I have considered that, though I am not sure if I have a set up there with enough tread on them to be useful! I have thought I might swap the whole lot of one of the sets of hurricanes I've got... it's finding enough that hold air and are legal tread wise that's the problem!!

Might pop up there when I get a chance and have a poke about.. would be a good way of ruling the wheels/tyres in/out, yes. :)

Thanks for the nudge! might get me up there!

Right, next thin on my list... death wobble...

Driving down the motorway today and the RR is damn near impossible to drive without feeling like it' going to be shaken to bits. I've done a load of the common things, which I'll list below... and nothing has made a difference yet.

Done so far:
Wheels balanced not long ago - they found they were well out as they hadn't been done properly when they were originally fitted.
Tyre pressures checked and topped up where necessary.
Front prop UJ's have been replaced a couple of times, and I put a brand new prop on it not too long ago aswell
Rear prop UJ's have also been changed.
Anti-roll bar bushes and drop links renewed
Front Ball joints replaced (genuine Lemforder)
New drag link and track rod (one was an MOT fail a year or so ago, so replaced bot of them
Replacement steering damper - had a Boge one to begin with an now got one of the Cellular Dynamic ones on - no real difference
It's had new Boge shocks a few years ago aswell

Vibration is mostly felt from 60mph up, but sometimes down as low as 40mph.
Generally feels like it's shaking the whole vehicle, rather than just through the steering wheel - sometimes you can feel it through the steering wheel too though.

My current thought is that it could be the tyres? they are only a few years old and have about 15K miles on them, but wonder if because they are an A/T tyre they causing it - or maybe the fact that it spends so much time sitting there that they've gone 'out of round' a bit?

It's getting to the point where I don't want to take the thing on the motorway as it's such a chore to drive - you can't actually cruise in it without feeling like your teeth are going to fall out.

On an unrelated note, It wanders like buggery too - but I think that is the steering box wear. I tightened it up today, which has made it feel sturdier to steer, but now feels like it's wandering a lot more (part of that I think is slop in the steering box) - it doesn't constantly pull to one side but have to constantly correct it. It's fine around town - just at higher speed.

Doesn't feel right, compared to my previous 2 RR's that had really good road manners and you were able to cruise happily. I've been considering changing the tyres for something a little more road biased, as it doesn't get offroaded as much as I hoped it would!

Thoughts?

Haha, yeah - it's cheaper than the other garage around here, but only a couple of p/L though I still need to get the bloody system working properly..

Somehow when I went to reply it didn't show up with GilbertD's response - otherwise I wouldn't have posted the same sites!

Brit-Car have them listed as Genuine LR at about £60 plus VAT - but that is on a 1-2 day order IF their supplier has them in stock.

LR-direct also list a genuine Land Rover part at about £61+VAT - but again, subject to LR stock.

I have a feeling that it will probably be a case of you'll put the order in and then they'll come back and say LR doesn't have any stock left.. To be honest I'd just go with the Britpart one and keep an eye on it, especially as there seem to be very few alternatives. I'm not even sure if the old one is fixable - it looks like in the pictures that the bottom cap is held on with a couple of machine screws - it could just be that there's an O-ring under there which has cracked or something silly like that... I wouldn't recommend trying to take it apart until you have a replacement one in there though ;)

I have an account with Calor in Swindon for autogas - the advantage is that I get a fob so can fill up 24/7 and they bill me on account about 28 days in arrears.

The pump price is 57p/L though the account price has a 2p/L discount, so I pay 55p/L Which I think is a bit too much given it was that price when petrol was £1.20/L and is now about £1/L... though it's still just over half the cost of petrol, so I'm not complaining too much!

Still seems a bit high though, even with F1 removed...

You should see about 0.03A when it's fully sleeping - 0.12A is still 120mA, which is about 4x what it should be..

Still, a 120mA drain is still going to be a lot less than a woken up BECM, so if the vehicle is used fairly regularly then I doubt you would notice anything!

That's good news then... Well, ish... I had a mate back in NZ who had one let a core plug go and it was an engine out job to replace them (as no point only doing the one if the rest are the same age!!)

I did wonder about valley gasket, and had been toying with the idea of changing it as I am sure it leaks a bit of oil out the back of it too but I also keep planning on pulling the engine from my other Thor 4.6 so I can strip and rebuild it, and thus swap a fresh one in ... maybe over summer... sure as shit ain't going to happen before I go away for work!

It's definitely not dripping out the bellhousing (it does end up on the bellhousing at the bottom by the little notch out which I presume is to let any leakage out), as I can see it on the bottom of the starter motor where it's run around the side of it.

Mine run and work fine aswell.

Though it's interesting you mention that - another owner that I installed a door latch for mentioned that his clock would randomly stop and start when it felt like it!

And people say that P38's are expensive to run!!

Well, I finally got time to install the sensors this afternoon. Re-crimped new pins onto the vehicle side of the loom, cleaned out the connectors and refitted them to the loom.

Installed new sensors, plugged it all up - and happy to report that everything is back to normal.. Switching O2 sensors all the time, normal idle - not trying to stall itself or any nonsense like that.

Got some Geocell black sealant and did across the top of the windscreen aswell, so just have the front sunroof drains to check, and then that's my mini-list checked off for the moment. Next job is to find out where my coolant leak is at the rear of the engine on the drivers side. Can see it running down over the starter motor, but typically can't see anything above that from below, and the manifold heat shields are in the way from the top... I'm going to try giving the hose clamps on the heater hoses a nip up on that side as they are kind of above the area.

Anyone (gilbertd) who's had the engine out and seen what else is around that area where coolant could leak? I can only think of head gasket (if it's leaking externally) or core plug leaking, if it isn't a heater hose join..

Marty

I've managed to capture the RF transmissions from a key onto my laptop via the sound card. I'm also working on trying to capture the transmission on an arduino and then see if that's possibly to do anything with.

I've only tried it with one key, but there is a common pattern in the first part of the transmission on every time you press the button. I might hook all the bits back up again later and then see if the first part of the transmission is the same for every key (I've got at least 7 or 8 different locksets kicking about and most of them have at least one functioning remote..

Might be interesting to compare them... I then just need to figure out how to translate the transmission that's captured into Binary, and then to hex, work out the rolling code table, and then I'd be able to know what the key ID is.. I know it can be done, I have been in touch with someone who's done it about building me a fob checker, so I could read a fob transmission to test them, and then also make sure that the ID the fob is transmitting is within the range of what the BECM is expecting to see.

Might take a few bits with me when I'm away working in China for 9 weeks... if I get bored then I can work on that!

Gilbertd wrote:

I wouldn't have thought how a car is used would have any affect on the hose from the pump, it's going to have full pressure in it all the time whether the brakes are being used a lot or not. Ambient temperature may well have an affect though.

True - I just wondered if the pressure cycling from the brakes being used more often around town would have had an effect.. I know that the standard rubber brake lines can bulge out over the years - figured since it's rubber hose on the main side it might have done the same.

I also have the older version which isn't cracked, but requires the date to be wound back to get it to start properly. My version came with a little utility which changes the system date for you, and then resets it once it can see that Microcat has launched...

But I am with the other guys, I hardly use it these days - I used to use the Russian site - but found a better one at www.allbrit.de It has most Land Rover, Rover, and MG's I think - and although it's on a German site, it has a proper English page aswell, rather than the translation on the Russian one - so it's now my go-to site for parts catalog.

Any and all work you put into it is much appreciated!!

I know what it's like when things get busy... Just ask my RR about the list of things I want to get don that I neglect on her, because I'm always too busy fixing parts for other people! Just when I thought I was getting to the end of the list, another request for a door latch and a window swtichpack came in yesterday... no rest for the wicked!

Marty

Mine aren't braided either... might be something worth looking into replacing as part of a preventative maintenance thing then....

Do you think that because your P38's used to be out in a hot climate all the time, that may have had a bit of an effect on things aswell? I wonder if it could be something more prone to vehicles that have predominantly lived in a city - as the brakes get used a lot more than vehicles that have spent their lives cruising the motorways...

The Audi heater cores fit pretty well, but the end cap that the P38 core has doesn't fit to hold them in/seal them up.
However, every heater core I've sourced so far comes with some sticky-backed foam in it, and when this is used at the open end, it seals up pretty well. I then just drill a couple of holes through the flange (before installing the core permanently so as not to damage it) where the RR cap clips in, to then be able to wrap a couple of cable ties through, which just stops it from sliding back out again - not that it can move very far in the first place....

That's a picture of the one I installed in Snog - I took the heater box out to give it all a clean up whilst I had the chance!

One thing to note with the Audi swap, is that because of the sealed end (LHS) of the heater box, the actual metal part of the core doesn't fully cover the LH side of the chamber. One of the new ones I bought for testing has a slightly smaller end tank on it, and fits a bit better, but still doesn't quite fully cover it. I only mention it for the 'purists' out there, but regarding heat output, you can't tell the difference. It's passenger side of mine, and the missus gets cold pretty easily - but she's never complained that it doesn't get hot enough for her, so I don't think it's much of a big deal.

I was going to look into cutting the other end of the heater box off, to be able to centralise the core more (because I want it to be 'perfect') but you then introduce other problems - like then having to seal the other end back up again once the core is in, which to me sounds like making a mountain out of a mole hill!

Still also hoping for email notification of replies to topics.

I am getting better and checking the site a couple of times a day, but when I get busy I sometimes forget and there are replies there. I'd rather come here and reply and help people than other places! hence why I try and make it a routine to stop past!

It's coming along nicely though!

I fitted an Audi heater core, so I never have to worry about O-rings again...

I've also just been working on putting together some kits with everything needed to so the Audi swaps... have found that the matrix units I've sources have close on 18-19mm hose couplings aswell, so all the reducers and 16mm hose I bought (as the original Audi core I put in mine had 16mm hose connections, as writeups on Rangerovers.net all mention...) are now redundant...

But it's good in a way... it means that you don't have the reducer fittings, 4 less hose clamps, and to me the less number of joins the better. I just need to find a reliable way of clipping the P38 heater temp sensor to the hose as it's a bit thicker than the metal pipes...

There are a couple of threads on it on the 'other' site... but a brief explanation :)

The original connector is a HSC (heat sealed connector) which has an adhesive on it which conducts where it's supposed to and insulates in between. The LCD itself has some very fine electrical elements in the glass which conduct through the LCD pixels to then make the display work. Over time, as we all know the screen can 'lose' the pixels - which is basically where the adhesive on the ribbon cable has gotten weak, and this then causes it to lift, and not conduct in places and thus cause pixels to not get turned on.

I did look at trying to get replacement ribbons made, but then had this idea when I was reading about multimeter screen repairs, but was pipped at the post by a seller in France that also sells these, but the fact that someone else has done it was proof that it was a viable solution. In fact, I spent what worked out to be about £20 including postage to buy one - just to see with my own eyes that it works properly!

These connectors work in such a way that the black bit in the middle is a big sandwich of conductive material, and then an insulator, conductor etc all the way down (they are called Elastomeric connectors, or more widely known as Zebra connectors which is what I originally stumbled across about a year ago when I was searching for LCD connector repairs and ribbon cables, when I was looking at going down that route). Each conductive slice is about 0.18mm wide, and likewise with the insulator - and when looked at from the top (closely) looks like a zebra stripe.
The pink bits on the outside are just pieces of rubber, to bulk up the connector and provide rigidity. This connector gets sandwiched inbetween the PCB and the LCD, and then conducts the electricity through the conductive slices from the board to the screen, and hey presto - working pixels.

These connectors are a little bit taller than the normal gap between the board and screen, so that when the face of the HEVAC is then screwed back together, it puts pressure across the bottom of the LCD and the connector, to make a nice solid connection between LCD and PCB.

I managed to find a place in China which would do me a production run of these - made to measure - but the minimum they would do was 500 of them... which was a bit of a gulp moment when hitting 'order' because if my measurements were wrong, then none of them would have been any use... Luckily they all seem to be OK - I've tried 2 of them now, one on a spare HEVAC I have, and one on a 'parts/testing' HEVAC unit - both with perfect results.

I am planning over the next week or so when I get a moment outside of fixing window switchpacks and door latches for people, to whip the HEVAC out of Snog, and do the swap on that and then install it and use it day-to-day for a bit.

The whole assembly seems solid when it's screwed back together, and the screen/connector aren't going anywhere due to the pressure they are held under.

Fingers crossed it's a decent long-term solution... and hopefully a lot cheaper than a second-hand HEVAC which may end up with the same problems!! The only question I have is: Why didn't they use them to start with!!