Lpgc wrote:

Varnish = lacquer?

Close but subtly different, see https://www.doityourself.com/stry/what-is-the-difference-between-varnish-and-lacquer

I suppose it all depends on the actual mileages. If the car has done 120k and the cluster has done 200k then you wouldn't want to add that sort of mileage to it. If the other way round the dash can be updated to match the BeCM but if there's not a lot of difference, then I agree, I won't be that important.

It's always done that for me, not just on Opening Time but on all forums. Read the posts, click refresh to make sure nothing new has come in while I've been reading then click Mark as Read. Probably something to do with different browsers or operating systems.

Martyuk wrote:

Swapping the whole board will swap the mileage chip too... It's soldered to the main PCB

I didn't think it was as I had to swap the board on mine. Although the spare cluster wouldn't have had as many miles on it as on mine (I don't think anyone has as many miles on as mine!) so maybe I had to sync it with the BeCM and update my mileage, I honestly don't remember. So, if you have more miles on than on the spare cluster, it will be OK, otherwise it might be safer to get the soldering iron out and swap the MOSFET and hope that is the problem.

Easiest option is to keep your gauges and mileage chip but replace the whole PCB. With the cluster out break the seals on the top of the plastic cover on the back, unclip the locating tabs all around and remove that (you'll need to unplug the wires to the sounder). There's a peg fixing in the centre which just pops out if you pull the cover off. Disconnect the ribbon cable that goes to the separate board that is standing up from the other one by lifting the edges of the IDC connector, to take the pressure off, don't just try pulling the ribbon or you'll break it. It is this board that stores your mileage information so as long as you don't turn the ignition on while the cluster is out, you won't have a problem with that. Undo the 9 screws holding the circuit board to the back of each gauge (3 on each gauge) and lift the whole PCB off. Fit the PCB from your donor cluster, being careful not to trap the ribbon cable from the other board, and refit the screws. Reconnect the ribbon, put the back on (remembering to reconnect the plug for the sounder) and that's it, job done. If you've got a spare cluster, you can take that one apart first and see how it comes to bits before you remove the one from your car.

You may find that the gauges read slightly differently, that is what the 6 trimmer pots along the top of the circuit board do, they allow you to calibrate the gauges. My ex-police car has a calibrated speedo that is spot on accurate but I contacted the company that calibrated it for plod and they told me which pot does what if you want to be really anal. Normally the speedo reads slightly fast so an indicated 70 mph is an actual 65 mph but on mine what it says you are doing is what you are actually doing.....

With the longevity of the P38 you're hard pushed to find anything as old on the roads these days. Most similar aged cars that are still in use tend to be Volvo, BMW and Merc, all favourites for an LPG conversion so there is more overlap than might at first be obvious. There's two ways of looking at it, a Range Rover forum with a separate LPG section for all vehicles would cover the mutual interest or the two should be kept separate. Then again, Pistonheads started as a TVR forum and has now become a general car enthusiasts forum (in theory at least although from some of the posts on there you begin to wonder if some posters have ever actually opened the bonnet on a car). As it happens Simon has already approached Damien who has run LPGForum for years and enquired about taking it over so our new section that Gordon so rapidly added may not be needed anyway.

Base model wouldn't have sunroof, headlamp wash/wipe, front fogs, leather electric memory seats (base had cloth manual seats), dimming rear view mirror, climate control, trip computer, cruise control, a basic stereo with only 6 speakers (midrange and tweeter in the front doors and midrange only in the rear), no heated seats, no heated windscreen, no air con, no wood except for the strip above the glove box, etc. As trim levels rose, so did the bits fitted. The Vogue would have come with all of these, even the seats and carpet would be different to those on a mid range trim level with the coloured piping and deeper carpet, and the stereo would be the Alpine unit with 3 speakers in each front door, 2 in each rear and the sub in the back along with the CD multichanger. If the head unit is a Kenwood someone has removed the original system.

As for the wood, if it wasn't lacquered you'd be looking at cleaning and wax polishing it at every service interval just to keep it looking something like decent.

This thread reminded me so I've just dug out my spare instrument cluster and had a look. The track to the bulbs are coming from a three legged beasty marked on the board as FT6. Markings on it appear to be K1484 and Google gives me nothing on that. However, a 2SK1484 is a switching N channel MOSFET which would make sense and is probably what allows the dimming. I would suspect a dead MOSFET in all honesty, the reason the panel is spare is because one of the multi channel MOSFET chips that illuminates the various warning lamps (seat belt, alternator, oil pressure, etc) is dead so none of the warnings were working. So if one can go, then I'm sure others can too.

See marty's door latch test sheet here https://rangerovers.pub/topic/5-info-front-door-latch-tests and get stuck in with the multimeter. It is going to need the EKA entering somehow. You won't be able to sync the key while it is immobilised, you'll have to wait until you've got the EKA working.

Other than the weekend of the 22nd September when I'm a little tied up due to my daughter getting married, September/October would suit me fine.

I'm beginning to think I'll live with a tiny stone chip directly in my line of vision and about 3 strips half an inch wide that clear. The stonechip is just mildly annoying at times, it's been filled by one of those stonechip repair guys but looks like a dead bug on the screen that just won't shift no matter how much I use the washers. But if this kind of saga is what getting it replaced is going to entail, I don't think I'll bother.

Mine can't, she's already got flights booked and we are busy the following weekend too. But at some point we all need to raise a glass for OB.

At 12:48? Ahh, but you're in a different timezone to us......

Rossko's company stopped doing LPG conversions so he was no longer involved although I never worked out why he stopped posting too. The knowledge he'd built up over years of working on LPG systems won't just disappear and he helped me no end when I bought my first LPG car (an old Saab 900) just in identifying what was fitted and how it worked. As you say, Dai will appear very occasionally but not on a regular basis and Tubbs disappeared off the face of the earth. No idea what happened there, he used to call in at mine for a coffee and a natter on his way back from picking stuff up from Tinley Tech, great bloke. His wife had a baby and shortly afterwards he split with her then just vanished. No reply to emails, his landline phone at home went dead and his work and personal mobiles both became unavailable. Shame really.

Maybe Simon should take over the forum and run it.......

I think Damian lost interest in it a long time ago and since the likes of Tubbs, Rossko and Classicswede stopped posting it seems to be just me, you and Simon on there. It has been very quiet of late although there have been the odd posters popping up with questions (I'm currently exchanging PMs with a guy with a Yank V8 running a Millennium that is having problems). Most of the time, it is Simon that gives advice and that's about it.

I feel cheated, although I did get mine in 2015 when the Euro to Pound exchange rate was far better than it is now so only paid £305 for it. Why do you keep yours in your toolbox Clive? Surely you want it in the car in case you park somewhere and find you need to enter the EKA if nothing else.

Vogue is just trim level, base, S (hardly any of those about), SE, HSE and Vogue. That's before you get into the various 'special editions'. So being the top spec, it should have had the top spec audio system too. Sounds like someone took the CD changer out but an upside is that being a 2000 it should have the separate amps in the doors and not the very expensive, prone to dying, DSP unit.

BrianH wrote:

There should be a metal clip on cover that comes with it

Huh? Not with mine and mine came direct from BBS. You'd need something that doesn't cover the screen as it isn't like some things (phones, tablest, etc) that you use your fingertip on, it needs a good poke with a fingernail.

Sounds like you have a grounding issue with the amp install. You'll probably find it will only do it when the alternator is working harder so after starting when it is trying to put more back into the battery or when you have other things turned on to increase the load.

Aww Bugger, as far as I knew we were free that weekend but the events secretary has informed me that the weekend of the 4th-5th we've got a friend over from Holland for the weekend, so I'm out. I was convinced she was coming over the following weekend.