12mA is about normal so it is going to sleep. It might be being woken up regularly which would cause the battery to drain though. PWM is pulse width modulation so basically it is a fast square wave with the on period varying to give different average voltage.

Bit more difficult for us as there is no certificate in existence for our stuff but it can still be done. Bikes are a piece of piss in comparison. We bought a 1967 Triumph Bonneville as a container filler last year. I tried to get an MoT on it here to register it and there was so much slop in the front forks there was no way I was going to be able to bodge it through a ticket. So it went to France unregistered and that was the easiest of anything we've ever done.

Workshop is for the cars we import. For the last 5 years or so we've been importing cars from the States into the UK. I do the bare minimum to get them through an MoT so they can be registered here and then transport them down there. Once there they get stripped down to nothing and fully restored. As they have a UK V5, then they can be transferred to French plates, without that, they are an import from outside the EU and simply can't be registered without an EU Certificate of Conformity which most of the stuff we deal with is simply too old and pre-dates that scheme. We started off with 1950s and 1960s Yank stuff, but then got offered a 1958 Austin Healey so bought that. Since then it's been more Healeys, E Type Jags and just recently, Volvo P1800s. Values of the Volvo coupés is rocketing and they are so well put together they are dead easy to strip down to nothing and put back together. There's no pattern parts available either but everything can still be got from Volvo so actually fits, unlike the crap pattern parts for a Jag for instance.

My mate moved down there nearly 25 years ago and I've been running up and down for various reasons since then so am well versed in the French (lack of) rules of the road. The old Priorite a droit makes things interesting but even a Frenchman tends to bottle out of pulling out in front of a Range Rover with a couple of tonnes on the back. I think the best one I've found is the roundabout, or more correctly, the circular road, around the Arc de Triumphe at the end of the Champes Elysee in Paris. That is treated as a roundabout but with traffic entering having right of way over traffic already going around. Gets really interesting when one exit is blocked and people still try to use a bit of road that already has someone parked on it. It amused me when they started putting in proper roundabouts with huge vous n'avez pas la priorite signs, no shit, there's a white line about a foot wide painted on the road!

I tend to ignore most of the rules of the road when over there. I'd have lost my licence years ago if I did the same over here. You're not allowed in the 3rd lane if towing a trailer bigger that 750kgs, but there's no way I'm going to sit in a queue behind a convoy of trucks. I've been flashed by speed cameras more times that I care to think about and surely those yellow lines at the side of the road mean it's parking for visitors only?

Next trip is for 1st/2nd of April but I'll be flying down that time just for a change. Luton to Nice on Easyjet at £25 each way, can't be beaten.

Richard

Internal problem on the power board then. Marty on here does refurbs and BeCM repairs. Have a look at his posts in the Electrikery bit and you'll find his contact details (and his webshop).

But you didn't give me it, I seem to recall there was some folding stuff that changed hands too..... The diff in the axle we took off was probably fine, it turns out as it was the rear that was making the howling noise due to a very notchy feeling nose bearing. I've put it to one side and may well send that to Ashcrofts so I've have a known good one. I may do the same with the spare transfer box I've got sitting here too.

My last trip, setting off Thursday evening and back home Monday night, was 2,058 miles. I'm approaching 311,000 on the clock now. Only another 9,000 and I'll hit the half million kilometres mark.

Hi, have you sorted your electrical gremlin yet? If you do have a BeCM problem, Marty is your man.

I was over there last weekend, in December and September, so if you ever spot a white, R reg P38, usually with a car transporter trailer on the back, that'll be me then. Running on LPG makes mine pretty damn cheap to run and there's nothing else that tows like a V8 P38. A friend came with me this trip and she was nervous that she'd never driven with anything bigger than a small box trailer on the back. After a few minutes she admitted she'd forgotten the trailer was there. Coming back on Monday we were sitting at 80 mph most of the way with an Inocentti Mini Cooper on the trailer (only got flashed twice though). I found a UK reg L322 trundling along at about 65 for some unknown reason and he looked quite astonished when I hurtled past him!

The best part about Cannes is Cresci La Pizza on the corner by the harbour (next to the police station), purveyors of the best pizzas in Europe. Antibes is a nice place, our workshop is just down the road from the huge Carrefour hypermarket next to Junc 44 of the A8 and when finished there for the day, a visit to Le Pimms bar in Antibes is where we can be found. Nice old town is very nice too. My mate lives about 6 miles inland from Nice, up in the mountains where the Alps run down to meet the sea, just outside Tourrette Levens.

I must admit, I love driving over there, hardly any traffic compared to the UK, and the French seem to know what lane discipline is. Since I got myself a telepeage unit to stick on the inside of the windscreen, I don't have to stop, leap out of the car and run round to feed the machine with money or plastic (with the width of the trailer I can't pull up close enough to the machine to be able to clamber across the front of the car). It's knocked half an hour off my journey time purely by not having to stop in a queue.

That's a coincidence, I drove through Dijon about 48 hours ago....... I regularly drive to Antibes (halfway between Cannes and Nice on the Cote d'Azure) and got back yesterday morning from another of my runs. Always in the P38, nearly always with a couple of tonnes on a trailer on the back but she'll still cruise at 80 mph.

Sorry for the delay lads, just back from another of my European 2,000 mile round trips. The diagram doesn't really go into any detail on how the LED is dimmed so no idea whether it is fed with a low voltage or a PWM signal. Pulling it out and sticking a meter across it is about the only way you'd find that out. I don't see why you couldn't hang another LED in parallel with the one that's already there but if you wanted to get really clever, you could use the low voltage (or PWM signal) to switch a transistor and allow that to switch whatever you wanted it to switch.

Marty may have delved into it a bit more but he's away working at the moment.

Right, got the pads and shocks changed before it started raining. I'll blame Marty for me spending money when not needed as it was him that said one of my front shocks felt a bit weak. Well they ain't! No sloppy area and just the same damping as the new ones I've just fitted. So if anyone needs a pair of Boge front shocks, I've got a perfectly good pair here going spare........

In the past they've been good but not perfect. Order something from Rimmers and it will definitely arrive next day but they tend to be a bit more expensive (quite a bit more sometimes) than Island. Island may take an extra day. This time I ordered the parts at 11pm on Monday, they were shipped on Tuesday and arrived with me at about 10am on Wednesday so can't say fairer than that. Well packaged too. I wasn't in any great rush as I knew I wouldn't get chance to fit them until this weekend anyway.

I agree, the Classic now looks dated but the P38 just looks right. The L322 from the back looks too tall and narrow and the current one is still recognisable as a Range Rover but just looks too modern.

While I'd like to 300bhp from the BMW 4.4 litre engine in the L322, I'm not sure I could live with the rest of the car.......

Once the VC had seized I suppose it would depend which end had the taller gearing. If it was the front it would try to turn itself into a stretch limo, if the rear, it would try to fold itself in half in the middle. It would make the steering interesting though as the rear tried to push the front straight on everywhere.

You remember my front pads were a touch on the thin side when we swapped the front axle over, well I ordered a set to bung on it and, remembering you mentioned that one of my front shocks seemed a bit weak, I ordered a pair of OE Boge to bung on the front too. I really must stop looking at the Island website, it cost me money! But I have got another one of my 2,000 mile round trips coming up next weekend. Only problem now is that it's got a touch warmer but now it's bloody raining......

Evening and welcome. Now if you post in the Elektrikery bit about your flashing keyfob, I'm sure Marty will pop up and give you an answer. It's probably something to do with the passive synchronisation but as both mine are too early for that, I've no idea personally.

If it's running out of steam at full bore, you didn't get it right. DO IT AGAIN and get it right this time......

Sitting the laptop on the passenger seat or in the passenger footwell and flooring the throttle to see what the stepper does will tell you what is happening but it is almost certain it will try to open up to get more gas in but the vaporiser can't supply enough. It might be full of heavy ends or you might have a restriction somewhere. Squashed pipe or clagged up filter maybe? I assume you do have an OMVL R90E vaporiser and not some crappy Italian thing rated at 190 Italian horsepower so only good for about 130 on a good day? That's what was fitted to my Classic when I first got it and that went all sick and flat at anything over 1/3rd throttle, swapping for an R90E cured it completely.

Yes, you are chasing your own arse. The amount of gas going in is dictated by the setting of the vaporiser, not by the stepper, the stepper is purely there to fine tune the mixture when needed. If the system has been set up correctly the stepper should hardly move whether at idle or at full bore. The amount of fuel required is directly proportional to the amount of air so as you open the throttle, more air goes in so more fuel should go in too. If it doesn't it's because the vaporiser isn't capable of supplying enough. Since my new engine now has 20,000 miles on it and is nicely run in, I can hit the sport button, floor the throttle, watch the rev counter hit over 5,000 rpm before the box changes up and still wonder how the hell you can get something weighing 2.5 tonnes with the aerodynamics of a small bungalow accelerate that fast. If there is a noticeable difference between running on LPG and running on petrol, it's wrong and needs tweaking.

So here is the complete, from the top, published on about 3 website forums and now about to appear on a 4th, how to set up an OMVL R90E vaporiser on a Leonardo/Millennium single point LPG system wot I rote a while ago.

Setting up a Leonardo

Software is simple enough to get things going. Plug it in and start her up. On the main screen you'll see things like the lambda output and actuator opening. To start from scratch you ideally need a manual valve to fit in place of the actuator. If you don't have one, I've made one using a plastic water pipe Tee piece and a seat belt mounting bolt but you can use just a length of hose and squeeze it with Mole grips if you have nothing suitable.

You can use the manual valve to get things close in case there has been any random twiddling on the vaporiser. Take the stepper actuator out of the hose and fit the manual valve but leave the stepper attached to it's cables so you can see what it is doing. Set the manual valve about half open. Go into the software and under the Actuator tab (under Optional Configurations), set the upper and lower limits to 255 for idle and out of idle. If you make any changes in the software you must hit Return after typing the new value in or it doesn't save the setting and reverts back to what it was. Also make sure the actuator default lock box isn't ticked. Screw the idle bleed screw, the top one or smaller one if it's an older R90E, all the way in. With the computer connected so you can see what is happening, start the engine and get it running at around 2,500 rpm (screw the throttle cable out on it's adjuster if you are on your own). Adjust the manual valve for highest revs (and adjust the throttle to keep it the same) and check the opening on the stepper. It wants to correspond with what you have the manual valve set at and, looking at the software display (hit F12 to display what is going on), you'll see the lambda sitting either somewhere in the middle of the scale or flipping between extremes. You want the actuator and the manual valve to be somewhere in the middle, around 80 - 150 on the software display. If it is right at the top (fully open), you need to unscrew the main bias screw on the vaporiser half a turn (the lower one with the spring under it) at a time until it is in the middle somewhere. Too low (fully closed), screw it in. Re-tweak the manual valve to get the revs back up. Keep doing this until it is sitting somewhere in the middle. You can check that the actuator is working by watching what does when you adjust the manual valve. Screw the manual valve in a little to make the mixture weak and you will see the lambda go green and the stepper open up to try to compensate. Screw it out to make it rich and the lambda will go red and it should start to close.

Now remove the manual valve and throw it somewhere, you may need it one day but hopefully not for quite a while, and fit the stepper in its place. Start the engine and hold the revs up to confirm that it is still in the wandering around the middle and the lambda output is flipping from one extreme to the other. Let it drop to idle and see what the stepper sits at then. It wants to be roughly the same at idle as at 2,500 rpm. If it closes down, screw the main bias screw in a touch to bring it back up. Rev it again and check that the stepper is still in roughly the same area. You'll need to try this a bit to get the idle and out of idle opening the same. You won't be able to get it spot on and a slightly higher opening at idle is fine. If you can't get them to match and the idle opening is always lower than the out of idle, then that is a sign the R90E is showing signs of age. Going rich at idle, allowing more gas through than is needed, is the first sign. If it opens up at idle, then try screwing the main bias screw out a touch. If you find you can never get the out of idle opening within a sensible range and the idle is still opening up, then open the idle bleed screw a touch. I do mean a touch, it is very sensitive, especially on the newer ones with two 6 mm adjusters.

Finally, when you are happy that it is as good as you are going to get, close the actuator limits down to something sensible, say +-30 at idle and +- 40 at out of idle. If you are lucky, you should be able to get it looking like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6sGp2I9lts which is my 4.0 litre on an identical system.

If the lambda sensor is dead the Millennium will be adjusting the mixture using incorrect information so getting it wrong. The 5-0V Titania sensors used in a GEMS P38 give 5V for a lean mixture and 0V for rich. So if the lambda sensor has died it is giving 0V, the Millennium sees this as a rich mixture so will close the stepper down to make it leaner. That will cause you a problem..... In this case, using your manual valve, get the vaporiser set as above and note the actuator number. Tick the Default Lock box and type that number into the box that appears next to it. Then set the idle and out of idle steps to +-5. That way you will have locked the actuator opening to that fixed opening where the mixture is as close as it is going to be for most of the time.

Backfires are caused by one of two things, either an iffy spark due to a dodgy plug or HT lead or a lean mixture. With your experience with older stuff you must have seen engines spitting back through the carb when the mixture is lean. It's no different except you've got an inlet manifold and plenum chamber full of a combustible fuel/air mixture, hence the big bang as the whole lot ignites. Under the Vehicle Configuration menu you'll see the settings for your car. If you want you can set the Changeover to Alternative Fuel start and then you don't need to go through the switch flipping routine to start on gas. Standard settings are changeover on deceleration at something like 1,200 rpm. That way you just leave the switch in the gas position, start the engine (which will be on petrol), blip the throttle and as the revs drop, it'll changeover. You may find it dies, or tries to die, as it changes over. In which case, increase the Fuel Overlap setting. This increases the delay between turning the gas on and the petrol off (I think mine is set to 1 second). As cold running enrichment is not needed on gas, there is no need to warm up on petrol first, just start and drive (although to prevent the chances of the vaporiser icing up in the first few seconds in the depths of winter, you ideally need the vaporiser plumbed in series with the heater not parallel as many are). I know a 110 Defender owner who's petrol pump died about 4 years ago and he just set it to start on gas and never bothered fitting a new fuel pump. He tells me he'll get round to it one day......
.

You'll need a double garage, you can get a P38 into a single one and you may even be able to get out of the car once it's in, but there's no way you can work on one. A standard sized single garage is just too narrow. I know, I have to do all my work outside in the rain/cold/blazing sunshine (rarely) as the garage is only a single.

When I first looked at my place, I liked the house, I liked the location but the best thing for me that took priority over both those, was the space. I've got 2 P38's, a Maserati Biturbo Spider, another car in the garage, my company car, my wife's car and there's still space for others. At the moment there's also a Bentley Continental GT Speed and there's another one due to arrive at the end of this week.......

To me it looks like your only problem is that someone has sold your house.......

For completeness, only the 4.6 was fitted with a 4 pin rear diff, the diesel and 4 litre only got the 2 pin. But, having just come inside after taking her for a test drive, all I can say is, My God, it's quiet! The nose bearing on the one I took out had a decidedly notchy feel to it but the one I've just fitted turned nice and smoothly. What a difference though. I think all the other work I've done, on the incorrect belief that the rear diff couldn't be the source of the noise as I had only recently changed it, has tightened up everything. I can even hear the V8 rumble from the exhaust when I boot it even with the windows shut. Definitely 2 hours well spent.

For anyone wondering, it is a simple enough job. Sit the rear axle on axle stands and remove the rear wheels. Drain the oil from the axle and disconnect the propshaft from the diff (but it can be left attached at the front and suspended on a bit of string from the exhaust hanger to keep it out of the way). Remove the 6 bolts holding each hub to the axle and pull the hub and halfshaft out by a couple of inches. There's no need to even remove the brake callipers, they can be left in place as there is plenty of slack on the brake hose and ABS sensor wire. Undo the ring of nuts that hold the diff to the axle and pull it out. As Mr Haynes says, refitting is the reverse of the above.

Supernatural would be my guess. My EAS is very well behaved but at very odd times I have noticed it do strange things when parked. I can park up and 99 times out of 100 it stays at whatever height it was running at. A couple of clicks to lower the drivers side to compensate for my weight getting out of that side but that's it. Then on the 1 time in 100, there's lots of clicks and it drops down to motorway height. Maybe yours is just getting dizzy doing those 5 circles on the ramp?

So it's a gecko you use in the Philippines is it? I've got a cousin who lives in Thailand and there they use some sort of flowers to ward off evil spirits. His (Thai) wife insisted that he had his car blessed by the local holy man before she let him use it though so that has probably given it some sort of blanket cover.