Worth noting it has a TPS fault, would this be a contributing factor?
ahhh!!
Getting this thing ready for an MOT the dreaded "gearbox fault" pops up on the dash and i lose the lights in the gearshift, sport has disappeared and the gear notification in the dash has disappeared..
It changes gear but at over 2500rpm instead of the usual 1700 and it doesn't kick down..
Any ideas gents?
Next week will be judgement day, whether she passes or fails..
Known faults are...
ABS TC light are intermittent, i believe it is because of a lack of pressure in the ABS system, i will try and leave the pump to run till' it cuts on the day..
Gearbox fault is another the Sport and manual modes don't work and it won't change below 2500rpm so i need to look into that.
Cold start idle is all over the shop, ok when hot..
Exhaust is rough..
etc etc
we'll see!!
H
It is possible.
However a blocked filter can also cause the same issue..
A blocked vent tube is another..
Weirdly if the level is low, it will launch fluid out the dipstick tube...
It has happened to me on my Turbo 400..
The difference bwteen min and max is 250ml IIRC
Not bad at all
Many thanks gents..
Greatly appreciated!
Gilbertd wrote:
So it's had a new set of LPG injectors and still runs like a bag of shite? That makes it even better, a Profess install that was never set up properly and has since had the injectors replaced so it won't be calibrated for them. Get it to Simon!
It was last service by PO..
It did indeed run like a sack of shit..
Personally defo rip off merchants, the wiring is a force to be reckoned with..
A little pixie has emerged.
She is throwing up a TPS fault and the gearbox is refusing to change gear below 2600rpm, the sport and manual modes don't work either..
I haven't looked on RAVE or the world wide net yet, however could they be linked?
Cheers H
Just found this in the P38's history...
A tad eggspensive!!
LOL
After a period of her looking like a piece of shyte, I pullled my finger oot me arse and gathered my interior bits back together ;)
they were scattered to the wind thanks to me not having much storage
the headliner went in to Bedouin tent mode in the damp..
The seat was pulled out, because the bECM sits under there, and it was fubar'd and needed to be repaired.
Drivers seat out!
4x T50 torx bolts enabled it to tip up and out the way, it goes without saying disconnect the battery before pulling the plugs under the seat as there are airbags under there!
the BeCM was removed, and the seat bolts and covers were gathered together, as i have a habit of losing things.
Much more space ;)
more chaos later!!
March 2018 - Present!
After a few months sitting, and water ingress the electrical system of the P38 started to play up/
First up the Drivers door latch failed, for those in the know the tailgate grounds through it so if it breaks you can't open the tailgate. 😒
Also it prevents the EKA code from being entered! so after a flat battery the Car was immobile.
The door card has to come off/
Naturally there were broken bits, the adjuster rod snapped off..
Not ideal
Wiring was a mare to be honest.
I bought a new/2nd hand unit to fit, it didn't work however!!
The water barrier was refitted and repaired with the duck of tape!!
Naturally this didn't fix it, and the BECM started to blow fuses and the car went haywire.
This caused a chain reaction of pain which lasted 2 years "almost" over this time I pulled the entire car apart looking for a short, in hindsight i was rather ham fisted when doing this and I did damage a good bit of the interior trim
Acres of wiring was also unearthed and I found the entire loom floating in a bath of coolant and water!!
which is something you don't want!
The loom was dried out and re-rapped with insulation tape..
Then the car and my enthusiasm went down the shitter and it looked like this for a while!
poor old thing!!
More to come
H
With the Mini I managed to save up a £10 and buy this!!
A shameless stick on piece of fake walnut LOL
I bought it off a seller on the E of bay..
The Old HVAC is an eyesore in my opinion, the grey plastic sicks out a bit too much IMO
The unit face was cleaner with some Alcohol wipes, to remove the grease and grime..
The old face and the New face!!
Looks a tad bit better in my opinion, and to be fair the colour match is spot on considering the stuff around it is
the real deal..
After this I went back on ebay and bought these! ;)
You can never have too much fake walnut!
These were £15 if i remember correctly, and stick on after a wipe over with an Alcohol wipe..
Stuck these on the windows too ;)
They came free with a LROI magazine!! SCORE!!
A special edition too!!
again alcohol wipes were used to clean the glass. .
not everyones cup of tea, but from a distance they do look quite good ;)
H
Next up was the snow, which was horrendous in 2018, i'm proud to admit my old Rangie was the only vehicle in the immediate family that could muster the traction to drive out and through the snow packed village 🤪
It was terrible, but she did me proud for the weeks and months of the snow.. 😅
Naturally she started to play up just after!! ;)
The idle was starting to become lumpy and fuel economy went from an average of 18.4 to 11,2 !!!
so i scanned it
Hmm..
At that time a MAF was £200.
So.....
I bought this.
the 2 ladies in my life, were sitting pretty at one time ehe LOL
2002 Mini one.
I exchanged it for a set of cylinder heads and a few £££
Insurance was cheap as chips and the fuel economy was TWICE as much more than the V8 could muster.
However it was no fun when compared to the Range rover, but it did allow me to accumulate some MOOLAH!! ; )
H
Around a week after doing this job she started to have oil pressure issues, the light would flicker, and there was a knock emerging from the bottom end, at this point I was getting a bit pissed off with this V8 🥶
The Sump on one of these is relatively easy to remove, there is a video somewhere! ;)
Anyway mine was pulled off, the only issue upon removal was the rain shower of oil, that came down because the sump still had around 2 litres in it, thanks to me not draining the sump for long enough!
There was a fair bit of white metal debris in the sump, which is never good, I had the option of pulling the crank or doing a bearing roll.
I decided the latter as it was easier!
The old bearings.
the crank journals were in quite good condition considering the bearings were ruined
They were a bit destroyed, ;)
The new ones were rolled in and the caps re-torqued.
Sump glued back on and some Valvoline VR1 20w50 added as her first meal with new bearings. ;)
Much quieter and the oil pressure is much better, 45 pounds at idle whereas before it was 8-15psi
Cosmetic details.. --------------
After doing this I needed to do an easy job for a change, and giving the engine a spruce up was an obvious option..
Before
The plastics were treated with Autoglym vinyl and rubber care,
the manifold was repainted and some conduit to freshen up the bay was added
much more pleasing and a nice change to pulling it apart!!! ;)
"late 2017"
When i bought her she had a slight tick in the top end, initially i narrowed it down to the OS head, when i bought her the Oil was quite dark but not too bad, after doing a few miles in her though i noticed the tapping getting louder...
this might of had something to do with it!
I did think bout buying a longer dipstick LOL
Topped off with an oil of some kind, i think it was 10w50 the noise did quieten down, however the noise on the OS head was tapping away quite merrily to itself..
That quietens her down a bit that's for sure!
And to add to my misery cake, the Headgasket blew, it was cylinder to outside world, which is a rather odd noise, and she blew it in a MacDonalds drive through, frightened the delivery girl!
Pop BANG pop pop LOL
Stripping it down was easy as well pie.
Intake off
Manifold(s) off
front accessory drive off.
And the finished product.
It took me a week between rain showers and being winter, she was put back together, the tappets were taken out and all disassembled and cleaned out with white spirit,,
the gunk in them was horrible..
Elring gaskets were used on assembly.
More to come.
TBH i was tempted to pull the cam and lifters, but this engine doesn't really need it yet!
And tbh the cam was in ok condition.
She ran much smoother after the change, I think she has had a blow since i bought her, as the rough idle and what i thought was an exhaust blow has gone!
Bloody hell..
Had your hands full!!
The weather is horrendous here too, not P38 tinkering weather!!
Henry.
The ABS and TC warning lights have magically vanished, prolly something to do with me fiddling with the heat shields.
October 2017 - March 2018
This was the Golden Year for the old Lumber Bus, the best thing about it was she was unstoppable in mud and snow which was a godsend in the winter of late 17 and early 18.
I bought her for this purpose to have some fun, and between buying her in July 2017 I didn't do anything with her until around december, when the tappets started clattering real bad and the oil leaks were getting out of control 🤯
First off was the rocker cover gaskets,
Rover in their infinite wisdom fit what seem to be anti theft bolts to the rocker covers which are a complete ballache, as you need anorexic sockets to get them off.
The new gaskets were much better, as expected than the ones previous, the old ones had turned into Bakelite, i chipped off the old gasket!!
A film of lithium grease on the rubber stops it slipping around.
And the rocker covers were glued back on, to be fair it had alot less black death than i'm used to seeing..
odd.
I threw it back together right in time for the snow to hit!!
The above name i'm known by on other forums hence the name LOL
I thought i'd document my ownership and "pain" with you gents, coz it is Thursday and i start a horrible day of work tomorra!!
The Story starts in July 2017 just after passing my test my immediate family wanted me to get something frugal cheap to insure and of course, because i was a new driver something "small" and easy to handle!!
I spent hours looking through Ebay - Autotrader - Gumtree etc for a cheap car, however my mind kept creeping back to big saloons and 4x4's as you do when you're daydreaming on the internet.
There were two cars that i kept mulling over
1 was a Green 1987 Jaguar XJ40 3.6 Sovereign
2 Was a cheap Range Rover P38 V8.
Both were in my budget, and weirdly both were insurable,
I was being asked daily on what i was going to look at, and on "the day" i resigned to tell them that I was going to look at a Mini LOL
Anyway the Jaguar was a complete train wreck, far too much work to bring it up to a respectable daily driver and much more to get it looking good!!
So that was a no go and a waste of fuel!!
Next car "p38" was located in Worcestershire a 75mi trip from where i was, me and my co-driver decided to go down there and have a look..
Naturally it was going dark, and in the light of "dusk" it looked "ok"
LOL
Anyway it drove fine, sounded fine and had no petrol in it!!
So i shook hands at £cough and we were on our way home!!
The first stop was to a petrol station "naturally" where £145 worth of super unleaded was put into the massive tank
And we drove home, a 70mi trip at an average of 19.7 MPG which wasn't too bad considering!!
Pictures from the trip are AWOL but i do have this one from when I got her home!!
those will do for the into on this particular money pit..
more to come later....
H