white sheathed pipe, I thought it only ever came in black anyway. It's only a short length so it should be fairly easy to replace it (or unhook it at one end and but some of the black braiding over it). I had to make a complete wiring loom for one car and used miles of that braiding, wonderful stuff and looks really professional.

That's a ludicrous price for a car in that state even a nice looking one when you look at what they are fetching on eBay. OK, so most list a few fairly minor faults but nothing that any of us that understand them couldn't easily sort.

Back in about 2003 I did the off road course at Land Rover at Solihull. I did it in a Discovery 2 as that was what we had at work at the time (and work were paying for the course). I asked what was the best model off road expecting him to say the Defender and was surprised when he said the Range Rover. His comment was that the EAS made it far better than anything else they produced. He reckoned that they had laughed at the Freelander when it first appeared but he said even that was far better off road than they'd expected.

I agree about the Series on the road, 50 mph and you are into ear defender territory and the need for a serious massage after about 20 miles.

When the army replaced all their Series 3s with Defenders, the old ones were all sold off. There was a former WW2 airfield near Litchfield where they were all stored, along with 3 aircraft hangers full of spare parts. An airfield full of Landies as far as the eye could see, all one price, except for the ones with 24V electrics as they were classed as commercial vehicles so had to have VAT added to the price. You could wander around, pick the ones you wanted and they would lift them out for you. All 2.25 petrol too. I bought about 10, mostly LWB, LHD ragtops and they went to France. Problem was, I had to drive them. I know what a Series 3 drives like so I hate to imagine what a Series 2A is like......

Some are worse than others but when you spend £25 on a rebuild kit only to find bolts shear off so you have to spend £75 on a new reducer, you may as well have saved the £25. It's not like a new reducer is expensive anyway.

If all combustion chambers look like that, there's no coolant getting in there, as Dave says, they'd be steam cleaned and not nicely covered in carbon. Yes, there is a possibility of a leak behind the front cover, both to the inside and also out to the world.

Ah yes, Chris No10 spent ages trying to do it on a tablet and failed dismally.

If it wasn't pressurising, spitting all the coolant out and overheating due to a lack of coolant, the liners are fine. Once you've clean the block face up, you should be good to go.