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tanis8472 wrote:

Intermediate reduction drive.

That's the thing, might take a proper look over it today - stupid to leave it sitting there.

BrianH wrote:

Of course, if its also full of radweld that won't help either

I don't like the stuff. I'm sure it's useful somehow, but it isn't likely to exactly improve the coolant flow and if it's leaking badly enough to need it then it's not liable to work anyway. The GEMS gets a regular replacement of standard blue 50/50 - think I'd rather find and source a leak than mask it tbh. I do need to replace all the hoses which are sitting in a box waiting. Current project is looking at the water getting in (well, showing up) at low level in the boot. Got the rear carpet and insulation out at the moment - it's surprising how much can be accessed like that.

BrianH wrote:

What you can find with the Bosch setup, is that the themostat can be connected incorrectly.

Positive mine's up the spout somewhere - it wouldn't take a lot to mess it up if the cooling if the routing is not doing its thing right. I think the GEMS is a much more intuitive system, or it's one I'm used to as I use it daily.

tanis8472 wrote:

Exactly the same as petrol freelanders.

Mine's got a drilled out thermostat atm as a quick fix, that thing just doesn't cool (petrol one, was warned) although that's second on the list as it got a new (not transfer box but the freelander after-gearbox bit) which had exploded, so new vcu at the same time. Local garage job on account of time vs work, week later the engine flopped back off its rear mount and it ate the prop front boot off the joint. Have a new one to fit on the desk.

92-94 degrees, according to the Nanocom, needle is at the half way point - the one where it looks a little towards the red end when you start thinking about it. It was running cold so now it's got a new thermostat in it. That's the GEMS, went out in the Bosch (which is not mine, but I use it from time to time) -see below- the other day to find it's full of radweld or equivalent and has the cooling power of a 99p handheld fan. It swings into the red if the aircon comes on. Needs a full flush and replacement of half the cooling system and could do with a good check of the engine at least.

-Note-Can't really criticise, I only noticed it has a calibrated speedo sticker in the dash the other day, in nearly 10 years that had never ever entered my mind to think about.

My December 1996 built '97 model year needs the four turns first as well.

tanis8472 wrote:

I think I'll just use eBay for pollen filters. Normally find something at reasonable cost. I refuse to pay £15 or thereabouts for 1 filter.

It's not bad for them, I've bought filters on eBay a couple of times. (Mind you, mislabelled Toyota/Lexus filters don't seem to shift). There's a few parts that are sometimes better value from eBay than the usual shops, suppose it depends on overheads as much as supply/demand.

tanis8472 wrote:

Taking mine back tomorrow. Saturday i was busy as you know.

I forgot they aren't open afternoons (or my local one's not) on Saturdays. Gives me an excuse to get out of the office in the week.

tanis8472 wrote:

I even found a guy on eBay selling the same ones

Yup, there's others too (was me on eBay) - It's one of those parts that slightly seems too good to be true from a major shop, but they were priced right. A couple of people round here have ordered them and from description received the same wrong ones. Gave up on selling them, was good advice to go for a refund in store - cheers for that.

Today: Changed all the brake discs and pads - a couple of stuck slide pins (freed and greased for now) and n/s front pistons have shredded gaiters, overhall kit due for purchase I think. Rear brakes are quite rusty, might replace the carriers etc.

Viscous test whilst jacked, still seems stiff. 90 Lb/ft and very gentle steady turn (hub nut) will move the wheel but still slightly dubious on that one.

Didn't do the axle oil seal as started at midday - still outstanding. Slow drip but doesn't go down appreciably between level checks that I can tell. Still can't be good. Have full set of pipework to fit for cooling system, noticed it was on the way out when I changed the thermostat (and plugs and filters) a couple of weeks ago.

Tomorrow: test spare MAF as have been getting odd spikes at random voltages (according to nanocom) and high minus adaptive airflow coupled with repeated -16.25 LTFT (Bank 2 is 5-10% more in the minus on STFT, needs looking at as well). Still to look at IAT sensor, TPS and IACV seem ok for now. Could be shared ground, could be wiring, could be GEMS ecu. With the brakes done for now (worst bit at least) gives me a Sunday to play with the GEMS bits. Still got a ton of stuff to do on the Thor, that needs a schedule of works in order of importance.

romanrob wrote:

Sam H - here's my bodge for the IAT sensor reading low

Thanks! That is really helpful, I thought mine just read low at startup at first but having saved a short drive or two on the SD card and checked a few randomly timed readings, it is currently all over the place somewhere between -15 and about 10c. I'll have a bit of fun with it in the next week or two. Cheers.

romanrob wrote:

I did exactly this job today... personally I put RTV under the top edge of the metal filter housing/ cover on both sides, and rtv'd the screw holes.

Did the same with the sealant on Saturday just gone - the drains were also completely blocked.

4.0 Thor, is now coming up to 170,000, 11 years ago was at 80,000 - no known history with it. Has needed EAS valves rebuilt once, hoses, fan coupling, lots of small bits done as expected (11 years worth of daily use as a work vehicle), suffers from cooling problems, new radiator at about 165,000 miles. Have failed passenger front lock, new one on my desk ready to go in.

4.6 HSE GEMS, was 96,000 miles 2 years or so ago, now 105,000 or so I think, would need to check - no known history besides previous MOT records, most alarming being two reports of non-visible coolant levels. Bought in early 2017. This one was a mess when I got it, is personal and occasionally work daily driver. New battery and fusebox, along with BECM repair. New leads (and plugs etc). Added cable to alternator (it is too small for the car, at least by later standards) and replaced belt. Needs a front axle seal done, it's in the cubby box, will do it hopefully over Christmas, needs discs and pads, again - in the office ready to fit. New O2 o/s fitted a couple of weeks ago. New thermostat fitted last weekend (was running at 78c and adaptive not working now runs at 94c - will monitor, figures as reported by Nanocom). Oil change, filter (and air) and plugs pending. Had a good few loose bolts round the engine, rocker covers, some underneath etc. Sump needs replacing, the plug it came with had half the thread missing and it's chewed the hole up.

Some other stuff, bit of a list. GEMS HSE and as above some is rest-of-car specific not the engine, some, like drivetrain condition has implications I suppose: Have had to adjust idle bypass, also cleaned stepper and airways, not got to the bottom of why that was needed - may be more to it, but sorting out the steps worked at the time as an MOT was due. Usual regular services. IAT reads low, especially when car is not yet warmed up, could be wiring/comms. New airbags underneath x4 last year. Has oil leak somewhere which I need to pin down, suspect cooler lines. Want to replace fuel lines - that's up next hopefully. HEVAC is cold n/s, need to get in and do blend motor. Had intakes off last week and cleaned pollen filter drains, some sealant added to covers at leak points, N/s was dripping from under the glovebox. Suspect viscous in transfer box is due for replacement, when I got the car it had black fluid in the transfer case, 4 changes later it's still coming out slightly silvery and dirty. Suspect willl need new box. Gearbox oil and filter changed a year or so ago. Currently very rattly at cold, so is the Thor tbh, ideally I'd like to fully overhaul the engine and (if it lives to 150,000 or so will probably get it done and top-hatted). Car has clearly had a hard life, fair amount of rust on rear crossmember attached to the chassis. Ongoing wheel-well water problem, changed boot seal, flushed sunroof drains, o/s boot floor I had a hole in where water was trapped in the rubber underlay, rusted on one of those sunken round plates under the boot - welded (badly) a patch for now. Welded subwoofer frame. CD changer volume is nearly fully quiet, I just use an FM transmitter instead tbh. A fair bit more as well, but I bought it for something to do anyway and it's fun chasing problems. Backed into in a carpark a few weeks ago (large saloon bent itself around my front end), can't find any evidence of damage but monitoring.

I think my fix might be a placebo but every now and then when the rocking gets worse I slacken off and re-nip up (one or both of) the two nuts at the rear on the threaded bars that run front to back just off the floor level. Seems to help for a day or so. The 4.0 without electric adjusters doesn't rock at all, so I'd assume it's higher up (as per the bulletin fix) in reality.

I think it's been deleted - you've probably found the same youtube channels, lots of deleted links to old episodes. Also tried the internet movie car database but it doesn't seem to be on there either. Shame there's not (seemingly) a still on the image search results though.

Found some articles about it I think. The Telegraph one is behind a paywall but you can see the bit where it mentions an Atlantic Blue millenium edition. The BBC article says it was sold to be broken up, the Guardian says sold as parts on ebay. Google: range rover crimewatch russia - it's the top 3 results on mine. (Was in 2005 I think, in South Kensington - articles seem to be a couple of years later).

Gilbertd wrote:

I think we need a cross reference table somewhere so we know who we are talking to. I'm Gilbertd on here (and most other places) but Richard_G over there, Dtoyne over there is Marshall8hp on here and now we find that SamH here is Sam 1979 over there.......

Yeah, sorry about that - I registered over there ages ago using name + year of birth then got somehow temporarily banned from posting, even after the probationary bit where authorisation was needed. When I came here I had a brain failure and stuck my Surname initial on the end instead.

Haha yes that was the same Sam - different suffix (both are correct in their own ways though), I uploaded some pics of the ones that seem to be on sale for the different model years on there, plus the LRCat links I out on here. I'm hoping someone'll go "Oh, its this you want" in a bit!

Looking at the parts numbers: ALR 8126, ALR 8127 and for Bosch, ASR 2316 x2 it seems that the Gems versions (they are listed as 'up to 1999' and '1999 on' usually) are ALR 8126 RH and ALR 8127 LH. From the looks of it these are different in terms of which way round they go but because of the plastic hook connection which sticks out. ASR 2316 appears to be the same part for both sides, and has a different fixing which could work either way up. Could they have sent one early, with hook, and one later handle by mistake? EDIT - the fixings at the ends are quite distinctive, the 1999 on version has a smaller round grey hollow plastic fitting, the earlier ones have a similar shaped (usually metallic) version and a large grey hollow round plastic structure (absent on the later handles) between it and the hook fixing.

LRCat
Also LRCat

I'm based in Chailey (and work from here as well) with a Thor 4L and a GEMS 4.6 to hand (both in every day use, the GEMS is my main car). Neither's perfect but the GEMS just got through its second MOT since I bought it (well, barely on emissions - looking into that at the moment). Hardly an expert but if all else fails I'm normally not far from the Lewes/Haywards Heath area most of the time, I keep the Nanocom on-board just in case and have an inspection pit in the shed for going under cars - best tool I've ever had to be honest. There are a few P38's I see fairly regularly around this way, some of them look to be in really good condition - it's inspiration to get on with all the little jobs whilst the weather's not so good.

tanis8472 wrote:

Dont use the wheel nuts. Way too much torque going through them.

Thanks for that - I should have mentioned when I put my bit up earlier, it's likely to be a very bad idea: it overtightens them, I tried it briefly having read somewhere that it's do-able to find that it will just be extremely problematic. The main centre/hub nut is definitely the one to put the bar/torque wrench on.

dave3d wrote:

The viscous clutch test I believe involves jacking up a wheel and trying to turn it with a long bar to verify it is free.

I have on two, what I did was (following a bit of research): jack up one front wheel, handbrake off and in neutral, slowly try to turn wheel. With a lot of effort I got my GEMS to slightly turn by hand, bar on wheel nut or centre - constant slow and steady force - turned wheel around half a turn. It takes a while. There was some rebound on an inch or so and if you speed up or sharply push/pull it all locks a bit. I also have a worn drivetrain with a bit of slack in it. (On the list of jobs). Also - check for wind-up as it lifts off the ground, shouldn't unwind as the wheel comes up.

I have seen various calculations of torque wrench settings and bar lengths for wheel nuts vs centre nut, timings and so on, but not sat and worked it all out. The Thor, which is higher mileage was marginally easier to turn and seems to have less slack in it. Both will turn easily with a longer (3' or so) bar, but that's apparently not a good test. (I am not heavily built, was trying things out). Someone will know the exact figures, I think mine (esp. the GEMS car) take just a little too much force, but that's possibly wrong. 1'6" bar and gentle steady heave seems to do it.

Car park test (tight lock, dry ground, slight accelerator etc) seems to be a good bet as well, although it'd be useful to have a benchmark of how it ought to feel - as in see what it's like with a new VC and compare. My GEMS has a dodgy transfer case seemingly, so I am anticipating taking it apart at some point anyway - fluid drains with a silver sheen which isn't promising. It's been a workhorse/towing car for most of its life, and not looked after. I have just cut out and welded up a rust hole in the boot floor beside the wheel well. Looks like the back end's been stuck out of a beach hut for years tbh. The Thor and GEMS both did similar things on the viscous test I did, although I'm not 100% convinced either is quite right.