rangerovers.pub
The only place for a coil spring is up Zebedee's arse
Member
offline
995 posts

Started the car up on Saturday at stupid o'clock in the morning and found my radio no longer works.

I get a loud click/pop through the speakers that repeats every fee seconds. I clicked through the menu for bass, treble etc and found that the option for the DSP equaliser is no longer showing up - has my DSP amp finally gocen up the ghost?

It worked fine the day before and the only difference on Saturday morning is that it was bloody cold, not sure if that's relevant though.

It couldn't have picked a better time to crap out on me. Had a 3 hour drive with a baby that will only sleep in the car if there's music playing...

I've noticed a new damp patch appearing under the front of my car - it's a completely clear liquid that feels oily to touch and quickly goes tacky/sticky if I rub it between my fingers.

A very quick look under the front bumper shows it appears to be dripping from the bottom of the front diff - I don't know if it's coming from the diff itself or if it's dripping on to the diff from somewhere above. It seems fairly rapid leak - I was parked up at the side of the road for a couple of hours today and noticed a pool under the drip site about 15-20cm in diameter.

I just can't think what would be completely clear and oily - I'd expect any oil that was coming from the diff or inside something else with moving parts would be at least a little bit dirty. I've not put any fresh liquids in recently (besides a coolant top up - but that's red).

Engine, diff and transmission oils were done months ago but again, engine and transmission oil aren't clear. Not sure what colour the diff oil was though.

Any ideas what my mystery fluid could be?

Just checked my oii and it needs topping up.

Tried to undo the filler cap and found the whole filler tube spinning in the rocker cover.

Is the tube screwed/clipped in or is it supposed to be part of the rocker cover?

I'll have to find something to hold the tube still so I can undo the cap now.

Swapping out the exhaust on my car later this week as it's leaking from a couple of places and my MOT is due.

The bits I've looked at are pretty rusty - as you'd expect, given that it's leaking - to the point that the nuts and bolts holding it all together are no longer identifiable.

I've not seen the ends of the manifolds though.

Is it common for those to be too rusty to separate properly and re-use? I'm a bit concerned about getting it apart and finding the flanges on the manifolds crumbling away :(

Is it possible to turn off the passenger side airbag? I'd like to fold my rear seats down to transport some furniture but still be able to put a rear facing baby seat in the front. Can't do that with an active airbag for obvious reasons!

As per the diagram here I need 12x 120 ohm 1W, 4x 330 ohm 1W and 4x 47 ohm 1W resistors.

I'm having trouble sourcing 1W resistors though!

I found a source on eBay but had an awful experience with them. They sent me the wrong items (1/4W) several days late and when I asked for them to send the correct parts I was told I was being too rude and that I had to open an eBay case. They also told me explicitly that "no one from this company will help you". Three weeks later I have my refund from eBay....

Apart from that seller though, I can't find what I need. Maplin don't have them, the girl at the desk said they go from 0.6W to 2W so no luck there.

I've looked at places like Farnell and RS Online but that's a bit of a minefield and the options are endless and somewhat confusing for someone who isn't too familiar with this stuff. I also don't really need to order them by the hundred but I'm not sure these are bulb-buy places only.

Anyone know of a simpler place to find what I need?

It's going to save me so much time in the mornings, I can shower on the way to work!

It's started pouring with rain again and have a another new leak. I have water dripping from my interior light, right on to the gear lever and surrounding area.

Time for a stupid question now: is there anywhere except the sunroof/blocked drains that this could be coming from?

The reason I ask is that the headlining is completely dry, even around the interior light, and when I opened the sunroof the channels around it appeared to be pretty much completely dry. There was some wetness to the rear of the sunroof where it disappears in to the roof but the interior light is forward of the sunroof opening.

https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-britishcars/jlr-classic-works-opens-its-doors/36381

I really hope they get around to the P38 with this project.

I won't be able to afford a proper factory restoration but the renewed availability of currently unavailable parts would be nice!

My drivers side mirror only adjusts up and down and not side to side.

I bought a new mounting clip expecting it to be that that's snapped but it's not. It's the little white plastic arm that is attached to the motor.

I've tried superglue and no more nails bit neither of them will fix the tow sections back together again.

I've looked on eBay for a used electric mirror but they mostly seem to be unpainted black plastic.

As mine is painted to match the body, is it possible to remove the electric motor/adjustment mechanism and swap it over with one from another mirror?

Specifically, an RP SMA female to RP SMA female.

I can lots of connectors with RP SMA female on one end, but not at both ends. I know it exists as I have one in my hand but one of our ham-fisted technicians has managed to snap it.

It's for connecting what looks like a WiFi antenna to one of our workshop lifts. I went in to Maplin and spoke to one of the guys there who looked at it and declared it "unusual" and he had nothing in stock.

I can't find anything on the RS Components website but they don't have one. I can't even find an image of one on Google Images.

It looks like this:

enter image description here

enter image description here

For the last few days I've noticed the little book symbol appearing on the climate control screen. It's not there when I start a journey but usually is by the time I reach my destination. Not always though and it goes away if I turn the car off and back on.

When the book appears I seem to still have full climate control functionality. The air con still works and gets very cold, the heater gets very warm, each of the air direction buttons works and the heat everything/demist button still works.

So, I've no idea what the light is telling me as it all still seems to work - any ideas?

Just had an email from Halfords with a couple of discount codes:

HALFSTRG - 50% off metal tool storage

BHTOOLS15 - Extra 15% off all hand tools.

Codes are entered at the checkout but can't be used with a Trade Card (I tried). Codes should be good until 30/05/2017

I have clear, clean water leaking into the passenger side footwell. It's coming down both sides of the footwell:

Leak location

Here you can see where the drops are falling from:

Right side of footwell

Left side of footwell

And here is an indication of just how much water is making its way inside the car:

The Amazon River

I'm familiar with the AC vents getting blocked and causing water to drip down the side of the transmission tunnel but not so familiar with the leak on the other side of the footwell. I'm also doubtful that the AC drain would produce that much water over the course of a 20 minute minute journey.

The cleanliness of the water and the fact it's on both sides leads me to think it's not the heater matrix O-rings leaking.

I've only noticed it when it rains, which it has been doing a lot over the last few days,

Are there any common/known culprits for a leak like this or do I need to start stripping out bits of dashboard and pointing the hose at the car?

Ever since my BECM went in to meltdown last year and needed to be unlocked by Marty my remote locking hasn't worked. Prior to this, the remote locking worked perfectly. Since I got the BECM back I've been unable to enter the EKA code that Marty programmed in for me.

Last night Gilbertd used his Nanocom to enter it for me but the fob still didn't work. He also used the Nanocom to test my door latch and found that the key switch is dead - which explains why I couldn't enter the EKA manually.

With the EKA code entered we looked elsewhere. Another rather fancy handheld gadget determined that the fob was transmitting on the right frequency but the transmission was very weak. The LED on the fob has always flashed when the buttons are pressed.

Today, I've prised off the battery cover and changed the batteries for brand new Panasonic ones. There is still no reaction from the car when the buttons are pressed.

The antenna in the rear window is showing signs of deterioration but it still doesn't work when I put the fob right next to the receiver in the rear wing.

Gilbertd suggested making a replacement antenna from a bit of wire about 8 inches or so long. Is there any more to this than unplugging the actual antenna and jamming the wire in the socket?

If that doesn't work, does any one else have any suggestions? Is it possible to test if the receiver itself works?

Got in the car to head to work this morning and found a rather concerning and very loud ticking/clicking sound. It sounded like it was coming from behind the dials or steering wheel/column. It didn't seem to change with revs or speed. It sounded the same while parked at idle as it did while travelling at 15-20mph.

It didn't start straight away. It started about 30 seconds after I started moving. I pulled over, took my phone out and attempted to take a video of it - but it stopped. The noise lasted about 30 seconds and went away.

It didn't come back for the rest of the journey and the car seems to be driving fine.

It must have heard about my plans to spend some money on it to swap the radio system and fit LPG and decided that it either doesn't want to be used as a daily or doesn't like my plans and wants money spent on something else instead :(

Anyone come across anything like this?

When we got our P38 we were happy to use it as a petrol car, given the low mileage we intended to do. As our use of the car is changing I'm looking in to LPG a bit more.

But I know precious little about it.

I'm aware there's different types (single point, multi point and sequential) but I'm not really sure of the pros and cons of each. I'd guess that in terms of which was "best", they'd be ranked Single > Multi > Sequential, with a cost bump for each.

If I do go LPG, I'll be getting a wheel well tank. I know they're smaller but I'm more willing to sacrifice the spare wheel than boot space.

Beyond this, I know nothing.

I've seen a kit on eBay claiming to be complete: https://goo.gl/HK24dw.

Is this a good brand? What does it mean by "front end" parts? Is considering a second hand LPG kit madness? If so, why? Is this something that is even remotely DIY-able?

What advice would give to complete beginner with LPG?

Now that I'm using the Range Rover as a daily driver I want to replace the radio with something containing bluetooth and music streaming capabilities.

I want to copy what Marty has done and get an Android powered double DIN unit to replace the factory sat nav screen. One without a disc drive so I cut the chassis down to fit the dashboard.

I have the (currently functional) DSP amp system.

To wire this up and make it work I believe I need to set the volume to max before disconnecting the standard head unit, fit an ISO to ISO harness on the back of the new radio, fit 4x attenuators in the ISO to ISO harness and connect this all to the original wiring loom.

Is this correct?

What would I need to make the steering wheel controls work? Just connect it all together and worry about it if they don't work?

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?

Took a trip up to see some friends on the Wirral at the weekend and took the P38. Not long after setting off there was a request from the passenger seat to keep it below 60mph, as her seat was wobbling.

We've had this before with the offroad wheels/tyres fitted and I've always put it down to poor balancing of the tyres and the fact that the steel wheels aren't hub-centric, like the alloys are. With the offroad set fitted I can also feel the wobble in my seat and the steering wheel and it gets worse the faster you go - which hasn't been a problem as our offroad trips are reasonably local and on rural roads so high speeds aren't really encountered. However, it's always 100% gone upon refitting the road set.

This weekend, my girlfriend said that the wobble was really bad in her seat but I could barely feel a thing through the steering wheel or through my own seat - which I found odd. If the car was shaking I'd expect to feel through the whole car and if she hadn't mentioned it I'm not sure I'd have noticed anything at all. It also seemed to come and go, and came in at different speeds throughout the journey. Sometimes 70mph was fine and sometimes she'd report the wobble as low as 50mph.

When fitting the wheels before the trip I made sure that the directional treads were all pointing the right way and I set the tyre pressures according to the handbook (28psi front, 38psi rear). The wheels were torqued to 80lbs ft while still in the air and doing each nut in a star pattern. The only difference on one wheel was a missing locking wheel nut cover. They were re-checked on arrival and everything was as it should be.

The wheels are the OEM 18" wheels (Hurricane style, I think), powdercoated grey and wearing 255/55 R18 tyres of a brand I've never heard of before buying this car.

I don't think the missing wheel nut cover would cause such wobbling and I'm hesitant to suspect the tyres, even though they're an unknown brand, as they've previously been fine and have sat in the garage since they were last used.

Any suggestions?

In other news, I somehow managed to get 28mpg (and climbing) showing on the screen between Uppingham and Leicester before hitting Friday afternoon traffic all the way north :(

Factoring in the traffic and including a period of 20 minutes sat not moving at all, we reached our destination showing 20.0 - which I was pleasantly surprised by.

I've just been in the back of my car changing the seat belt and it required me to take the subwoofer out.

I got a bit confused when taking it out - there's a box on the top of it that has nothing plugged in to it:

Empty plug socket

There is a smaller multiplug coming out of the join where the top part of the box meets the lower part (you can see where it comes from in the first image, above):

Multiplug coming out of sub box

This connects to a loom that runs towards the front of the car somewhere.

The sub works, I can hear it changing the bass as I play with the settings on the radio.

Does this sound right?

Someone has definitely been in here before me (I'm finding this with everything I need to work on so far....) as one of the top mounting nuts is completely missing and the other one wasn't even finger tight. All four screws holding the CD changer cartridge in are missing too.