Last weekend I had a bit of preventative maintenance to do and an annoying, to me anyway, slight leak from the front diff pinion seal. This was a reconned diff not that long ago so shouldn't have been leaking but the oil was being thrown around by the dust cover so dripping off the harmonic balance weight and anti roll bar drop link. Bought a new seal and flange kit and fitting went far smoother than I expected. Also gave me the chance to properly check the front propshaft UJs and give them a squirt from the grease gun while they were off.

Then went to the gearbox. When we fitted the 4HP24 last year, and 40,000 miles ago, at one point we put the trolley jack under the sump so it had gone a bit concave and had also start to leak slightly. So dropped the sump off, which involved having to lift it slightly to get enough clearance for it to come out, a couple of blocks of wood and a big hammer returned it to the original shape and it went back on with a new gasket. Just about to declare that job finished and noticed the side of the gearbox was damp above the sump gasket line. Seems we hadn't done the banjo bolt on the breather tube tight enough and there was a slight leak from there too. In fact, the gearbox sump gasket looked fine so it may well have been that all along, but at least I now no longer have a concave gearbox sump.

Finished, or so I thought, and went to start the car. Dash lit up dimly and no chance of the starter turning the engine over. Battery down to about 8 volts. Now the car had been sitting there with the tailgate and a couple of doors open so the interior lights had been on but they will time out after 10 minutes so shouldn't flatten the battery. Very odd but put my charger on it and went for a coffee. Normally my charger will bring a battery back to life in a matter of minutes but turned the ignition on and it still wasn't happy. Got the expected Gearbox Fault, EAS Fault and one I've never seen before, Electrical Fault. Got the clamp on ammeter out and found 6A from the charger to the battery but also found 2.6A from battery to alternator. Disconnected the alternator and let the battery take the full charge. Off with the alternator and it seems one of the rectifiers has gone short circuit. As I needed to use the car the next day, I did something that I wouldn't normally do and whipped the alternator off the Ascot and fitted that. So, new alternator needed.

Island 4x4 would do me a Britpart, almost certainly recon, for £84.99 or a brand new Hella for £126.99, so the Hella was ordered. Both come with a 2 year warranty but I suspect the Britpart warranty assumes you are only going to be doing 5,000 miles a year...... That arrived in a couple of days so was fitted and the Ascot given its alternator back so I've got two fully functioning P38s again (even if the Ascot is only used very intermittently, I like to keep it ready and available should I need it). Just need to drop the original one in to my local auto electricians for a new diode pack and I'll have a spare for when I, or someone else, needs one urgently.

If you are going to use a USB to serial adapter, make sure it is one with the FTDI chipset and not any other Chinese version. The cheap ones have all sorts of problems connecting and keeping the connection. I've got all my serial stuff on an ancient Panasonic Toughbook, which has a 9 pin serial connection, running Windows 2000. Never had a problem connection to anything with that.

I bought a Euro Car parts own brand (Klarius) one that lasted far better than the previous Britpart. Wasn't a lot in it in price either if you buy it when they have one of their offers on.

Not just Ireland, if you pick the wrong MoT test centre here, you can run into problems.

If it was overfilled, the excess would be spat out the breather pipe. Pipe ends up on the LH side of the bulkhead. The gearbox one is there too and if you overfill either gearbox or transfer case, the excess dribbles down the LH mudflap. I found that when I overfilled my gearbox as the difference between the min and max marks on the dipstick (on a GEMS) is only 250ml and not a litre as I assumed.....

The filler thread is tapered so it seals as long as it is done up tight enough. There is no seal or washer, it just needs be done up to 30Nm.

The joint on the transfer case doesn't use a gasket, it uses a layer of RTV so if it didn't leak originally, it won't leak again unless it is disturbed.

I'd say it is coming from the filler plug. Give it a blast with brake cleaner to wash it all off, then take it for a run and have another look. Don't forget that airflow under the car will spread it around too.

Dead easy. All you need to remove is the brake drum, it can even be done with the brake shoes in place. Off with the propshaft and move it to one side, off with the drum, big nut in the centre of the drive flange, drive flange off, seal dust cover off, lever the old seal out and, as they say in all the best books, reassembly is the reverse of the above.

Don't forget, it isn't oil its ATF, one of the slipperyest substances you can find so any of that on your brake shoes and it won't work well. ATF is also good for high temperatures so you wont smell burnt oil as you'll probably never get it hot enough.

That's what I found too. I tried to download the software from the Google Playstore just to have a look and see what it can do, only it isn't there. The site does have a copyright acknowledgement for iPhone, iPad, etc but no mention of Android. Is it iPhone only?

The figures of the number of types of car that catch fire are likely to be skewed by the fact that the EVs are that much newer whereas there are plenty of much older, less well maintained, ICE cars out there. If the percentage of car fires affecting only cars of less than a certain age, the statistics would likely change quite a bit. Ignoring that though, it is the difference in the fire that makes a bigger difference. My local fire service have a policy of automatically sending 2 appliances to an EV fire compared with just one for an ICE car fire. Additionally, an ICE car fire requires only a few hundred gallons of water to contain, or even put out, the fire compared with thousands for an EV fire and, on a more serious fire they will simply order a large skip, fill it with water and drop the EV into it. Even on a less serious one, with the danger of it re-igniting, if it is to be recovered they will follow with a fully crewed appliance until it has been safely unloaded and quarantined. The insurance company will pick up the bill for this too.

I agree diesel is worse than petrol as petrol doesn't burn, it is only the vapour that burns, whereas diesel is excellent for starting bonfires (once ignited with a blowlamp) as it is the liquid that burns, so I agree it will spread. However, as it still needs Oxygen to burn , it can be put out fairly easily with a fire blanket or an extinguisher that stops the air getting to it.

I'm not anti-EV as such just that one wouldn't be a practical proposition for me. Running on LPG I know the concept of range anxiety, the difference being that if the filling station I had intended filling up at has run out, I can always run on petrol instead, something an EV owner can't do. There is definitely a place for them (my sister being the perfect EV owner and her Nissan Leaf is ideal for her to drive to work and go shopping) though.

I would normally do that on any other automatic car on the way to MoT test to clean up the brake linings and drum as they tend to not get used on an auto, people just put it in Park. Particularly the ones used on a lot of German cars which have discs on the back but the parking brake is a small drum in the centre of the disc.

However, I wouldn't do it on a P38 as the parking brake is usually too good. If it's working well it should be possible to lock the rear wheels.

If you have a problem caused by localised RF, you can usually make it work by just holding the fob next to the antenna on the RH rear window. It will need a hell of a strong signal to overcome that.

Yes, I've done the same, had to make up the cable and plug to fit the strange Classic connector and turn the bit rate right down, but it definitely works. Initially I tried to connect just the data lines on the LSE to my Nanocom but that didn't work for some reason.

I thought I'd posted a link but didn't, so here it is https://www.rswsolutions.com/index.php/range-rover-p38a/range-rover-p38a-eas-unlock-v3

If you've adjusted it up properly, even if the drum is full of ATF, it'll still hold the car. As long as they test it properly and do both wheels at the same time.....

Pierre3 wrote:

Thanks for the description of the electrical plug shown in the picture. I noticed that mine is only just holding on as the plastic clip, that holds it, is broken on one side. I may have to consider replacing it, but with what I am not sure.

Tie wraps are the usual solution to most broken clips.....

No, OBD scanner only does OBD diagnostics which is engine and, possibly, gearbox. Your cheapest option is the RSWUnlock V4 software which does everything except SRS faults. On a GEMS, any SRS fault needs the ECU to be reset after a fault is cleared so is a pretty important omission.

Have you never heard of crows foot sockets, like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Siegen-S0845-Drive-Flare-Spanner/dp/B003OX85ES/ref=asc_df_B003OX85ES/? A pair of those would get in there no problem, although you would need two ratchets......

The connector is the supply and feedback for the transfer box range change motor, which is on the back of the transfer box alongside the transmission brake drum..

Was the rubber split or cut? One way of breaking into a P38 is to pull the rubber down between the tailgate and bumper and then use a sharp knife blade to put a ground on one wire at a time until you find the one that comes from the door latch (which is why they are all one colour to make it harder to find the correct one). It's also another way of opening the tailgate if the door latch is faulty. That would put a break in the insulation so weaken the wires and allow the conductors to corrode.