Been offered something that is about as common as a Unicorn, a 1997, 4.0 litre, MANUAL, P38. It is still on EAS, runs well (so I'm told), has an LPG system on it that doesn't work, has an SRS warning light on and the book showing on the HEVAC, but it does have an MoT until August. I'm going to have a look at it at the weekend and will plug the Nano in to see why it has the SRS light and book showing (I'll also have a look at the LPG system too) but the owner doesn't want a lot for it. He bought it on a whim and then found that it was costing him £70 a week in petrol when he'd been used to a 1.0 litre Focus eco thingy using £50 worth a month! I tried to encourage him to get it to Simon to sort the LPG side of things out but he reckons that even £40 a week in fuel is too much so wants to get rid. He paid a grand for it but will take £700 if anyone is interested once I've had a look and we've got a few more details on it.

When I did the Land Rover course at Soihull we took a Discovery along what they called the jungle track. Water up to the top of the headlights and you drove along it slowly keeping the bow wave travelling along in front and at the same speed as you. Half way along the dash started filling up with warning lights telling me that the alternator had died, all the doors were open and a couple of other spurious ones I wasn't sure of. As I drove out of the end of the track, I realised I had no power steering either but within 100 yards, all the warning lights had gone out and everything was back to as it should be. I was told that this was quite normal......

After being sat in by a copper every day for 8 years and the best part of 200k miles, the outside edge of my drivers seat was looking pretty rough. I bought a passenger seat, stripped it down and replaced my drivers seat base with the virtually unused one from the passenger seat. The plastic strip takes some levering off but once you've got it started, it comes off easily enough. The seat needs to be out (obviously) and set at fully reclined so it is flat.

Yup, same on all versions and interchangeable left to right. There's a plastic strip where the base joins the backrest that you need to prise off and 4 Torx headed bolts.

That's all right, the water can get out as well as in......

According to the owners handbook, they should be torqued to 108 Nm which is 80 ft/lb. This is what causes problems a lot of the time (particularly with things like the head studs) where people overtighten as they use the Nm figure as a ft/lb figure.

You can't reset adaptives with the CReader, you need to use the RSW software that you got to do that. Once reset, it might be a good idea to run on petrol for a bit to let it learn things.

On a P38 the only thing disconnecting the battery does is cause you to have to reset the windows and tune in the radio, it has no effect on the ECU. To do that you need to use your diagnostics to reset the adaptive settings.

Suggest you have a word with Ray at V8 Developments (http://www.v8developments.co.uk/index.shtml#), as well as rebuilding engines they will supply known good quality parts.

They've used a standard 12 point socket rather than a 6 point impact socket on them and probably hammered it on. The covers are stainless over the actual nut. Damp gets between the two layers and corrosion distorts the stainless cover making it larger than they should be. They are the same as the nuts used on a Classic with alloy wheels.

Yes it would be, because the Army used Defenders which will wind up the transmission whereas the viscous coupling on a P38 won't.

Clive603 wrote:

why do they call it the Range Rover Sport rather than Discovery Sport?

Because they called another one the Discovery Sport and market it as the replacement for the Freelander when really the Range Rover Evoque is just a Land Rover Freelander 3. Who knows what their current range line up is about. Seems to me they've got far too many models all going for the same market.

From the air spring on the front, the wishbone suspension and the separate chassis, my guess would be either an L322 or a Disco 3 or 4, most likely a Disco.

Highly unlikely it's going to be the viscous coupling. You've not done anything to cause it to fail and even when seized they don't make a noise, they just make the car hop sideways on full lock. Swapping the complete axle and new UJs should change whatever it is that is making the noise.

I was thinking along the same lines as oilmagnet, tyre bulge or something like that. Do you feel anything through the steering?

Lpgc wrote:

The Caravelle and Bentley are both narrow angle V engines and both a pita.

They will be, the Bentley W12 is basically a pair of VR6 engines using a common crank.

Mine came from Maltings too but the label said AllMakes. Decent quality and fitted well.

14.7V seems a bit on the high side. Early cars had a different alternator that charged at around 13.8V but later cars were fitted with batteries with a higher Calcium content that can withstand a higher charge voltage so the alternator fitted to later cars tend to regulate at around 14.2V. The small brown/yellow wire is simply a charge sense so anything over battery voltage is normal and should be recognised as the alternator charging. Might be nothing more serious than the connectors to the BeCM needing taking off and given a squirt of contact cleaner.

The SRS light is an odd one. On a pre-99 car any fault on the SRS system will bring on the light but normally it will stay on until reset with diagnostics rather than go off once the fault clears. It is only the later cars where it goes off once the fault is cleared.

In that case it would start 42D. No doubt Chris will tell us what is on his replacement engine.

Strange. Engine number would normally be stamped in the top of the block, next to where the dipstick tube goes in. Yours, being a 4.6, would normally be in the format 46DxxxxxxA and would probably also have 9.35:1, the compression ratio, stamped above it.