If you unlock the door with the key and the microswitches are all working, I thought the alarm was supposed to be disabled. The lights should flash etc as if you'd used the remote. Not had a single chirp before, though...

Could try syncing the key in the door? Are the other doors locking/unlocking when using the key in the door?

The TDV8 does sound rather nice... but I'm not sure its quite as nice as ours (when the centre silencer is replaced with a pipe, in my opinion, anyway).

That said I've been put off diesels lately. Injector costs on my 5 series (4 figures!) and cleaning up the EGR mess on a merc... a TDV8 can't be that frugal, why not go with a petrol?

You did send me some pots - I managed to damage one enlarging the hole for the rotor, and the second seems to read fine on a meter and on the nanocom from 0-90ish%, but I cannot get the hevac to behave when its in place. On power up it moves all the way to one direction before going all the way back to the other and then just stopping for good till next power up, when it repeats. Doesn't register a fault, and will not calibrate. Was pulling my hair out with it before I gave up and put the original back in, which just works... and calibrates no problem.

Concern is though I've already replaced one of the actual motors (with a used one from a blend motor that had broken cogs), how long all three have left is anyones guess. I suppose I should try and find the cash and just stick brand new ones in if I'm worried. I do not want to be taking the dash out again after this any time soon... nor do I want to cut the ducts to replace them if I had to. Currently have an unmolested ductwork system - I'd like to keep it that way.

I'm not sure what to do.

Preparing a new heater box for my car. I've disassembled the whole thing and 'adjusted' various pivot points, and re-lubed. The flaps are now all loose and move freely and easily. I have a set of blend motors that are all now working to go in along with it. The gears in each one are fine - no stripped teeth or broken bits. Now, I don't see the box binding up again and thus causing the gears to strip, but I'm not sure about the potentiometers... I did try replacing one with some I had, but either I damaged the replacement fitting the rotor/gear or it just wasn't quite right, but it didn't want to work properly at all after that. Put the original back in and it was fine... so I currently have a set of three working motors to go in, but for how long...

£162 for a new set of three Valeo motors from Island4x4... I really don't have the money to blow on them between now and taking the dash out. Do I risk it?

Chequebook? :) must be something that doesn't quite work, it wouldn't be a P38 otherwise...

Slightly jealous of the heated screens working. I need to fix half the lines on my rear.

My parent's car is a Bordeaux. Same carpet and red piping on the seats, though its alverstone red as opposed to the usual P38 Rioja red (which makes finding a new wing a pain in the arse). The door cards are a bit different on a Bordeaux though - no wood inserts, and no wood trim on the centre console/window switchpack. No chrome strip on the side either, but does have fully colour coded bumpers. No fogs, heated screen or seats. Basically, a Bordeaux is like an SE with some fancy wheels, carpet and leather. Only came in the 4.0 too.

So it most likely is a Vogue I'd say. See what a vehicle info lookup returns?

Both sides seem to have something odd going on with the door handles. It's like the plastic has aged differently between the actual handle and 'other bit'. Nothing a matt black rattle can wouldn't sort out, and as they're textured, it'd be pretty durable too.

I quite like the tints... and the wind deflectors. They're not drug dealer dark, but not pointlessly light either.

Add a spattering of clown hair dangling under the bumper...

It took me a while to realise there was no brake modulator or pump too. That said - my vapouriser is on the same side mounted above the brake pump. Fits in nicely. Wiring could do with some tidying up one day.

Just to rub salt in, this morning I'm back in the P38 and on the way to work, the chequebook appears too. It's a bit late to the party mind - the distribution motor has been getting stuck for months. Maybe something else has pushed it over the edge, I couldn't be arsed plugging it in.

Unless you particularly like the style/options the original owner specced out, I'm not really sure they're worth it or really much different from a normal model? Every chance it would mechanically be a shed too, with the seller thinking that is irrelevant because its 'special' and thus demand a hefty price for it. Personally I really dislike the Autobiography badge on the back too... but that's me.

Aha, so you've done exactly what I want to do. My inlet/outlet on my OMVL vapouriser are in different places, but I have some silicone 90 degree bends and adaptors, so it should all fit in fairly nicely.

Well this plan might be falling apart already. Now have two broken cars. Rear ball joints on the passenger side of my BMW seemed to suddenly start making an embarrassingly loud creaking noise this morning. But hey, with a working diesel heater, it was warm!

If you have odd strips working, it won't be the tags sadly :( The bond wires in the screen itself will have failed.

Going to park up my P38 until I can sort this all now. The dripping from the heater is worsening, can't put it off any longer.

When I first got it, the passenger side did work mostly, but the drivers side not at all. So hoping it was the earth tags or a faulty relay I investigated, but when I got around to it, by that time the passenger side had failed too, and it turned out to be the positive tags both end :( Not sure if you can get to those, I didn't try taking any exterior pillar trim off - assumed that was that and left it.

On a Thor, the return (22) is basically in the way of the feed (21). Whereas on a GEMS, it comes out of the bulkhead and then points straight down to the split to the header tank and metal pipework down there. If I remember rightly anyway.

Ordered a meter of 16mm silicone 1 ply hose like Richard suggested for the throttle body hose. That 8mm stuff was good, so hopefully the 16mm is too. Should make it a bit easier to fit in.

I think I'll go the return route then.

On the GEMS its easy to go from the supply to the heater and that's what I did on my old P38. On the Thor though with the vapouriser on the same side, its a bit of a mess. I want to be able to retain the ability to sort of remove the rocker cover (at least enough to change gaskets, which I currently can), avoid high points, and get to other bits and pieces in the vicinity without removing coolant pipes. If I go from pipe 21/the heater supply, by the time I've got pipe reducers and angles in, its not going to be pretty getting over or under the return line. Going from 22/the return though should actually be pretty neat and serviceable.

They do heat up quickly. This morning though I felt none of it while waiting for the windscreen to clear. My heated screen doesn't work at all either :( I'm not really bothered by that though, because of how quickly the engine warms up, I just need to be able to get it into the car.

My seats do now work though! But a hot arse is no good if you can't see where you're going, and I can't sit there keeping the revs up at 6am either - no centre silencer.

My LPG does switch over quickly as it is - sometimes questionably quickly, might have a dodgy sensor there too, but I haven't checked nor has it caused a problem yet. I'd somewhat prefer it take a while longer to give the petrol injectors a bit of an excercise. I don't want them gumming up through lack of use.

My heater is going cold at idle, though my LPG vapouriser is staying hot - you can feel the difference in the pipes. It is currently plumbed in parallel, so presumably the flow is going mostly through the vapouriser at idle. My heater core is leaking at the o-rings and needs replacing one way or another (Audi route), but I'm trying to decide whether to keep the parallel setup or put the LPG in series like I did on my old car. I wonder if the o-ring leak is causing a bit of an air lock at the top of the 'kinks' in the heater hoses on the engine side.

Strangely, the return from the vapouriser has been plumbed into the hose going to the header tank, probably because it made things a bit neater.

Looking at this diagram, if I were to go series, I'd much rather use the return line from the heater core (22) as the feed/return to/from the vapouriser. It would make fitting much neater and avoid any high points in the pipework. But... obviously some heat would be lost through use of the heater. I know that in winter, this will mean it will take longer to switch over to LPG, but once warmed up, does anyone think this would be a problem?

Ah didn't see Mile's reply, beat me to it :)