Worst case, I probably have some spare 5 bar seat bases on some of the other interiors that I've accumulated - I know I have at least nearly 2 lightstone sets of seats, and I'm sure one of them is 5 bar.

Since we know how vile and close to puking it makes Mark at the thought of doing seat cleaning/trimming - you wouldn't then want to have vomit to try and get out of the Duchess' carpet or ECU's under the passenger seat!

As long as it's High Line, then it should work fine..

I'll reply per problem...

Problem 1: I've replied to your PM on this issue.. As mentioned in there, if you have access to the interior of the door, then post up a picture and then we can see if it is something simple like the sill lock rod being bent too far and jamming the latch - or whether it's something more complex

Problem 2: Above the oil filter housing could be a few things. Most likely if it's running down from the front of the engine is the water pump, or gasket. If from the side of the engine, then moving further up are the outlet to the heater (and probably LPG reducer plumbing) outlet to the top hose, and also possibly the temperature sensors - any of which could be weeping coolant from.

Problem 3: All of the P38's I've owned have all used a bit of oil - even my new engine in the current one seems to use a bit. I don't know where it goes, though the intake always seems a bit oilier than I would expect it to with the oil separator in the outlet from the rocker cover... but it could also be a lot of things. Probably best to observe it as/when it gets running again.

Problem 4: Is it all of the windows that are intermittent, or just some of them? Most common issue is the switchpack itself, whether it's one or 2 switches that go intermittent/fail, or the whole unit just stops working - it can be totally random.. I repair switchpacks and sell them on exchange for the faulty one back.. It must be the season for switchpack failures, as I've sold about 6 of them on eBay in the last week, and have another 3 on my bench in the process of being repaired, and one more already back to be pulled apart. Hence why I say the switchpack is a common issue! Check the obvious things first - that there is a good power and ground connection to the connector/switchpack.

Problem 5: - probably easiest thing is to try and get it hooked up and the faults read/cleared and see what comes back. It could be something as simple as the fuse to the ABS ECU (engine bay fuse box - there's a couple of fuses and actually the first thing to check before looking into getting it on diagnostics), through to a sensor not quite pushed home enough, or through to ECU failure (which is pretty rare on the early ones - it's the later ones that seem to suffer from ECU issues).

Cosmetics... at the end of the day, it's your vehicle and you can do what you want with it! I personally prefer the standard P38 grille - though I've seen L322 and Sport grilles which have been cut to fit... I've also seen the result of someone taking to a P38 grille with a drill bit to make it look like the sport grille..

Being as the grille swaps etc aren't a 'normal' cosmetic upgrade - as in a simple purchase and replace - there probably isn't any guidelines on swapping it over, so that one might be a case of you having to experiment and see how you get on. Maybe making a cardboard mock-up to see what various results will look like?

Hope this helps,
Marty

The connection from the tailgate button splices into the loom between the outstation and the latch on the wire for the CDL microswitch.

The wire colour in the vehicle loom is Green/Red. You can also test the latch switches with the downloadable door latch test sheet in my post in this part of the forum - which will tell you if the CDL switch is faulty in the latch.

But if you temporarily ground the Green/Red wire in the drivers door then it will provide the ground path to the tailgate. If locking/unlocking the drivers door with the key triggers all of the other doors to lock/unlock the the CDL switch is probably OK, and I'd start by looking at the connector in the bodywork (just behind the rubber grommet where the door loom joins the bodywork) as the wire to the tailgate also goes through these connectors and could have corrosion on it which is stopping it from working properly.

Marty

Glad I could help...

That looks, erm... a bit nasty... I would double check the connectors in the door loom aswell to be sure. If it is a failed outstation (it's a rare occasion! they are generally pretty reliable!) then they are cheap enough to replace.

I hope there isn't too much damage to the door card :(

The polarity will make the difference as to whether it goes to lock or unlock.
I'd have to check and see which way round it is for unlock, as I built myself a tester ages ago to do it for me, so I just press a button to lock, button to unlock...

If I were to be a guessing man though, I would say that 12V on Pink/Black and Ground on Orange/Black would be unlock.

I just double checked my BECM SID as I just remembered it has the wiring in for the outstations, and it concurs...

If it's not, and it just tried to lock again, then reverse the polarity and it should unlock...

Slots in like a glove. The rib in the centre of the heater box needs to be removed as the end tanks on the audi core are a little bit bigger than the RR one - but easy to do if you have the heater box apart to free up the flaps, or if you aren't splitting the heater box then generally a couple of taps with a sharp chisel does the job.

The Nissens cores come with some sticky backed foam, which a wrap of that around both ends seals up the box pretty well and stops it from moving in the box. 4 x 5/6mm holes drilled in the flange at the opening end and a couple of cable ties keeps it from coming out.

When you have the heater box out, actually fitting the core is probably quicker than it's been for me to type this up!

Green is the common for the motors in the latch wiring, purple is the CDL motor.

In the door loom itself, the pink/black wire is motor common, and orange/black is CDL motor. Orange/pink is superlock motor.

Looking good...

I'm liking the fact the P38 seems to be getting a good response from others...

Tempted to do a writeup on mine as I've done countless tasks over the lady 5 years... mostly all preventative, but think it would take me too long to write it all up!

Hope the rest of the rebuild work goes well and she passes the MOT!

The blip from the alarm when it's trying to superlock is a mislock sound alright.

It is probably (at a guess - I haven't tried it to be sure on another vehicle) is it not arming the ultrasonic sensor inside, because it doesn't have communication with the LHF door, so can't verify that door is closed and locked. Again, probably normal and doing what it's supposed to do given the loss in communication to the LHF door.

Marty

I seriously doubt it.. from memory the door latch motors are driven off a relay in the outstation (as opposed to a MOSFET/Transistor... been awhile since I've had the outstation apart) - which powers from the outstation feed.

If something further upstream had gone, then I would expect the whole drivers door to have stopped aswell, as the power feed to the outstation is shared with both front doors - likewise the fuse for the front windows is shared Left/Right - so if this had gone then both front windows would have stopped. Also I think both of those fuses would flag up a fault on the dash.

Unless the outstation itself has taken a dive (which is rare - they don't seem to fail) then my money is still on one of the wires in the connector to the door, or worst case in the door itself if it had been caught by the check strap etc as the door closes... but the connectors in the body are known for getting a bit green and horrible, so would be my first guess..

Yay :) bet that was a feeling of relief when it cracked free...

Remember how I mentioned that press the ball joints themselves out and in would be the easiest/quickest part of the task ;)

I hope the rest of the reassembly goes well!

I'd just take it on the road trip, and then check it when you get back. If it's no different, then just leave it until it becomes a problem.

If the bearing is going, I'd expect it to start whining, and there to be some debris on the drain plug... heck, even my brand new rear diff that was fitted 5 yrs ago had a bit of paste on the drain plug..

I think the £350 would be better spent on fuel at the moment.

Have you tried to remove the trim behind the interior handle to see if the door handle cable is catching?

I don't think it's superlocked now from what you are mentioning - I think something is jamming the latch which is stopping it from unlocking normally with the sill lock.

No, you won't have to sacrifice the door card - there is another way of getting the door open, but it can be a bit tricky - sometimes it's easier to take the rear door off and then access is better. Basically instead of trying to get through the top to damage the latch, you cut through the striker to release the whole door. It can be done with a hacksaw. It's a pity you aren't closer as I have a drill tool which I bought from another owner which is designed to drill through the stricker hasp.

I had a look at my RR today and the wiring for the door does go into a bit of a void space in the bodywork, so not easily accessible from inside on the LHS there is a rubber bung, which if it's removed, might give access to the connectors - but to get to this properly you would need to remove the blower motor. Which is possible with just the glove box out, as I did one today for someone, as they had a faulty one.

I wouldn't was to sacrifice the door card... there are other ways!

Is there impending doom that the diff won't make it for another few hundred miles of a road trip?

I'd just run it and see how it goes... does it whine like a banshee when it's up to speed, or hasn't it ventured out far enough to get up to motorway speeds?

As Gilbertd says - rear is a piece of cake and no issue at all. The front isn't much harder if the hubs have been apart before!

What are the UJ's like on the rear prop shaft? wonder if they have worn and caused excess vibration which has then meant it's worn the bearing prematurely... Either that or maybe it wasn't a recon diff that was fitted, but just something second hand....

Smiler wrote:

I try'd swing both hammers (well the biggest one is just the head but it makes a fine bludgeoning tool) at the same time but due to the weights involved it's pretty hard to hit the target. I'll ask our workshops if there is anything they can do to straighten yours and restore its original strength, though they only have limited heat treatment facilities so don't hold your breath...

I'm not overly bothered if not - it's a Sealey one, so not completely cheap rubbish, but not exactly expensive either - it's lasted pretty well given the number of vehicles I've used it on and how much force I've put on it...

The Land Rover one (from what I can see in the rough drawing in RAVE) looks like it is effectively boxed on the sides aswell to provide more vertical strength which is whats lacking from that one - once you start putting a lot of force on it, it just bends rather than is solid on 3 sides and puts that force onto the assembly.

I wouldn't worry if there isn't much they can do about it... if they can straighten it and even weld a couple of side supports on it to give extra strength then great.. if not, then I won't lose sleep over it!

I have drilled/slotted on mine - they came in Britpart boxes when I bought them. Rears are solid discs, fronts are vented.

They seem to do the job pretty well, and definitely stop it... Don't know what/how much/if there is any difference with them being drilled/slotted - but they work.
I bought EBC Ultimax pads to use, but wouldn't recommend them as they are too hard a compund and apparently are more of a track pad (even though they were listed as the cheaper OEM spec replacement)... Even to this day after changing them 5 years ago, my rears still squeal when I'm in reverse and put the brakes on... annoys me, but there's a lot of meat on them still so can't be bothered changing them!
I've heard EBC Greenstuff are good but expensive, but otherwise Mintex are good (and what I'd go for next time)

I have some crude waveforms that I captured on my laptop from the fob transmissions on a few different key fobs - but I really need to get a logic analyzer to do it properly...

I think jackkkk managed to capture some transmissions with a logic analyser though - but on my crude capturings, the following was observed...

As you can see, the start of each transmission (some of these were from the same fob, but a couple were from different fobs) is identical, and this is the only way I can think of that the Gen 3 receiver can filter P38 transmissions out from everything else without it being coded to the vehicle to decode the transmission. I'm sure jackkk tested this with a P38 fob and an L322 fob on a gen 3 receiver and got a data stream out from the P38 fob, but not from the L322 one.

I would love to get my hands on the Land Rover Tool which they say to use to get the hub carrier free from the ball joints...

If the top is free, then try putting the splitter on the bottom again, tensioning it up a bit, and then use 2 smaller lump hammers to hit each side of the lower carrier part at the same time (rather than holding one and hitting with the other) as I've found sometimes the force from being struck at the same time on each side is enough to shock it into popping free.

Otherwise, maybe a bit of heat might help, or worst case... a hacksaw!