Apologies for the delays... time is a rarity these days.
The Blue VSE has indeed found a new home now. I believe the chap who bought it owns CNS4x4 but I'm not sure. If I'm right, chances are it's away to be broken.
The red VSE has one annoying issue that I'm about to start another thread on, otherwise, there's little to report. I treated the red car to 4 new tyres and the wheels balanced the other day and it's made some difference to the car. She's not done 1000 miles since May but in the snow we had last week she went straight into service and never missed a beat.
David.
I'm looking for one! I will message the chap now.
Mark did have one custom made for his. He was going to send me the template he used for it but then the unthinkable happened.
David.
Well, my air conditioning recharge lasted 24 hours.
Whilst I had my head under the bonnet I could hear a hissing noise from the low pressure pipe on the bulkhead right beside the filling port. I actually thought it was the filling port leaking but it turns out that it's a pin hole in the back of the pipe and the bulkhead is covered in UV dye.
I'm now getting pissed off with the car being steamed up all the time in this weather and want it fixing.
In the summer I replaced the drier, condenser and both pressure switches, it now definitely needs one pipe but I'm thinking I might as well replace all of the pipes and be done with it. I managed to get the pipe from the drier to the condenser from eBay, there was a genuine one for £25.
There's 3 other pipes I need, the evaporator to compressor, compressor to condenser and evaporator to drier. The 2 pipes from the evaporator on the car have a join, one beside the EAS box and one behind the N/S headlight. The pipe from Island 4x4 for the Evap to the Compressor appears to be in one piece according to the pictures. Has anyone else replaced these pipes and knows of a definite good source?
https://www.island-4x4.co.uk/pipe-compressor-evaporator-0002-jue109220-p-8010.html
The evaporator to drier they don't seem to list.
David.
Rather then helicoiling a manifold bolt, it might be worth having a look for a machine shop that could remove the bolt via spark eroding. I did that with a cylinder head on an old Discovery I owned, worked a treat and there's no chance of you drilling it slightly off centre or not square.
David.
Thanks Gilbert and Marty.
I noticed the evap temperature was 16 when I started the car, then it dropped down and kept going down. When it got to 0, the next step was 6552.
I wonder if it's a sensor fault or if it's something else that could be causing it. I'd imagine the evap temp sensor is a sod to change too.
David.
Well, I've been mucking around a bit more.
With the temperature set to LO and a thermometer shoved in the vents the temperature drops to 6.3 degrees, if I hold the revs at 2000rpm then the temperature in the vent drops to 5.3 degrees.
I just took the car for a run and to start with I had the heating set to 28 on Auto and the fans were barely moving, after the temperature got as hot as I could bare in the cabin i turned the AC down to 16 on Auto and the fans sped up and the air was cool. Very quickly though the fans slowed down again, you could just hear then but it sounded as if they were on slow.
The cabin temp sensor has had a cloud of fluff removed from it with a toothpick this afternoon and I can see the fan moving when using the torch on my phone to look at it, and when checking it with testbook, the reading seems realistic when I had the doors all open. Blowing on it did cause the reading to change almost instantly on Testbook so I'm guessing that's working.
If I had to guess at the moment, I'd say it's more an issue with the fan speed when set to Auto rather then an air conditioning fault at the moment.
Must slide under the car once it's cooled down and make sure the drains for the AC are clear as well before it gets wet in the cabin.
David.
Update - Just been reading Rave and noticed the fans don't run all the time and that they only run when the pressure in the system rises. I thought the operation was the same as my Citroen's in that the fans run on slow as soon as the A/C button is pressed so it looks like my fans are working as they should.
Hmm, I noticed that even when the car is just started and it's warm inside the compressor doesn't stay engaged for long, it then cuts out and after a few seconds kicks in again.
David.
Well, everything is fitted, and yesterday morning it was recharged by ATS in Glasgow. When changing the drier the pressure switch fell apart through corrosion on the aluminium so I ended up replacing both pressure switches in the end too, best to be safe I thought, especially as the Tri-Switch on my old P38 was knackered.
The system was vacuumed and held a vacuum of 1mB for 30 minutes. It then had 1380g of R134a, 10g of oil and 10g ov UV dye put into it.
The compressor is kicking in and there's definitely a chill to it when it's set to 16 on the panel but it's not cooling like I'd expect it to. On LO it does get colder.
I've done some prodding today and noticed that the fans on the condenser aren't running, I know they work as I tested them with 12v when I did the condenser. Bridging the relay on the car brings them to life as well. I am getting 12v to the relay coil but for some reason the car isn't switching it when the air con is switched on.
I've cleaned the cabin temperature sensor of fluff and I can see that spinning when the ignition is switched on, the core temperature sensor is giving a reading in Testbook that does seem to relate to the coolant temperature so that appears to be working ok.
I noticed that the evaporator temperature was showing 6552 degrees which I thought would be the cause. I did some Googleing and found a thread on LandyZone where they said to stop it, let it sit for a few mins and try again, I did this and watched the evaporator temperature go from 8 degrees down 1 degree and a time and when it went below 0 degrees it went to 6552 degrees.
The clutch on the compressor is pulling in and out and I'm getting condensation on the pipes under the bonnet so it's obviously working, it's just not doing what I'd expect it to in the cabin. I suspect it's probably the same fault that's stopping the fans working.
Anybody got any ideas?
Thanks,
David.
That's a right piss take about your windscreen, I can't believe he actually thought he'd get away with it.
When I had a new screen fitted to my Supercharged Range Rover last summer, I boiled a pan of water and took it to the car and held it above the dashboard so that it steamed the screen up. I then started the car and left the HEVAC all switched off and turned on the electric heated screen to ensure it cleared.
Seemed to do a good job of testing the screen at the time :)
David.
Gilbertd, that makes sense as the condenser on the late diesels changed as well I believe.
I took a punt and ordered a Britpart one from Island 4x4 and can confirm that with no bending, bodging or cutting it fitted first time! The new drier is in now too along with both new pressure switches so hopefully a regas is all it needs!
Here’s the one I bought in case anyone is looking:
https://www.island-4x4.co.uk/condenser-9402-britpart-stc3679-p-266.html
David.
It is indeed an EIS one, it's currently back in the back. They can have the bloody thing back tomorrow.
Well, the eBay seller measured 3 others he had in stock and they all had the same issue so he's told me to return it for a refund.
I checked the Euro Car Parts website earlier and noticed that the branch I pass on the way home from work had one in stock, £150 full price or £93 with a 35% discount code that I had so I ordered it online and went to fetch it on the way home.
When you put the fans on this one, the holes are even further out of place then they are on the cheap eBay one!!
I don't suppose anyone has access to the parts catalogue and can see if the fans changed on the 02MY and all these condensers are right for earlier fans?
Gilbert, any idea where you ordered your Britpart one from? If it definitely fits, as much as ordering something in a blue box goes against the grain I'll give it a go.
David.
I wouldn't touch polybushes again.
We fitted the blue polybushes to ours when we got it, within 2 years the car was dangerous. We removed them and fitted Genuine Land Rover bushes that were bought from the dealer and haven't looked back since.
David.
If the readings are the same as last year, I don't see how it can possibly fail.
I usually take mine for a good Italian tune up before MOT for the emissions but yours shouldn't need it if the readings haven't changed.
David.
I keep looking at these as they're one of the few that are in the UK:
Land Rover quote their o-rings as being metric, those one's don't appear to be though.
David.
I went to fit my new condenser and drier this afternoon.
Stripped everything down, removed the old condenser which was definitely toast and had visible holes in several places. I took the fan assembly off the old condenser, laid it on top of the new one, put the two bottom bolts in it and when I went to put the top two in the holes aren't in the right place. They're half a holes width out. I can get one of them in by deforming the fan module slightly but there's no way the 4th one will go in.
As I removed the tri-switch from the drier unit the aluminium split so it won't tighten on the new one so I've ordered both pressure switches tonight too.
One thing I'd forgotten to order was the o-rings so I'm going to order them and hopefully I can get the rest of it back together at the weekend.
David.
Sorted now. My brother had loosened the bolt on the positive terminal so the heavy cable that runs to the starter wasn’t working. I told him half way through doing it I only needed the negative off so he stopped. I didn’t realise he had loosened it though. Shame, the starter from my scrapper would have done it. Oh well, one for experience.
One of my P38’s won’t start... the starter motor has been sluggish for a long time and on Tuesday it dies completely with smoke coming out of it whilst trying to turn over.
I whipped the starter off my breaker and fitted it but it just clicked when it tried to engage the starter. As it had been sat there for years I suspected the starter.
I ordered a new starter on Tuesday evening and have just fitted it now and at still just getting a single click when trying to engage the starter.
Have ran a jump lead from the engine to the chassis in case it was an earth problem but that’s made no difference either.
Anyone got any ideas?
Thanks,
David.
Guys,
A pal of mine owns a garage in Thornton and we were talking about air conditioning recently. Apparently a 13k bottle of gas used to cost him around £90, due to some changes somewhere it's now £350. When I told him how much gas a P38 took, he reckoned that most placed will be charging £150 to recharge something that size before long... So I've decided to do it quickly.
My Alveston VSE needs a new condenser as it's rough as hell looking through the bumper, I've decided I might as well fit a drier too.
Condenser - £66
Drier - £24
Recharge - £30
https://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/ats-euromaster-ltd-8
All in, that'll only be about £120 to get the air conditioning working again, with the current weather, I think that's pretty good value :)
Just check that there's an ATS Euromaster near you as not all centres are included in the offer. There's a link on the Groupon page. My wife had her Peugeot recharged using the same voucher last year and we've had no problems since.
On my last P38 I found the tri-switch to be faulty, I'm hoping on this one it isn't though, there's no fault code suggesting that it is, so fingers crossed!
David.
I've just seen this and am truly shocked. We exchanged a lot of messages when I bought my blue VSE as he was restoring a black VSE.
He was a top bloke and was truly enthusiastic about his projects, a tragic loss to the P38 family.
Thoughts are with his family at this horrible time.
David.