The French have their priorities right. Called in at a large Hypermarket on Saturday as the wine cellar (cupboard) was getting a bit low and found that as well as bog roll and tinned food, the French are stocking up on cheap wine too. I can think of worse ways of self isolating......

That's right but the problem can be that if parked on a steep hill, the pin can shear off so the car runs off on it's own. That's why you should never put it into P while still moving and always use the handbrake as well.

EAS wiring goes through a connector in the LH footwell behind the kick panel. There's another one on the RH side which has cabling for the OBD socket amongst others which also goes green and hairy.

Last MoT figures were CO 0.02%, HC 24ppm

What he's talking about is CO2 which is inherently lower on a diesel engine than a petrol engine which is why diesels became popular in the first place. The CO2 when running on LPG is 10-20% lower than when running on petrol but still higher than an equivalent diesel. However, although CO2 is a greenhouse gas it is the other things that are of most concern these days. The particulate emissions on a diesel P38 will be very high (as it is too old to have a DPF), considerably lower on a petrol P38 and virtually non-existent on a petrol engine running on LPG. It's also a far less complex hydrocarbon than petrol without any of the additives petrol needs to have so the NOx and other carcinogenic emissions are virtually nil too.

Oddly, I've just been asked about the same things by a man who has just bought a P38 with LPG conversion and found the spare wheel well around the LPG tank full of water. His are crumbling away too.

and the verdict is, it wasn't the alternator. One of Teri's neighbours has obviously bought themselves a new toy which is sending a burst of data on 433.975 MHz every 2.5 minutes. So after 2 minutes of nothing happening, the BeCM goes to sleep and within 30 seconds at most, it's woken up again. I wouldn't have expected the 0.7A draw to flatten the battery overnight but with a bit more info it seems that the car isn't used every day. So she had been going to it to check the battery, firing it up to make sure it was OK then switching it off again. So it wasn't being run for long enough to put back what had been taken out by starting it. Initially thought about disconnecting the RF receiver aerial, tried to sync the fob which didn't happen. Was then told that the fobs won't sync for some reason so they haven't been used for some time. Door latch is one of Marty's reconditioned ones and the microswitches check out fine. So just unplugged the receiver completely. Current drain is marginal, too low for the clamp on meter to give an accurate figure and it stays that way, so all good. That was Saturday and it was still fine this morning so I'm told.

Just need to get your alternator back to you now Toby.

I've only ever driven one diesel P38 (a French spec one that I'm going over to sort out horrendous battery drain on at the weekend) and I thought it felt a bit sluggish pulling away from standstill until I gave it more welly, then it didn't seem as bad as I'd been led to believe. Once rolling it drives much that same as any other P38 although not changing up until it hit about 3,000 rpm felt odd after my V8 which changes up at about 1,500-1,700 unless I'm flooring it.

I must admit, when I poke the Sport button it always surprises me how quickly a two tonne lump with the aerodynamics of a small warehouse can accelerate. But then, you've got a diesel.......

The Routemaster system pre-dates the P38 by very many years. The P38 system is a development of it. No idea if it uses a similar valve block though (and no idea where my local Routemaster main dealer is either....).

I'd seen the driver pack repair mentioned before but I'm not 100% convinced it is the problem. If it is simply the cap drying out (which isn't an unlikely problem) then rather than spending time digging the potting out why not just solder a replacement cap in parallel on the power feed? It's only going to be there for smoothing. I have found a driver pack where the ends of the cables weren't within the compound and they had started to corrode. I had an intermittent problem on one corner and that turned out to be a weak contact in the connector between driver pack and valve block. It's always possible that following the work the fault was actually in the connector and was cured by simply unplugging it and plugging it back in.

Just answered Rob on the other thread as my car is a former Greater Manchester Police Motorway patrol car. Don't really know what it does although thinking about it, it may stop bulb blown warnings when additional lights are powered from existing circuits too.

The Nanocom documentation says it shouldn't be set without the police wiring mods having been carried out. As well as the cabling and split charge relay for the auxiliary battery that used to live in the boot, an additional fusebox and about a mile of extra cabling above the headlining, the only non standard wiring was around the boot release with an additional switch and a couple of diodes all neatly wrapped in heatshrink. What it did I have no idea but suspect it was so the car could be locked and the boot still being accessible. Mine is now set for Police disabled but it didn't seem to make any difference when it was enabled. It'll be another of those mystery options that only the guy that programmed it in the first place knows what it does.

I was hoping to see a post saying you'd got it booked in with Simon......

That would be about 16mpg on gas at half the cost of petrol so a cost equivalent of 32 mpg.

and Romanrob is near Heathrow too so if you need someone with a Nanocom......

Welcome

Didn't you also look into replacing the NRVs in the valve block with off the shelf ones too? Get anywhere with that?

I would have filed them in the recycling bin long ago, or just asked for a refund, had it not been for the guy in my local branch saying that 8 quid in my pocket wouldn't go far so I should stick it out and insist they provided me with what I'd ordered.

Nice one Rob, very interesting definitely worth knowing. You're still stuffed if one of the microswitches fails though.....

No, they've asked me when I will be at home to collect the two boxes of Lexus filters. They are welcome to them and obviously need them as their site says they are a non-stock item even though they've got hundreds of the buggers, all with the wrong number on the box......

Finally, a result. After being told they would be sending me 4 Bosch filters a box from ECP was delivered yesterday morning containing, you guessed it, 4 more Crosland filters for a Lexus. I emailed the guy I have been exchanging rants with to tell him. He replied that it seems there was an error in their admin department (so that's admin getting blamed now as well as the warehouse) and he would personally ensure that I would be sent the correct Bosch filters. Email from DHL told me a parcel would be delivered on Wednesday but when I got in from work today, there's a familiar looking box waiting for me. I opened it up to find 4 Bosch boxes so I opened one to see what I had been sent this time. At last, a P38 pollen filter but it gets better than that. The box says it contains 1 Set and sure enough, each box contains a pair of pollen filters. So for my £8.55 I've now got 8 pollen filters.

Am I going to tell them? Am I hell................

If all he has done is turned off the EKA and Immobilisation and then locked it with the key, it will work fine (until a microswitch dies). Pre V36 BeCM won't allow you to connect if it is in an alarmed state whereas V36 and later will (otherwise you wouldn't be able to connect to use a Nanocom to enter the EKA). However, that is how it works with a petrol and he admits he has a diesel which is different in the way it syncs to the engine ECU. He also doesn't understand what passive immobilisation does either so basically he's the 'expert on the internet' that has done something on his car but hasn't had a problem. Yet.....

East way to check is to force it to need the EKA. Open the drivers window, close the door and lock it, wait for the alarm light flashing to slow down (to show it is set), put your hand in through the open window, pull up the sill locking button and open the door. You will have then simulated a door latch with a failed keyswitch and it will need the EKA code. What happens if you have turned off the EKA in the BeCM I've no idea as I'm not brave enough to try it to find out.

romanrob wrote:

removes the need for a fob press to de-activate the alarm - so the mechanical key in the door (assuming micro-switches work) will de-activate the alarm

But it will anyway. The fob press is only needed if passive immobilisation is enabled and you wait more than 30 seconds between unlocking the car and trying to start the engine. On later (from around mid-97), this is done for you automatically by the coil around the ignition switch causing the fob to transmit when you put the key in ignition. If the car has been locked with the key the alarm and immobiliser are set and will be unset when you unlock with the key (or fob). Assuming both the keyswitch and CDL switch are working of course. It is only a problem when it has been locked with the fob and you then unlock with the key (usual scenario when the battery has gone flat). In this case it only opens the drivers door and doesn't unset the alarm and immobiliser so it then needs the EKA entering to take them off. With the EKA disabled what happens in this case is the important thing?