Hi Richard, thanks for the suggestion. I can't see how the joint in the casing could leak as it looks fairly permanent to me, but I suppose, like everything, if there is a seal or gasket in the joint then it could well be a failure point.

I will have another root about this afternoon provided the weather stays fine.

I checked the handbrake adjustment again, but this time I tightened the adjuster nut up to about 35/40 nm, then released it the regulatory number of turns and I would say that it appears more effective now. I wonder whether the suggested tightness of 25 nm's, on an old brake drum, might be too little to work effectively. Perhaps with a new drum, shoes, and springs 25 nm would be fine. Although, I thought that I read that it should be 35 nm.

I also changed the accumulator, so now the pump doesn't run until after the third time of pressing down the brake pedal. Funnily enough, the pedal pressure seems a bit better, as well.

Lastly, I changed the radiator cap for a new one, and I noticed this morning that the engine temperature is now slightly lower than before, but this just might be that the engine hadn't been running long enough. I will wait to see whether there is any difference when I take it out for a longer run tomorrow.

Pierre3.

I forgot to download the pictures of the back of the transfer case.

I am sure that the leak is not from the upper square plug [a filler plug ?], and also I am not convinced that the oil is from the oil seal in the centre of the casing where it connects to the drive out of the transfer case. Looking at the most of the oil it appears to be coming from the bottom of the joint in the transfer case.

Pierre3.

I quite like the Lexus auto-box, to be honest. Being a really old donkey sort of a person the quiet, seamless changes make the car very nice to drive. I often use the gear stick to down-shift the gears when driving in traffic and it slows the car very effectively. Being a bit lazy I often drive with one hand beside the gear stick so it is very easy to just move it through the gears when a gentle slow-down is required.

Pierre3.

Aragorn, yes, the gearbox is a CVT gearbox, rather than the traditional type gearbox.

Leolito, I would think that my 300h probably has the same CVT transmission as your CT200. I have only driven a CT once, and that was 4 years ago. My sister asked me to have a look at it as she was interested in buying one. In the end she stayed with her older IS200, which has a cracking six cylinder engine, and she still has it.

Pierre3.

Hi, back again, I'm afraid.

I tightened the handbrake as per RAVE but I'm not convinced that it is working properly. If I pull the lever up to the second click, which is as far as it now goes, then it holds the car. But if I am driving along and I pull up the handbrake then the car doesn't really slow down very much. Probably about the same slowing down as when I lift off the throttle, when travelling at about 10 mph. The car will eventually stop, but the performance isn't especially good, from what I can see.

I took a couple of pictures of the rear of the transfer case, which shows oil around the bottom of the case. This oil is also on the handbrake drum but I don't know if oil has got into the drum without stripping it.

I did try holding on the handbrake while travelling but it hasn't made any difference, so I am not sure if there actually is oil inside the drum. I couldn't smell overheated oil, anyway.

So, how difficult is it to change the seal, or gasket, at the back of the transfer case ? Does the gearbox need to be taken out to do it ?

Pierre3.

After doing a job on the handbrake I am 99% sure that the heater O-rings are leaking. I can see an orange reflection from the carpet when I shine my large garage light into the footwell. As well as that the carpet under the heater foot vent, on top of the transmission tunnel, is wet. Hopefully, there isn't too much being absorbed into the carpet, although there is some for sure.

Pierre3.

Richard, that is a good point, I would admit to not having tried that in the past. It's a bit frustrating because outside of my house the fob works from about 15 feet away or perhaps a bit more, but a lot of places that I go I need to be right next to the car to ensure that everything is OK.

Pierre3.

Yes, so a bit of difference of opinion. I would err on the side of caution, as Harv says, it would be a right cock-up if I buggered up the handbrake on the way to the test !!!

I have a Lexus 300h and I hardly ever use the handbrake, although it is a footbrake like Mercedes, except for sometimes if I am waiting at long roadworks or slow traffic lights. The car doesn't object like the P38 when you pull it out of "P" on an incline so I just leave it in "P" whenever the car is left.

Pierre3.

For a key fob repair I found John Dean very good. I sent him two knackered fobs belonging to my vehicle and he repaired them properly, so now I actually have three working key fobs, because, a couple of years ago I bought a new replacement fob from LR.

In regards to Richards evaluation of using the key rather than the fob I have, for the last two years, only used the key because I am tired of getting locked out of my car due to external interference on the fob. It has happened at least 4 times when I have been to large shopping centres, and only once was it the vehicles fault because the door latch had "gone west". I now leave it unlocked outside my house, and quite often when I go to the supermarket. I reckon that the average knobhead who steals cars isn't really interested in a 25 year old RR.

Pierre3.

Richard, this is exactly my worry, that the goons won't know how to do the test correctly, and without trying to haul the handbrake out the roof of the car. I did everything by the manual, and the handbrake is firmly applied at the second click of the lever.

I wondered whether the drum might need a few applications of the brake to clear any oil that might be on the shoes but I suppose that there is already enough leverage on the drum without having to do that.

Anyway, I can only wait to go to the test, next week, and see what happens then.

Pierre3.

As usual, thanks for everyone's contributions. It is very useful as always.

Richard, I was thinking that, indeed, because it does look as if the plastic clip part has just gone brittle. So, I just need until the weather improves so that I can get back under the vehicle.

Dave3d, I kind of made the comment based on two pictures that I saw on the Rimmer Bros site. The aftermarket cable just looks a bit "basic" compared to the LR one, but it is often difficult to judge from online images. The other issue that I had was if I decided to fit a new cable then I would have to strip down the handbrake drum, to attach the brake shoes connector. I know that, when you say it quickly, it appears to be simple but I have a feeling that it would be a major battle trying to disconnect the propshaft, to get the drum off.

If the car fails the annual test again [it is on a re-test for handbrake poor operation], then I will strip the handbrake drum and fir new shoes as I have a vague suspicion that some gearbox oil may have got into the drum from a slight leak on the back of the transfer box. But hopefully not.

Pierre3.

Hi Richard, I have seen crows foot spanners but I just don't think that you could get the leverage on what is more or less a seized connection. It took me about 45 minutes to release the thread, by the age-old backwards and forwards working of the two nuts, after I had disconnected it from the handbrake lever and pulled it down under the car. I could only move the 16mm nut about two or three threads at a time because of the corrosion, and I did begin to think that it might be easier to just fit a new cable !

True to form, a new LR handbrake cable is €144 plus shipping, although there are aftermarket ones cheaper. I'm just not sure that I would buy an aftermarket when you consider how much leverage you can put on a handbrake.

Thanks for the description of the electrical plug shown in the picture. I noticed that mine is only just holding on as the plastic clip, that holds it, is broken on one side. I may have to consider replacing it, but with what I am not sure.

Pierre3.

Harv, if your cable has corrosion on the threads, under the floor and right under the handbrake lever, then you will have to disassemble everything on the transmission tunnel. There is no way that you can get the leverage required under the car because you can't get the required open-ended spanners into the indentation to loosen then. Stripping the handbrake is the only way.

By the way, what is this connector, shown in Richards picture ?

Pierre3.

I got under the vehicle again today, to redo the handbrake adjustment, and it turned out to be a couple of hours of a job, 5 in total !!

I appreciate Richards advice that it is easy to get at everything, and to some extent I agree, but this is not a job for the faint-hearted if you haven't been under the transmission tunnel inside panels. Initially, I made the mistake of tightening the shoes in the drum first, and then checked the free play on the handbrake lever. This is the wrong way around - it needs to be done by releasing the brake shoes right off, and then adjusting the two nuts at the top end of the handbrake cable.

Unfortunately, although Richard rightly says that the adjuster nuts are easily accessible, what isn't mentioned is the the nuts sit in an indentation in the transmission floor, and this prevents one getting two spanners, a 20mm and a 16mm, onto the nuts to turn them enough to take up any slack. And this also assumes that the nuts will turn in opposing directions and are not stuck due to corrosion and rust and weather. Mine were jammed tight.

So therefore one has to take the cable off the handbrake lever, and drop it down under the vehicle, spray it liberally with releasing oil, and then gradually free it up, until it will adjust freely backwards and forwards. Sounds simple ? Well, no so simple - to release the cable you have to take out the electric window switch pack [straight forward], and pull off the pin holding the cable to the lever. Then, in my case I realised that there was no way to push the locating pin back through the lever and head of the cable. This is where the work starts - you have no option but to remove the whole centre console, including the head of the gearshift, the heating controls panel, and both tunnel side panels.

Then you need to pull the pin that keeps the lever connected to to the cable quadrant, so that eventually you have the lever free to lift upwards vertically, to allow you to lift the whole centre console up and out. This finally gives you access to the lower cable locating pin, which you can now pull out, allowing the cable to be pulled through the floor from underneath the vehicle.

Obviously, it is important to make a note of all the screws, nuts [under the armrest storage box, look carefully and pull up the flat base in the box, it comes out] which hold the back of the console, and bolts, and keep a note of the plugs that fit into all the various connections - heater control plugs, window pack plug, handbrake lever switch plug, gearshift mode plug, etc.

Finally, if requiring less travel on the handbrake lever, open up the adjuster nuts on the cable and push it back through the floor. It will be a bit of a fight to reconnect it but a vice grips on the cable, to lever the head of the cable upwards, is useful in getting the pin back into the lower quadrant. Then, with the handbrake off, get back under the vehicle and do the brake shoe adjustment again, as per RAVE.

All that's left to do is replace all the centre console parts, remembering to reconnect all the plugs, and put the screws back in their correct places.

And all done in under five hours - just.

Pierre3.

Richard, I will recheck the free play again this weekend. I think that I backed it off 1 complete turn so I probably need to do it again. The biggest problem I have is trying to adjust the cable under the car. I can, as mentioned earlier, see and access it easily, but I can't get two spanners up to the adjuster nuts to adjust them.

Firstly, they are very tight, probably due to not being adjusted for a long time; secondly, I can't move the rubber boot that covers the smaller nut; thirdly, need angled spanners to get into the space where the cable goes through the floor; and lastly, I am only guessing that one nut is 17mm and the large one right under the floor is 20mm but I am not sure.

I am thinking that the solution must be to take out the window switch pack and the gear stick panel to get at the bottom of te handbrake and disconnect everything from there.

Pierre3.

Richard, thanks for that. I had a root this morning and although I have 8.8 high tensile allen bolts they are all too long, and of course they are nearly all metric anyway !!

So off the nut and bolts supplier, and get some UNF jobbies.

By the way, I gave up with the tie-wraps as I could only get two into the bolt holes. I can't understand why LR never thought of this when designing the P38.

Pierre3.

Richard, that's the thing I wondered about - is there any reason not to use normal nuts and bolts ? I have a big selection of assorted nuts and bolts from my work days, including things like coach screws M12, M14, M16 etc., stainless steel nuts and bolts and self tapping screws, and Allen head bolts and nuts. I have at least 6 boxes of stainless steel washers from M8's up to big 4mm thick penny washers.

I wouldn't use the SS bolts as I know from experience that the shear off quite easily.

So I will have a root about in my big spares box. I didn't think about Allen bolts.

What about going even further to ease of removal - using tie-wraps !!!! 😂 .

Pierre3.

So, I got under the car this afternoon, and it's just as well that I did !! I have looked at RAVE for instructions, and I saw a video by a guy doing a handbrake shoes replacement, and for whatever reason I thought that the handbrake drum was beside the rear diff, but it turns out that it is at the back of the gearbox. Who would have thought !!!!!!

I tightened up the handbrake until I couldn't turn the brake drum, even though there was only a small amount of free play on the propshaft. I was able to tighten the drum so that I couldn't move it and then backed it of just enough for the drum to turn.

I am just hoping that the shoes are good as I see that there is an oil leak at the joint on the back of the transfer box, or the gearbox, whichever is the one right beside the handbrake drum. There is oil on the drum but hopefully it has not got into the drum itself.

Pierre3.

Just a final note from me - when I took out the seats and replaced the foam base I didn't have any issue with the motors when refitting everything. I didn't replace the motors and also I didn't move the seat base on the runners. When I put everything back nothing had changed, but I don't know what would happen if you take the seat base off the runners and refit it in a different position.

Pierre3.

Hi guys, thanks for the advice, as usual.

Thorst, I did wonder if that would happen, and answers one question.

Richard, I did read through RAVE and I gather that tightening the handbrake is straightforward, but I was only wondering about turning the handbrake drum, to see when the shoes start to bite, in the same way as I would have done when doing the handbrake on a normal car. Tightening up the shoes until the wheel stops turning, then back off the adjuster slightly so that the wheel turns freely again.

I am not sure that even with the suspension lifted up to maximum I could get under the car to work comfortably, so I was going to jack it up a bit to give myself more wriggle room !!

I know that I keep looking for information but another item has cropped up - I asked Rimmers for a price to send new propshaft guard bolts and propshaft to rear diff nuts and bolts and they said that there isn't a propshaft guard on the 2001 P38, and there are only three nuts and bolts on the propshaft/rear diff UJ. But RAVE appears to show four, and from what I remember of Ford RS 2000's there were always four bolts connecting the propshaft to the diff. Surely Rimmers have this wrong ?

Pierre3.