What's wrong with the ride of a forklift ??? I have driven plenty of Nissan ones and I have always found that the ride is very comfortable. I wouldn't mind doing a holiday run to Spain on one. The open windscreen is the only downside as flies get in your mouth and up your nose when doing 17 mph on the motorway 😁

I had a 1961'ish Zephyr back in 1968 which was pretty good, although I didn't keep it that long. I traded it for a Mk 1 3.4 Jaguar.

If you notice, 1700's horse-drawn carriages have solid rubber tyres and they are still good. I don't see why the MOT inspector should fail them [unless he is Inspector Blake, "Blakey" from "On the buses"] as I'm sure that the tyres would be in perfect condition. Probably before Mr Michelin though !!

I used to drive artics on the continent during the 60's, and one thing that was a prize to get hold of was a Michelin Man that lit up and would normally be fitted on the tractor roof. A friend of mine who had a Scania 141 V8 tractor didn't have one, and somebody asked him " Ger, why haven't you got a Michelin Man on your roof rack, on the tractor". His reply -"There isn't one brave enough".

Pierre3.

Hi, I noticed that it was mentioned that the P38 manuals are downloadable as a PDF file. Where would I find this ?

I find that RAVE is quite difficult to navigate when looking for specific items, I can't find an index to say on which page, and under which heading, an item might be. So if I want to look up how to fit a new seat heater pad I find that I spend hours looking through all of the headings, or categories.

Is there an easier method of searching or is it just down to experience and remembering where items are listed and described ?

I use PDF documents all the time and I know how to search through them, and I like te way Adobe Acrobat works.

Pierre3.

Ah-ha, that's a good point. But I could still be driving my old Ford Anglia 105E into which I fitted an early Lotus 1600cc twin cam engine. It would be looking very modern today. I mean, compare a 105E to a Tesla X and, obviously, the 105E would be better all around !!!! And still have a set of solid rubber tyres as fitted to earlier Fords. Class all around 😂

Pierre3.

I hate having to buy new tyres. Why can't we have solid rubber tyres, like they used to have, and that would save me buying any new tyres. I would like to have a design that lets me buy some new tyres when I am 17 anf not have to buy any more until I am 70. A sort of life-long tyre !!!

I hate rubber tyres. I don't want to put them on my cars but the policeman says that I have to use them. Bollo, bollo, bollo.

😅 😅

Pierre3.

karlos, it seems to be the most straightforward issue to solve in the first place, fitting the RF filter. Having read all the different possibilities as posted I would not class myself as an expert by any means, but it did seem to solve my battery going dead problem.

I would say that I don't know how long the battery would stay charged, with the car locked and the alarm on, under normal circumstances. I have a 1983 Merc 500 with a similar sized battery and that will last about a month or five weeks if I leave it locked with a key and not alarm switched on. But then it doesn't have all the electrical extras that the RR has, it's pretty basic in comparison.

And lastly, I have a 2013 Lexus IS300h, and that went flat after about 10 days or 14 days, I'm not quite sure as I have not been using any of the cars since before Christmas. Bear in mind that the Lexus is a hybrid and has a slightly smaller starter battery than a normall 2.5 petrol car.

Anyway, I would suggest trying the RF filter first, before following the really good advice from the other lads here and getting too technical. And hopefully you may get a bit more life out of the battery !

Pierre3.

I had a problem on my 2.5 P38, with the battery draining after three days while parked and locked in the drive. I have sorted it out by buying one of Martys RF filters for the remote key fob. Now it will last for two or perhaps three weeks with the alarm on. The current battery is about two years old.

Pierre3.

Hi, I know there isn't any slagging off of different owners opinions, I have never come across any of that here [unless someone was really, really dumb], but it is always nice to see someone pointing it out.

I wouldn't mind a V8 but as a retiree with a finite pension pot I can't afford the Irish road tax !! I don't mind the lower amount chargeable on a 2.5 but not €3000 a year for a 4 litre. I suppose, if I am honest, I would find it difficult to maintain a petrol RR because I am no longer as mentally agile, or physically flexible, to deal with leaking oil pump seals, or dodgy fuel metering. At least the diesel is fairly reliable, and I have some knowledge of diesel engine having used various ones for work for 20 years.

I worry, sometimes, if my Merc does something a bit strange because that, also, is a V8. I would have to take it to a friend of mine if it develops engine problems, but up until now it has been as good as gold. I just hope that it stays that way.

Just as an aside, I have been in the habit of sending a wine box sized parcel to my daughter in Edinburgh about every 6 months, with clothes and toys for her children, using the DPD parcel service, but when I looked this evening to see how much it would be I have found that they have stopped shipping to the UK for the foreseeable future. It was an excellent service, about €20 for up to 5 kilo's, so it was cheap and convenient, drop-off at a local shop and two day delivery. If I send a similar 3 kilo parcel through the Post Office here it will cost about €50. So, another unexpected issue caused by Brexit.

Now I'm off to feed my donkey which I bought second hand off a Romanian gun-runner, on the black interweb thing. uh-oh, just noticed a blue flashing light outside my house - gotta run................................................

Pierre3.

Incidentally, a very good point made about whether these electric cars can pull a heavy trailor or caravan !!!!

Hi, thanks for all the good replies, especially Gilbert and the explanation on import/ export. The VAT and tax issues are a tricky mess.

Even in Northern Ireland VAT will be charged on items arriving from the UK, and cars comes under that banner. It is really mixed up, I think that it is something like this - if you import a vehicle that has to have VAT on it [perhaps only commercial vehicles] then sell it in the North then you have to pay VAT, but provided it is exported south of the border then you don't pay VAT. However the buyer in the south will have to pay Irish VAT.

I haven't got a real understanding of it all yet, but I have put off buying anything for my P38, or my Merc W126 500, for the moment. There is so much tomfoolery going on with the North, now the EU food inspectors at Larne port are coming under threat for checking food products coming in from the UK to Northern Ireland.

In all honesty the Tories didn't have a clue what the result of the last-minute Brexit agreement really means. For all the demands about fishing rights [ and it seems the UK only uses about 2% of the fish the UK fleets catch ] Scottish seamen can't sell and export shellfish to Europe. Or, they can but the shellfish will no longer be fully fresh by the times it arrives at its destination. Crazy stuff. Half of all trucks are leaving the UK and returning home empty because of the problems with paperwork and certs of origin.

GeorgeB, it's OK, I am not actually selly my P38 😆. But I am considering how long it will be before I will be using it as a garden shed due to Irish running costs !!!

I am not the greatest supporter of Elon Musk after his mad idea to invest $1.5 billion into cryptocurrency, thereby giving it acceptability. Now some American bank has said that they will deal with crypto. I do think that crypto is a big, big issue as it is not backed by any real security such as gold. Admittedly, the UK pound is no longer backed with 700 tonnes of gold, after the Labour government flogged most of it, but at least it is supported by government bonds. The only people who seem to use cryptocurrency appear to be criminals, drug-dealers, and dodgy dealers of all things.

So I won't be buying a Spacex space rocket, anyway I probably wouldn't be able to buy a replacement traction battery for it here in Ireland.

I am thinking about investing my pension in donkeys, as a hedge [get it ????] against no more petrol or diesel !!!!

Pierre3.

David, this is a small selection of two used, and one new, I-Pace's for sale today, in Ireland. There are about 20 cars or so for sale in the country at the moment from what I can see.

I believe that if the UK dealer is VAT registered then you can ask for the VAT to be deducted from the invoice price, but I don't think that it is compulsory, I have read that it depends on how much business the selling company does. It is the same problem that UK buyers have when buying from EU sellers. If a company in Germany, for instance, sells goods to UK buyers then that company has to register with UK HMRC to not charge VAT [or something like that], and the problem is that if the German company is only selling a limited number of items into the UK then they won't bother registering in the UK, and they will just charge German VAT and the UK buyer will then also pay VAT again in the UK when it arrives.

All in all, a complete dogs dinner. It is just the same as it was 25 years ago when exports all had to ship to a "foreign" country under customs forms T1, T2, T3 or a Carnet Passage. I spent nearly twenty years driving around Europe in the 60's and 70's and these were the normal paperwork requirements. Now we are back to that, just under a different name. As I mentioned earlier it has made a bit hit to the Irish government's idea of mass EV ownership due to cutting off the most prolific right-hand drive, used car market.

Brian, one really bad result of Irish VRT [VED] is that you get different models of cars in Ireland than you do in the UK. The most obvious example is air conditioning. You very, very, very rarely come across an original Irish car, for instance E-class Mercs, that have both A/C and sunroofs. This is because tax is payable on any extra's on a car. As the sunroof on a Merc or a BMW is normally an extra then tax is charged on that item, usually making the sunroof cost about €2500 extra. Again, you can't buy a Lexus IS300H Premier in Ireland because with all the bits fitted to the Premier compared to the middle level model it becomes far too expensive. Extra's like different 18 inch alloy wheels, drop-down rear seats, rear passing sensors, etc. etc.

I know because I imported a Premier two years ago. It even has light-up "Lexus" door sill panels.

It has always been the case in Ireland that you need real vested interests to get anything accepted by the public. Diesel was only really pushed here because of the number of people who drove from Dublin to Cork, or Limerick, or Galway, and the cost og petrol was rising rapidly. It was also taken up in huge numbers by taxi's simply because, in Ireland, diesel is quite a bit cheaper than petrol, unlike in the UK where the opposite is true.

LPG was the very same, but fuel distributors didn't roll out a network because it was predominently used by taxis in Dublin and Cork, but very little by anyone else.

Just as an exercise one should look up this Tesla and read the description. It is almost certainly a UK import as you couldn't buy a Tesla in Ireland in 2015.

I would have to agree with Brian that the diesel 2.5 struggles a bit, and yes it is a bit noisy under acceleration, but I don't do many long journeys so I don't mind too much. Like any 2 or 3 litre diesel that I have ever had [ 3 Isuzu Troopers LWB's and a Mitsubishi Pajero LWB, 2 Golf diesel vans] when you give the RR full throttle it does tend to be a little bit smoky but that tends to be the EGR valve being messy. I find that using a diesel fuel cleaner additive usually solves the problem. It may be that I will need to fit a new EGR valve eventually, but provided I give it a run every now and again, and flooring the accelerator every now and again while on a run, it will keep things pretty clean. Cetainly clean enough to pass the strict emmissions test in Ireland.

Pierre3.

Having read through this thread I am sorry to see you guys don't seem to like the 2.5 diesel. Well, I don't care because I have a 2001 DHSE which is a real HSE version. And I like it - a lot. So there 😆 😆 😆 - ha ha ha ha ha ha.

The problem with the big engines is that here in Ireland we have to pay road tax based on engine horse power, and engine size, and the big engines cost around €3000 a year. Even the 2.5 diesel is €1200, but is affordable as a weekend adventurer - just. Although this year it cos me €2800 to put it through the annual road test. Unfortunately, I am not great at DIY repairs. I can do the basics but I am no good when it gets to things like using a Nanocom, or stripping the EAS, so I have to employ the services of a guy I know who repairs classics. He is very good, and he does keep the hourly charges down, but it still costs if it has to go to him.

Fortunately, things like replacing seals, door handles and less difficult stuff like that I can do in the drive, but I don't have a garage to work in. I have the "booklet" icon on the heater control display but, and I know people will be critical, despite having read lots about it I am still not sure how to repair it. I bought a repaired HEVAC unit from Marty which solved a lack of display pixels, and also the fan speed control, and replacing that was straight forward, but trying to get at the mechanical controls behing the centre console looks like a big job, perhaps bigger than I can consider.

The other real issue now is that, with Brexit, the cost of importing parts has jumped - a lot. If you want to import a complete vehicle I think that it is almost unaffordable compared to what it was pre-Brexit. Previously, you bought the vehicle, drove it to Ireland, went to the car test centre and paid something called Vehicle Registration Tax, which is based on the original new car selling price. As an example, I bought my RR P38 for £6000, and paid €1700 in VRT when I imported it.

But now, after Brexit, I would have to pre-pay 21% VAT, 10% import duty, and the original VRT. And provide documentation about the origin of the parts. In theory the seller shouldn't charge VAT but that could also be an issue, and as far as I know you can't retrospectively claim back UK VAT if you live outside the UK. So that means you are paying two lots of VAT, although there may be a dispensation of not paying the 10% import duty if you can prove that the vehicle is mostly [probably over 80%] UK manufactured parts.

The used car trade between the UK and Ireland was a very big part of the Irish second-hand car market but I would think that it is currently dead in the water now. I think there were something like 110,000 second-hand vehicles imported into Ireland in 2019, mostly by private individuals, but also a lot by motor dealers themselves, especially Mercs, BMW, and Audi's. I suspect the dealers were buying mostly ex-PCP [is that the correct terminology?] stock from big dealers in the UK, like Arnold Clark.

Another unexpected issue is the idea that Ireland will achieve something like 50% of car sales to be EV's in three years time, which would include used vehicle. But guess where almost all second hand EV's are sourced from - you guessed it - the UK. Original Irish registered EV's are quite limited, and expensive, in comparison to imported ex-UK cars. For instance, a two year old Jaguar I-Pace in the UK could be about £35,000 from a dealer [perhaps a bit less], but the very same car in Ireland will cost closer to €65,000 - €70,000.

It is difficult to know how much import duty, and VRT, you will have to pay as well, because although the Irish revenue department have a look-up list for VRT costs they don't have listings for electric versions in most cases, and they don't have any listings for Tesla [or they didn't as of two weeks ago]. So if you import a Tesla you could be charged pretty well anything that revenue feel is suitable, a bit like the guy from Manila had explained in a post earlier for importing into the Philippines.

Lastly, LPG was a big thing in Ireland about 15 years ago. Just about every taxi in Dublin used LPG but it never really gained any great support, and I don't know whether there are many garages in Ireland still selling, commercially, LPG on the forecourt. I have heard of people filling their LPG tanks from home heating tanks, but I don't know if that is just hearsay.

Anyway, I still like my DHSE, so there, although I see the day in the not too distant future when it will just be left in the drive as a nice place to sit in the summer, because the repair costs are too high and no one will buy it - except, perhaps, for our friend in Manila.

Pierre3.

A late addition to this thread - isn't this a recognised scam ? Companies in China advertise an item that you want, but you receive some cheap tat, and they expect that you will not try to reclaim your money.

There is also something about people who have received items in the post, which they didn't order. The companies then post a review in your name, saying how pleased you are !

Here's a link:

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2020/08/getting-unordered-seeds-and-stuff-mail

Pierre3.

DavidAll, hi, I wonder whether you could be having a problem with the non return valve, which is located behind the panel covering the rear lights, and the CD player. The washer tube runs up inside the bodywork panel.

I had a similar issue, during the summer, I replaced the non return valve and it has been fine since.

There could just be a tiny bit of "c..p" floating inside the water pipe and the blocking the valve.

Pierre3.

Like a lot of other owners I had the wheelwell leak.

I checked the sunroof tubes, and cleaned them out, but they weren't the problem. What I did initially was to clean all the rainwater out of the wheelwell, remove the spare wheel and leave kitchen paper towel on the bottom of the well to see how much was coming in.

Next, I found that rainwater appeared to be coming from behind the drivers side "boot area" carpetted side panel, somewhere. So, next job, take out all the drivers side back end inner panels so that I could see the bare metal behind. Again, the use of kitchen paper gave a clue as to where the rainwater was coming in. There was always water lying in the round exhaust bracket bushing thing. It had got quite rusty, and the underside of the carpet/insulation panel [for want of a better word] was very wet.

Next was to follow advice from guys here - the first thing that I tried was to take off the rear hatch seal, bend the metal edge, as suggested on this forum, grease and refit the seal. That didn't work, but it did seem to reduce the amount of rainwater coming in. The wheelwell could be dry for days, or even weeks, but then after heavy rain there would be perhaps half a cupful of water.

I had a good look inside the bodywork cavities just behind the rear lights as the water seemed to be running along a horizontal boot panel, but there was no obvious leak. There was no water coming in from behind the rear lights.

In the end, I bought a new rear seal [about £120 if I remember - it was only last June !!].

I then followed all the advice, and I ran RTV all around the "V" in the seal and starting at the bottom edge made sure that the seal went around all the bends and edges, and was firmly seated. A bit of a messy job.

The last thing that I had to do was to do some work on the lower edge where the spring loaded plastic panel is fitted. It was obvious, on my vehicle, that the lower edge had been damaged at some point, possibly by having something heavy dropped on it. the plastic panel had been rescrewed with m4 self-tapping screws in new positions. I used Isopon and filled in all of the new screw holes and bought new, correct m8 screws that were originally used. Then, I retapped the original holes and then refitted the spring loaded panel, using more RTV in the screwholes and putting some onto the screws to seal the threads.

I then left everything out of the back of the vehicle so that I could see immediately if there was any rainwater getting in. In my case I had sorted it out. I left the back bare for about 4 weeks, and having refitted everything I have had no rainwater getting in.

I have to say that it is a really frustrating process, and I don't actually know just which option solved the leak !! But I think that the first thing is to remove all the carpet/insulation panel from the boot area so that you can see where the water is lying, or perhaps even coming from.

Pierre3.

One of the big problems with plodding around and doing short journeys, around 20 km or less, is that diesels will foul up the DPF system. I had a Merc E220D for a few years and decided to sell it because of the DPF issue. It kept going into "limp-home" mode due to the DPF and the only way of cleaning it out was to whack a big dollop of dipetane fuel additive in the tank with a fill of diesel, and then take it for a 50 km trip down the motorway.

I did check before buying the P38 that there wasn't a DPF system on the 2.5D and it makes a big difference. No sudden drop in performance at some unexpected moment, and no big black clouds of smake when you give the motor a good hard dose of throttle.

The Merc could be running fine, doodling along at 80 kph on the motorway, and suddenly you could loose all power, no throttle or anything. All you could do was to stay in the inside lane with your foot flat to the floor and hope that there were no hills coming up.

To permanently sort the issue was to either be illegal and remove the DPF system, or replace it, costing around €1500. A real pain if your car is worth only around €5000. But if you remove the DPF system you will get prosecuted for fundamentally altering the design of the vehicle, so not worth the hassle.

I give my P38 a good blast along the country roads where I live, and I keep an eye on the mirror to see if there is any black smoke. There will be a bit sometimes, but only if I have done a few short trips down to the shops, and a good blast soon clears it.

So I do agree with the regime of a good, hard run for a few miles, to clear the cobwebs. Give it socks occasionally, it doesn't hurt [unless something falls off].

Pierre3.

Now guys, we shouldn't really concentrate on Wankum Ausfahrt, I think it is very inappropiate. The EU could get very upset to find that some of their towns are being made fun of.

Ha-ha-ha-ha.....

You can see here that Mrs Merkel is telling you not to make fun of the name:

But it's OK if you have seen this sign:

and you have been to the:

Pierre3.

I suppose that these are the prats that post links to porn sites and bit coin sites ? There must be a fair bit of administration in trying to keep spammers off the site and, for one, I applaud your work.

The only thing I know about stopping spam is in my email, where the option is provided to mark emails as spam and let the program automatically filter the spam out. But, of course, you have to do it to every email that you want to delete, and, as the spammers do, if the sender address is changed then you have to do it again.

It's a never-ending battle, unfortunately, and I wouldn't especially want to be responsible for the admin work. However, I certainly appreciate the guys that do.

Pierre3.

What do the spammers get out of it ? Are they just being **holes and trying to just mess up a thread ?

Pierre3.

I was throwing out old paperwork this morning and I came across an old German fuel declaration form.

It might just bring back some memories from anyone who used to drive artic's on the continent back in the '60's and '70's.

Pierre3.

Hi Gilbert, I have a copy of Rave but I was just wondering how to open your ISO file. I know that CD's that loaded operating systems, for example Windows, were ISO files, but they all have a small program inserted on the CD to autorun the program and install it on the computer hard disc.

Pierre3.

Having had a look through old computer records I may have used this product. It certainly uses the same process.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spray-Max-Primer-Lacquer-684099-Headlight/dp/B0147DESJ4

The wet and dry sandpaper needs to be fromsomething like 180 grit, to break down the yellow film, and working through finer grades, with a battery drill or screw-gun or just by hand, using P400, P800, P1000, P2000, P2500, and finally P4000.

[Edited to show to correct headlight restoration product]

Pierre3.