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.....

I followed another P38 today a couple of cars in front of me, S plate but with amber indicators making it a late 98. Got up behind it and as I overtook it, looked at the badge on the tailgate and saw it was a Vogue 50. New one on me, I know of the 50th Anniversary and the Vogue and Vogue SE but not a Vogue 50. Bumpers were body colour but the paint was that sort of green that looks like it could be blue under different light that I think they used on the Holland and Holland. Have I just found a really rare limited edition?

Been out for a few hours, came back and saw we'd been hit by a spammer who had somehow got through the protection. Started deleting the spam posts only to see the number of them was going up not down. Looked at the spammers profile to see that he had posted 71 posts which rose to 76 while I was looking at it. By the time I'd clicked the Ban Member button, he was up to 78! At 3 mouse clicks to delete spam, it's normally fairly simple but when there's 78 to get rid of......

I currently have a set of Vredestein Quatrac 5 tyres on my car and have been very happy with them but they are getting towards the end of their life so I figured I would get another set. As I have the 7"x16" poverty spec wheels, I need 235/70x16 tyres but when I checked oponeo.co.uk where the last set came from, they were shown as out of stock. None of the other online suppliers listed them but I have read elsewhere that certain tyre brands and sizes are in short supply at the moment with a combination of Brexit and Covid being blamed. So I emailed Vredestein to ask if this was a temporary problem and when would they expect to have them back in stock, only to be told that the size I want has been discontinued. They are still doing them in other sizes but I'd rather stick with standard and the alternative all season tyre, the Quatrac Pro, is only available in 17 and 18 inch.

The closest equivalent I can find is the Kleber Citilander which is available in the size I want, has the same C, C, 70dB rating and the 3 peaks marking that I need. I seem to recall a similar discussion a couple of years ago when they were mentioned but did anyone buy them? If so, what are they like?

I know the thermostat is supposed to open at 88 degrees, but mine is obviously opening sooner than that. As mentioned a few days ago, my temperature gauge has gone intermittent and as I had a trailer towing trip over to France last week, I plugged the Nanocom in to keep an eye on the temperature. Seems I'm running at a steady 85 degrees, saw 87 once while slogging up a hill and 81 when coasting down the other side but even after being stuck in traffic for an hour (in the UK, that sort of thing doesn't happen the other side of the Channel), it sat at a steady 85-86, never getting any hotter than that. OK, so I've got the Direnza alloy radiator that has 50% greater capacity than standard, it's filled with the required 50/50 mix of Ethylene Glycol anti-freeze, a relatvely newish (about 3 years old) Airtex water pump and a two year old viscous coupling. So the cooling system is in good nick but is running at these sort of temperatures something I need to do anything about?

I remember those words from Sloth when we were trying to get the old Poly bushes out of my radius arms back at the last summer camp. At some point in the past, my car had been fitted with Orange poly bushes which had survived pretty well I must admit. They put up a real fight trying to get them out of the radius arms, we couldn't press them out, cut them out or drill through them hence Sloth asking if there was a blowlamp in the workshop so we could burn them out. As it happened there wasn't so we had to continue with brute force and ignorance. When they were eventually out, we found that moisture had got between the bush and radius arm so the hole in the arm that we intended pressing a new, OE rubber, bush into, was covered in rust scale. I spent ages with a hammer and punch knocking the scale out to clean up the hole for the new bushes.

Although it hadn't felt bad before it felt much better with the correct bushes in, so a good job done. Just recently I noticed that the rear panhard rod also had orange poly bushes in it and they weren't looking too good. I'd also noticed the odd random clunk from the back end at times too so decided to do those.

The end that attaches to the chassis was badly worn with a good 5mm of side to side slop in the centre steel bush. That fell out and the poly bit eventually came out after lots of prising with a big screwdriver. Inside was, again, well rusted so needed a lot of work to clean it up enough for it to be possible to push the new rubber bush in. However, the axle end hadn't really worn at all. Tried pressing the steel centre out and it didn't want to know. The poly is so flexible that it just springs back to how it was when pressure is taken off. Tried cutting the outer lip off so the whole thing could be pushed out. Same problem and it was at this point I remembered Sloth's words and picked up a blowlamp. He was right, it can't fight back when it's a liquid but even that wasn't simple. Heat the poly up and it goes black, bubbles a bit but doesn't quite reach the liquid stage and had to be dug out a bit at a time with a screwdriver. Once out, I had to spend even longer cleaning up the hole as it now had melted poly in it as well as rust scale. Pressed the new bushed in and fitted it back to the car.

What surprised me was how much difference two seemingly insignificant bushes make. With the sort of mileages I do I want my car to feel 'tight', no slop or play in anything and it had, but now it feels even better. So yet another reason why poly bushes are a bad idea.

Went out for a bit of (essential) shopping earlier and as I pulled into the supermarket I heard a little pop, looked down and saw this had appeared.

A few weeks ago I heard something hit the screen but didn't notice an extra stone chip (in addition to the 3 or 4 that I already have). Seems that I didn't notice it as it was obscured by my sat nav mount and it had decided to change from a stone chip to a crack.

I've got windscreen cover on the insurance so that isn't a problem and the heated screen has only worked in odd strips for a long time so a new screen will be a bonus. Wondering if it will be better to leave it until the weather is a bit warmer before getting it done, any thoughts?

Both my cars are GEMS and both have singlepoint LPG systems on them so there is a mixer bolted to the throttle body although I'm not sure if this is relevant. The MAF sensor on the Ascot had gone intermittent so some days it would be fine but sometimes it would give no readings (current airflow 0.0 Kg/Hr irrespective of revs) which meant it was a bit of a bitch to start unless I forced it to start on LPG. Bought a replacement MAF sensor, genuine Sagem with a manufactured date of 10/07, so a recent one. The MAF on my car was an aftermarket one so decided I would fit the replacement to mine but would check the readings I was getting before swapping them over.

Checked the readings on my car and found them to be about right, around 22 Kg/Hr at idle, rising steadily up to around 60-65 Kg/Hr at 2,000 rpm. RAVE tuning data says it should be 20 plus/minus 3 at idle (so within limits) rising to 60 plus/minus 3 at 2,500 rpm (so a little on the high side) However, when I checked the Calculated Load Value, it was hovering around the 23-24% mark at idle in Park and not the 2.8-3.8% that RAVE says it should be. Initially thought that maybe there was a decimal point in the wrong place error in the Nano but at 2,000 rpm I was showing a calculated load value of 35-40% and not the 10% at 2,500 rpm I should be seeing. Swapped the MAF sensors so I now had the genuine Sagem replacement and checked again. Readings were damn near exactly the same.

Then fitted the known working aftermarket MAF I had just taken off my car and put it on the Ascot. Fired up immediately and left it running to warm up. Then checked the readings and they were almost identical to on mine. Airflow within limits at idle, slightly high at 2,000 rpm but still with a calculated load value far higher than it should be. I reset the adaptive values on both cars so had a baseline to work from but that made no difference to the calculated load value.

I'm wondering if the restriction caused by the mixer in the intake is affecting anything and will see if removing it makes any difference (when it's a bit warmer outside) but does anyone have any idea why the MAF readings seem about right yet the calculated load value is much higher than it should be?

Someone asked recently if there should be a light on the dash to tell you cruise control was operating. The answer was that there isn't and that is confirmed by the owners handbook, but it looks like there might have been one planned at some point.
However, RAVE says:
Cruise Active Indicator
When the Cruise Control System has been activated the indicator will be illuminated. The Cruise System is interfaced to the Instrument Cluster (Z142) via the BeCM (Z238).
(Electricat Troublshooting Manual, Section E2 Warnings and Indicators).

While I had an instrument cluster apart to take pictures for the how to pull it apart thread, I noticed that the spaces for the warning lights are actually labelled on the main pcb. Interestingly, the labels don't match up with the handbook or the actual cluster displays.

Looking at that (which is the rear of the RHS of the cluster) along the top we have, from right to left (which would be left to right as you look at the dash), Suspension (correct, the picture of the car with an Up arrow), Service E (obviously where the service engine soon light lives on those versions, or markets, that have it), Check E (check engine, so also correct) and Brk Pad (presumably for a brake pad wear indicator which we don't appear to have, the owners handbook doesn't mention and the overlay has no image, just plain black). Then if we look at the lower row, also going from right to left, we have a space where there is no bulb, then Trail (which is the trailer indicator repeater to tell you your trailer indicators are working), Spare (which is pretty self explanatory) and Cruise A (which I assume to be short for Cruise Active) yet that bulb is the one that lights up showing the gear symbol when you change range from High to Low and vice versa. So someone, at some point realised that they didn't have enough spaces for bulbs as they did warnings they wanted to show. That doesn't explain why they didn't decide to use the one marked Spare for the ratio change light or even the cruise active light......

I noticed something else I can't explain, on the front of the pcb, in the position where there isn't a bulbholder (far right, second row in the above pic) there's what looks to be a daylight sensor.

There is a matching clear section in the cover that goes over it so it must be there for something but what? Is there anything on the P38 that alters depending on whether it is daylight or dark? Nothing that I can think of but maybe someone else has an idea of what it might be there for. It isn't for the dash illumination as that can be set at different levels depending on whether the lights are on or not, so what does it do?

I wonder what it will go for? 4.0 Bordeaux with LPG and looks quite tidy.

https://www.copart.co.uk/lot/53269290/clean-title-2001-land-rover-rangerover-wisbech

Or at least doesn't know it's left from it's right. I'm aware that it misreports ABS sensors as wrong but discovered a different one today. Fitted a Marty zebra strip to a HEVAC to get all of the display working and then set about checking why it had the book showing. Checking the faults and it showed RH blower as faulty, looking at the input values, it showed 0 as the feedback from the RH blower. So the blower was pulled out, the motor checked and the controller swapped for a known good one. Only to find it made no difference, still got the book showing. Figured this needed further investigation so decided to check the HEVAC before putting the console back together. Display checked fine (as expected) and then went on to check all the buttons. Poking the LH Temp down button and the Nano reported RH temp down, LH temp up showed RH temp up, RH temp down showed it as LH as did the RH up. So it has got them the wrong way round, what about the blowers? As the panel was still off, while the blower was running, disconnected the thin ground wire and the blower stopped and it went very quite. LH blower wasn't running and there was nothing wrong with the RH one at all. Found the problem with the LH blower, both now working perfectly and no book showing but had it told me it was the LH one in the first place I'd have saved an hour in pulling and checking the RH one.

It had to be done. I wanted to get a video of it changing over but as I was approaching a roundabout at the time, missed it.

In the process of refurbishing a 2001 4.6 Vogue (OldShep's old car which two of us have rescued and are returning to it's original glory). When I picked it up as soon as I touched the brake pedal I got ABS Fault and Traction Failure pop up on the dash although the Nano showed no stored faults. It had recently had a new rear calliper fitted and it hadn't been bled properly so that has now been done (along with a matching new rear calliper on the other side) but when I checked with the Nano it shows all four wheels doing 1.7 kph while standing still??? As my mate was doing the drivers seat and steering wheel, wasn't able to drive it slowly to see if the problem was still there but why would it think it was moving when it isn't? It's the Wabco D system with 4 wheel traction control if that makes any difference.

Spending my time playing with the cars so have dragged my Maserati out of the garage to recommission it. Last time I drove it at least one of the brakes was sticking on so I'm pulling all the calipers off and giving them a bit of TLC but am running out of brake fluid. My usual factors are closed so I looked on the Halfords website. I've also got a set of seals to overhaul the front calipers on the ex-plod so figured I could do them too and flush through the brake fluid. In which case I'm going to need quite a bit of DOT 4. £24.99 for 5 litres seemed pretty good so ordered it online for a click and collect. They confirmed the order by email and text but said not to go to the store until I had received a text telling me to. That was at 10 yesterday morning. Spent the day twiddling my thumbs waiting for the text, didn't arrive. Now, over 25 hours later, still no text. Anyone else tried to order stuff and had to wait days for it?

In the process of replacing the one remaining (rusted) steel brake pipe on the Ascot that was put down as an advisory on the MoT. It's one of the ones that runs along the back axle but the bracket holding the ends of the two hoses that run from the body to the axle is pretty bent and mangled. This means that the pipes that come from it are tight against the diff housing. Started straightening the bracket and there doesn't seem to be a lot of slack in the hoses. Should the hoses go above or below the panhard rod? At the moment they are below it and the protective spring thing is wearing but if I route them above it that will put them closer to the exhaust. Which is correct?

Having got the Ascot sorted and road legal, one little thing that is a bit puzzling is the steering. Apart from the fact that it feels a bit more vague than mine at straight ahead, which is probably a combination of top and bottom ball joints and the pretty dodgy tyres that are on it, it's got a sort of moaning, groaning noise when turning from lock to lock. Power steering is working fine, it all feels smooth, power steering fluid is up to the max mark, it just makes a noise. Anyone got any ideas why?

Going over to France next weekend to investigate a couple of problems with a 99 DSE. Main one is horrendous battery drain, like it can take a fully charged Hankook MF31-1000 down to completely flat overnight. Once the battery is charged it works fine. The only thing I can think that would cause battery drain that serious (without the car bursting into flames) is a short circuit diode in the alternator. As they are 3 phase it will still charge but will drain very rapidly when not charging. Now getting hold of a replacement alternator in France isn't going to be that easy and will probably cost twice what one will cost over here. Buying one here to take over and then finding it isn't the alternator, seems a waste of money too. If anyone has a spare I can borrow for the weekend if it proves that the one on the car is faulty I'll swap them over, bring the old one back and get it reconditioned to return to whoever can lend me one.

Anyone on here or know anyone that might be interested? This is the car that used to belong to Austin, OldShep, and was bought by one of my neighbours a couple of years ago. He's been using it to tow his Granada to shows, tow his caravan and also to get to work and back. However, the company he works for have moved their depot so it is now costing him over £120 a week just to get to work and he can't afford it.

In the time he's owned it he's fitted a stainless cat back exhaust, a pair of new rear tyres (will need fronts in the not too distant), one rear brake calliper (he has a brand new replacement for the other side but not yet fitted), and a front bullbar (which I think looks bloody awful but it's secured by existing bolts so can easily be removed without leaving any marks). Faults are minimal and mainly cosmetic. The drivers seat base needs a good clean and has sagged a little on the outside edge but doesn't have any splits in the leather and the headlining is drooping, The interior just needs a good clean. The nav system works and has the most up to date disc in it and the DSP amp is fine. The stereo is intermittent and he was told by someone that it was the amp in the boot so he removed the sub and CD changer, couldn't find anything wrong so put it back. When doing that he noticed that if he wiggles a connector it works on and off. When I say the DSP amp is OK, that's going on the fact that when it works, it works on all speakers. Under the bonnet, there are signs of a slight leak from the throttle body heater but he tells me he's only had to put a litre of OAT in it in the entire time he's owned it. The cruise control doesn't work as the hose to the brake pedal has a split in it somewhere (checked by blowing down it). There's no book symbol on the HEVAC but the AC clutch doesn't kick in so suspect a lack of refrigerant (might need a regas or worst case, a condenser). Both rocker cover gaskets are leaking slightly but have been since he's owned it. He's regularly given it an oil and filter change and when he first got it, we replaced a noisy idler and put a new serpentine belt on it. First registered October 2001, 130,000 miles, MoT til May.

However, he is only looking for £1500 for it.

We all know that the ultimate battery for the p38 is the ginormous Hankook MF31-1000 (the one that just fits in the hole) but the last time anyone checked, they were being shown as no longer available. Well thankfully, now the weather is about to get colder and batteries are going to start to show their age, they are back. https://www.batterymegastore.co.uk/hankook-mf31-1000.html

No, not for me but for our latest new member, Mick. Those of you that still keep an eye on the dark side, will have seen that a new owner had a rather expensive introduction to P38 ownership (https://www.rangerovers.net/threads/engine-issue-newbie-please-help.338546/). Despite those that thought it could just be filled with coolant and it would happily fire up again, I've been and had a look at it today and can confirm it is probably the most damaged engine I have seen, short of one with a rod poking out the side of the block. I rebuilt one that had suffered a similar fate and that at least still ran on 6 cylinders, this one tried to run on 2 but with an almost complete lack of compression on the other 6 pots, it ain't going to run again. Basically, it's phuqued..... I'm going to make a couple of calls tomorrow and see if I can find him a decent 4.0 litre motor and someone to fit it but if that fails I reckon the next best option is to get an engine and fit it for him (although I'm not sure when I'll have time to do it, my employers keep expecting me to go to work for them for some odd reason).

He's actually bought a very tidy motor, body and paintwork is all good, underside is in good nick, EAS all works (needs calibrating as one corner sits lower than the other 3 but that's no biggie) and the air springs look recent, interior is in excellent condition too (it even has a new headlining). Just a shame that someone replaced the throttle body hose with a bit of totally unsuitable pipe......