That should be a nice run although not the easiest, or, more to the point, cheapest. France has the most expensive LPG in Europe while Spain doesn't have that many stations and they were the only country to adopt the Euro filler so yet another adapter you need to buy. The nice thing about a P38 is you can sit back, wind it up to 80 mph and relax for a couple of hours before you need to stop for another tankful and a coffee or meal break.

We drove down to the Lot region in SW France for a mate's son's wedding a couple of weekends ago. Filled the tank before setting off on Thursday, drove to Dover and filled it there, then stops for fuel just south of Paris, Vierzon and finally Cahors. Did some running around while we were there, runs to assorted hotels picking up guests and having to drive to the local hospital for our Boris mandated Covid tests so we could get back into the UK, so decided to fill up before setting off to head home on the Sunday afternoon and really confused the Autoroute toll station. Got onto the A20 at J 56 and headed south, stopped at the services and filled up then headed north to get off at the same junction. It couldn't cope with someone getting on the Autoroute and getting off at the same junction......

I missed that bit. Yes, it must be checked with the engine running and the gearbox in Neutral. As soon as the gearbox stops turning the fluid drains back into it so the level will be higher. That could mean you are simply low on fluid, showing low when not running and showing normal after it has been run for a while then switched off. If you waited a short time you'd probably see the level rise as more drained back.

Only half an inch? That isn't right. This is mine after it has been standing overnight and before being started

After starting it, running through the gears and checking it in Neutral, it was showing a bit low and only just reaching the top of the black plastic blob. Bottom mark to top mark is only around 250 ml so it doesn't need much at all. It looks like you have insufficient fluid level and/or flow. The level isn't dropping as much as I would expect it to when running. Could be a weak pump or maybe a restriction in the flow in the cooler?

Running through the gears makes sure the torque converter and oil cooler is filled, if you check without doing that first the level is about 4 inches above the max mark on the dipstick. It might be worth checking it before starting the engine just to be sure it is that high. If it is still at the max mark then that would suggest the pump isn't pumping the fluid.

sdoglb wrote:

yes I had the trans fluid and filter changed and the gearbox oil was checked four months ago.

That rings alarm bells with me, you didn't check it yourself so how do you know whoever did it did it properly? Transmission fluid has to be checked cold, in Neutral with the engine running after you have cycled through all the gears. If it was checked with the engine not running, you'll be a least 3 litres short.

No I don't, I drive because I love driving. Given the choice between a 3 hour flight or a 26 hour drive to visit the in-laws, I'll take the drive any day. Cheaper if there's 3 of us in the car too.

I saw a truck the other day loaded with a load of LPG tanks, all with Avanti Propane on the side of them, so obviously another supplier. EuroGarages and Applegreen both have a fair number of stations selling LPG too. For a couple of brothers from Yorkshire, the owners of EuroGarages seem to be doing quite well for themselves, first they bought Asda and I found a Eurogarages filling station in France a couple of weeks ago. I've been filling up at a couple of Morrisons just recently and not noticed any difference and autogas in this country should be 100% Propane except for the lubricant for the pumps. Continental LPG is a mix of Propane and Butane that varies during the year with less Butane in the winter (as it remains a liquid and doesn't vaporise below around 3 degrees C.

A few Shell branded garages have gone elsewhere. There's one in Luton where the pumps and tanks were labelled Autogas, from Shell and Calor. Then the tanks got a new coat of paint and Flogas stickers with the pumps following a bit later.

It's interesting that Propane with Road Fuel Duty paid is actually cheaper than buying it in a bottle without the RFD paid. Most filling stations have a notice saying not to fill bottles and as they don't have an 80% stop valve you could overfill them anyway. Then again, most have a notice saying not to use an adapter either but I've seen plenty of people using them. I know a lot of the bigger motorhomes, particularly the US built ones with a big V8 powering them, have a dual takeoff tank installed so they can run the engine on LPG liquid but with a vapour takeoff to run heating and cooking.

Every weekend? I'm filling up about 3 times a week, sometimes 3 times a day!! Filled up 5 times in 24 hours a couple of weeks ago......

I'm not so sure about that, or they were using it as an excuse. My local Flogas depot sells at 58p a litre but less than a mile away there's a filling station supplied by Flogas selling at 68.9. Flogas depot is only open 8:00-16:30 Monday to Friday but the filling station is 24 hour so they still do a decent amount of trade. I highly doubt they are paying 58p a litre for it when buying in bulk but even if they were, that's still 11p per litre profit, far more than they make on petrol.

Then again, now Nigel (Nigelbb) has discovered that a P38 runs perfectly well on E85 maybe it's time to start brewing some Ethanol?

Shell removed LPG from 205 stations last year. They were supplied by Autogas Ltd, a collaboration between Shell and Calor but they had a falling out so all Shell stations were told they could no longer supply them with LPG. Some of the Shell branded but privately owned stations started to get their supplies from elsewhere while the Shell owned ones just removed the pumps. As the signage is supplied by Shell, even the privately owned ones rarely have a space for LPG price outside even though they do sell it. The filllpg.co.uk website is particularly slow (if it works at all) but a good alternative is autogas.app which works fine for finding the hidden stations you didn't know about.

They are telling you lies, AC O rings are available https://parts.jaguarlandroverclassic.com/parts/index/part/id/L7.L7F.L7F01.L7F01010/brand/land-rover/ although some of the oil cooler ones are shown as NLA.

It's the motor on the transfer case that changes it from high to low ratio. You can see it bolted to the back, next to the parking brake drum. Looks much like a windscreen wiper motor (and is actually very similar to a windscreen wiper motor. I drove a car with the motor unplugged and that gave a permanent Select Neutral message on the dash and didn't allow the torque converter to lock up so it was revving higher than it should when cruising. So although interconnected with the gearbox, I don't think it is likely to be the problem.

It's like a UK version of Sirius that the Yanks have. Digital Audio Broadcasting, it's a way of getting multiple radio stations into a single 2Mhz wide multiplex, similar to digital TV in a way. That way they can use a bit of unused (and not required by anyone) radio spectrum for something useful. The original idea was that they could then turn off all the FM stations and the Government could sell that spectrum to the mobile phone networks but that hasn't happened as it is no use to them. Originally it was intended to be a pan-European system but other countries haven't adopted it. France has a few stations using it but only in small areas and I think there's a few stations in Germany but that is about it. It's probably one of those things that has been overtaken by other technology now cars tend to come with internet connectivity meaning you can stream audio direct from the internet and don't have to rely on a network of expensive to install and maintain transmitter sites.

In theory, Steel Seal, unlike Radweld, KSeal and the other magic potions, shouldn't clog anything as it should remain liquid unless it encounters lots of heat, the sort of heat it is going to find if combustion gases are escaping somewhere, but someone (Chris I think it was) pulled the top off a radiator and found a sort of slime clogging it. Maybe it starts to gel after time or when it has got hot a few times? Nigel asked if there was anything else worth doing while the dash is out so I figured it will be easier to replace the cruise hose (it was split at the Tee when I first saw the car so trimmed the end but blowing down it showed it was leaking somewhere else, almost certainly where it goes through the bulkhead) and it will probably be easier to refit the broken glovebox strut mount with it out. The mount had previously broken and been glued back on but that had let go and it fell out from behind the dash when I dropped the panel to get to the OBD port. While in there I'll also seal the joints in the ducting so everything from the heater actually gets to the interior of the car.

Glad to hear you made it over OK Nigel. I had a feeling you were being optimistic thinking you wouldn't need the heater, maybe you won't in France but at 7am in the UK you would no matter what time of year.

BeCM will also trip out if too much current is drawn, give a Bulb Blown message on the dash and cut the power to that circuit. I was once towing a very big, heavy, trailer so decided to put a 21W equipped amber rotating beacon on it. Easiest way to connect it was to tap into one of the sidelight feeds at the trailer rear light so tapped into that. All fine but after about 10 minutes of driving the dash beeped and told me my NS sidelight was blown. Looked in the mirror and noticed the beacon and the white marker light on the front of the trailer had gone out. Switched the lights off and back on again and they all came back only to shut off with the same warning about 10 minutes later.....

For FM I used one of the original aerials as the aerial amp will be powered by the head unit through the DIN plug anyway. One of the existing aerials is FM only while the other one is FM and AM so you'd need to try both to see which one works on AM (not that you are ever likely to use it with everything on AM being there on DAB too). For DAB I initially tried a stick on glass aerial on one of the rear side windows as the heater wires in the windscreen were likely to degrade the performance (didn't try it and it might have been fine) and it was OK but did tend to be a bit directional. I've ended up with a little magnetic whip on the back centre of the roof but I had a convenient hole with a grommet that had obviously been put there by plod on the vertical bit of the back of the roof hidden when the tailgate is shut. That allowed me to run the cable above the headlining and down the passenger side A pillar.

Not sure that is going to be much help as it's for the earlier 4HP22/24 as used in the Classic rather than the 4HP22/24EH electronically controlled boxes used in the P38. So if it is a mechanical or hydraulic problem the manual may be of some use but if it is an electrical problem, as we suspect, then it doesn't even exist in that manual.

The box is a ZF 4HP24 (with the almost identical but lower power rated 4HP22 fitted to the diesel and 4.0 litre P38 and Discovery 2) and it's also fitted to quite a few BMWs amongst others as well, so pretty common. So you may have come across it before and not realised it is the same.

Nigelbb is a new member here after being rescued from the other side but has a 2001 4.6 Vogue which he's had for some time. It's been 'maintained' by a local to him LR specialist but he was asking about an engine rebuild as it had been pressurising the cooling system. His specialist had dealt with that by adding 3, yes that's right 3, bottles of Steel Seal. Although the car ran fine (other than a knackered cam follower so it sounds a bit tappety) after driving it for a long distance and then letting it idle for 15 minutes while waiting to get on a ferry, it got a bit hotter than it should. He had taken the header tank cap off and lost quite a bit of coolant as that was forced out due to the pressure but after letting it cool a bit and topping it up, it had been fine for his journey home. I had previously asked him to check if it was combustion gases by running the car until hot, then leaving it to cool down and see the state of the hoses then. If they got hard when running but went soft again when the engine had cooled down, that meant the pressure was down to thermal expansion of the coolant, if the hoses remained hard then extra pressure was getting in there from somewhere else, most likely combustion gases. Once cold there was no pressure any longer so simply thermal expansion.

He also had an intermittent fault with the EAS but EASUnlock simply gave him a page full of errors that wouldn't clear. I went to have a look at it and we found the hoses were getting rock hard when the engine was running but my Nanocom wouldn't connect and his EASUnlock wasn't getting good idle. Thinking the OBD port could be corroded dropped the panel to find it wasn't corrosion but the pins were loose in the socket so were being pushed out as soon as you plugged anything in. Having got diagnostics to connect, found a few things that weren't as they should be. To start with, after idling for 20 minutes, it was running at a steady 107 degrees C. Now with a pressurised system that could be considered OK but there's no headroom left in case it gets too hot and the hoses were rock hard too. While it was sitting there idling, the EAS was randomly rising and falling so had a look at that too. The settings were all over the place. It looked like someone had programmed it with a bunch of random numbers, best of all was that the Motorway heights were actually higher than Standard, so rather than drop at speed it had been raising! Then I looked at the drivers side footwell and the stains from leaking coolant could clearly be seen.

Seems like a set of heater core O rings are required.

Then turned our attention to the high running temperature and with the aid of an infra red thermometer worked out that it looked like the radiator could well be clogged. Which, after 3 bottles of Steel Seal isn't really surprising. So it was arranged that Nigel would get a new radiator and an OBD port and drop the car off with me for a couple of days while he was working not far from my house. I ordered a pair of genuine LR heater core O rings and once it was at my house (and Nigel had driven off in the Ascot so he could still get to work), work commenced.

Figured the first job should be the OBD port so one that had been ordered from eBay was duly fitted. It was actually better quality than the original with plastic shields that pushed in to stop the pins from backing out as had happened on the original one. Then I moved to the other side to start on the heater core O rings. The carpet was absolutely sodden

so I put an old cloth over the carpet to try to soak some of it up (and to stop me getting soaked in OAT when leaning on it) and set about removing the panels. It soon became pretty obvious that somebody had been in there before, the holes in the side panels to give access to the ducting screws and the cut ducting poorly sealed with masking tape were the immediate giveaways. The small stalactites of, what seems to be a mixture of OAT and Steel Seal, were interesting.

The joint between heater matrix and pipes clearly showed where the leak was.....

The screw came out easier than I had anticipated and the O rings were removed. One was split but the interesting thing was that they were obviously not genuine, or not even aftermarket, heater core O rings as they seemed to be being dissolved by the OAT and were also thinner than the new ones I had to put in. The black on my fingers is from the O rings themselves.

So whoever had been in there before had obviously fitted some generic O rings that just weren't fit for the job. Cleaned everything up and fitted the new O rings. Before putting it all back together I started the engine to run it and make sure they no longer leaked. As soon as the engine was started, there was a leak. Not a big one but a steady drip, drip, drip. Slackened the screw off to see if giving the pipes a wiggle would reseat them and stop the leak but as soon as the screw was even slightly slackened, I got a jet of coolant sprayed out showing pressure in the cooling system. As I had topped up the coolant as soon as the new O rings were in I knew there was no pressure in the system and it had been running for less than 30 seconds so not even remotely warm but where was the pressure coming from? Switched it off and checked to find a solid top hose and pressure in the system. Figured that the system was so clogged with something, probably the Steel Seal, that the pressure was coming from the water pump trying to circulate it.

Decided to leave the O rings for the time being and move on to fitting the new radiator. That didn't put up too much of a fight but what was surprising was how heavy it was compared to the next one. It must have weighed at least twice as much and not only did it appear to be clogged internally, not a lot of air would have been flowing through it either......

New radiator was fitted and the system refilled with nice new OAT. Made sure there was no air left in the system and started it up. Still had a drip every couple of seconds from the heater but ignored that for the time being and concentrated on the pressurisation and temperature. After 30 minutes of running at idle the temperature was sitting at a steady 99 degrees, still higher than I would like to see, but as soon as the revs were raised it immediately dropped down to 94 degrees, far more acceptable. What was more pleasing was that although the hoses were hard due to thermal expansion, they were nowhere near as previously and after turning the engine off and slackening the header tank cap, there was only a small amount of pressure in there. So the pressure was almost certainly been the water pump trying to force the coolant through a clogged radiator. Went back to the O rings, tried reseating the pipes but still couldn't stop the drip. Dried everything off so I could see exactly were it was leaking from only to find it was coming from a tiny crack in the matrix body just behind the screw. Whoever had been there before had overtightened the screw and cracked the heater casing. Bugger......

Nigel was due to collect the car the following afternoon so next morning I leapt into mine and drove to Rimmer Bros, a one hour each way journey. Well it would be one hour each way if Lincolnshire County Council hadn't decided to dig up at least 20% of the roads I wanted to drive on. Got there, picked up a new heater matrix and headed home. Attempted to fit it and despite having seen various people say it can be done without taking the dash out, it may be that it can be but you do at least have to remove the steering column and, as Nigel was there by then, we decide to bypass it for the time being and have the dash out at a later date.

We got my blocks out and recalibrated the EAS, the settings were miles out, and it sat nice and level and would at least drop at speed now. Nigel reported that on his drive home it behaved perfectly and no longer does a little dance every so often while standing still so that was a success.

I have a theory on the sequence of events that had led up to the specialist's conclusion that it had a leaking liner. The heater matrix, or O rings or both, were leaking so allowing air into the cooling system. That meant there was an airlock in there which would expand far more than coolant so cause pressure in the system when it got hot. That fact that this pressure dissipated when the engine had cooled down again would seem to confirm that. Quite why they thought they had cured the problem with 3 bottles of Steel Seal when, if anything, it had made it worse, I have no idea. The overheat when he was waiting for the ferry would have been a combination of the high running temperature, the almost fully clogged radiator restricting coolant flow and the crud clogging the outside of the radiator meaning that there wasn't a lot of air managing to get through it either. I suspect that the still higher than I would like to see running temperature may be down to the Steel Seal restricting flow elsewhere, possibly the thermostat, so when it comes back for the new heater matrix to be fitted, I'll drain the cooling system completely and reverse flush it which should get rid of any remaining gloop that could be clogging anything else. Should be a fun way of spending a couple of days.....