Today my car becomes an adult, 21 years old today
and having been a police Motorway patrol car for the first 8 years of it's life and owned by me since November 2010 and regularly been driven all around Europe, I think it's just about run in now......
That works out to 17,694.4 miles per year.
Got back in the early hours this morning from another trip over the Channel ('twas a bit bumpy too....) and on the way back I called in to see Teri (Mymisteri) just outside Paris to drop off a Hankook battery for her. Got there to find she had a slightly more pressing problem than a battery that wouldn't hold it's charge for more than a couple of days. Her car had started scent marking it's territory in a big way. She though it was a leak from the front diff as that was where the liquid was dripping from but a quick look underneath suggested it was from higher up. She started the engine and diesel was pouring down the side of the engine block. Took the plastic cover over the injectors off and could see a jet of diesel from the split bung on number 6 fuel injector. Replaced that with a bit of washer hose with a 13A fuse jammed in the end and tried again. This time there was another jet of diesel from a small hose running from number 1 injector to a banjo union on a metal pipe. These are what I think are the leak off hoses that leap frog from one injector to the next and all of them were perished and cracked along their length so need replacing. As she is an American female, living in France and driving a P38, she'll no doubt be charged about €100 for a set of pipes and 10 hours labour to replace them if she takes it in anywhere (not to mention having to wait at least a fortnight to get it booked in and done). Having seen the pipes she's pretty confident she can change them herself if she has the hose to do it. My local motor factors do a leak off pipe kit of a length of hose and a bung for the end but I seem to recall from the last (only) time I had anything to do with a diesel, there are different sizes. What size do I need to get so I can pick a kit up and bung it in the post to her? It's a '99, late EDC engine if that has any bearing on it.
As I've got a 1,800 mile round trip with a big trailer next weekend, figured I'd give the car a 10,000 mile service (it was only 300 miles short of one anyway) today. While underneath draining the oil and greasing the propshaft UJs, I noticed this
Not noticed it before and no idea how long it has been like it, although it must have been OK at the last MoT, although that was in August last year. A quick call to my local motor factors who seem to stock just about everything, and picked up a new one half an hour later (not too bad at £16). The car feels slightly different on the 160 degree adverse camber corner into the village but other than that, it doesn't drive any differently. So why do we have anti-roll bars in the first place?
Doh, sorry my fault, there's actually lots of posts. i deleted some spam without hiding it first which results in the heading saying there's no posts.
I'm in the process of buying a LHD car for Dina's parent's in Latvia and have found that they seem to be very cheap in Holland. As I had a couple of questions, I emailed Tony, Ferryman, for advice. Although Tony sold his P38 so hadn't been here for a few months I told him that he was still welcome to drop into the pub for a bit of banter. Unfortunately that isn't going to happen as I've just received the following email:
Hello Richard, I am Ronny the stepson of tony. I'm sorry to inform you that Tony passed away on Christmas Day 2nd.
I will post another message on the forum later this week,If there are any questions you can always ask, we will keep the email account.
best regards Ronny
What is it they say about the good dying young?
Now I know it usually gets a bad rap and is blamed for everything from the neighbours budgie dying downwards, but it seems the BeCM is actually a pretty clever little beastie. Last weekend I had to tow this to just north of Toulouse
Not only is it 9 feet tall and 6 feet wide, so acts as a braking parachute in a headwind, it was also well loaded so almost at it's maximum weight of 3.5 Tonnes. The weekend coincided with Storm Diana hitting the south of England and most of France too which meant two things, the channel crossing was going to be rough and once the other side I'd have a hell of a headwind. Also the route includes some pretty serious hills both up and down. So, rather than risk being rammed up the back by an empty artic who may not realise the speed differential while I was slogging up a hill in the dark, I put a magnetic 55W halogen amber beacon on one side of the trailer. The trailer has a junction box near the back where all the wiring connects so it was easy enough to connect the beacon to one of the sidelight circuits in there.
About 20 miles from Dover, I get a beep from the dash and the message centre comes up with RH Tail Light Bulb Blown but a few minutes later I notice that the LH side marker lights and beacon had gone out on the trailer. Switched the lights off and back on again and everything came back on. Seems that the extra load of the beacon on one sidelight circuit had been seen, eventually, by the BeCM as a short circuit bulb which would only happen if the bulb had blown so it had switched that circuit off to prevent the possibility of further damage in lieu of there being a fuse in the sidelight circuit. When I next stopped I ran a wire from the beacon to the ignition switched supply in the boot but it did prove that the trailer lights were wired back to front so the LH and RH circuits were crossed I was more impressed with the way the BeCM cuts power to a circuit it detects a problem on, so not so dumb as many seem to think it is.
Incidentally, I took the picture in my avatar on the way back but what was most interesting was the difference between the run there, against the wind with the trailer and coming back with the wind behind me and no trailer. Trip out, average speed 43 mph at 12mpg, coming back, average speed 67mph at 17.2mpg. Seems aerodynamics, or a lack of them, make a hell of a difference......
Mate bought me his car over the other evening. Despite running fine it sounds more like a traction engine than a V8. He's had it for just over a year and it has always had a slight noise but recently it has been getting worse. He's already replaced the exhaust manifold gaskets thinking it was blowing from the head to manifold joint but that made no difference. I was starting to suspect a head gasket blowing out of the side of the block. See what you think..... https://youtu.be/dKEqPY5rX7A
As some may know, the P38 door latches, you know, the ones with the microswitches that fail and lock you out, are the same as the MG TF. Rimmers have a one day sale on ex-factory stock of MG TF parts which includes brand new door latches at £24 for the RH and £36 for the LH. I've just ordered a RH one as a spare before posting this so none of you lot get in and clear out their stock. See https://rimmerbros.com/ItemList--MGF-Body-Fittings-Sale--m-19112?src=MGF18
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flemcodesign.gems.gemsutility
Claims to be able to reset adaptive values and sync the BeCM and ECM. Could be very useful if it works, almost worth buying an ELM327 plug in to try it. I know I can already do both those with the Nanocom but for anyone that can't stretch the funds that far it could come in very handy. If it does what it says it does anyway.
I mentioned in the Are We Froze thread that I'd noticed my rear discs were looking a bit odd so had them off today and fitted a set of Delphi discs and pads.. Having checked my order history with LR Direct, the discs I took off were Allmakes brand ones bought in April 2017. So they've been on there for 16 months and have covered around 30,000 miles. What i don't know is what pads I fitted when I put them in but they haven't fared well. All pads were worn down evenly and by the same amount, none were sticking in the carrier and the pins were sliding nicely. Nothing appeared to be wrong with anything except for the appearance of the discs.
The offside one had marks looking like it had been sitting for weeks with the pads in one place, score marks and felt rough to the touch. Both inner and outer faces of the disc were the same.
While the nearside one appeared scored everywhere and felt rough to touch yet the inside face was clean and looking as you would expect a fairly new disc to look.
I'm thinking either the Allmakes discs aren't good quality or aren't compatible with the pads I've used. In saying that I would have thought if the pads are too hard, they would wear the discs but they would still stay smooth? Anyone else come across anything similar?
We moved house over the weekend and spent our first night in the new place on Saturday. Sunday morning got in the car, turned the ignition on and the Message Centre came up with, Alarm Triggered, Ignition Tamper. Never seen that one before but didn't think too much about it. Got into it this evening and it came up with the same message. As I've not heard the alarm for quite some time checked it earlier by locking the car with one window open then pulling up the sill button and opening the door. Sounder is definitely working and I think I would have heard it as the car was parked under the bedroom window which was wide open (humping furniture on the hottest weekend since records began is not a fun game). Owners handbook says that Ignition Tamper is caused by "turning the starter switch on was the cause of the alarm system triggering". To me this means that the starter operating on it's own would cause this and according to some on RR.net, the starter operating when it feels like it is a sign of a failing fusebox. Fusebox was changed for a brand new one about a year ago, so unlikely to be that and I think I would have heard the starter turning the engine over. Anyone else ever come across this one? I'll wait and see if it gives me the same message in the morning.......
Opened my bonnet last night to find that it isn't only my tyres that are covered in Billing dust, so is everything under the bonnet! Can any of you detailing freaks tell me how to clean it off? I've got a pressure washer but am a bit concerned about spraying water around under the bonnet. Obviously I wouldn't spray on the ignition coils but what about everywhere else? What bits should I avoid?
Some of you will have met him at the summer camp, others will know him from his knowledgable posts on here and on the dark side. I PM'd those that knew him a few weeks ago as he had emailed me to say that he had been diagnosed with Leukaemia, was in hospital on chemotherapy but expected to be up and about in around 10 weeks. I emailed him a few days ago asking how things were going and received the following email a few minutes ago:
Hello Richard
I'm sorry but Mark died today - he contracted a horrid fungal chest infection and spent 12 days sedated in intensive care but his lungs deteriorated over night and they had to take him off the ventilator today. PLease can you let all his landrover friend and P38ers know
He was a huge charcter and will be very much missed.
Vici
RIP mate, you'll be missed.
So how do I get a wheel off? Been out this evening to fit a nice new, or rebuilt anyway, rear diff from that nice Mr Ashcroft. Simple enough job, rear axle on axle stands, rear wheels off, rear prop disconnected from the diff and tied up out of the way, hubs pulled out far enough to disengage from the diff, undo the bolts, pull old diff out and slot new one in. However, when I went to take the rear wheels off, the nearside one came straight off but the offside one is seized solid to the hub. Got the diff changed by undoing the bolts on the hub from underneath and pulled the hub clear with wheel still attached. Now it's all back together I figured I should really get the wheel off and clean up the centre hub spigot just in case I need to change the wheel at the roadside. All wheels were last off just before Christmas when the new tyres were fitted so, even though I've done about 12,000 miles since then, I would have expected them to all come off easily enough. It's not like they've been on there welding themselves on for years.
Currently it's sitting outside with a couple of blocks of wood, a jack and a length of steel tube between the two rear wheels in the hope that constant pressure will force it of but I'm not holding my breath. I want to take it out and listen to a rear diff that doesn't whine on the overrun and throw oil all over the underside of the car from the front seal but I'd rather get the wheel off, cleaned up and put back on first. Any advice?
Seen yesterday on an L405.......
Been playing with the SE as the weather was nice, I've run out of things to do on mine and having got the engine running nicely without peeing fuel out of the injector seals and the passenger central locking working again, I decided to check the current drain. The battery on it is completely FUBAR'ed and doesn't want to take or hold a charge so I just hang jump leads on it and use my spare battery to power it. The battery was a decent one when I put it on so aren't sure why it has now died but hung my meter on it to check the current drain. Closed everything and locked the car, current drawn was 900mA, after 30 seconds it dropped to 600mA and after 2 minutes when the BeCM went to sleep, it dropped to 100mA and stayed there. Left it for over half an hour and it was still drawing 100mA. So what is dissipating 1.2W permanently? Further investigation required but it seems to be too low for anything meaningful but high enough to drain the battery when left for a long time. Draining the battery to completely flat and leaving it like that is probably what killed it in the first place too.
And yes, I did disconnect the battery on it and was checking from my external battery only. Didn't to start with then realised I was measuring the current my decent battery was trying to put into the duff one as well as what the car was drawing.
Having been supplied with a replacement one way valve for the rear screen washer by Clive, fitting that and adjusting the nozzle so it sprayed onto the rear window and not the ground behind the car, I was able to say that absolutely everything worked as it should on my car. After 5 days of this almost unheard of state, the book symbol came up on the HEVAC. Nanocom reported a compressor clutch fault and setting the HEVAC to Lo on both sides and noting that the compressor clutch didn't engage I concluded that there was indeed a fault that didn't have an obscure description. Did a bit of checking and found that the reason it wasn't engaging was no continuity through the trinary switch. Reason for that was that it has no refrigerant pressure in it.....
I did notice that although the AC was working last summer, it seemed a bit feeble so it looks like I now need to get it re-gassed. Although the reason for it losing pressure could be down to a minor leak somewhere (it was last gassed about 2 summers ago) so I think this is going to get a bit more involved. Then, to add insult to injury, last night I switched the lights on, the dash beeped and the message centre came up with RH sidelight failed. So from no faults I've got two in the space of two days!
Sent to me by a mate and I thought it worth sharing:
I'm completely new to Android and tablets but I have recently acquired (free gift) an Alcatel Onetouch Pixi 3 (8) tablet running Android 5.1.1. I know it isn't the best or fastest and have had to delete and re-install stuff on it twice now as by the time Android is running there is only 4Gb of storage left for apps. I set it to save these to the SD card but it still insists on putting some of them in main memory. But, I figured it would do for my two main uses for it, running a radio station app (PlanetRock) so I can connect the headphone socket to my car stereo line in and keeping track of my expenses when driving through Europe.
The language is set for English (UK) but as soon as I get into France and am connected to a French network, the default language changes to French. This doesn't affect the radio station app but I also use Excel for the expenses and that also changes to French. If I change the language back to English (UK) in Settings, Excel remains in French. At one point it was in French but when I went in to the language settings, it told me that Langue was Anglais (UK)???? How can I lock the language so it doesn't change when I move to a different country?
Second problem is that I can have Excel open and enter my data as I need to but as I also have the radio station app open, I need to show that. When I want to enter data in Excel, I touch the bottom right square to show open apps, touch Excel and it opens but it doesn't open as I last left it, it seems to re-open from scratch with data previously entered missing. I've now been told that I am opening recently used, and not open, apps and as it only has 1Gb of RAM, it has booted Excel out of memory. Is there any way around this?
Is it possible to have two 'live' apps running at once so I can switch between the two or do I just revert to my previous method of writing expenses on a scrap of paper and updating the Excel spreadsheet later?