StrangeRover wrote:

I've put a new Rad in it, and the Water pump was done around 1 year before i bought it..

The seller told me exactly the same when I bought the SE. Unfortunately he'd fitted Britpart so the water pump started leaking after 2,000 miles and the radiator not much longer afterwards......

Also, I forgot to mention the most important thing to look after, the cooling system. Deal with any leaks immediately, make sure the water pump is perfect (if not, replace if with an Airtex one, definitely not a Britpart) and the same goes for the radiator. Overheating the engine is a sure way of killing it.

125k? Barely run in, I'm at 359k on a 98 4.0 litre on LPG. Like anything else, look after it and it will look after you. To answer your questions:

Colour isn't so much rare as wasn't that popular so there aren't many about in that colour.
Unlike the RRC the P38 does not rot away in front of your eyes. Externally the only place you will find rot is on the rear wheel arches, front lip of the bonnet and bottom edge of the tailgate. Underneath, unless they have lived somewhere harsh (like near the sea), rot is very rare except, as you have noticed, the rear bumper mounts.
GEMS signifies and engine fitted with the Lucas Sagem Generic Engine Management System and used up until the 99 model year, recognisable bu the boxy intake plenum. Thor has the Bosch engine management (no idea where the name came from) and the bunch of bananas intake manifold. This gives a longer inlet tract so improved bottom end torque.
Trim levels vary greatly and seemed to change about as often as the man fitting the interiors changed his socks. HSE and Vogue are both the top trim levels with slight variations. You should have just about every option going so far more to go wrong......

Headlining kit is £60 from Martrim (https://www.martrim.co.uk/car-trimming-supplies/range-rover-headlining-kits.php) and will take two people less than a day to do it.

Give it an oil and filter change but be wary of the filling process for the auto box (as you don't have a dipstick like the earlier GEMS engined cars do).

Things you will need to do are make sure the air suspension is working as it should without leaks. Air springs are £50 a corner from Island 4x4 and you can refurb the pump and valve block for under another £50. With a car that looks like it has been neglected you'll almost certainly have the book symbol showing on the HEVAC so you'll need to do some work there too. Hopefully you got at least two keys with it and the central locking all works on the fob as it should, otherwise it WILL lock you out and immobilise itself sooner or later.

The electronics are what mainly gave the P38 the poor reputation. Very early cars had some weaknesses which were sorted by 97 but the biggest problem is that nobody understood them. Mechanics deal with things that go up and down or round and round so electrics are, and always have been, a bit of a black art. Once you get your head around how things work they are just as simple, just don't let them frighten you.

Get yourself a copy of RAVE (see https://rangerovers.pub/topic/10-how-do-i-mend-it) and you'll find it far easier to work on than a bloody BMW Mini.......

So who's still going then?

Welcome Ant, sounds like you're doing it the right way, sort out what is likely to fail before using it and complaining that it keeps breaking down. As long as you didn't get a Britpart water pump or radiator, you should be ready for a few years use.

Where in the country are you?

Hmm, all interesting stuff. I wouldn't argue about it and I know some people always use it. I never have except on that one occasion about 25 years ago when I did and within 10 miles the wheel had come loose so I never have since. I may have been over generous with it and put too much on or I may not have done the bolts up as tight as I should but it put me off using it. I have sometimes dunked wheel bolts in used sump oil if they are tight on the threads but that is about it (I'll probably find now that is a complete no-no too).

Ordinarily the only time the Copaslip comes out these days is on brake pads, even though most modern ones come with an anti-squeal coating so it probably isn'y necessary, brake caliper sliders and to slobber in grotty old bulb holders to give better conductivity rather than having to thump a light to make it come on.

But yours is a Thor, isn't the pressure regulator in the fuel pump housing inside the tank?

Until I got to the last line, I was going to ask if you'd plugged in a code reader. If the one you use does live data, drive with it connected and see what it shows when it does it. Check the fuel pressure too.

Maybe, either me or a gorilla with an air wrench could have damaged something in the past. Normally when I do them up they creak as they are tightened but I noticed that they didn't when I used the torque wrench. I've never put any lube of any sort on them as I once had a hell of a job getting steel bolts out of an alloy wheel because the taper on the bolt had welded itself to the wheel. When I put it back I put some Copperslip on to stop it happening again, took the car out for a run and the bolts came loose.....

It isn't just on eBay. I needed an ABS sensor for my daughters Toyota MR2 Roadster. Toyota price, over £300, Eurocarparts, £275 but out of stock, www.onlinecarparts.co.uk, £19 plus a tenner postage. No prizes for guessing which I went for. Despite the .co.uk web address, they are actually in Germany and use a pensioner with a donkey and cart for delivery. Or at least with the length of time it took to arrive, it seemed like that's what they use. I'd almost given up on it when it arrived. Genuine Denso branded part, perfect fit and complete with replacement plastic clips. I've also bought stuff on eBay from sellers in China and never had a problem either.

If it's showing 3.23k at 13 degrees, that would suggest a 5k sensor.

Seems I don't know my own strength. My torque wrench goes up to 110 lb/ft and even set at that I couldn't do the nuts up any tighter than they already are......

When I used the torque wrench on the wheel nuts, it felt like I wasn't doing them up as tight as I would do normally. Then realised that my torque wrench is longer than what I normally use and put it down to that. But, it's the first time I've used the torque wrench and the first time I've had wheel nuts come loose too.

Now the GP has finished, I'll go outside and see how tight they are done up now......

OK, time for an update. Didn't get chance to do any more until I had to set off for another 2,500 mile jaunt around France. I worked on the principle that if I did get a puncture, it would almost certainly be on that wheel but I'd just use my ADAC European breakdown service and let someone else have a go. Anyway, didn't get a puncture so figured I ought to have another go at it today. Started with a lump of 4x4 fence post and a sledge hammer on the inside of the rim. No joy. Then decided the Gordon (and Dave) method was going to have to be tried. Took all the nuts off and then put them back on enough that the tapered part was just touching the wheel so the wheel would get very wobbly but wouldn't fly off and leave me running on the brake disc. Tried driving it gently (fortunately I live at the end of a private road), nothing moved. Reversed it into the driveway, put it on full left lock (so the maximum weight would be on the offending offside rear wheel) and floored the throttle out of the driveway. Nothing moved. Tried it again in low ratio and there was a loud crack. Looked at the nuts only to find that the the wheel had rotated on the hub but hadn't moved outwards. Then realised that I hadn't followed Dave's advice of putting some lube in the hub. Having used up all my PlusGas, tried Dave's suggested ATF (although didn't have any Acetone to mix with it) and figured I would need to roll it back and forth to spread it around. Did that, there was a clunk and the wheel was almost hanging off! Success!!! Cleaned the hub centre and wheel and put it all back together.

Then I noticed something really worrying. I've got one of those telescopic wheel breaker bars (like this https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/cht163-extending-wheel-wrench/) and use it extended to get the nuts off and not extended to put them on. When I changed the diff my torque wrench was there so, just for a change, I used that and torqued the wheel nuts up to the recommended 80 lb/ft rather than just doing them up tight. The nearside wheel nuts were all loose. All bar one had worked their way out a few turns, enough for me to notice that they were standing further proud than they should. Only one hadn't worked it's way out but even that wasn't tight. So I've done them up my normal method now but it might explain the slight vibration I noticed when driving back from France at a steady 80 mph (Gulp!). Maybe 80 lb/ft isn't tight enough?

I'm with Marty on this, 50 Ohms is way too low where 10k when at their lowest temperature is normal dropping as it gets hot.

Mine does it too, almost as if something sticks slightly then gives. It's always done it, never got any better or worse, hasn't changed after replacing air springs or shocks and is just the same after 7 years and 153,000 miles.

and soldering will cope with the pressure. I once repaired a cracked copper pipe on a Saab AC system using a bit of Kunifer brake pipe and standard electrical flux cored solder and a blowlamp.

Lpgc wrote:

Are the limited editions worth a lot of money?

It depends on what they are. The H&H and Linley are true limited editions and are worth a lot, particularly, as Oldshep says, the Linley. Then there is the 30th Anniversary where they made 200 (I think) of them so one in decent nick is worth a bit, but not a huge amount, more than a standard one. There's a few others that have come out over the years but again, limited but still made in comparatively large numbers so quite common. The one that a lot of people think is a limited edition but isn't is the Autobiography. That was a model where the buyer could choose the paint colour, interior colour, wheels and spec to make it just how he wanted it. Some have a pretty odd spec when someone didn't really know what they wanted so left off some things that were standard on an HSE.

He also has the ONLY LHD Linley ever built. The Linley was yet another very small run of exclusive cars where only 6 were made, 5 in RHD and the one that he has. I believe there are only 2 or 3 of the original 6 still in existence. That man has some seriously rare cars. Shame he's on the wrong side of the Atlantic as I'd love to see both of them.......

H&H is Holland and Holland who make shotguns. A very limited edition P38 that was produced using a one off colour paint and interior using the same walnut as they use to make their shotgun stocks. See https://www.google.com/search?q=holland+and+holland+p38&client=firefox-b&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjnypPU5b7bAhWIBcAKHdS1Dn4QsAQIKA&biw=1680&bih=925