I believe I bought mine from either Island 4x4 or LR Direct. I think the Island 4x4 one is Britpart - so I might have gone for the intermotor or allmakes one on LR Direct. They don't usually have a record of failing - the earlier version was known to blow the center out of the switch and piss oil everywhere (had that on one of mine back in NZ - scary stuff when you're miles from home!)

If it's still doing it after a change to thicker/heavier weight oil, then to me it sounds most likely to be the oil pump - I could be wrong, but even if you get in there and find it's something else - replacing the oil pump gears isn't going to hurt anything. It also gives you a chance to check the pressure relief valves and the likes.

I wouldn't skimp on oil pump gears, no - I think I got mine from V8 Tuner - though that was years ago. V8 Tuner Oil Pump Gears Though you may be able to get a decent set cheaper elsewhere - I'd avoid blue-box on these... Just had a look and Island 4x4 shows a UK Made OEM version at £45 + VAT, so not much in it.

I can't remember the thread on the oil pressure switch - but also from memory on the Thor font cover at least, there is an unused port which has a bung in it, which you might be able to use for the pressure gauge...

Yes, NUC100280L is the correct part number - I just checked on my spreadsheet of engine parts that I made when I rebuilt a new Thor engine a few years ago.

If that doesn't sort it, then it could be oil pump gears - they are known to crack over time - one of the spare front covers I bought to recondition (again for the replacement engine) had a cracked outer gear when I took it apart.. made me thankful I was putting new parts in!

It isn't the worst job in the world to do it, as it doesn't require a total strip down of the engine - just the front cover to come off, but still probably a weekend's job to do.

NGK BPR6ES seems to be the plug of choice for P38s with LPG.

I run then on mine And they aim to do a decent job. Also got the Torquemax cam fitted.

If your heads are the different style that needs spark plugs with the smaller hex head (I think as Orangebean found out on one of his P38s when he read still with us) then you'll need the BCPR6ES version.

I think I'll be treating the foam to a bath today to try and rinse out as much of the coolant as possible... Thanks for doing the carpet with George - it looks a lot like new again! I might have to give it another going over as it still felt a bit greasy from coolant when I picked it up, but I might wait until the RR is back together and see if it's noticeable!

That's for my uprated seat heaters - they've got a dual temp setting which effectively switches between series and parallel on the seat base and seat back elements so they either get 6V each on low, or full 12V on high.

Very nice and toasty, and wanted to fit the switch somewhere on the seat, that would look like it could have been there from the factory :)

Tomorrows task is going to be to replace the control board in the HEVAC controller as it got coolant on it - not a lot, but I have spare boards, so may aswell not take the chance! and then make sure all the new blend motors work/calibrate OK. Will top up the coolant tank again and might run it up to temp again.

Awaiting some connectors to tidy up one of my other projects - I added LEDs to the back of the door handle cups, so the handles are back lit when the side lights are on and then slowly fade out over about 30s once the side lights are turned off. Got the project working, wired in and figured "I'll tidy it all up later" and then never got around to it, so figure that whilst it's all in bits I'd put the PCB in a case, and put a connector on the wiring for it to make it a bit neater! then going to try and soak a bit more coolant out of the footwell foam, strip the tape off these looms to clean them and re-wrap them, clean the sill channel out. A final clean out of the sill channel should mean I can get all these looms back in place, and with any luck the foam and carpet back in again. Also waiting on some aluminium foil tape to reseal all the HEVAC duct work, the gaffer tape I had used has held up well, but the adhesive has gone all crusty, so figure it's worth doing all that again whilst it's apart!

If you're interested in the heated seat pads, then let me know and I'll try to find a link to the ones I got on eBay... Sloth has the same ones (and put me onto them) - though I think he mounted his switch further back. I hacked apart the wiring loom they came with and customised it/shortened it to fit neater under the seat, and then wired it into one of the P38 connectors for the factory heated seats, so it still plugs into the vehicle loom.

So an update of pictures from the last few days...

Just aswell I've had P38 dashboards out numerous times before - that kind of task doesn't scare me and only takes a couple of hours to do... almost took longer than that cleaning all the bloody wiring and re-wrapping it with tape that isn't sodden and sticky on both sides!

Incidentalley, we also noticed that the pulley on the front of the PS pump is slightly different to the original one, the part number is slightly different (they all show as being interchangeable though) but as Sloth mentioned - there appears to be some form of crack up the metal of the pulley and you can obviously see where it's cracked away from the central part.

I was just thinking that about the in tank pump aswell - and looked at the same link... Britcar show a Land Rover one for £282 inc VAT - so for that price I would be expecting a genuine Land Rover part... even LR Direct show OEM/VDO as just over a half of that price.

Did they quote you a price for the pump before doing the in tank pump, or did they do that of their own volition?

To me too, 4 hours of labour seems a lot - most of which could probably have been looked at and tested in an hour with a Nanocom and looking at live data readings. Did they also ask you about taking the top of the pump back off again for testing in their machine, or again did they do that of their own accord once you had told them about what we believed the fault code to be?

Glow plugs... yeah, in the summer, P38's don't need them all to be working to start it - in the winter they do. I've seen a couple of owners who have them not start and contact me about sync problems, immobiliser problems etc - and had 2 within the space of a month like that, which ended up being a couple of dead glow plugs. But they had only had issues as the weather got colder, starting was fine over summer/autumn time.

I was still in the same boat... just in my case most of it ended up inside the cabin, over my foot!

So, a bit of an update from yesterday...

Sloth came up to have a look with me, and after the normal chat, leaning over the engine bay looking at it and going 'yep, it's F**KED', and probably a few bits of banter back and forth about sat nav units... we cracked on.

I'd got the heater box back in, with a new heater core (still Audi style - but a Nissens one this time, with bigger hose connections - 19mm instead of 16mm, so got rid of some excess joins in the pipe reducers) and tidyed/re-taped up the majority of the fascia looms, so we started off with plumbing in the new heater core into the engine bay, before briefly and gingerly turning it over a couple of times and starting it up (no belt or anything yet - literally for a few seconds to see if there were any horrible noises which might indicate us tearing it down!). Satisfied that it wasn't on the brink of self destructions, we headed off to the workshop to collect the replacement (old) PS pump, and a few other bits.

Getting back, we swapped the PS pump - (the design of the pulley on the one that destroyed itself was a bit different - so no idea if that made a difference), put the new belt on and filled it up with coolant.

Started up again and set to work bleeding the air out, which between getting it up to temperature and letting it cool a couple of times we investigated his random ABS Fault and brake lamp failure messages which were randomly popping up on the dash. After a bit of detective work with the Nanocom, we found the brake switch acting up, so pulled that apart and repaired it.

Back to my RR and another burping session, along with coolant sniff test, which came back negative. Another break for it to cool, followed by topping off the reservoir and then running it up to temp with the cap on and allowing it to build pressure this time. The good news is that the cooling system didn't seem to overpressurise, so things seem to be OK on that side of things.

The bad news... to me, although the engine still seems to run quite smooth and sweetly, there is a bit of a noise there, which I don't recall it being there before, and neither of us can put our finger on what it might be. Again, it doesn't seem to be blowing pressure into the crank case, so it might be either an exhaust gasket or head gasket blow to the outside? It's not so prominent that it's possible to pinpoint exactly where it's coming from either.

The other downside, is my MOT ran out on the 15th - it was booked in to be done on the 12th, but then this happened on the 9th, so it's had to be put off. So I can't really take the RR out for anything of a run to see how it performs under load and driving conditions - unless its being driven to a pre-arranged MOT. And I don't really want to book it in for the MOT, until I'm happy that it can do the required engine running bits without any signs of blowing/damage. So feel a bit between a rock and a hard place!

I have to finish getting the interior put back together - BECM back in properly, and the dash back together/ductwork in/instrument cluster etc before it's driveable anyway. I might then chance driving it around the estate/down to the local Tesco and back a few times to see how it performs. If it seems to be OK, and nothing presents itself, and that helps clear the last bit of the air out of the cooling system, then I might put it in for the MOT next week and see what presents itself. That way, if something does crop up, and it's got an MOT, then at least I can limp it up to the workshop, where it's easier to completely strip things down.

Part of me wasn't 100% happy with the heads when I got them back from the machine shop when I built the engine in the first place, so I have retrieved the heads from my old engine that came out (and hadn't had overheating issues) so I might look at slowly rebuilding those, and then doing a head gasket swap at some point for my own piece of mind.

But I guess the main thing out of it all is that nothing is springing out at us that says it needs an immediate teardown, so I think I have been pretty lucky. The biggest casualties out of this have been 1) my foot, 2) the old heater core 3) the nav unit - white screen and nothing happening 4) the HEVAC main board (fair few traces of coolant on it and in the connectors) and 5)the underside of the dash - it's got some surface scarring from being blasted with hot coolant/steam! but not noticeable from the outside luckily.

I've got a few more pictures of progress, which I'll put up once I've got them off my phone and onto the server.

Nah, the whole lumbar system is in the upper part - pump and all...

I've had the backs apart a couple of times on the REALLY rare occasion a heater element has failed in there, and they are easy enough to strip... you need to take the arm rest off, and then loosen the cover at the bottom and carefully slide it up the chair. You won't need to take it all off to get to the lumbar bits as it is at the bottom of the back section. You will probably have to undo a few of the hog rings on the front side to get the cover up high enough, but they aren't horrific to remove with a couple of big sets of pliers :D

I'm still not even sure - without anyone who has a clue having had a look at it - if it even NEEDS a replacement pump.

We don't know what the timing/modulation values are on the original one as yet, as Powerdrive don't seem to know what they are on a out with it, so jumping to replacing the pump at the moment seems like a bit of a leap?

I'm hoping my lump is serviceable by the time I'm due to go to Bournemouth, but even if it isn't, I'll take my Nanocom and find a way to get over there to look at it in person.

The FIP doesn't actually talk to the BECM, but to the Engine ECU - it's the bit that somehow checks that the pump is correct for the vehicle, and if it isn't then it won't even start.

Cheers Chris - I appreciate the offer! I should be OK for the moment though, I don't have anywhere to be work-wise for a fortnight or so, and am crossing fingers I can get it sorted in that time! Failing that, I have to go to Bournemouth for work, which is doable on the train, and am there for a week, so not the most horrible if I have to do that without the RR...

I have ordered a new set of blend motors, so I am hoping to get the dash pulled out this afternoon/tomorrow morning, and the heater box out - new heater core in, and then new blend motors in when they arrive on Wednesday. I think Sloth is planning on coming up Wednesday to have a look with me, so main thought is to get the PS pump from workshop, and then get it started and see what the result is...

It's hardly good money after bad if most of the things she's done have been part of what would be normal maintenance...

The problem as far as I see it isn't a case of not wanting to spend the money on getting it fixed and running properly, but unfortunately in a lot of P38 cases - being in the hands of a 'Specialist' who actually knows fuck all about P38's.

I've now got a BECM coming to be because a guy hired a syncmate from me, and it didn't work - flashed up an error that it can't wake up the engine ECU for communications. It is probably just a sync problem, because it will turn over on the starter motor and no ENGINE DISABLED on the dash etc. Gave the guy some info via email (he's too far away for me to just go and have a look myself) about wiring and colours, and connectors and where to look. He says he checked out as much as he could, but would have to get an auto electrician to have a look. Email today says that he's going to change the igntion barrel as the auto elec said the coil around the ignition didn't appear to be working.... and if not, then new BECM...
I've told him it isn't a BECM issue or ignition barrel problem as that for a start has nothing to do with the sync to the engine ECU... BECM could be an issue at a real stretch, but repairable these days - but more likely it is just out of sync and a communication issue, which I can look at here, on the bench. No idea if the auto elec even tried talking to the motronic ECU, which is OBD II compliant and even an ELM327 bluetooth device should be able to retrieve codes etc... but again, he's been taken for a bit of a ride by someone who instead of looking at it and going "Bit out of my league sorry" has had a go, and advised him incorrectly...

If Powerdrive have now admitted that they have taken the top of the pump off to do the seals, but "didn't touch anything else" it doesn't really matter... if the pump hasn't been set up properly, or at LEAST had the timing/modulation checked as the others have mentioned - which it obviously hasn't if they don't have the correct diagnostics - then it again comes back to what is most likely a really nice P38 possibly being scrapped for something that might take 20mins, half an hour? to fix by someone who knows what they're doing and not being fiddled about by people who don't...

The cap was the correct spec... it was replaced with a genuine LR part when I built/installed the new engine 18 months ago and vented as it should - just obviously not quick enough out an 8mm overflow for 6L + of boiling coolant to escape before the heater core plastic gave way! the trail of coolant from the vehicle and the puddle that was left under it once I pulled over was from the venting thru the overflow.

As you can see in the pics the heater core blew out pretty spectacularly.

I might be lucky, and replace the PS pump, heater core, and probably swap the cap (even if it's back to my old one to test, as it was still OK AFAIK - I replaced it as preventative maintenance). And see what it runs like. But given that it has overheated, and it's alloy - the normal thing for these vehicles is the head gasket to blow - and/or the head(s) to warp. I may have gotten extremely lucky, but I'm not holding my breath.

I guess assuming it fires up and runs OK with no immediate sign of there being a blown gasket, I have coolant sniff test here, which I'll try to see if there is any sign of combustion gasses in there..

Hopefully will have more news later this week once more investigations have taken place...

As far as I can tell, that adaptation fault has to be to do with the FIP - the in tank pump won't trigger any fault codes like that. I'm not even sure it throws a loggable fault if it has failed completely, going by the number of posts on forums I've seen about it being only noticed when the vehicle struggles to start with under half (or quarter?) tank of fuel.

So I don't know how powerdrive came to the conclusion it was the in tank pump - especially if it has also been replaced previously by Turner

As far as I know when it comes to the Diesel vehicles.... The pump in the tank is just a lift pump to help supply fuel to the main injection pump which pressurizes it for the injectors.

The more I am reading, these guys don't actually have a clue... especially if they are charging £760 + VAT for the in - tank fuel pump swap by cutting the hole in the floor... I'd expect that sort of price (well closer to it...) if they had dropped the tank and done it properly.

But that aside for the moment - fuel quantity actuation is done inside the FIP, as your local garage have said... And as it keeps coming back to, but the garage seem to be discounting is that if the seals have been replaced and the pump timing not checked, then that will most likely give this kind of error.

Rather than type it out, I'll copy and paste a few bits from the Electrical Troubleshooting Manual for the Diesel section:

Fuel Temperature Sensor
A thermistor is also located inside the injection
pump. The fuel temperature sensor signal is used to
adjust the quantity of injected fuel, especially during
temperature extremes. The signal is also used to
back up the Engine Coolant Temperature Sensor
(X126). If this sensor fails, the ECM (Z132) uses a
substitute value of 60C and only slight effects on
fuelling may possibly be noted.

Fuel Quantity Feedback Sensor
Located within the injection pump, this sensor sends
the ECM (Z132) information regarding the actual
quantity of fuel injected. Failure of the sensor or
corrupted signals will illuminate the warning lamp
and cause the engine to stall or not start. A second
check, a plausibility check against the needle lift
sensor, also takes place.

Fuel Quantity Actuator
Once again located within the injection pump, this is
a moving magnet actuator, failure of which will cause
the engine to stall or not start as the ECM (Z132) will
activate the Fuel Shut–Off Solenoid (K111).

Injection Timing
(Solenoid Valve Injection Timing
Device (K229))
This is another actuator within the injection pump.
The ECM (Z132) receives a signal from the needle
lift sensor and attempts to correct the injection timing
accordingly. If a change does not occur, then the
ECM (Z132) assumes a fault exists, activates the
warning lamp and reduces the quantity of injected
fuel.

Fuel Shut–Off Solenoid (K111)
The Fuel Shut–Off Solenoid (K111) shuts the engine
down if the ECM (Z132) detects a major fault.
Failure of the valve itself does not activate the
warning lamp, although if a short circuit occurs, the
engine will shut down.

So all of that is done in the FIP - and reading that, if the injection timing or the fuel quantity is out, then you will most likely get power problems. OK, the in tank pump may have been faulty aswell, but the issue to me lies in the FIP, and if they haven't checked or adjusted the top of the pump since the seals were done, then as far as I'm concerned, they are wasting their time, your time, and your money chasing around other things.

OK, so had more of a look and took the cover off the top of the power steering pump to see what the damage is there...

Pics first, and then my other thoughts...

So looking at it - it appears the pulley on the PS pump has come away from the centre piece which threads onto the pump shaft. I'm guessing this has then split/shredded the belt, where pieces of it have then gotten caught up in one of the idler pulleys and wrapped around the crank.

The mud shield on the crank had been pushed hard up against the front cover, but after removing the remains of the belt, I was able to lever this back into place. I've tried removing the centre of the crank pulley from the shaft, so I can get the pulley off, but no dice - it's solid on there, so looks like I'll have to change the whole pump. The pump itself feels like it turns pretty well, it's not seized and the bearing doesn't feel like it's failed - which is what I had first suspected.

Inside - well, as you can see, the bottom of the heater core has blown out. There weren't many other places it could have been from as the pipework from the engine bay is rubber up to the plastic of the heater core.

I've taken the cluster apart and it appears to be OK internally, but the HEVAC however has signs of coolant in the connector and a bit of corrosion, so that might be the cause of the glimmer of the backlight on the message centre, possibly a back-feed from the HEVAC connector - I'm going to reassemble the cluster later and try it outside of the vehicle tomorrow. Also will pull the BECM and check that, and attempt to mop up remaining coolant inside the footwell etc, so that can dry out. I have a spare Nissens Audi heater core here, so in theory I could get the dash/heater box out and the heater core replaced and that all refitted over the rest of the weekend - if my enthusiasm lasts that long - though I'm also considering a new set of blend motors, as my passenger side temp blend was throwing the occasional error last winter, so whilst it's apart and all that...

Also going to start looking at new radio/nav units and options for that. I believe Sloth is going to come up this week at come point and have a look at the engine side with me - will most likely pop up to the workshop and grab the old PS pump to swap that back on, and also I'll probably grab my other set of heads from the old engine - so if there is HG issues with this, then I can overhaul the old heads with new valve seals, and probably re-lap the valves in aswell whilst I'm at it.

Fingers crossed I can get it all done, back together, MOT'd, and some trust back in it before I have to go to Bournemouth at the end of the month - otherwise it'll be a train trip to there too!

Yeah, it is just a bit of a confidence knock - when you've tried to do it all properly and it still doesn't work! It had been a pretty average week before that, so between that happening and then the delays to get home yesterday, just kinda topped off the whole week really.

The block is Top Hatted - it was a V8 Dev short engine when I built it. I did also fit head studs at the time.
The cap did do it's job, but obviously not quick enough before the heater core got to breaking point - there was a trail of coolant and the signs that the overflow from the header tank had been working overtime - so from that, it was definitely venting as it should. The cap also was genuine LR - and was fitted along with the new engine 18 odd months ago.

I'm somewhat surprised that none of the underbonnet hoses let go, or the radiator tank didn't pop. I'm about to go out and have a look at the power steering pump and see the state of it, but from the quick look I did on the heater hoses the other day, everything cooling-system wise under the bonnet actually looks intact.

I wouldn't like to say how long the engine was running without the pump turning or after the heater core let go - It feels like it was an eternity, but it was a hill up the offramp and there was still enough power to get my up that, and I don't remember hearing any nasty noises from under the bonnet before I turned it off - though as soon as I was stopped the key was off!

I'll get a few more pictures under the bonnet as I'm going to go out now and investigate a bit more, and then fire the laptop up and upload some of them.

I must admit I have had the thought over the last couple of days that maybe I'll just scrap it, buy something cheap and reliable, and be done with P38s... I've owned them for going on 14 years now, and never actually owned anything else.

But then I take another look at it, and it is a late model, vogue spec, with the Uber comfy Oxford leather, and the other accessories on it, and I know that if I did get rid of it, I'd miss it, and then would never find another one the same, coupled with the fact of how much I've spent on it over the years on maintenance, new engine and all that I figure I should just fix it up and keep it.

Then I wonder if I'll actually trust it again, even if I do fix it up... Like, do I get another new power steering pump, or just refit the old one? Do I strip the top end down and do the head gaskets anyway to be sure? I dunno.. I might need some positive vibes from the P38 community myself on some of that... It has properly been a shit week, topped off by the van coming to pick the gear up from the show last night getting there 3 ½ hours late - meaning my nice late afternoon finish and travel home turned into me not leaving the venue until 8pm, and getting him until gone 22:30!

With that rambling aside... I mustered the enthusiasm (it was lacking - my foot is pretty sore and a bit swollen from the burns - I'll put a gross picture up tomorrow! Thank goodness I was wearing closed steel toe shoes and not something more open and comfy for the drive) today, and started stripping out the interior in the driver's area to see how bad things are inside... So far...

• Coolant in the sill, around all the wiring looms, so have pulled them out and soaked up a load of it
• Footwell carpet and foam saturated with coolant, so cut this out to attempt to dry outside the vehicle
• Coolant appear to have sprayed up in the dash, and signs of it on/in HEVAC, stereo/nav unit (this is fried... But not the end of the world as I didn't like this unit anyway!), Drivers trim panels, and the instrument cluster
• BECM seemed to be ok the other night and I disconnected the battery once it was home, so I will probably pull that tomorrow to have a look inside it and check for coolant ingress.

The cause of this was the bottom/inlet feed to the heater matrix having gone bang in a big way. Pictures to follow tomorrow. In answer to the Audi core question, yes I've had an Audi core in there about the past 7 years, with no problems. BUT it was a cheap one, not one of the Nissens units I now use. Undecided if I will replace with a Nissens Audi unit, or back to LR version with O rings. Tempted to stick with Audi version as the pipework is nicer and better for my LPG setup.

Haven't looked under the bonnet again or taken the cover off the power steering pump to see what's failed on that. Maybe tomorrow. But some of the remains of the belt isn't pretty...

Hopefully will get around to copying the pics off the phone and onto my server so I can upload here tomorrow too.