Morat wrote:

Colour me jealous! I had my eye on Sloth's Grom (ooer) but I'd already spent most of a fortune on other bits that month. One day! :)
Enjoy your music

Hey Miles...

Did you get my email from the other week about the bits I had ready for you? I've also just finished replacing the capacitor in a spare driver pack that apparently fails, so I have one of those available aswell as a switchpack and door latch....

:)

All the electronics get pulled out before the plastic parts get cleaned, so nothing like that going anywhere near hot water! But a big cutlery tray sounds good...

Any problems with the grease buildup in the dishwasher, or from if you're doing things cylinder heads aswell?

Richard, I wonder if your grille has been swapped at some point... maybe if the plod had lights cut into there, they replaced it when they sold it? As far as I know all of the grilles were colour matched at the bottom to vehicle paintwork, the same as under the headlamps...

But then if you are getting the rest of it resprayed, then will be a good opportunity to get them to do the bottom of the grille aswell!

I must admit the grilles do look good in black, but since everything else on mine is black, I think that on mine the contrast will look better!

From memory, the GEMS ones are standard 4 pin Econoseal connectors, so easy to get new connector pins if needs be...

I must admit, Leanne has been saying for ages that she wants to get a dishwasher for home and I've been putting it off as I'm never here and like most men, when left at home alone don't exactly cook a lot and when I do I use as few dishes/utensils as possible to make the washing up less to do..

However, it has been on my mind to get one, and I also must admit that a large part of that is because I'd be horribly tempted to then put parts in it to clean...

I wonder how many door latches worth of parts would fit in at once.....

EDIT: I'm feeling left out of the 'fancy grille club' now... as mine are still faded...

Might have to get some gunmetal grey paint and do them this week... as well as clean it...

Orangebean wrote:

That's interesting Marty. I've used Furness quite a bit and had nothing but good experiences. Clean functioning parts and posted rapidly.

I had also used them a lot for bits, but there was something either on LandyZone of the 'other' forum a couple of years ago where someone of a couple of people have had bad transactions with them.

That being said, I've stopped using Island 4x4 for the same reasons, and now generally use LR Direct after a couple of transactions with Island 4x4 that were a bit sub-par and then their customer service was pretty crap aswell.

I guess it comes down to who picks and packs the parts, and how they deal with it if things don't quite go right.

It's listed as 're-conditioned' though, so surely part of 'reconditioning' something is if there is damage to a threaded hole, then you would fix that as part of the reconditioning process...

If one of my door latches, or switchpacks has a broken part in it, then I either fix or replace the broken part depending on what it is, and if it's repairable...

That's like me sending out a latch I've rebuilt, that's got a split in the plastic casing. And then being surprised if someone asks to swap it. Any parts like that which I find as I pull them apart go straight in the bin.

I used to use Emmots a lot for second hand parts, as I'd heard really bad reviews about Furness Car Co - another of the 'big' breakers on eBay (who I'd previously used with no problem aswell) but looks like Emmots have lost my future business purely based on their customer service.

Who gives a shit if you're part of a Land Rover club or not... it has nothing to do with the fact that their items aren't ready to fit, as advertised.
If they thought about their response before going back to the keyboard then they might perhaps realize that by being a business and responding like that is more than likely to get them bad press amongst the rest of the club - as it is on this forum alone... rather than good press of recognizing the issue and working to sort it out properly...

They do say in the listing 'may need to be cleaned' but then it also says they are 'ready to fit'

I would at least send them an email with the pictures and question it!

If you are going to lock it to go in, and there's a place where RF is everywhere and you have troubles, then lock it the old fashioned way with the key in the door.

If you lock it with the remote, but then unlock it work the key in the door, it will either expect the remote to be pressed, or EKA entered. If you lock it with key in the door. Then you will be able to unlock it with the key in the door and then start it/drive it.

It's part of the security 'feature' so if you give someone a valet key, they can lock it, and then unlocm/restart it and bring it back to you... however if they decided to copy the key etc then came to nick the vehicle, if it was locked with the remote, then it would mean they couldn't just get in and drive away...

I can kind of see the logic, but also think it's stupidly overcomplicated these days...

I sometimes lock mine with the key in the door if I'm parking up somewhere where I think there is likely to be interference.

The new RF receiver solves the problem of constant wake up and battery drain, but if it's being bombarded with RF, then it sometimes doesn't catch the P38 signal either... however it means you can have the antenna connected and have a better chance at picking up you fob transmission from inside the vehicle for example.

I have a workshop, yes - which I have only just started taking over myself - which means an extra expense every month - and it's half an hour from home! but fingers crossed I can get my money's worth from it!

It's got enough space to fit my 2 P38's in, and space for storage/working around the vehicles - which is good... but like everything you fill the space up, and wish there was more!

At home however, my daily RR is parked on the street, and I'm not really supposed to do any vehicle work here - but I'm sure I can get away with some of the smaller jobs...

It was good... there will be another one at some point, for sure... So hopefully you'll be able to come next time ;)

Now I have the workshop space to myself, my other RR's are in there - so being able to use the space when they are in bits, might be a bit interesting - but will see how we go!

No problem...

It's sort of a double-reasoned search... I have a block in bits at the moment which I'm going to rebuild for one of my project P38's - so looking around for head studs and things like that will be useful for me aswell when I get to that point of the rebuild... then once the GEMS one is done, there will be a couple of other subsequent rebuilds to do (I have a second project P38 which is a Thor model... the engine from which will come out and be rebuilt, put in my '01 - which the engine will then be rebuilt and put back into the project/restoration vehicle)

So finding suppliers which are reasonable in price for the parts I need will be valuable in the long run... I don't want to skimp and buy crappy parts, but at the same time, saving £20 a time, over 3 engines soon adds up - the way I see it, is that pays for a new OEM water pump for example!

I wouldn't have attempted anything engine related in the past either - but since being on the forums and talking to others who have done it, it's given me the confidence to get stuck in! Just need to get hold of places to get the block top hatted, and then I can make a start on putting it all together!

Hope the reassembly on yours goes a lot smoother than the tear down!!

Found them another £18 cheaper than Rimmers...

http://www.v8tuner.co.uk/product.php?id=810

£122.22 including VAT... Now it's only £60ish more than head bolts...

Assuming they ship to France that is...

I know what you mean about always end up spending more - but then I am sure that as much as we might grumble at continuously spending out on our P38's - I am sure that there are plenty of other marques that are just as expensive to run/maintain - and then we are in the position where most P38 enthusiasts (or nutters) are generally happy to do the work ourselves, and thus saving a load of money in labour costs...

The neighbour of my relatives where I lived when I first got the RR saw me doing the brakes on the RR and made some comment about how much that must cost me to do, given it's a Range Rover - and his BMW had new brakes lately and it was about £450 including fitting... He nearly fell over when I said the new brakes and discs for all 4 corners was £150...

That one linked to is for the Main Bearing caps on the crankshaft, not the head studs...

Regal's Motorsport on eBay do the head studs - but the 'actual' Rover V8 ones for 10 bolt heads are:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ARP-Rover-3-9L-4-6L-V8-w-10-bolt-heads-head-stud-kit-Part-No-157-4301/311635036603?

Or the 'buick' version for the older 14 bolt heads (you just don't use the shorter ones on the 10 bolt heads... is:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ARP-Buick-215c-i-d-Rover-V8-head-stud-kit-Part-No-124-4003/311635018680?

And are actually cheaper than the kit for the Rover V8... except they have more studs in the kit aswell.... go figure..

EDIT - Just searched about the head stud kits - apparently the later one has slightly longer studs (the 20 bolt kit) which is designed for the later Rover blocks. I've also found that available at Rimmer Bros for £138:
http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-RB7680__20

Entirely possibly that it doesn't do anything.

I disabled my passive immobiliser on mine because the coil is damaged on mine, and as it's such fine wire it's hard to fix it. I have a couple of spare coils sitting in the garage, so I have been planning on swapping it at some point.. But I got sick of having to press the remote. I think the rotary coupler in mine has been replaced before, and they must have been a bit heavy handed when doing that.

There is a component on the logic board (think it's a mini power transistor or MOSFET from memory) which is used to pulse the coil, so it could also be possible that has burnt out. The pickup coil in the key fob also has a habit of coming free I think (little blue box on the underside of the board - a few people have said that when they have opened their fob up to refurbish it, it's fallen out) which would also mean that even if the ignition is sending the pulse to the key, it might not be received and the chip triggered.

If you disconnect the battery with it unlocked and then manually lock the doors from the inside, then drivers door with the key, then you are far less likely to have problems when you put the key back on

As you say, if it's locked the it will relock upon battery connection. The only other thing with that is the alarm will be armed aswell, and it's a good way of getting into a BECM lockout situation.

I always recommend disconnecting the battery with the vehicle unlocked, which means alarm is disarmed. Then when you put the battery back on, it will return to an unlocked/disarmed state. If it was locked and alarmed when power was disconnected, then you run the risk of it thinking it's been nicked and going into a superlocked state.

My 0.02.... only from usually being the one who gets the BECM on my bench when it's locked itself out!!

That's the passive immobiliser kicking in. If you turn that off in the becm then it won't automatically immobilise again.

Usually with the coil around the ignition, it should trigger the key to send a code to the becm to mobilise it again (it won't cause the doors to unlock again like it does with pressing the actual button, but the LED should flash on the fob)

If the coil around the ignition is faulty, or the key transmission isn't getting through, then you'll get the engine disabled message. If the passive immobiliser system is working properly, the if would send the code, mobilise the engine, and then let you start it straight away.

Gilbertd wrote:

dave3d wrote:

Let down again tonight. Filled the car with diesel in a busy garage and would not start - "engine immobilised", then "press key fob".

Mine does that all the time? If I don't lock it while filling up, it will immobilise after 30 seconds or a minute (can't remember which) and I've got into the habit of pressing the unlock button on the fob before I try to start it. If I don't, depending on how long it's been left, sometimes I can press unlock with the key in position 2 but if it's been left a longer time, I have to turn the ignition off, press unlock and then start it. The important thing is when you press unlock, do you hear the door latches do anything? Mine will cause the motors to try to unlock even though they are already unlocked.

There is one on eBay at the moment for £225 - which is a bit cheaper than the Island 4x4 of 216 + VAT.

I still think it's daylight robbery... I just need to find someone who is good with RF, decoding and programming to be able to make something to do the same job... I'm 90% sure I know what the 3rd gen looks for before it passes on the info to the BECM - it's just a case of making something to identify it and filter out the rest of the nonsense before waking the BECM up.

Mostly because I'm happy enough doing the rebuild work myself, it's just the machining work that I can't do for obvious reasons. £900ish for machine work, vs £2245 plus VAT for a short engine is a LOT of money - which I don't have spare at the moment! It's also about 2/3 of my entire 'estimated' budget that I'm willing to spend on doing it up... I still want to make a bit of money out of it and feel like it's been worth my time!

This is from a different engine block altogether - long story short....

Bought the 2 RR's - one's GEMS, one's Thor.. Both of my blue ones...
Awhile later got some other parts off the guy I bought the RR's from in the first place, and that included a pretty much complete GEMS engine, block, crank, extra pistons, front cover, heads, lower inlet manifold etc...

This block I got after the vehicle is the original engine block from the R Reg, '98 - but it has 2 damaged liners in the top of it., which is why the engine was changed. Apparently there are overheating issues and things like that with the engine that's in it (it's the one we pushed into the workshop as it's either locked out or out of sync etc... not the green one - that's gone to my mate).

So, being as it's the original engine and I'm pretty much doing a full restore on both of the ones I own, I figured I'd get this block top hatted, rebuild the engine up and then transplant it back into the vehicle, so I could then sell it with original, overhauled engine. I know I wouldn't normally get back the price of top hatting it, but I am aiming to sell these vehicles (when restored) for somewhere between £7-£8K, listed as 'restored' with all the normal niggle P38 issues fixed/upgraded etc.

I know I am limiting myself to a pretty slim market at those kind of prices - but I'm wanting them to be as close to perfect as possible - without stripping the whole thing back to the chassis and starting again. And I believe (there are dealers on eBay selling low mileage P38's for more!) that if I do it right, rather than just chuck a few bits in a flip them, that I can get a decent figure for them... So top hatting the block is probably the first step in making them appealing, and as the liners are already shagged in the block, it's really the only way of making it useful again.

I am pretty sure that it will get a bath of something when it goes to be machined, so all the oil and water ways will get cleaned out of crud, or any debris in them. New oil pump gears in the front cover were going to be on the list anyway. I'll get the crank polished/reground if I need to - but hence why I wanted other opinions aswell as if it's OK, I don't want to do lots of unneccesary work to it either!

New piston rings are also on the list to do on rebuilding, with fresh bearings aswell obviously!!

I've had a bit of a look and £8 for a set of verniers sound a bit too cheap for me... I'm thinking a screw micrometer will be a bit more precise in the long run!

Got the crank out, and the bearings... Bearings are toast for sure, but luckily the journal housings are looking OK in the block. Need to clean the crank up and check what it's like - but from when I was looking yesterday, there wasn't any scoring on the crank, unlike the bearings...

Some pictures:

About to call a couple of places about top hat liner quotes for the block... will see what they say...