I don't know which ones they were but an owner near me asked me to look at his car as it had EAS errors. It had been into 'his mechanic' to have some work done and one thing they had done was replace all the height sensors. I told him it would need calibrating and that was probably what the problem was but when I checked it, both fronts were giving duff readings with them jumping all over the place. I replaced them with a pair of used originals, calibrated it and he's had no problems since. Oddly, the rears were fine.

Pete12345 wrote:

Has anyone contacted with a sensible offer ?? i.e. Definitely only £500 as it is.

That would be my valuation too. I sold my Ascot (which was HSE spec plus a couple of other bits) for £1,800 just over a year ago. Although a year older, it had all new front suspension and steering ball joints, headlining done and everything working. So working back from that, £500 to buy it, tyres are flat so it'll need a set of tyres at £120 a corner even for cheap ditchfnders, headlining at another £100, same again to unlock the BeCM if it needs it (pictures show the driver's door panel off so someone has probably made things worse by playing with it) and £50 for an MoT (plus whatever is found when tested), so even with the bare minimum done to it, it would still stand you at £1,250. Better to buy it and break it, £600 for the engine, £300 for the cats and £350 for the gearbox before you even start on the smaller bits.

Bolt wrote:

Granted, this site is blessedly "Brit-Centric" in nature, however there are still a lot of owners all over the world, including, YES! here in the former colony AKA the USA.

That was how this site came about, as an antidote to the US bias on rr.net. Admittedly, It did involve Gordon and I sitting in a pub in Glasgow in 2014 and coming up with the idea after quite a lot of beer when both of us had recently been banned by RRTH for posting the tagline on this site

No way to know what the final straw was with most of them, but due to the lack of real mechanics over here who are willing to even look at one of "Those things" and the sad fact that there is no shortage of unethical charlatans who are perfectly willing to take enormous sums of money to fix something, only to get it wrong, at best and make things worse usually.
As with everywhere I am aware of, the old skilled trained experienced guys are getting pretty thin on the ground.

There is a lack of real mechanics everywhere as the older ones retire and the younger ones don't have the experience or correct mindset to work out what a problem is without a computer that tells them what part to replace. They are skilled (semi-skilled?) parts fitters, not mechanics. Last week I was asked to look at a Ford Granada that has been fitted with a Rover V8 of unknown origin which was running really rough. The owner's son was helping me and he works for a Jaguar independent workshop. From the 35D engine number I could see it was a 3.9, EFi from a manual 88-94 Classic or Discovery. The EFi has been removed and an Edelbrock manifold and carb fitted. The problem was that only 4 of the HT leads were in the right place on the distributor cap and the timing was way out. The son has only ever worked on an engine with coil on plug coil packs and had no idea how to adjust the ignition timing, a distributor was completely alien to him.

The only indication that appears is the red led on the dash will be flashing to indicate it thinks the alarm is on.
Having disconnected the alarm horn long ago, I don't know that it would not be bleating like Shaun the Sheep!

If the alarm is triggered as well as the horn it would usually switch on the hazard lights too, so if it isn't flashing at you, then the only thing still working is the LED. As I have no idea how Simon's chip works, I'm not sure how that works. Under normal circumstamces, when you unlock the car the BeCM turns off the alarm and sends a code to the ECM to enable it. As far as I know, there is no 'handshake' back to the BeCM, it blindly sends the code. On a GEMS you can unlock the car so the alarm is turned off, the code is sent and you don't get an immobilised message, even if the engine ECU is unplugged. The BeCM is happy and has done its bit so will even allow the starter to turn the engine over (the starter is disabled on a GEMS if immobilised). So quite why you don't still get the Immobilised message on the dash and the alarm doesn't get triggered, I have no idea.

So, if the S-chip is a method of keeping people from getting immobilised due to their lack of knowledge of the proper maintenance procedures for the locking system, then I say, sell one to everyone who has had immobiliser issues!

And there you've nailed it, proper maintenance. I won't drive my car if something either doesn't work or it feels or sounds different until I have investigated and fixed whatever is causing the problem (except in the case of the seat heaters, I've fixed them once but as I keep sitting on the seats, I've broken the elements again and, as I have cloth seats, don't really need them). So when someone says they've been locked out and then casually mention that the locks have been dancing for years now and they've done nothing about it, I feel like telling them it is their fault then. It's been telling them something isn't right but they ignored it, so now it is punishing them for their neglect.

Who has the sign off: "Land Rover, making mechanics out of drivers since 1945"

Johnno, an Aussie on rr.net. It's actually since 1948 but I think it is more from the point of view of mechanical issues, for the P38 owner it should be, "The P38, making electrical, electronic and pneumatic engineers out of owners since 1994"

Apparently, he's had it listed previously for over 2 grand, so now he is open to offers. I doubt he would accept a sensible one though, he thinks it is worth more than it is. If you look at the MoT history it's had quite a few advisories for rust on the bodyshell in the past.

@Bolt, Any P38 in the UK with immobilisation issues won't end up in the breakers unless that is all they are worthy of but rather than being in a breakers yard they will be bought by someone that will break them and sell off the parts, a P38 will fetch around £3k as a pile of saleable parts. Worst case, a locked out BeCM can be unlocked for around £100. With Simon's mod, what happens if a car is immobilised? I know it will still start and run but do you end up with a dash that tells you it is immobilised?

Hmm, yes I think you are right, on an early one if it is immobilised it won't allow diagnostics to connect. Although it is a December 97 car so will be a 98 model and it should work on that (it does on both my 98's anyway). But even if it won't, the EKA can still be entered by plugging in a good door latch and operating the levers in the correct order. That's how I used to have to do it on the Ascot in winter when the keyswitch wouldn't work until I replaced the door latch.

However, I forwarded it to Phil (Holland and Holland) who buys them to restore or break depending on the state of them, in case he was interested. He reckons it has been up for sale for months now, originally at silly money for what it is. We both agree that it is a £500 car at best but the seller is asking for offers and he thinks it is worth far more than that.

Hmm, well it was to Lelystad and back actually but as nobody would know where that was, Amsterdam is the nearest place people will have heard of.

Not even needed. Plug in the Nanocom, enter the EKA and drive it away. I did one recently that didn't even have any keys, all it had was a piece of paper with the EKA written on it. Had it running in 5 minutes......

You don't have any simple faults do you? The RH tail light and number plate lights both come off C1283 at the BeCM but on different pins whereas the LH tail light comes off a different connector even (C1291) so there is nothing common there and, as you say, the ground connections are different too. Are you sure nobody hasn't sawn the back of the car off?

I've known the bulb failed warnings to come up if the bulbholder has a bit of corrosion so the bulb doesn't illuminate instantly but not for 3 to all do it at the same time. The other thing to bear in mind is that the bulb failed warning will come up if that individual feed is drawing too little (bulb blown) or too much (bulb short circuited) current. I found that out when I wanted to run a 21W warning beacon on a wide trailer so connected it to one of the tail light feeds (on UK towing electrics the two tail light circuits are fed separately, left and right). After a few miles, the beacon went out and the bulb blown warning came up on the dash as it was drawing more current then expected. I found that if I switched the lights off and back on again, it would reset until next time it gave the warning. It appears that in that case, once it has given the warning it was switching that circuit off to prevent any wiring being burnt out.

The main engine ground is bolted to the alternator bracket and connects to the RH suspension turret. Corrosion at either end of that will cause it as it doesn't need much resistance to prevent the full starter load being passed. I suspect you'll find one end of that cable is burnt, that is the end with the bad connection.

Plenty on eBay though, https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=WCD000860&_sacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313

The earlier numbers supersede to the WCD000860, the other two (105350 and 105360) are for US models with post cat lambda sensors. So if you get sent one of those, you'll need a couple of bungs (or old lambda sensors) to plug the holes.

Some of the aftermarket ones come in 3 pieces and separate after the cats, they can be changed without dropping the gearbox crossmember. Most come in one piece so you do need to drop the crossmember to get the old one out and the new one in.

I got one for mine from Maltings Off Road (https://maltings4x4store.co.uk/categories/land-rover/range-rover-p38/engine/exhaust-system.html) but the only one they list currently shows the US part number so will likely have the extra holes for the post cat sensors.

Try pulling the starter relay and putting a wire jumper between the 30 and 87 pins (opposite each other), the starter should engage and spin. If it doesn't, check that you have power at the socket where pin 30 goes. If it isn't, it is a fusebox problem, if it is, then a starter or wiring problem. I've seen some starters that have two spade terminals on them and the trigger wire has to go on the correct one, so if there are two, try putting the thin trigger wire on the other one and testing it again. Or it may simply be a break in the trigger wire between fusebox and starter, so with your jumper wire in the fusebox, check that the 12V is getting to the trigger wire at the starter.

What do you get if it is disconnected completely? If there is nothing attached it can't be seeing a short to anywhere. Recirc motors are the same as the other blend motors except they don't have any feedback pot.

I had a look at his site but no mention of the kit he used to do so no idea if he still does them. I've also read through George's write up on rebuilding his. The cost of the kit is more than I would have to pay for a replacement modulator. I did wonder if, as the later Thor modulator already has the stainless washers, I could just get one of those and steal the washers from it? As far as I know the breaking washers is something that only happens in very hot climates, not something we get in the UK, so a used one from a low mileage car should be fine and lets face it, every car in the UK, if not the world, is lower mileage than mine! I've actually got a non-traction control modulator that some idiot had fitted to the 4.0SE I bought last year (well, the part number is only one digit different so it should be OK), so I'll pull that apart for practice....

It's a faulty hose, it has an aneurysm. No different to getting an egg bulge in a tyre cause by internal de-lamination.

If it is a hefty clunk or just a click will tell you what the problem is. A hefty clunk and all dash lights stay on, it is the starter solenoid pulling in but the contacts are burnt so no power gets to the starter motor itself. A hefty clunk and the dash lights go out, means a bad battery connection and a gentle click means the relay is operating but the starter solenoid isn't clicking in. If it isn't the battery connection, it is new starter time.

I'm aware that one of the symptoms of the broken plastic washers in a GEMS ABS modulator is a 'clicky' brake pedal. Now for years my brake pedal squeaked whenever I applied the brakes but a few years ago that stopped and was replaced with a 'clicky' feel. As the braking performance hadn't changed, I put that down to a bit of wear on the pivot between the pedal and the pushrod rather than anything more serious.

Last weekend I drove to Amsterdam and back and experienced strange behaviour. I filled up with LPG in Belgium, then drove to Calais and the first time I applied the brakes the pedal went down much further than normal but coming off the pedal and re-applying the brakes, all was back to normal. Considering I'd just driven 120 miles at a steady 70-75mph without touching the brakes at all, this suggests to me that maybe the O rings inside the modulator are starting to weep slightly. I'm never going to be able to replicate the problem in this country (driving 20 miles without touching the brakes is considered a good run), so could just leave it but I think a modulator replacement is on the cards in the near future.

Hmm, 7 years worth of neglect or bodged repairs to deal with (unless you are very lucky and it comes back with less problems than it went away with). Should be fun to be re-united though.

I've got one for a Range Rover Sport that I think I downloaded for Topix. You have to register but it's free, see https://topix.landrover.jlrext.com/topix/vehicle/lookupForm

They are M5 x 16mm flanged head bolts which over here would be dead easy to find in any DIY shop. Metric might be a bit more difficult where you are.....