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......

As the owners seem to have completely screwed up what was arguably the most useful Range Rover site available, we suddenly seem to be getting a few new members appearing on here. So first of all, welcome one and all. You may find this forum a little different. You won't constantly get told to do a search or read RAVE, you'll get help from people who have been there and done it. There is no profanity filter either so unless you join and immediately start posting crap in Cyrillic with links to dodgy download sites, your posts won't get deleted and that is about the only reason anyone will be banned too. If a thread wanders off topic, who cares? We don't, if the original question has been answered, then so what if the topic wanders? If it hasn't, somebody will drag it back on topic sooner or later.

You may also find quite a few familiar names too. There's a number that were banned for one reason or another from RR.net, I used to use this username there until I got a lifetime ban for a reason I never did find out (so re-registered as Richard_G instead) and others have been spending time on both sites.

The clue is in the URL, this is a virtual pub. You wander in, sit down and have a natter with a bunch of mates.

First, the cheap deal. Some of you may be aware of Groupon, where you buy a voucher which gives you goods or services at a discounted price, but their latest one is definitely worth having if you need your AC regassing. £37.99, which I suspect barely covers the cost of the refrigerant for a P38. See https://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/ats-euromaster-ltd-21 Unfortunately the voucher is only valid for 31 days so you can't buy it now and keep it until you need it doing at some point in the future.

Now to the question. I bought the voucher to get Dina's SLK regassed. They pressure tested it, no problems, they then regassed it only to find that the AC comporessor didn't kick in so it still didn't work. So I wasn't charged for the regas. Guy told me to either apply for a refund or if I had another car that needed doing, use the voucher on that. Turned out that the blower motor brushes were buggered so the blower wasn't turning, so no feedback to tell it the blower wasn't turning, so no compressor. Pulled the blower apart, sorted it with brushes nicked from a P38 blower with duff bearings and lots of icy cold AC.

Last week in France I noticed my AC, while working, didn't seem to work as well as it had a couple of years ago when I'd replaced the condensor. Fine in the UK but once the temperature got the wrong side of about 28 degrees, it struggled. So I've just taken it in to use the voucher on that. AC working fine on the way there, nice cold air coming out but outside was only 22 degrees and it was coping fine. Got there and they connected the Nitrogen bottle to pressure test it. Pressure was dropping so they declared a leak and said there's no point in gassing it as it will all fall out. Now it's working and had been working when I got there (and, thankfully, is still working). They connected to the high pressure side (or at least the larger of the two ports which I think is the high pressure side) but it would have had pressure in it anyway, it had just been working, so surely, once the engine was turned off the high pressure will drop anyway? Or won't it? I've no idea. I've had a look with my UV torch and there is a glowing area on one of the pipe connections on the compressor but I remember taking that off so I could remove the old condenser with the pipe attached and undo the union with it on the bench where I could get a bit more grunt on it. So I suspect that may well be a leftover from that or I need to replace the O ring. However, as the system is currently working, I won't be doing that until it stops......

My daughter sent me this list earlier today

Fiat - Failed Italian Automotive Technology
Ford - For Only Rough Drivers
Hyundai - Hope You Understand Nothing's Driveable And Inexpensive
Volvo - Very Old Looking Vehicular Object
Porsche - Proof Of Rich Spoiled Children Having Everything
Opel - Old People Enjoying Life
Toyota - The One You Only Trust Always
Honda - Happy Owner Now Driving Away
BMW - Big Money Waste
Audi - An Unwanted Debt Invitation
Mercedes - Maximum Enthusiasm, Recurring Costs, Ego Developing Expensive Style

Which started me thinking while sitting in yet another traffic jam (7 hour working day with only 2.5 hours actual work and 4.5 hours travelling....)

I came up with Really Awfully Nice, Great Engineering, Rides Over Virtually Everything Reliably

Anyone got anything better?

Been offered something that is about as common as a Unicorn, a 1997, 4.0 litre, MANUAL, P38. It is still on EAS, runs well (so I'm told), has an LPG system on it that doesn't work, has an SRS warning light on and the book showing on the HEVAC, but it does have an MoT until August. I'm going to have a look at it at the weekend and will plug the Nano in to see why it has the SRS light and book showing (I'll also have a look at the LPG system too) but the owner doesn't want a lot for it. He bought it on a whim and then found that it was costing him £70 a week in petrol when he'd been used to a 1.0 litre Focus eco thingy using £50 worth a month! I tried to encourage him to get it to Simon to sort the LPG side of things out but he reckons that even £40 a week in fuel is too much so wants to get rid. He paid a grand for it but will take £700 if anyone is interested once I've had a look and we've got a few more details on it.

Having just changed my (and others) radius arm bushes here's a few observations for anyone considering poly bushes.

1, The yellow Britpart ones have a reputation to wearing out and turning to dust within a few months (no idea about the black or blue ones but I suspect they will be much the same as the yellow or orange ones).

2, My car was fitted with the supposedly far superior orange poly bushes (the ones that cost about 4 times the price of genuine original bushes). They've lasted quite a long time and many miles, but although the car didn't exhibit any of the usual complaints of wandering steering, vibrations or anything like that, it has always felt like the front tyre pressures were too high over small bumps and uneven surfaces even though the ride was fine on smooth surfaces. Having now changed to standard bushes, the steering is more responsive, the ride over uneven surfaces is vastly improved and the whole car feels much smoother.

3, The poly bushes are an absolute pain to remove. It took Marty's 20 ton press, a number of different sized mandrels, hacksaws, hole cutters and just about everything else we could find short of burning them out, to remove them from the radius arms. When we finally got them out, we found that they also allow moisture to get between the bush and the arm so rather than pushing the old ones out and finding a nice clean shiny hole, the inside of the radius arms were rusted to hell. It took a rotary wire brush to clean the surface, a punch and hammer to knock the rust scale off the inside of the radius arm and emery cloth to clean them up before they were smooth enough to press the new bushes in.

So the moral of this is poly bushes should be put into the same category as coil spring conversions, don't even consider them.