Alternator feed to the BECM is an input only and goes to the logic board, so no power flowing back the other way, no relay etc - it goes through some input filtering components on the logic board and then somewhere into one of the processors.

Interestingly, when I was looking through the BECM SID, There was a note in there under battery drain that (the document was dated 1998, so GEMS era), that "the alternator has been found to cause a drain of 4 to 10 Amps, and the 2 fuse boxes have a combined drain for 1A"

The combined drain of 1A would be what we normally would see when BECM is awake, but interesting that there's actually a note there about the alternator... I would imagine that if it was drawing 4 to 10A it would get somewhat warm... I haven't really dug much into what could cause it in the alternator though. could be anything from diode pack to voltage regulator, or I guess even the brushes on the slip ring for the exciter.

Will be interesting to see what you find - but I highly doubt BECM involvement, since the alternator D+ is just listed as an input.

If you do need another EAS ECU, I have about 4 of them sitting here in my box of random p38 ECUs.

Sadly it seems there are a lot of tyre kickers (excuse the pun... or don't!)

I've had a bunch of enquiries about parts that I've got that I'm trying to get rid of, and gone to the effort of unwrapping stuff to take more pictures (all wrapped up for the last person who was interested until they just stopped replying)... only to have the same thing happen again.

Getting really close to just calling for a scrap metal skip to take it all because I can't be bothered dealing with it (and some people) anymore!

Hi Tom,

Sorry - been busy trying to get things done here, with limited amounts of success it feels...
Re the blower fans - I actually haven't had any apart or repaired them - I think I have swapped the odd one here and there, and that's about it.
The transistors will just operate like a switch, so depending on if they're high (+ve) or low (-ve) side drive will potentially depend on how they're driven

I would imagine that they get a PWM control from the HEVAC controller to pulse them on/off to generate the speed control of the motor, but I can't say I've actually had one apart enough or probed the output of the HEVAC to see what it does. I know the blowers provide a voltage feedback to the HEVAC controller, which would be on the output side of the control transistors which I believe it uses to tell that the motors are rotating etc - I don't know if it uses a linear representation of the voltage to tell the speed, or whether they are just stopped/rotating though.

HEVAC backlights...
This is an PWM signal from the BECM, and is the Red/White wire on pin 6 of C0792 connector (8 Way -White connector), so putting 12V to that will turn the backlight on.
The display backlight however is driven from the instrument cluster on an inverse PWM signal from the instrument cluster, and is the Orange wire on pin 11 of C0793 (20 pin Black connector). Connecting this wire to GROUND will turn the display backlight on full.

Hope that helps...

Marty

Lpgc wrote:

Just seen this but it's as Gilbert said re the LPG tank, at least unless it's a 4 hole tank, I don't remember if yours is one I converted or not but most including those I've converted will have a single hole tank that does have the manual shut off.

I don't think you converted mine - I bought it in 2012 and it was already converted when I bought it, and the guy I bought it from had next to no history on it, so it was obviously done well before then aswell.

I will have a look at the tank when I'm next in the back of the RR (probably tomorrow) and see if I can find what the model number is and see if it's single or 4 hole.
I can remember the original system that was installed was a Zavoli Alisei system, and over the years I replaced the evaporator as the original one was leaking coolant out past one of the temp sensors, the injectors, as a couple of them were failing, so put some Hana Gold ones in, and replaced the ECU with a King? ECU which had more options and supported the Hana injectors in the firmware, where the Zavoli one was only really locked down to theirs, and never ran properly with aftermarket injectors, but I never did anything with the tank as by the time it was getting on 10 years, there was sod all LPG available around here, and it was COVID times, and I was back over NZ way...

I'll post back and ask if I have any other questions when I come to removing it.

Thanks for the reply!

nigelbb wrote:

Marty, you sold me a working DSP amp last time you were in the UK having a clear out a couple of years ago. It's still working but I thought that I had better mention it in case you had forgotten & are searching for it.

Last time we didn't get to meet as I was in France so Richard collected the amp for me. Unfortunately we won't get to meet this time either as once again we are at our place in France.

Ahhhh that makes sense why the head units was out on my workbench! I had totally forgotten that... But I am very glad that it's still working!!!

I have a number of other DSP amp here but they're all faulty sadly, so will be destined for the bin!

Thanks for reminding me, because I definitely would have been scratching my head and wondering what I did with it!

Good to know, thanks!

Well...

I charged up the battery for a bit today, it was at 12.04V whilst disconnected, after having sat there for 18 months...
After giving it a few hours on the charger whilst I was doing some other bits and going through the garage, I connected it up and cranked it over... Took a little while to crank, but then she fired up again, pretty nice and smooth.

Got it up to temp, and there's a bit of a leak from one of the coolant hose joints, so I've tightened that a bit, and will see if it comes back again. I think I have a couple of bits of coolant hose here still if needs be. I might do a coolant sniff test just to be sure there's no extra pressure in the system from exhaust gasses, but shouldn't be because the guy who rebuilt the engine seemed to do a fairly good job and went to the trouble of head studs and the likes...

Think my neighbour said he was going to give it a pressure wash for me on the weekend and I'd given him some tools and stuff the last time I was here, so hopefully she'll look a bit more refreshed aswell... Then I'll get under it and get the side steps off it as they're rotted out, and if everything else looks ok, I might see if I can get it MOTd so I can tax it and use to to take other crap to the dump etc, as it would be useful!

If LPGC is still on here and sees this... What's the deal with removing the LPG tank? I presume the shut off solenoid will come with it so anything left in the tank wont leak? I think the tank is pretty empty already, as every station around here is gone now, so it's been just used on petrol for years. Next time I start it, I'm planning on switching it over to gas and letting it idle on that for as long as it will.. To use up anything residual. But I know the tank will be well over 10 years old now and I want it gone for shipping, as if I have LPG installed then it needs a second certification on import, which would them mean I'd need to have the tank replaced, or I could get it re certified there, but I think it needs doing every year, so if rather import it as petrol only, get the main roadworthy certification done, and then if I decide to reinstate the LPG system, then I can get a new tank installed there, which will then be easier I think.

Still got lots to do... The garage is daunting... So. Much. Stuff.

Some things I have noted if people are looking for/interested in...
Front bumper (unpainted - think it's diesel with the vent. But pretty sure you can take that and the blank out and put fog lights in and put it on a petrol)
Heater box which I will have refurbished and has an Audi heater core fitted and blend motors (think it was one I built to swap out when I did installs for people and used for testing refurbished HEVAC controllers)
2x GEMS MAF sensors
Steering box - think it came from the 98 I scrapped, so it would have had about 84k miles on it)
Sweet of 4x 18" Proline wheels and dubious tyres. Top alloy looked pretty good when I half moved a box of BECM power boards that's stacked on top of it)
Also found 2x alpine head units, one has a bit of tape with my writing of the code on it aswell. I think I have enough bits here to test it.
I also have somewhere, and if I can find it I will test, a WORKING DSP Amps. Those rare as rocking horse sh*t ones, which when I found it still worked I keep a hold of for testing head units, and to make sure it was actually working and bit going to crap out. But that will be up for sale for sure if I find it and it's still going.
I have a few HEVAC head units in boxes that I'd refurbished and not sent to NZ, and I think possibly 1 or 2 WABCO D ECUs aswell, which I'll have to test again in mind to see if they're ones that were fixed already.

I also have a load of fairly decent looking air springs... Some are a bit dirty, but still have the rubber tassels on them... I can get pics and quantities if people want.

All sorts of other crap... Bunch of door speakers (probably should check all mine still work before flogging them off!) I think some HEVAC blower fans, and so much more I haven't rediscovered yet...

But at least my one started and wasn't too grumpy at me for having been left here without me...

Good shout... I put a message up on LZ now in general so if there are other people wanting bits, they can message... might drop him a PM though once I've looked at it and seen what state it's in etc..

I replaced all the lamps on my P38 agess ago with LED - with the exception of the headlights, as I couldn't find any decent H4 replacements which keps a proper cutoff/beam pattern... but all the indicators, brake lights etc all got swapped to LED, and I hacked the BECM to stop giving me lamp warnings on those channels. There's probably some way of tweaking it so that the sensing circuitry could be lower, but I just disabled it altogether.

I can't remember now exactly what I did - I think there were a bunch of resistors I removed from the sensing circuits, but without taking my BECM back out again I'd have no idea really.

Not on here much anymore, as current life doesn't seem to allow a lot of P38 related activities...

But, I'm glad the info was useful for you! They are fairly simple devices all-in -all, which is good for when you want to try fixing things!

Pete12345 wrote:

Hi Marty,
Not sure yet, but might try to come up on the same day as Richard.

If you do end up shipping the P38, I guess you will put any "really useful" spares in the container as well.

Pete
Hi Pete,

No worries - just keep me updated. Parts... I need to look at how i go about shipping other stuff with the P38. I think most of the bits I have here are up for grabs, I will probably keep any service items I have here and take them, but other than that I'm just trying to do a massive clear out, so if I don't have an immediate use for it, then it will be available. I know I've still got an engine crane and engine stand here which are not going to go with me, and also a set of 4 wheels/tyres. I think they are hurricanes, but I'll check in the next couple of days when I'm feeling better - seem to have picked up a bug on the travel over, so not 100% at the moment. I might go through some of the parts I have here and list them on eBay aswell, like the wheels/tyres and I have I think 3 sets of cylinder heads too from memory 2x GEMS 1x Thor pairs. I will probably put them on eBay to start with because they moght be worth something and help offset the cost of a skip etc to get rid of anything else, but if anyone wants a set then I'd rather do a good price to someone on here first.

I will also have a look as I think I made a list of the engine parts I have, so will post that up so if anything grabs anyone's fancy then can make me an offer...

Morat wrote:

Hey Marty!! I'd love to come and see you (and maybe get a drivers door latch?)
When are you here till?
Morat!

Good to hear from you!. I am her until 20th August, though away for a couple of days on 11th/12th I think. Other than that, I'm home any time.
door latch.. I will see if I have any left here, but I think I took all the good stuff with me to NZ, but I have rebuilt a few over there and shipped them over this way, so the postage is a wee bit more expensive, but still doable. I know I kept some of the shells/connectors for the later ones, when I sent my stuff to NZ, so know I have the bits to do them.

I'll also see if I left any microswitches behind over here, because it could be possible that I can do a while-you-wait service of it, but no promises as i'm limited on tools etc aswell.

Hi Mate,

Safe travels to Latvia!
I'll be about both 29th July and 7th August. So whenever works for you - I figured that AC installs are probably busy here at the moment with the heat waves!

Tools... I still have a Halfords kit in the back of the RR I think and a dirll/small impact driver, but if the side steps aren't done by then and become a pain in the arse, then probably an angle grinder to get the old bolts off... though I'm hoping if they've rusted then I can just snap them to get the old ones out!

I'll keep you updated with progress before then anywys!

Cheers,
Marty

Howdy...

Well, It's been ages since I've been here - mostly due to living in NZ now, and work/life being so stupidly busy that I don't seem to have time to get anything else done... sleep sometimes even seems a luxury!

But... I am back in the UK for about 5 weeks, with the purposes of this trip to get a bunch of stuff at my house sorted out so I can look at selling it, and also dealing with the P38...

I have a garage full of bits that I brought back from my workshop when I cleared that out a couple of years ago - which I am going to be going through and getting ruthless on the parts I have left here, either selling what I can/what is worth anything, and junking the rest - scrap metal etc to recyclers and the rest to the dump.

The P38 is the tricky part... I need to have it gone from here one way or another before I leave, as it's not fair to have it sitting outside the house permanently anymore, and I got stung a £510 fine from DVLA as it's been there SORN and technically on a public road... I don't have anywhere else to put it, as my place only has the street parking outside it, and it won't fit in the garage...

My options for the P38 are:
Ship it to NZ
Sell It.

Ideally I want to ship it, though it will be a bit of a mission as I need to clean it up, remove the LPG tank and probably filler, as if I import it with LPG then it needs extra certification which I can't be bothered with as the tank is over 10yrs old and would need replacing anyway... so I figure if I strip the tank and stuff out so it can be imported just as a petrol vehicle then if I decide I want to add LPG again, then I can get a new tank fitted there and get it certified as/when I want, rather than HAVING to do it at the time of import cert.

Other things I need to do to it are obviously a really good clean, for biosecurity, the side steps need removing as the box section is rusted out (I have a decent set here to put on - but I know the bolts are going to be rusted - so new hardware for the replacements I think!) and also I think the rear section of exhaust needs replacing as the one on there is a bit rusty in places - and again I have one off of one of the ones I used to have at the workshop, which if it's in decent condition then I'll put that on.

I'd also need to check stuff like the seatbelts and all that because I know for certification they strip out a load of the interior for checks on that kind of stuff, and that's easier to deal with here!

My other option... selling it... which would only really be an option if there was someone who wanted to buy it as an enthusiast/collector, as for me personally I've owned it going on 14 years, and done a LOT of work to it, as anyone on here would probably see from my posts over the years - especially the engine rebuild/install etc!. I don't want to sell it to someone who would just strip it for parts as I feel like it's still far too nice of a vehicle for that!

So... I guess... first question...
Anyone after any P38 parts? I am going to try and go through the garage in the next couple of days to see what's there. I know I have a few sets of V8 engine heads (GEMS and THOR) which were in decent condition when they came off. I have a load of BECM power boards in the plastic cases.. some are good for components only due to corrosion, but some of them are decent - high and low line versions. I know I have a factory original 'A' bar in good condition, I think with the mounting brackets (probably not bolts though) which was on mine when I bought it, and I've since put the full wraparound one on mine, so this is surplus and for sale.

Also, if you are anywhere around Swindon in the next month or so and wanted to swing past to say hi/have a look at what's here, etc then let me know.

If you know of anyone who would want to buy my P38, then also get in touch. I'm not desperate to sell it, but if an offer came in that I can't refuse then I could possibly be swayed.... I've seen the price of them in NZ, and before I left I found 3... 2 of them were 2001 models, one was hideous, one needed work and they wanted $12000-15000NZD for them, so around £5200-£6500... and I reckon to ship mine it would be probably around the $10000 NZD mark by the time I've paid the import duty, compliance costs, any additional biosecurty cleaning and all that. So I'm in no rush to sell, but I am also on the fence about the stress/hassle of shipping - given the supposedly 'peace of mind' 'door to door' shipping I did of the rest of my personal stuff a few years ago that turned into a stressful nightmare thanks to the shipping company from the UK.

So... Thoughts, Questions... Any parts people are looking for that I can see if I have... Anyone around this way who fancies lending a hand on a bit of P38 TLC on mine so I can get it sorted out to ship? Or just want to catch up for a coffee etc!

Cheers,
Marty

It's possible that there's moisture in the switches and as they freeze up, it stops them from working properly.

A lot of the latches I used to pull apart had signs of moisture/corrosion around the switches - even though they're sealed and supposed to be waterproof - I guess over years and years of actuations and use, the moisture finds a way to get in.

Cleaning the latch and maybe giving the switches a blast of some electrical cleaner might help in the short term, but ultimately will probably need replacing at some point...

I wish I had more time for P38 projects again.... Sadly work keeps me too busy to spend any real time on P38 bits and pieces... I try to make some RF Filters every now and again as they're still in demand, but sadly door latches need a lot more time and TLC to refurbish.

I have 3D printed a bunch of the microswitch holders, but found they need quite a bit of filing and fettling to get 3 switches (for a RHD/RHF drivers latch) to fit in there nicely, and line up inside the latch.

I did manage to get a few of them tweaked, and switches mounted - but then they ended up in a box somewhere in my garage as I got busy and haven't had time to do anything more with them.

I did get one into a latch which went to an owner in NZ - but it required a bunch of work to get the switches to sit properly, and ended up needing to put an extra lever (a normal accessory for microswitches) on the central locking switch for it to be triggered properly, as the replacement microswitches you can get all don't have quite as long button on them as the original ones did. So even with the 3D printed holder lining up with the mounting holes in the latch shell (which the holes in standard microswitches don't - thanks Land Rover), the CDL switch wasn't triggering quite properly all the time, and if I tried to slightly move that switch, it would end up jamming as the actuator in the latch would scrape across the switch housing.

So unfortunately there still isn't a 'drop in' replacement microswitch unit, and my guess is that because the tolerances in there are so tight, not many people tackle the refurb of latches on any kind of commercial scale as they do require a fair amount of time and fiddling to get them working properly.

I used to do them in bulk batches, but drill out the housings and use threaded rod to pin the new switches in - which I did have good success with, but again, was quite time consuming and as Richard mentioned, a lot of the time I wouldn't get old latches returned, so I'd run out of usable units to rebuild. Also I got a lot of them back where the CDL motors had burnt out, and (I don't know about now) these motors were unable to be found as a new replacement - so the number of latches I was able to be rebuilt also ended up being limited by the number of working motors I had aswell.

One day I might be able to get some time to look at microswitches again, and hopefully find a way of making a microswitch block which is a drop in replacement but I don't know exactly when that will be unfortunately!

Marty

Figured I'd drop a reply in here since I've seen my name mentioned a couple of times...

I'm actually currently in the UK - trying to get some more stuff sorted out here - original plan was to try and get my P38 shipped to NZ, but don't think that will happen this trip unfortunately, as I've been recovering from a nasty cold I collected in the US when I was there with work before coming here.

Re RF Filters...
I am still making them - as and when I get time, which over the last 6 months or so hasn't been really forthcoming. I did order some more parts back in December to be able to assemble some more but they arrived about a day before I went away. I'm due back home at the end of February, so I'm hoping that around jet-lag I can sit down and get a bunch of wire-crimping done, so I can assemble some more and have then available around the start of March.

Seems very weird that the 3rd Gen one didn't work - unless as Richard mentioned that for some reason you have a 315mhz receiver, and the 'green dot' one was 433mhz... The RF Filter would work (in theory) on either, as it uses the original P38 receiver in the vehicle, and just filters out the datastream that heads to the BECM.

If you've emailed me, then I'll try to get through emails soon and reply there aswell - the last couple of months has been stupidly busy, and especially the time I was in the US as I had long hours, and was moving between cities a lot - which meant I got zero time to catch up on emails.

Marty

Congrats to you both!

Hope you have a great honeymoon, and the key gets to you this time!

Gilbertd wrote:

More playing, this time on the newly acquired red one. I'd already mentioned the bodgery I'd found on it with the steering column being welded so it wouldn't move up and down and the fact that the ABS was giving multiple errors relating to the traction control as someone had replaced the Modulator with one from a base model with no traction control, well not any more.

Spent Tuesday giving Marty a hand to clear his workshop and rescuing any parts that might be useful before everything went in a scrap metal skip. Those parts included a steering column and the correct brake modulator so started swapping them yesterday. Figured that if I got everything free and dismantled on the steering column and then removed the brake modulator, that would let me get at the top joint on the intermediate steering shaft a lot easier, so did that. Getting at the bolts that hold the modulator in place isn't easy but they came out, released it from the brake pedal and it started to move. RAVE says to unclip the brake light switch, which I did, but it unfortunately doesn't mention the second one for the cruise control vent valve and the brake pedal came back on a spring and smashed it......

Although the brake modulator was free, getting it out is an interesting exercise as the brake pipes run in front of it, so they had to be bent to one side, the throttle cable runs in front of it so that has to be released and moved away and then it only comes out until it hits the top shock mount. After much swearing at it and wiggling it about, it came out. Left that for a while and swapped over the steering column. As well as two bolts to the bulkhead and a couple more to the pedal box, the column is held in on two long studs and it looked like it would sit on those and allow the intermediate shaft to be slid onto the splines. It isn't. As soon as I tried to align the splines it dropped off the studs so I had to wait until my assistant came back from taking the dogs for a walk, so she could sit in the car and guide it in. While waiting I lifted off the ignition coils as the monkey that had been in there before had managed to run the throttle cable under them and not over the top like it should be. Steering splines slotted in, steering column in place, so bolted it all up. Reassembled the switches and wiring on the column before calling it a day.

So today it was back out there at it. The correct brake modulator actually slotted straight in and I'm still not sure why considering the grief getting the old one out had caused me. Bolted it in place, and started connection the pipes again. As they were the original steel pipes and had been bent I had to try to bend them back to the original shape so they would line up with the holes, not an easy task and one union started going in cross threaded so I had to clean the threads up before it went in as it should. Filled it with brake fluid and now for the moment of truth. Ignition on, Nanocom booted up and read the ABS fault codes. It still had all the previous Traction Control faults showing so cleared those, cycled the ignition off and back on again and the dash beeped and said ABS Fault..... However, read the codes again the only one there now was Left Front sensor open circuit. No big deal on that then once I work out which one is actually faulty knowing that the Nanocom gets them muddled up (or does it? It does on the Wabco D system on a Thor but this is the Wabco C on a GEMS so it might get them right). I'll just unplug the front left sensor and see if it gives the same fault or if it tells me there's now two open circuit sensors.

All that is left now is to wait for the assistant to finish work and go through the brake bleeding process.

It's only the wabco D system that the labels are wrong on line values (error codes are correct). As far as I know the wabco C system is correct for error codes and live values.

The outstation failing would stop the mirror from working aswell, as it has the relays in it to drive the motors.

But if the windows work, then the outstation is OK - as it also drives that.

If you can't unlock the door then it probably is a case that the door latch is superlocked, and the sill button won't unlock it - you would need to either destroy to top of the latch or cut the locking hasp to get the door open, and then be able to get the door card off to access the latch.