BBS-GUY wrote:

Of course this is all written in the documents that it seems so few take the time and trouble to read and the Nanocom gets so quickly and easily blamed for so many of the communication issues that are actually P38 ECU diagnostic communication design issues.

I must admit when I got mine it was a definite case of poke and hope and it was weeks before I dared even look into the BeCM in case I cocked something up and then found it didn't work. At the time I did say to a couple of people that the one thing it lacked was any instructions on using it. Then, while idly looking around your website, I found that there are instructions, just nothing that came with it to tell me there were and where to find them. Once you have the instructions, it all makes perfect sense but it may be worth a slip of paper in the box with a link to them.

bpsm, what are you doing on here? You should be on honeymoon? But yes, the old mechanism was well buggered. The mounting holes for the motor were stripped so I had to find some bigger screws to bolt it in securely and the bit that holds the back of the panel up so it fits in the hole were broken so someone had put a couple of self tappers in for it to rest on. No telling what else is wrong with it so rather than just swap the runners it makes sense to drop the headlining and fit a complete, known working, unit like this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RANGE-ROVER-P38-2-5-4-0-4-6-COMPLETE-SUNROOF-CARTRIDGE-MECHANISM-94-02-/162592761016. He's got two or three of them but it will involve a run to Lowestoft to pick it up.

Not sure if the failure was a result of the parts or that something else is not right in the rest of it but I wouldn't go down that route again.

About time for an update. Passenger blend motor was playing up and bringing on the book symbol so I got stuck in to that. I'd got a spare that I'd changed on mine and then found that the motor tab had come unsolderd from the circuit board so I'd repaired that and put it on the shelf in case I ever needed it. Tried that one but still had the book and a RH blend motor potentiometer error on the Nano. Now this was the LH one that wasn't working and I could see that from the live data. Put it down to one of the little quirks of the Nano in reporting the fault on the wrong side. Checked the pot and it all seemed fine but I was still getting the error, so checked the one I'd taken off. That also had a broken solder joint on the motor, repaired that but it still didn't work. So bought a warranted one from Furness on the bay of E's. Connected that one up and still had the same error. Pulled the HEVAC out of the SE and put that in instead. Now the one in the Ascot is the early one that would have been fitted when it was new. The SE should also have the early one but it's obviously been changed at some point as it was the later version. This one showed the fault on the correct side but the fault was still there. Then it clicked. I'd been using the Nano to calibrate the blend motor before fitting it and, despite there being internal stops to limit the travel, they still allow it to move further than it will when in use so it was flagging and over range error. Fitted it, calibrated it, all fine. Swapped the original HEVAC back in and that was fine too. Put the dash back together.

Time to look at the sunroof. It did nothing other than cause the dash to tell me that the sunroof wasn't set. Had a look at the motor and found there wasn't one..... Got a replacement motor, fitted that and, although the motor made all the right noises, nothing moved. Off with the roof panel and found that the bits of plastic runner that the cables attach to were in two pieces. Ended up buying this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sunroof-Guide-Rail-Kit-Right-and-Left-Side-for-Land-Rover-and-Range-Rover/272216409213. Obviously 3D printed but looked right. Started on the LH rail and only replaced the broken bit, retaining the unbroken original parts. Found the bits needed an awful lot of fettling and filing before I got them to slide smoothly in the runner. Then took the RH rail out and started on that one. This was in a worse state and part of the original mechanism was missing so had to use more of the replacement parts. Only problem is that the parts are joined together with steel pins and the kit didn't include them. Spent hours in the garage trying find something of the right size and failing until I looked at a nail in the wall, measured it and found it was the perfect diameter. Much fettling and filing later and the RH rail was sliding smoothly too. Got it all back together and the cables attached and it seemed to work fine without the glass. The motor sounded to be working pretty hard but as I've never owned a P38 with a sunroof before, thought this was probably normal. Fitted the glass and it worked! Had to do a bit of fiddling with the adjustment but got it right in the end. Excellent I thought. Until this morning......

Got in it to move it and it still said Sunroof Not Set so figured I'd set it. Hit the button, the rear of the roof lowered and it started to slowly move backwards. Then there was a crack, a lump of broken plastic ricocheted off the top of my head and it didn't move any more. So, after £30 and 4 evenings worth of fiddling and fettling it looks like I'll be buying a compete unit and fitting that then. Which means the headlining shell has got to be dropped so I might as well retrim that while it's out too........

Ouch, 400 quid for something that may go the same way as the one you've got in a few weeks time.

no10chris wrote:

Maybe a good idea to not play with the car on your wedding day,

I did, but not until after the reception and it was out of necessity not because I really wanted to.

I must admit that I looked at the unit, and the price, and thought it would be a good option for my daughter's MR2 Roadster as that has a double DIN size hole and she needs a satnav and Bluetooth. Only problem with it is that it is missing the most important feature, no DAB!

Might be worth looking for a kit for a BMW as it's the same engine as the older 525d. You might have more suppliers to choose from then.

Diagram for the attenuators http://www.rangerovers.net/rrupgrades/entertainment/headunitadapt.html

If you had any damaged teeth, the problem would be there all the time and not just when it gets hot so pretty unlikely. Swapping the sensor is simple enough as it does just bolt in.

Of all the different systems fitted to the P38, the DSP one is the worst when it comes to wanting to fit anything aftermarket. As most of the processing was done in the DSP amp, there's only a stereo output to the amp and a separate output for the sub. You'd need to bypass the amp so the left and right feeds to it are linked to the front speakers and run a separate two pairs for the rears. Ideally you'd need to add some crossovers too. Having looked at the work Marty has done and the grief it has caused him, I'm really glad I don't have a car new enough for it to be fitted with the DSP system.

Rough running when hot, and dying completely in some cases, is often a symptom of a failing crank position sensor. Usual way to test is to carry some cold water and give it a good soaking to cool it off when it starts playing up. If it then runs OK, that's the problem.

Mines locked up a couple of times but I found that a squirt of contact cleaner in the plug and OBD socket seems to sort that out. I knew about the ABS sensors showing as wrong and thought that had been sorted with the latest firmware release but I found another one recently. While sorting out the blend motors on the Ascot it was insisting that there was a pot fault on the RH blend motor, yet when I looked at the live data, I could see the feedback value changing as I changed the temperature but the LH one didn't. Temperature changed on the RH side too and didn't on the left so I knew it was the left one that was duff. Due to a bit of a faux pas on my part, I suspected there might be a problem with the HEVAC so swapped it with the one in the SE to test. The one in the Ascot is the early version, the one in the SE has obviously been changed at some point as it is the latest version. That showed the fault correctly as being on the LH blend motor and not the right.

However, despite it's odd little foibles, which you soon get used to, I still think it is by far and away the best tool on the market.

I've got a slight water leak in the Ascot but I know exactly where from. The plastic bits of the sunroof mechanism had broken on both sides so needed looking at. Got replacement bits from a company called Bross Auto Parts based in Turkey who sell the bits on eBay. They appear to be 3D printed parts and needed a little fettling to get them to slide properly. Got the LH side done and working fine but took the RH runner off and bought it into the house to do it last night. Left the sunroof glass just sitting in the hole but as there's no runner on one side, it was sitting a bit lopsided. It rained last night.......

Not bad since 30 December 2015, that's around 17.7 posts a day. Eat your heart out RRTH......

I would think Colin would honour the discount if you were to buy a GEMS unit and the Thor licence in one hit (or the other way round).

Can't say fairer than that even though a lot of us on here have already got one. As Colin is based in Cyprus (don't blame you, the climate is somewhat better than here) the prices are in Euros and I bought mine when the Pound/Euro rate was much stronger meaning it was a few pence over £300. Still not cheap but it has probably paid for itself on my own car compared with paying my local Indy to plug his Testbook in. Add to that the convenience of having it with me and being able to plug in to a number of other cars it's worth every penny. I went down to my mates in France a couple of weekends ago and going through the list of things I needed to bring with me he asked if I could bring the Nano. Not that there was anything wrong with his car, he just wanted me to plug it in and check for any irregularities.

He's somewhere the other side of the river in the bit that's still trying for independence. Kernow I believe they refer to it as.

The regenerative braking means that instead of a mechanical brake they use the movement to turn a generator to produce a tiny bit more electricity to put back into the battery, the drag caused by turning the generator acts as the brake instead. The latest thing that has been pointed out is that with the particulates in exhaust emissions being reduced more and more they have realised that there are particulates being produced by the friction of the tyres on the road and from brake pads. So the next step is likely to be tyres that never wear out (and therefore won't be capable of giving any grip) and electronic braking (but that needs more electricity so you'd reduce the range not only when driving but when stopping too).

No, rubbing the battery in your TV remote just warms it up a bit to squeeze the last millivolt out of it. Which makes me wonder what will happen to an electric car in the dead of winter if you let the battery go completely flat. We had some kit at work where the battery pack consisted of a pair of Lithium cells. In the pack was also the charging circuit but that had to be powered so was connected to one of the batteries. If the batteries were both drained and the kit not used for a while, it wasn't possible to charge the battery as there wasn't enough power in the one to power the charging circuitry. We would have to open the pack up and swap the internal batteries over and hope the other one hadn't been drained completely and had enough in it to power it. If that one was also completely flat, we'd sit them on a radiator for an hour or so to squeeze a tiny bit of power out of them so that the charging circuit would work. For the same reason the battery in your laptop doesn't have just a positive and negative terminal, it has two or three other connections that go to the charging circuitry. So what will happen in the cold with a completely discharged Lithium battery in an electric car?

Incidentally, Gordon's comment earlier about pollution rising when the emissions crap was fitted may hold more than a little truth. We all know how bad a modern diesel stinks but I've currently got a series 1 Discovery here with the old 200 TDi engine. So no cats or particulate filters. While the exhaust fumes from that still smell like diesel exhaust, they don't burn your eyes or have the Hydrogen Sulphide smell like the stench that comes from a VAG TDi for example.

So all you have to do now is meet up with OB somewhere and get the SRS light turned off.

Hmm, I wonder if that is the original or one that has been replaced at some time in it's life? There's two part numbers for the very early one, the one that was fitted originally (AMR3375) and one that superseded it (AMR6405), although this is different again to the one for the post 97 cars (AMR6476). I've always assumed the change in part number signified a redesign (thicker tracks maybe?) but it may be a sort of interim. Does everything work? Does it still have a visible part number and if it does, which one is it?

Because nothing is 100% efficient so you would always need more power to turn the alternator than it is capable of generating. You could, in theory, use an electric motor to turn a generator which would produce the power to turn the motor so you'd have a perpetual motion machine, something that would continue spinning all day long. But it won't because to generate the amount of power needed to turn the motor the generator would need more power than the motor can supply. You never get anything for nothing.