Two steps forward.....
I've found out what the noise is underneath the Range Rover. How bad a job is this? I've got someone who will do the work but I'd like to know how many hours I'm looking at. It sounds like a reall ballache to get that far into it all :(
Cheers
Morat

I'd imagine they'd be doing the whole refurb thing rather than just selling the connector and you'll be undercutting them.... why don't you offer them "bulk discount" on the connectors before they bother to do the research?

I wonder how much mark up they'll put on them!

I wonder how much mark up they'll put on them!

Sloth wrote:

LPG installer?

Good work with the doors - presumably this means now if someone breaks in through either front door, the alarm will actually go off now :)

I need to replace my heater core and sort out the heater box too before winter - so if I get around to it first, if you want it Richard you're welcome to the old core!

Yes, not only will the alarm go off - but we've found that it is super paranoid. You can't disconnect the battery ever without the sounder going off. The old "power on/off disconnect within X seconds" doesn't work. This Range Rover is not for stealing.
That instant decision to hook the sounder up and see what happens is having consequences. There's only so much damping you can achieve with a towel :)

Sure thing Richard. Also, guess who put the self tapper through the loom!

After Summer Camp, I asked Marty about some of the things that he could sort on my (my wife's) Range Rover and we set a date for last weekend. It turned out to be quite a busy time... for Marty at least :)

A lot of my original list is now gone!
The heated seats now work, and have the uprated 50degree thermostats, which are very popular.
The HEVAC unit now shows all of its pixels. Also, it is LED illuminated which doesn't quite match but is very clear and pleasant to look at.

The drivers door lock was replaced - I knew the switches were dead because I couldn't enter the EKA the first time I got locked out. This forced me to buy a Nanocom (which I don't regret) but now there's a new door lock which even has superlocking.

Then when we were scratching our heads and watching the EAS go up and down, we realised that it was still going up and down with the passenger door open. Duh.. shouldn't be doing that! Another door lock solved the problem, there's something eating microswitches round here :(

The EAS was a complete bastard. Marty was flicking through the circuit diagrams at ludicrous speed but the only thing that stood out on the Nanocom was that the Hand Brake on/off input was always showing ON. Weird. There wasn't any known reason why that would make my EAS only ever go up but it was definitely a fault so it was worth fixing. Frankly confidence in the vehicle was quite low. Driving at 70mph and finding yourself in High Centred mode is not very pleasant because the thing handles like a baby Giraffe on the first corner.

Marty narrowed the fault down to the Pink/Black wire which runs between the BECM and the EAS ECU. We were running short on time so Marty disconnected it and I tested it on the way back to sleep that night. It worked! For the first time in ages the Rangey dropped to Motorway height when it was meant to. The only downside was that without the handbrake signal, Access Mode isn't possible. We did toy with the idea of leaving it like that but neither of us would have been happy with an unsolved mystery.

The next day, when he started to trace the wire, he found the end of a self tapping screw coming up from underneath the vehicle into the wiring loom on the right hand side ahead of the BECM.
Great. Some soldering and shrink wrap later there were four wires repaired (including the handbrake wire) and full EAS was restored. RESULT! sadly we then wasted a couple of hours because of faulty LR manuals which indicated that the handbrake signal was still incorrect. I got to see inside my own BECM (which is a bit like watching your own open heart surgery) but eventually it was certain that the BECM was working fine.

That cost us the chance to have a go at the faulty blend motor, but by that time it was clear that I've got bigger problems behind the dash. The carpet under the drivers footwell is soaking and pink. Uh Oh. I guess that means the dash is coming out pretty sharpish* for a new heater core, so the blend motor and a sensor can wait till then. Hmmpph :(

In other bodging news, Marty took the chance to change some bulbs in the instrument cluster. The ABS and TC bulbs were fine.. just taped over by some previous MOT dodger. Great.

Then to top it, on the way back a new and expensive sounding noise appeared from underneath. It could be a CV joint... I should find out tomorrow.

But massive thanks to Marty for putting his brain to work on The Duchess, which is now a far more complete motor than it was before. I hope we'll be able to get one of his Audi heater cores in it some time, but I think I'd better investigate the running gear before taking any more motorway trips.

*sharpish is realistically a couple of months. Lets hope nothing goes badly wrong by then.

I do now! The PM notification is still a little.. not working :(
I'll try and pop it in the post tomorrow.
Sorry!

Long as a trip to "near Swindon" :)
Nowhere near Latvia!

\o/

I think it might be time to flash the unit... although I've got a long drive coming up this weekend :)

Thanks, I'll check that out. I wonder if it fixes the "we'll tell you than an ABS sensor is broken but not the correct one" problem? :)

The yanks (well some of them) swear by washing powder (laundry detergent not dishwasher stuff) in the cooling system, but the engine they were discussing was the Jeep 4.0 six which is all iron. I don't know how alloy would take it.

Nope, I'm cycling the Way of the Roses with a few mates via some selected hostelries this weekend. But do report back! If it's fun I'd be up for it next year - maybe in the Jeep :D

Orangebean, that sounds expensive :( Are your tanks single hole or multi-hole? Are they filled separately or from a single point?

I've burnt that SatNav disk - just need your address :)
cheers!
Morat

When are you going next year?
The old girl is looking fantastic - and the Rangey isn't half bad either... :D

Confusingly, AT2 are the earlier model, apparently killed off by Euro noise regs but you can still find them if you hunt around. I have them on my Jeep. They're really good all rounders and absolutely stunningly good in snow although I have a size that was Mud and Snow rated, not all sizes have the snowflake symbol. They look the part too, which is vital ;)

I couldn't find the right size locally for the P38 so it's wearing AT which are supposedly new and improved in every way while conforming to lower drive by noise limits - which sounds far too good to be true. They're very good on the road, I haven't off roaded the P38 yet but I hear they're better than they look on mud but a friend of mine has a disco4 with them and took a lot of grief recently for getting stuck on flat wet grass... but I wasn't there and he might have had the handbrake on for all I know :)

So it's 8mm ID then?
These guys:
http://www.autosiliconehoses.com/8mm-silicone-1-ply-radiator-heater-hose-1-metre-to-50-metres-blue-black.html

Actually, after searching my Paypal History I think it was my fault. I'd ordered the wrong size, then thought I'd ordered the correct size. Guess I never got round to the second order!

How much space do you have on the server? You might be creating a bit of rod for your own back here...

Thanks Gordon!

I was searching for the size of the coolant pipe that has no specific route... I'm sure I ordered some but it never arrived from the silicone hose people :(

That was my wife's 540 touring six months after she bought it. 4.4 V8, 6 speed manual, memory sports seats, upgraded stereo...and utterly mint. Basically it was as close to an M5 touring as you could get in an E39.
We got rear ended on the A303 by a corsa driven by a stupid old cow who was talking on her phone and didn't notice the queue forming. She took the rear corner off a Lupo and still had her foot buried into the carpet (wrong pedal) when she hit us.

Sorry Dave! Have the mods got the ability to split threads on this forum yet? :)