I got a new compressor fitted for the EAS and everything is back as normal. What a relief.

I had to clean off the air reservoir tank today, as it was looking very tired. I gave it a rub down with an angle grinder fitted with a 120 grit flap disc, and then sprayed with an industrial rust converter. I have to wait two days before I can paint the tank with Hammerite. Fortunately, the underside of the vehicle had been painted with a tar type underseal, so I only had to clean off the tank up to the half-way mark. The upper part of the tank was perfect.

Then to investigate an occasional rattle from the upper tailgate. It happened every now and again, when I close the upper tailgate, there would be something loose rattling somewhere in the panel where the inner boot light is fitted.

I had to remove the complete panel which holds the high level brake light, but the annoying thing is that the lower edge section of the panel is held in with one-time clips. I took out the screws but the panel in held by four clips which need to be inserted into the plastic panel, and then pressed into the locating holes in the tailgate frame.

To get the panel off one has to break the edges off the clips while levering the high level brake light panel off. Once the panel is off you need a metal trim tool lever to force the clips out of the frame. But then you need need clips !! So back on the internet and order new ones. But it will be at least a week before they arrive in Ireland.

In the meantime the brake light panel is resting in my front room !!

Oh yes, the culprit was an old £1 coin which, for some reason, had managed to get into the tailgate frame and rattle every now and again. It just annoyed me, and I wanted to find out what the cause was. Now I know, and I am a pound better off, provided it can clean it.

Pierre3.

I did the tests that you suggested, Richard, and everything seems to operate OK. The one thing that I think may be the answer is to get the air conditioning regassed. As today was a very warm day I was able to check to see if the temperature through the vents changed, and it did. But it didn't go very cold, which makes me think that it is a regass issue.

I drove the car round about, for 5 miles or so, and the text book didn't show up at all.

I will get an air conditioning guy out to the house and see what happens then.

Pierre3.

Thanks for all the information. I will get onto Battery Megastore on Monday.

Pierre3.

Thanks for the information. Looking at the battery leads, I believe that they are original. The crimping on the plugs looks original, I don't think that new terminal connectors have been fitted.

I will order a new Hankook next week, all going well it will last more than a week to ten days, which is what the current battery does. Nearer to a week.

Pierre3.

Hi Richard, thanks for your advice. What's the difference with the Ascot compared to the petrol or diesel ?

Pierre3.

Dave3d, I have a 2.5 DSE and I would like to ask if the Hankook battery just drops straight in to the battery tray ? I am sure that any member can answer this, anyway, because, if I am correct the battery tray compartment is the very same whether the car is petrol or diesel.

Do the battery leads fit without any modification ? And lastly, does the battery clamp still fit correctly ?

Pierre3.

I had meant to reply to this post earlier. I bought a heavy duty charger from Los Bandito's, AKA Halfords, about 2 years ago. I have found it to be a really good charger. Sorry about the rubbish picture as it is stored on a shelf, in my garage. [Ha, just noticed that Lpgc bought the same charger].

Pierre3.

Hi Richard, thanks for the advice and fault finding suggestions. I will try getting down to it next week, after I get the car back from having the EAS fixed. At least I will have something to start with.

Pierre3.

Hi, I wonder whether anyone can recommend somewhere I can get the air con repaired, whether north or south of the Scottish border ?

I am taking Mr. P38 to Edinburgh at the end of June, and I have time to spare so I would really like to find someone, or somewhere, that could sort out the air flaps and all the other possibilities that cause the text book to appear on the display.

I just don't think that I can tackle taking all the parts of the dashboard out, or digging into the back of the centre console, and I would like to get someone who knows how to do to sort out the problem. I am prepared to leave the vehicle for a day ot two if there is somewhere close to the premises to stay.

I read that some people have fitted parts out of Audi's to fix the problem, but I don't mind how it would be done once it works !! I tried fitting new filters in the Plenum department, but it didn't make any difference. I replaced the plenum filter mesh and the pollen filters, and hoovered out all the leaves and junk, there wasn't very much to be honest, and a replacement Hevac panel has been fitted, but the text book is still showing.

I would prefer if I could find somewhere reasonably near Edinburgh but the most important thing would be someone who can do the job properly, in one go. I don't want to have more problems later because something was not refitted correctly, or something was left out 😅.

Maybe someone can help ?

Pierre3.

I had to drop off my P38 at my favoured repair guy, about 40 miles from where I live, and, although the EAS wasn't working, the car drove OK - for a while.

I got to within about 15 miles of the garage and the car sat down on the bump stops. I can only say that driving a P38 that is down to the stops is not, I repeat not, an experience that I would want to repeat !!

If anyone has watched The Magic Roundabout then the character of Zebedee will come to mind. I felt just like Zebedee !!!!! Boing, boing, boing, boing !

A interesting, but definitely unwanted experience.

Pierre3.

I got two non-fob keys when I bought my P38. I also got 2 fobs, one of which didn't work, but that I got repaired recently, so now 2 working fobs plus two non-fob keys.

As far as I am aware the non-fob keys are not "Valet" keys. I had an old Mercedes W124, about 3 years ago, and that came with a "Valet" key. It was a flat key with no holder and was designed to fit into a wallet. Then at a commercial premises you could give a staff member the key to park the car, but it would open only the drivers' door and start the car. It wouldn't open the boot or the glove box.

I'm not sure whether this is of any help.

Pierre3.

Hi, I looked for any signs of printers, access control boxes, game consoles, but I found nothing except for the warning sign about not connecting to plug to a petrol driven lawnmower !!! Seemingly, there is a danger of loosing your fingers when lifting up the lawnmower to connect to the engine in the vehicle !!!

Lpgc might have a point. There is a Rimmer Bros Power Box connected to the engine.

The only thing is that the two items don't seem to be connected together. I have a feeling that the 9 pin plug may be some sort of mapping connection to the diesel ECU because the single cable is connected from the plug to the wiring loom going into the big multi-plug connected to the top of the ECU.

The plug obviously hasn't been used for a while because it is a bit rusty !! And I don't have any information about it, in the car paperwork which came when I bought the vehicle. In fact I had the vehicle for over 12 months before I realised what the small square box tie-wrapped to the EAS pipes was. When I first noticed it I thought that it was something to do with the air suspension. What a plonker !!!!

Pierre3.

Errrmm, sorry guys, I am somewhat puzzled [it doesn't take much] about the 9 pin plug behind the headlight. I have a 2.5 DHSE, so no LPG.

Maybe it's a plug for remapping the ECU, if you had the software ?

Pierre3.

Hi, I was wondering where is the OBD port in a UK RHD 2001 P38 ? I have been looking on the internet and there seems to be some confusion. Some sites say that it is under a large trim panel, under the steering wheel, and other say that it is somewhere under the passenger side trim panel under the glove box. Any help would be appreciated.

Also, I found what appears to be a 9 pin serial plug connection sitting behind the passenger side headlight, and I wonder whether anyone might know what it is for. Could it be an extension to the original OBD port, for access from the engine bay ? It has a small, thin wire from the back of the plug and connected to the large master plug, which, in turn, is plugged into what I believe is the diesel engine ECU.

The plug behind the headlight also has a flexi-tube cable protector from the back of the plug and going to what looks to be a screw-in electrical connection cap under the air intake duct and on the side of the engine block.

Perhaps someone might know what it could be. Could it be the OBD port plug ? As I asked earlier in the post, where otherwise, is the OBD plug, under the steering wheel, or in the passenger side footwell ?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Pierre3.

P38 doesn't want to play today !!!

Suspension is sitting at lowest setting. I can't hear any air leaks, but then I didn't really expect to. The only thing was that the front end of the compressor pump was very hot, so I presume the pump is doing its' job.

Oh well, I will just have to get it looked at as I don't have a Nanocom. I'm just not sure that I can justify the cost of buying one. And I know all you guys will be telling me I'm wrong but still.

If I could find one second-hand then, yes, I would buy it

Pierre3.

I didn't actually know about the C&C car auctions. I have just had a look through the website and they do seem to get good results. This could indeed be an option worth considering.

Pierre3.

Sorry, guys, it's a Crunchie every time.

Pierre3.

Yes, fair enough, we have been a bit side-tracked, but then it is as if we are in a pub discussion, so things will go sideways abit, before getting back to the original point. But it is still interesting.

Richard, I have trying to put a car on the Car & Classics sale website, and I am getting a bit fed up with how the website works nowadays. I first put an advert up last week, Thursday, and as I don't want people ringing me at all times just to ask stupid question [such "How much will you take ?"] I put the mobile number in as xxx [the network code] 000 0000. When I looked at the website the next morning it said that the advert had been deleted.

So I tried again on Friday night with the number as xxx 123 0000. When I checked my account on Saturday there was no record of my advert.

I tried again yesterday with the phone number as xxx 123 4567. This went through and I got an email to say that the advert would soon be live, but then this morning I got an email from C&C to request that I print a picture of the car, with the text that I was submitting the car reference number for sale, which I had to put on the car. And then send another photo of the car with the printed picture on the windscreen as a confirmation that it is me selling the car.

Fair enough, so I did all that. And I get an email back to say that the picture is too small a resolution, could I resend everything in a bigger resolution.

Je+++ !!! So I enlarged said picture to 40mb [8000 x 10600 pixels] and sent that ! If that isn't a big enough resolution I will advertise the car elsewhere. I was going to reply to the guy at C&C and ask him why can't he just enlarge the picture himself, or don't they have any image editting software !!

Pierre3.

I suppose that at foreign governments, that were ignored by the economically powerful western governments are always going to be suspect as they gain more and more worldwide power. Such as China and Russia under Putin. Putin has already stated that he intends to make Russia in a world dominating power, although he could find himself struggling against China with its massive numbers of cheap labour.

Russia has the advantage of huge amounts of energy, whereas China has the labour force. Who wins ? The energy suppliers or the vast human labour force.

You can see what Putin is up to in Russia, he has got the Russian authorities to start arresting and prosrcuting anti-Putin protesters, such as the Alexei Navalny political opposition party. If the members get prosecuted they face up to 10 years in a Siberian prison. So much for democratic opposition. Putin wants to crush any idea of democracy, and then reform Russia as the old USSR with a huge land-based army. Then, I bet he will over-run Latvia, Lithuania, and the Ukraine and put everyone back behind the Iron Curtain. Happy days are here again !!!

I think that the States is knackered anyway as a world power. I recently watched a couple of really good programmes, on TV, about how America drove massive factory production after the war and into the early sixties. Another programme was about a rocket silo in Nebraska [I think], which is now abandoned, and was so advanced that it almost certainly put an immediate stop to Russia's sabre rattling in the late sixties. At that stage the States was the place to be, loads of good employment if you were prepared to work, and a country that you really could do very well for yourself.

Unfortunately, the country is now full of self-serving, greedy grab-alls who care nothing for their fellow worker. It's all about climbing to the top by stabbing your co-workers in the back and taking the rewards.

If Britain [and Ireland] want to get people back into work, and look forward to a future they need to re-introduce large scale factory manufactering for all those young people who have no second or third level qualifications and who never will have. Give them productive jobs in factories, and apprenticeships, instead of just leaving them to live on social services all their lives.

OK, that's me done 😅. Me, I'm going back to training my donkey to go to the shops on his own with a shopping list - it hasn't been a success so far.

Pierre3.

Richard, the big issue for me is the complete ignorance of government ministers of the intentions of the Chinese government. It amazes me that they don't seem to have realised that the chinese are not building infrastructure in the UK just because they like the UK. They want to control the output, and therefore profits, of the countries that they build factories in, and supply infrastructure projects.

If the UK government, in the future, and after Westminster has handed over all power generation to Peking, doesn't do what China wants it to do, for instance ban people from Hong Kong from getting out of HK on UK passports, then they would just switch off the nuclear reactors until the UK politicians behave themselves and kow-tow back to Peking, grovelling and squealing.

The UK surely has the technical expertise to build nuclear power stations, and it would also provide a good stream of work for local labour. But hey, the British government doesn't really care anymore about using British engineers and builders !!

Pierre3.