The orange poly bushes weren't serviceable the day they were put in..... Mine were the ones that took a lot of effort and swearing to get out and even more effort and swearing to chip the rust scale off the inside of the arms so the new OEM ones could be pressed in. Seeing how easily they started to melt when they got slightly warm from using an angle grinder to cut the head off one of the bolts, I think the easiest way of getting them out will be with a blowlamp.

I've seen you, and replied to some of your threads, over on the dark side but I have to use a different username there as this one got a lifetime ban. Welcome to the friendly forum.

As virtually all the wiring between the engine bay and the rest of the car goes through that big bundle under the coolant reservoir, it's quite possible your new lodgers have had a nibble and hit the wire to the temperature sensor.

Any chance of a picture? I found one in the bottom of the drivers door on the Ascot and couldn't for the life of me work out how it's supposed to go.

As well as the 12V starter output, the one I bought had a 19V output for a laptop (along with multiple connectors to fit different laptops) and 4 USB sockets. I figured that as well as being able to use it to start a car, I could use the USB outputs when on my European trips. I use an Android tablet with data SIM for streaming audio which feeds into a headphone amp (as the output from the tablet alone isn't high enough for the line in on the car stereo) as well as my phone which all need a USB supply for charging. I figured one big supply would make life easier. Unfortunately, I killed it before getting the chance to try it.....

Fantastic job, well done.

I bought a cheapo Chinese one on eBay that claimed to have a capacity of 82,000 mAh. I took that to be similar to Italian horsepower as 82 Ah is pretty good for a full sized car battery. However, it worked well and started the Ascot, the SE and a number of other cars. Then one day it decided it didn't want to charge and did nothing. Took it apart and found a stack of Li-ion packs, one of which was twice the thickness of the others. So, I can't recommend a brand, just avoid the cheapo ones (although I suspect if it was used as you describe rather than to start a 4.6 litre V8, it might survive anyway).

It was only one out of them all. Odd thing is me and Marty had them out a couple of years ago to change the axle so didn't expect a problem. Once the head had been cut off, Marty's air chisel made short work of getting it out.

Ahh, genuine ones then. They are sold singly compared with Allmakes ones that come in a pack of 5???

Be careful when cutting that you don't cut into the alloy coolant pipes behind. It has been done before, no names because he knows who he is......

That's right. The other thing that confuses people is that after you've added the pictures it still shows the command line when writing unless you hit the Preview button (hitting Preview again takes you back to writing mode).

You need skinny hands and go in from underneath. It's fiddly getting the new rings on, but can be done. Did you remove the duct or just shove it out of the way? I always cut it off as high as possible so the lower part can be pulled out and then put if back with duct tape (probably the only time duct tape is ever used for what it is intended for)

You had the correct link types (the ones marked as Direct Link and ending in jpg) you just didn't paste the link into the little box that pops up when you click the Image box (the one along the top after the Bold, Italic, Heading, Link boxes.

As Britpart don't make orange ones but Polybush do, I assume the ones on mine were Polybush. They've lasted and the car didn't feel too bad, it's just that now I'm on genuine rubber ones, I realise just how much better it can be.

I'm not happy David, I knew I was going grey but not bald as well.......

But with it blanked, there's no path back to the header tank for any air trapped in the inlet manifold. Think about it, that's one of the highest points in the cooling system so air is going to sit there. Anything trapped in the heater hoses will get pushed through by the water pump and end up in the header, any in the radiator will do the same through the bleed hose but any in the top of the engine has nowhere to go.

Clive603 wrote:

Depends on whether it behaves like nylon or delrin.

Problem is it behaved more like marshmallow! Not like plastic at all, very soft and squidgy but also very tough to cut with anything.

The way they started to melt as soon as they got remotely warm, I reckon a blowlamp would have been the easiest way of removing them. If only one of us had thought of bringing one, we'd have been able to light the Sunday lunch barbecue too I would think.

Only one of them though. I've got one of Marty's spares(with my new bushes) on the nearside and my original one on the offside after it finally succumbed to much brute force and butchery. Still had to chip the scale out of both holes before the new bushes could be pressed in though.

Oddly, they hadn't deformed much and the central hole was still in the centre. Even after pressing the central tube out the poly bits still didn't want to give up.

Morat wrote:

So, the million dollar questions - did replacing your radius arm bushes improve your P38s? Was it all worth it? :)

See here https://rangerovers.pub/topic/1335-3-reasons-why-you-shouldn-t-use-poly-bushes?page=1.0#pid19682, I didn't think there was anything wrong with mine but swapping from polys to OE has made a hell of a difference.

RutlandRover wrote:

Was the one with the seized bolt also the most rusty bush hole?

No, all the bush holes were as bad as each other, all rusted to hell and full of scale that I had to carefully break out with a punch and hammer. We were a bit concerned that it would leave the hole too big for the new bushes to fit properly but they still needed a fair amount of grunt to press them in so I don't think they'll be going anywhere.

Having just changed my (and others) radius arm bushes here's a few observations for anyone considering poly bushes.

1, The yellow Britpart ones have a reputation to wearing out and turning to dust within a few months (no idea about the black or blue ones but I suspect they will be much the same as the yellow or orange ones).

2, My car was fitted with the supposedly far superior orange poly bushes (the ones that cost about 4 times the price of genuine original bushes). They've lasted quite a long time and many miles, but although the car didn't exhibit any of the usual complaints of wandering steering, vibrations or anything like that, it has always felt like the front tyre pressures were too high over small bumps and uneven surfaces even though the ride was fine on smooth surfaces. Having now changed to standard bushes, the steering is more responsive, the ride over uneven surfaces is vastly improved and the whole car feels much smoother.

3, The poly bushes are an absolute pain to remove. It took Marty's 20 ton press, a number of different sized mandrels, hacksaws, hole cutters and just about everything else we could find short of burning them out, to remove them from the radius arms. When we finally got them out, we found that they also allow moisture to get between the bush and the arm so rather than pushing the old ones out and finding a nice clean shiny hole, the inside of the radius arms were rusted to hell. It took a rotary wire brush to clean the surface, a punch and hammer to knock the rust scale off the inside of the radius arm and emery cloth to clean them up before they were smooth enough to press the new bushes in.

So the moral of this is poly bushes should be put into the same category as coil spring conversions, don't even consider them.