Not necessarily but if the only message you have is Engine Disabled, Press Remote, I doubt it has. The only worry is that the more it is messed with, the more likely it is that it goes into full lockout. My concern is the same as Marty's. Turn up there with the Nanocom only to find that it is something more serious and it needs more specialist kit (which he has but I don't).

No, a standard code reader is no good, not even the stupidly expensive Snap-On ones. You need dedicated LR kit, Nanocom, Lynx, Testbook or a Syncmate. There might be an LR independent nearby who may be able to help (although a lot of them won't come out to you). Or just wait for Marty to re-appear and use it as an opportunity to get some miles on his new engine. I'm closer to you than Marty (not much over an hour away) and would offer to help but I'm supposed to be working at the moment, busy this evening, at work tomorrow and got a replacement central heating oil tank to install on Saturday so Friday evening is going to be taken up removing the fence that is around the old one.

But if you haven't got it sorted by Sunday........

Yes, it's trying to do something but if the reservoir is empty there's no air to send anywhere.

There's still a mystery here. If it was locked and unlocked with the key, it shouldn't have become disabled in the first place. If the door is locking and unlocking the linkage is OK but why is it not flashing the lights on an unlock turn? Marty, is there any possibility that something has broken inside the latch so it is physically unlocking but not operating the switch (although it that was the case I would expect no flashes when turning either way)?

Taking it apart and getting the latch out probably isn't something you'd want to do with it parked outside a shop and even if you take it out and find it's broke, you don't have another to put in it's place. Pushing it a bit might work or the other method I've heard of the AA doing is put put one of those metallised blankets over the back of the car, crawling underneath it and using the fob against the receive aerial etched into the offside rear window.

Let it run with a door open for 10 minutes and see if enough air gets into the reservoir to get it to raise when you close the door. The solid light is showing the height it is at and the flashing one is showing what height it is trying to achieve so that is correct. If it bored with waiting, both lights will be solid so you need to poke the rocker switch again to wake it up.

What do you mean by clicking over? The pump should run constantly to start with with a gentle hum (if the pump mounts are good, you'll need to put your hand on it to feel it running). The solenoids will be clicking as it's trying the raise the car but even a good pump will take 8-10 minutes running to get the reservoir filled and up to pressure. If you open a door with the engine running (so the pump runs), that will inhibit the air suspension so it won't try to raise, all the pump output will be going into the reservoir. Then when you close the door and poke the button, it should rise up to normal height. Unless you already have a door or the tailgate open in which case it won't raise as it's inhibited by design (no suspension movement if any door or tailgate is open or if you have your foot on the brake pedal).

Handbrake adjustment is simple enough. Big 17mm spanner on the adjusting bolt on the backplate. Tighten it up until the drum locks, then back it off one and a half turns.

Makes no difference. One switch tells the BeCM you are turning the key, the other one tells it whether the car is locked or unlocked so it knows which way you are turning it. It can obviously see that you are turning the key as the lights flash when going one way, but if the CDL switch isn't operating it will think you are always turning it the same way.

Anti-clockwise is lock, so say the first turn to lock is 3, it would see 3 pulses from the key switch. If you then turn clockwise and the CDL switch isn't working, instead of seeing pulses the other way, it would see any further pulses as being more to lock. So the lights would still flash but the wrong code would be sent, it would just be a string of lock pulses rather than alternate lock, unlock, lock, etc.

That's why I say it could be as simple as slop in the linkage. No flashes when turning one way suggests that it isn't seeing you turn the key. Does this make sense?

In the mid 80's the MoD replaced all of their Series Land Rovers with Defenders and got rid of all the remaining complete cars and spares. Most of them were bought by one company and they went to a disused airfield somewhere near Litchfield. They had aircraft hangars full of spares and the entire airfield was covered in Series Land Rovers. All one price (£1750 each if I remember right), except any with 24V electrics were classed as commercial so had VAT added to the price. You walked around, picked out the one(s) you wanted and they craned it out for you. I bought a few LHD ones that went to France but there were LWB, SWB, soft top, hard top, lightweights, every version going, all you did was find one that looked decent. Some had dents in every panel and starship mileages, others were near brand new.

Then there's another place that is still going today, just off the A1 near Grantham but I suspect a few years ago there were quite a few places dealing in ex-MoD kit as there would have been so much of it about.

Just looking at the diagram to find wire colours and realised that for the system to recognise clockwise turns of the key but not to recognise the anti-clockwise it would mean the CDL (Central Door Locking) microswitch isn't doing anything. But if that is the case, then the central locking wouldn't work, does it?

Also, if the CDL switch isn't changing state, then it would see all key turns as clockwise so should still flash the lights, just not be seeing the correct code. That's making me think it might be something as simple as slack in the linkage and the key turn is enough to lock the door but not quite enough to operate the switch. Could be worth checking that before Marty does a long round trip (although it will give him the opportunity to get some more miles on his new engine).

GEMS or Thor refers to which petrol engine as a 99 could be either. If the top of the engine has a rectangular plenum with 4.0 or 4.6 cast into it, it's GEMS, if the top of the engine looks like a big bunch of aluminium bananas, it's Thor. But, that is pretty much irrelevant as the problem is the same. It shouldn't have gone into Engine Disabled if it was locked with the key and then unlocked with the key again, locking with the key is how you lock the car without turning the internal ultrasonics on so the alarm doesn't go off if you've left your gundog in there. It is only if it is locked with the fob and unlocked with the key when it will go into disabled and need the EKA. Does unlocking with the key unlock all doors or just the drivers door? It may be that the fob has lost sync for some reason, have you tried re-syncing? Put the key in the lock, turn to unlock and hold it there, while holding it there, press and hold the unlock button on the fob until the LED flashes quickly (about 10 seconds). Then turn to lock, hold it there and press and hold the lock button. That should sync the fob to the car but if the lock/unlock microswitch is playing up, then it may not work. It also may not sync if you are in a disabled state, I know it won't if it is in alarmed state but not sure about disabled.

I was in Coventry at the weekend (yes, it was me that PM'd you on the other forum) and have a Nanocom but don't have any reason to go that way again in the next few days. Mine is for GEMS but I'm fairly sure that it will still work with the BeCM (Body Electrical Control Module, the bit that deals with this stuff) on any version, just not talk to the engine (can anyone confirm?).. If all else fails, as you can get into the car, you can enter the EKA code by taking the door card off and dobbing wires onto the correct pins in the plug to enter the EKA manually.

Another thing to check on the rockers is to carefully look at the steel socket that the pushrod bares against. There was a batch of cars that had problems with the steel seat sinking into the alloy rocker. The affected VIN numbers are from early to late 98 but it isn't unknown on odd ones outside this range.

You can fit the LPG nozzles, attach a length of hose and plug the ends or just drill and tap the manifold and fit a short bolt to blank it off for now. At least then the manifold doesn't have to come off again, you just remove the bolt and put the nozzles in their place.

I replaced the tube from the throttle body heater to the header tank with a length of this stuff http://www.autosiliconehoses.com/silicone-hose-shop/performance-silicone-hoses/silicone-1-ply-radiator-heater-hose-up-to-30-metres.html, 8mm ID was the correct size if I remember correctly and also used a short bit for the other hose that goes from throttle body heater to the manifold. As it is thicker than the original rigid plastic pipe it is very close to the back of the serpentine belt if it follows the same path as the plastic one did so I've run it behind the alternator instead of in front of it. A thinner piece of the same stuff, or the non braided silicon hose like this http://www.autosiliconehoses.com/silicone-hose-shop/performance-silicone-hoses/vacuum-silicone-hoses.html which is actually intended as vacuum hose should be thin enough for the cruise control vacuum hoses.

I always advocate putting the reducer in series with the heater on a P38 where the heater is full flow. My Classic and P38 were both in parallel when I got them, the Classic would freeze the reducer and the P38 heater would drop to lukewarm at idle depending on which path offered the least resistance to the coolant. Changing to series plumbing cured both problems and got rid of a number of potential leak points. On a GEMS the heater hose layout means it can be done neatly too. The flow is the hose that comes from the inlet manifold so I've run that to the reducer(s), then reducer to heater matrix and left the return hoses as Mr LR intended. You'll need reducers due to the different hose sizes but try to get metal ones if you can as the plastic ones will go brittle eventually. Or you can make them up with 22-15mm plumbing reducers with 15-15 and 22-22mm straight joins on each end to give plenty of length for the hose to fit to and ensure a good seal.

What LPG system have you got? Mention of emulators would suggest either a singlepoint or Prins as most other systems don't use emulators. However, if you've got a singlepoint, you don't need to let it warm up on petrol, it'll run on LPG from the word go. I've still got petrol in the tank that I bought in Latvia in September last year.

Glad you finally made it here and you'll find you get advice based on practical experience rather than out of RAVE and making it up as you go along. Regarding the scare stories, the P38 is no worse than any other car designed in the mid 90's and incorporating first generation electronics. Yes, they have their quirks but so does everything else. In the main the engines are reliable (and you've got one built by BMW and fitted in any number of saloon cars), the gearboxes go on forever and the rest of the transmission is nigh on bulletproof. You'll see adverts for cars that have been converted to coil springs with comments like, "converted to coils so no more troublesome air suspension" but the EAS only gives problems when it's neglected just like anything else will. Look after a P38 and you'll see why it was a £60k car when new.

To give you an example. I've got a mate that lives in the south of France. For the last 6 years or so we've been buying classic cars in the US, shipping them to the UK where I get them registered (you can't register anything in France that doesn't have an EU certificate of conformity and everything we have bought has been too old to have one if it could ever get one in the first place) and then putting them on a trailer and taking them the 953 miles from my place to his behind the P38. He's never understood why I use, what the scare stories suggest is the most unreliable car ever built, to do it with. Recently he was offered a straight swap, 200 Euros worth of Peugeot 406 he had for a '98 P38. I spent a couple of days down there getting the air suspension and LPG system working properly. He did some cosmetic work on it and started to use it. After a couple of weeks I got an email from him just saying that he got it. He'd realised what it is that sets the P38 apart from everything else he has ever owned and can see what the attraction is. So much so that the rules on insurance have just changed and he has made a decision. Up until now it has been possible to insure a UK registered car with a French insurance company as long as it has a French Controle Technique (their equivalent to an MoT). When his insurance comes up for renewal, he can only get cover for 2 months to allow him time to transfer a car to French plates. His old '93 (completely rust free) Discovery, his wife's Rav 4, his son's Porsche Boxter and an oddball thing called a Geo Metro (a 2 seater convertible which is basically a Suzuki Swift underneath) will all be coming back to the UK to be sold. The P38? He's going to jump through the hoops that only French bureaucracy can create and put that onto French plates. Despite taking the piss out of mine for years, he's realised that life wouldn't be complete with it.

Unfortunately not, it's broken on the tight bend. It takes the place of pipes 5 and 6 in the pic below but as the car is a soft dash, it's later than this.

Yes, I was meaning at the ECU end but you can do the same at the sensor end. Doesn't need to be conductive but if you've got something the same size and thickness as the pin on the ECU, then you will be able to feel if it is a nice tight fit or if the connector has weakened so not making good contact with the ECU pin.

RRHSG wrote:

Couldn't I just rewire the 3 wires

You could but that will just take the wire as far as the connector in the plug so if the iffy connection is where the plug connects to the ECU, it won't make any difference. See if you can find something the same thickness as the pins (a piece cut from a feeler gauge maybe?) and try it in the plug to make sure there is tension in each socket.

Hmm, interesting. Seems to me that the only thing you have changed that could cause it to move is the ECU. Is there any possibility that the contacts in the plug aren't making a good connection? Have you tried a good squirt of contact cleaner and plugged and unplugged it a few times to make sure everything is clean?

Look like Bigas to me http://www.lpgshop.co.uk/bigas-sgis-4cyl-injectors-rail-with-t-sensor/

Not sure Pirtek would do it. I asked my local place about an AC hose for the Masser and they told me they don't do AC hoses, only hydraulic. This is also one of the rigid alloy pipes rather than a hose too.

Regs look a bit complex but the wall thickness on 10mm microbore is about the same as the original alloy so I don't think that will be a problem, it's mostly a case of will the refrigerant eat the copper rather than anything else.

Had a phone call earlier from a guy I'm helping restore a soft dash LSE Classic. One of the alloy air con pipes got damaged when it was all being pulled apart and it's broke. He's found that they are almost impossible to get as the soft dash is a sort of mish mash of Classic, P38 and Discovery parts. He's asked someone about it and they have offered to make a replacement in copper. The question is, is there any reason why they are made of alloy in the first place and is he going to have any problems with a copper pipe? I said I assumed they were alloy as it was cheaper and some fridges use a copper condenser so I would think it would be OK. Anyone know of any reason why it isn't such a good idea?