When I had my old diesel P38 I fitted the chip from Rimmer Bros and was happy with how it performed. I can't say it improved the MPG much, if any, but it did make it noticeably quicker.
I also found on my old Focus that a modified insurance policy was actually cheaper than a standard vehicle policy, through the likes of Adrian Flux etc.
Perfect.
Cheaper plugs will be welcome news back home!
Just pricing up the service parts, minus oils, from Island 4x4 - trying to avoid Britpart wherever possible!
Any particular reasons to avoid the following items or are they generally OK?
Mahle oil filter - http://www.island-4x4.co.uk/filter-mahle-err3340m-p-5815.html
Mahle or Mann air filter - http://www.island-4x4.co.uk/filter-9702-mahle-mann-esr4238g-lr027408g-p-5931.html
Champion spark plugs - http://www.island-4x4.co.uk/spark-plug-4046-9802-champion-nlp100320g-p-3288.html
Eurospares HT leads - http://www.island-4x4.co.uk/ignition-lead-4046-9802-eurospares-hls103-p-26968.html
Unbranded gearbox service kit - http://www.island-4x4.co.uk/auto-gearbox-filter-service-rtc4653k-da4500-p-888.html
Gone with Britpart for the pollen filters and diff drain plugs as I figured there's almost nothing to get wrong with those.
Am I right in thinking that the later V8's don't need a fuel filter?
Just need to track down an oil sump plug now, they don't list one.
Ferryman wrote:
Would you believe a car can act jealous? There it is! Besides, we all speak about our RR's as being female, this is what happens when you put your trusted, well experienced lady aside for another one!
As for the box, a drain and fill is about 5-6 litres. (end of this week I know for sure)
Ours is actually male! My girlfriend decided he was male and named him.
I guess I can wait a few more days if you can confirm how much you use this week :)
Thanks Morat :)
Like the title says, I've been away for a while but I''m back now!
Been a busy few months. Found we have a baby on the way so the Range Rover got sidelined as an unnecessary expense and lead to me not looking at Range Rover forums so much. We sold my 3dr Focus to buy something newer, safer and with more doors. Ended up getting a 58-plate Mondeo. Owned that for 3 weeks, two of which it spent back at the dealer being worked on before we lost confidence in it and got out money back. Most unreliable piece of crap I've ever owned - and I've got a P38!
This means the P38 is coming out of its short-lived retirement and being pressed in to daily driver duties. This also means it's going to need a bloody good service!
Priced up most of it but not really sure about the gearbox oil. I've seen conflicting information about how much oil it will need. I'm not planning on flushing it, just dropping the sump and replacing what drains out, replace the filter and put the sump back on. Some people online are saying that this will only need around 5-6 litres, some say it will take closer to 10. That's quite a bit difference in the amount of oil and it's not cheap stuff.
I don't want to get stuck with either too little or too much oil so thought I'd pop back on here to ask the opinion of those that I actually trust. So, how much oil does this take in your experience?
Had it over a pit at work this morning and check the radius arm bushes:
N/S/F arm:
O/S/F arm:
Found no discernible play in the arms or panhard rod. ARB bushes are looking like they're starting to wear out though. Also noted that the air bags are starting to show cracks at the base.
These all look OK to me, unless you more experienced chaps think otherwise. I think I'm now entering a game of replacing all the rubber until it goes away!
Thanks Marty!
So, a set of 4 of these to go through the front arms: FRONT
A set of 4 of these for the ends of the front arms: FRONT END
And a set of...2? of these to go through the rear arms: REAR
Do the rear arms have end bushes like the fronts?
Is Britpart OK for bushes? I looked for "OEM quality" ones as I've been pointed to before but they don't seem to have anything other than Britpart for these, besides a couple of LR front ones at double the cost.
Is it worth getting LR bushes all round instead of Britpart?
Nuts and bolts I'll get from the local dealer. Things like that tend to be pretty reasonably priced.
My ST170 headlights have a little lever inside that I can flick up or down to alter the beam. It's a pretty low tech solution and just moves a bar up/down to block the beam.
They are HID lamps but no computer needed to make the change. I really don't understand why such a thing isn't more commonplace.
So, these front radius arm bushes then...
Is it possible to replace them without the special tool?
The wobble is creeping back and over the weekend it pulled quite sharply to the left with no warning. It felt almost like hitting deep standing water but without the loss of speed and needed a strong corrective tug on the steering wheel to avoid the kerb.
Not much fun at 60!
It's the first time I've felt it and it only did it once on a 200 mile round trip journey.
Went down to Chippenham on Friday and gave my AC system a test.
It gave me hot and cold on request and out of whichever vents I asked it to.
Sounds like something is definitely wrong with yours but looking at the image of the box I can't see what it could be. It looks like a pretty simple set up and everything looks as though it can only go in one place.
There's not anything fallen in the pipework that could (somehow) be affecting it?
I'm pretty sure mine does what I tell it to.
I quite often get reports of cold feet from the other side of car and have to crank the foot temperature up and then back down again accordingly, until a happy temperature is found.
It lives on Auto the rest of the time though.
I can have a play with it on Friday as we're heading all the way down the Chippenham.
gordonjcp wrote:
Quite often the bushes look okay until you realise the arms are turned through a slight angle, and you realise you can slide the arm from side to side on the inner sleeve.
Next time I'm out that way again I'll see if I can replicate it :P
I have a hunch that I won't be able to lol.
Sounds like the bushes and ball joints definitely need some kind of advanced looking at. I might see if I can temporarily employ my favourite, most highly qualified tech from the workshop for half an or so.
I was worried that something was loose but it went through the MOT with nothing being highlighted and the steering system gets reasonably well inspected at scrutineering every time I take it an RTV trial, which has been at least once a month since we bought it.
If it is something loose, it must be hard to spot!
I'll have to take a closer look at the radius arm bushes mentioned by others above.
Morat wrote:
Is it downhill to Leicester? ;)
It is out of Uppingham. But then it goes back uphill. Then down. And then back up again. TBH, I thought the computer calculating it was making the numbers up as it went along lol.
Now that the wobble/vibration is gone and the steering has some feel, I'm not sure if I can feel something else. I don't know if I'm imagining it but sometimes it feels like there's a small pull or tug to one side. I don't know if this is just from the road surface though.
What are the symptoms of the worn steering boxes and shafts talked about above?
The oil50 code doesn't seem to work on gearbox and diff oil :(
Just priced up a full gearbox, axle and power steering oil change with them and the BLACKFRIDAY code takes off about 33%
When I was active on Ford Focus Owners Club they had a general purpose, all year round code for 25% off - unless there was already a better promotion active.
The code for that was FFOCUK25 but I'm not sure if it still works. I haven't used ECP for a while.
Wow...apparently it's been a month since I was one here!
New steering damper showed up on Friday and was fitted this morning. The wobble is completely gone now!
I had it over a pit at work and checked out the wheel bearings, propshaft UJ's, ball joints etc and everything was fine. Saw that the steering damper was leaking slightly so ordered one of those. It appears to have cured it!
The new felt a bit stiffer to operate by hand than the one that came off and the steering is no longer absurdly light. The vagueness in the steering is now gone too.
True to form though...fix one car, another one breaks. The girlfriends Corsa has sprung an oil leak that needs urgent attention. Smells like tarmac when driving it and has done for about two weeks. First I knew about it was when I drove it yesterday :(. Checked the oil and it's bone dry with a nice thick shiny coating of oil all over the underside of the engine and the suspension.
How much interior needs to come out to pull the carpet back far enough?
Bearings are available separately from the hub but you need a fairly meaty press to swap them over.
I believe the OEM spec ones are made by Timken.
I imagine any place with a press and a willingness to do something other the "easy" option could do it.
Sloth wrote:
If the vehicle has been off-roading or generally up and down muddy/dusty tracks a fair bit in its life, its possible they've been buried in dried on crap.
I fear this has happened with mine. My passenger side footwell is completely sodden with clear water at the moment. Need to find a way to dry it out.