I have posted a link to the two pictures, maybe someone could take a look and let me know what they think.
I will be honest - if I use different user names then I just forget who I am supposed to be, and on what forum !!! My flakey brain now only allows me to remember one user name at any one time !!! If in doubt, just called me "donkey", I'm good with that.
Pierre3.
I am Pierre3 on both forums !!!
Pierre3.
Edited by Gilbertd to show the pictures.
In the little box that has http, etc in it, just copy and paste the imgur link like this https://i.imgur.com/cRYTqd0.jpg
Hi, I thought that Sam was the same on the two forums, and I realised that you were two different user names on the two forums.
Anyway, I have uploaded the images to Imgur, and I can view them, but when I try to attach them, using the small picture icon here, all I get is an http address, but no picture actually uploads when I enter the link address in the picture address box here.
Any instruction anyone ? :( :(
Pierre3.
Hi guys, thanks for your assistance. Did I also reply to Sam on "another Range Rover" forum earlier ?
I will try to upload pictures as it is the only real means of identification.
Hopefully I can get pictures uploaded, although it is a pity that the forum doesn't have an icon to allow straight-forward uploading from a file.
Thanks again.
Pierre3.
Hi, I would like to check out something fairly urgently, if someone can help.
I bought two new rear door handles from Rimmer Bros and they arrived without problem, and fairly cheap at £53 each.
The problem is - one side handle has a plastic hook connected to the back of the handle, but the other handles has nothing. Rimmer Bros tell me that the handles are correct and what I ordered, but I can't see why one handle would have a plastic hook, fixed with a metal pin, and the other handle has nothing at all. I believe that there is something wrong here, and that they should both be the same, one for the left and one for the right.
Rimmer Bros came back and said "Take off the door panels and check the existing fittings". This is kind of stupid as the car is currently parked outside and in daily use.
Could someone perhaps confirm whether the two handles should have the same connection when removed from the vehicle ?
I am attaching a couple of pictures for review.
Oh, sorry, I can't add pictures as there is no option here to upload images, so hopefully someone will know what the back of the rear door handles look like.
Pierre3.
In relation to the original post by Orangebean, about the fitting of the new door handle springs, I would like to ask - is it difficult removing the door inner panel, both front and back ?
I have been slowly tidying up my P38 and I decided, rather than repainting the door handles, to buy new ones, with the exception of the driver's door handle. With the hassle of trying to change the door lock and things on the driver's side door
I have decided to fit the repair kit and repaint this handle. Hopefully I will be able to get it to match the colour and texture of the new handles.
However, I have never tried to get the inner door panels off so I would like to see whether there are any things in particular to watch out for.
I have got spare metal spring clips for the back of the door handle, which some people say breaks, or stretches, when it is levered apart, but is the any other bits that won't refit without damage ?
I am trying to figure out, from diagrams, whether there are some small plastic clips that hold rods to the door handles but I can't find any definitive pictures, video's, or diagrams before I start taking out the handles. I want to try to avoid having a situation where I find that I break a plastic clip and then I can't put the handles back into the door, and I can't lock the vehicle, and also then find that the offending item[s] are no longer available.
Any advice or assistance would be appreciated.
Pierre3.
Hi, thanks for the information.
Is the cable inlet in behind the rear bumper ?
I know that the spare wheel well plugs are waterproof because they are painted with heavy black paint. I have checked the ones in the floor of the wheel well, and also the smaller ones at the very back of the wheel well under the tailgate flap. None of those are leaking.
I only found water had got into the wheel well after ploughing through deep puddles during heavy rain, at 40 mph. The water splashed up to around the bonnet level so there would have been a lot under the vehicle. As I say, the only issue was in the wheel well so something like those grommet holes could be a possibility.
I will have a look next week when I get a chance to look underneath.
Pierre3.
I thought that it may be helpful to anyone having the same issue that I had, namely a leaking rear tailgate or a leak somewhere. I was getting a lot of rain water getting into the spare wheel well, and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from.
I took all the trim, carpets and fittings out of the boot area and left them out for a couple of months, checking after each time it rained to see if any rain had got back in. Each time it rained there was some water still getting in. I carefully cleaned off everything that I could get at in the spare wheel well floor and body work. I used a hair dryer to make sure that the hollow panels were dry, and then I took out things like the tailgate flap and stuffed Vaseline into the screwholes.
I checked and cleaned the sunroof tubes, and made sure that the pipes through the rear arches were not blocked. I also readjusted the body edge, as per the service advice, and took off most off the tailgate seal and reseated it using Vaseline under the seal. The seal appeared to have deformed at the two lower corners but otherwise looked in good condition.
This is the point at which I can image that people start to pull their hair out, and look, as I did, for anything at all that could be a problem - back bumper fixings, rear wiper, rear wiper washer pipe, etc, etc.
I sat and thought about what could be happening, and out of frustration I decided to put my hand in my pocket and buy a new seal - £120 or so with delivery.
And hey, the most obvious answer turns out to be the solution. I used a windscreen non-setting black mastic to put a fine film of seal under the tailgate seal and refitted the new item.I have had the vehicle sitting out in very heavy rain for the last two months and [fingers still crossed] not a drop of rain water.
I think that we all do the obvious and look for a leak somewhere and decide that it must be somewhere unobvious !! In fairness I could have saved a couple of months of sponging up the rain water every time it rained, but I also think that I was reluctant to spent £££'s without being certain.
But I think that my advice now would be - if the leak is not the sunroof then really, really consider just fitting a new tailgate seal.
One thing that I haven't sorted out is water getting in when I drive through a lot of big puddles in heavy rain. I have no problem in heavy rain on a good road surface, but if I drive through a lot of large puddles on the side of the road then water gets in somewhere. I may just get the rear underside undersealed, and see if that sorts it out. At the moment, I just avoid big puddles !!!
Pierre3.
Hi Marty, thanks for your advice. I was thinking the same thing, that it would be a bit messy. The guy that offered me the new handle wants about £75 but then I still have to buy a repair kit, and then take the both handles apart and rebuild one.
I had written that I had thought about buying a set of 4 used handles and fitting repair kits but then I re-read your post where you mention that the cam pin would have to be changed over before changing the lock barrel. So it looks like I need to do a job on my existing handles.
Pierre3.
Hi, I would like to ask the experienced heads who know about the door handles on the P38 a question that doesn't come up on the really good thread posted by Orangebean.
Is it possible to modify a drivers' side front outer door handle from a LHD car to suit a RHD car ?
I am considering buying new handles as mine are quite worn in colour, and the two front handles are quite clunky and not fully closing. I was thinking about taking them out and repainting them with Rust-Oleum Hard Hat gloss black, and fitting repair kits to fix the handle return issue.
However, I thought that it may be quicker and easier to just buy new handles and fit them instead. I know that the passenger door handles, and the passenger front door handles, are all available but the drivers' side handle is no longer available new.
But - I have been offered a new, LHD car drivers' side door handle. So, I wonder whether it is possible to take off the left hand drive fittings and fit the old fitting, with a repair kit, STC3064 and the key barrel, and refit to the car thereby giving me a new door handle.
Pierre3.
I like to be prepared, as they say in the Boy Scouts - although the less said about the Boy Scouts the better !!!!! I'm afraid that they make me think that they had some rather strange habits !!!
I have to get the repair kits, and I need to consider whether to get the original handles resprayed to either the cars' colour, Monte Carlo blue, or matt black similar to the original colour.
I don't especially want to spend the best part of £350 on new handles, although, thinking about it, it might just be quicker and more cost effective than repairing the originals and having them painted. At least, if I buy new items then I know that they will be good for another 20 years, or thereabouts. Mind you, I'm sure that the vehicle will have long been scrapped by then if muppets like that Greta Thunberg keep squealing about global warming.
Again, I would like to ask whether it is difficult to change the drivers' door handle but retain the original lock barrel and/or remote key fob ? I have recently bought a new fob and I certainly don't want to have pay out for another new fob. At least I currently have all original keys and fobs, and I don't want to change that.
Any advice on what to do about the drivers' side handle is gratefully received.
Pierre3.
Many thanks for the information. I may take out the lights and put a swipe of mastic around the seals to ensure that they are watertight. Although I am not convinced that that will solve the issue.
I suppose that rain water running down the back of the vehicle could find its way into the wheel well, though.
Just as well to check though, and tick it off the list !!
Pierre3.
I am just wondering whether there is a separate seal for the rear lights on the P38. I have looked at a German LR parts list [Allbrit.co.uk] but it doesn't show a seal or gasket for the rear lights, it does show the 5mm nuts for the lights but no seal.
Pierre3.
I am just wondering whether there is a separate seal for the rear lights on the P38. I have looked at a German LR parts list [Allbrit.co.uk] but it doesn't show a seal or gasket for the rear lights, it does show the 5mm nuts for the lights but no seal.
Pierre3.
Good point about the light seals. I will have a look and see if they are properly bolted in. I did have a similar problem with a 1983 Mercedes W126 where the rear, red, lights had been changed for nice clear lights, but the original seal had been used as there was a small leak from both sides for a while after I bought the car. Fortunately, it was a quick and easy seal.
Pierre3.
Hi, thanks for all the suggestions. I have done the very same things as suggested, but I think that I haven't sorted it out yet. I cleaned out the whole wheel well and more or less polished it [!!!] so that I could see if rain water is still getting in. We had heavy rain during the night, on Thursday, and I found about a quarter/half a cupful of rainwater sitting at the very back end of the wheel well, the car was parked backwards, down a small decline.
I bent out the lower boot lip [where the seal is pushed onto] and I put petroleum jelly inside the actual seal where it pushes onto the lip. i cleaned the whole rear tailgate body lip by removing the complete seal, and checked for corrosion under the seal but it is all clean. I believe that the seal has been replaced, at some time not too long ago, by a dealer supplied seal as it has the correct cutouts at the bottom of the seal.
I think that the previous owner had this problem as well, as someone has painted the whole wheel well with black, heavy paint, obviously to try to seal the joins and plugs in the base of the wheel well.
I did notice a thin line of water inside the rear panel which runs from side to side, and where the rear bumper is mounted. There is an enclosed box section which goes from just under the rear lights on both sides, the tailgate plastic flap thing is screwed to this box section, and I could see a thin line of water lying where the box section is welded to the very, very back bodywork panel.
I have dried this out as best I can and there looks to be nothing there now. The problem is - where did this water come from. Could it have come from the sunroof drain and run all the way round behind the insulation and wiring and got right to the rear box section ? Possible I suppose.
The only thing that I am hoping is that the water that I saw could just have been something that was there after I stripped out the upholstery and stuff, and appeared with the car sitting doing nothing. The small piece of carpet on the drivers side under the parcel shelf was very wet all along the bottom where it was sitting on the metal so water has been running under the carpet and into the wheel well.
I have check the sunroof drains from the place where they meet the rubber pipe going into the wheel arch. On the drivers side there was water still in the rubber pipe, which I would have thought should have drained out. I cleared this with a nylon cable fish, and I put an air pressure gun on the plastic pipe going back to the sunroof.
So I will wait to see what happens when the rain comes over the weekend. Hopefully, if water gets in it might just leave a trail as the wheel well is currently totally dry.
Pierre3.
I am getting water into the wheel well, and I was checking this evening, after heavy rain, and the water seems to be getting in somewhere around the drivers side rear light fitting, but I can't be sure at the moment. I think that I need to get the hosepipe out and get Madam to run water over the rear door and window while I get into the boot/wheel well area. I have all the carpet and panel out of the boot area and checked the sunroof drain tubes, but they seem to be clear.
The rain water doesn't appear to be coming from the area where the rubber drain tube goes through into the wheel well, either. There isn't any sign of water running across the floor panel directly below the drivers side back window, where the RF receiver is positioned. That whole area is as dry as a bone.
I have cleaned everything out and more or less polished the area in the wheel well in the hope of seeing a water track. I have also bent the bottom edge of the bodywork, under the rear seal, as per the RAVE instructions, and put a load of petroleum jelly under the rear seal. So far it hasn't fixed the leak. I think that the previous owner had the problem because the wheel well has been painted with black paint, a bit like an underseal product. It looks like the rear seal has been replaced already because the seal has very precise cut-outs where the RAVE instruction says to cut the seal to let out the water. I would imagine that my seal is a dealer supplied item.
I could see a small water track down inside a cavity right below the rear light and a bit under where the rear power plug is, but it is difficult to tell whether the water is getting into the cavity [this cavity is the panel that runs from side to side under the rear seal lip], and also I can't see where it could exit to get into the wheel well.
When I looked at this this evening there seemed to be a damp track down the joint where the floor of the wheel well meets the side wall of the drivers side wheel well, right at the very back where the floor panel rises up the meet the panel behind the bumper panel.
A tiresome problem, and the vehicle does sound hollow and a bit rattly with all the rear carpet and panels removed.
Pierre3..