It was a very nice looking Oslo Blue car that had a white pin stripe down the side of it. Looked gorgeous but was an awful lot of money.

I've just got my latest VSE home now. It drives really well indeed. It was dark when I collected it so I've only got one picture I was sent a couple of hours before I collected it :) The oil leak it's got is from the power steering system somewhere. It's wet around the reservoir so I'll do some digging in day light and see what I can find. Other then that, it needs a ribbon on the HEVAC display, and if I'm being really picky, the front bumper and the wing mirrors resprayed.

The sat nav works but thinks it's 50 miles from where I am. ha ha.

It certainly isn’t Simons. I know the history of his car and it’s condition but I think the price is optimistic given that it’s ready to tick over 100k.

The blue VSE with 50k didn’t sell for months on end at 12k and was eventually reduced to under 10k.

As much as I enjoy tinkering with a P38, I’m afraid I just don’t see them as a £15k car. If I was spending anywhere near that I’d be buying another Supercharged L322.

Will take some when I get it home. :)

David.

Intentions...

95 HSE - This car was always bought as a breaker.
97 HSE - Sort the electrics out and either keep and use or rehome. We've done everything mechanically to this car in the last 9 years.
99 DSE - Finish gearbox replacement and rehome.
02 VSE's - Keep and restore to concours.

David.

Well, I've not finished the DSE, I've barely touched the VSE, yet tomorrow I am collecting another VSE.

I found it locally... it's a 2002 in Alveston Red, cream leather with red piping, and the gorgeous Rowan Cherry wood. At the moment, I've got 4 P38's... none of them work, so, the sensible thing do seemed like buying another one!

Our 97 4.6 decided to set fire to it's fuse box, thankfully we caught it before it did any more then char a wire. The DSE now has a new gearbox fitted but isn't put back together, I've no other excuse apart from me being lazy... the Oslo Blue VSE hasn't been done yet because the DSE hasn't been finished and the 95 4.6 has had so many bits removed from it that it's never going near the road again...

So, tomorrow we welcome P38 number 5!

I must be mad...

David.

That's good to know Marty, what is it in the ECU that actually fails?

The EAS on this car seems to be higher then usual on standard height so I've just ordered 4 new bump stops and I'll get Testbook and my calibration blocks out and calibrate it and see if that makes much difference.

She's sat with the battery connected for over 24 hours now, there's been no fires, no flat batteries and no funny goings on so fingers crossed that she's going to behave herself!

David.

Marty, I think I'm sorted for a disc at the moment, many thanks for the offer though :)

Last night I left the suspension up in the air with the battery disconnected to see what happened over night.

The pressure gauge when I called it a night was at circa 9 bar.

This morning I'd lost nearly 3 bar overnight.

All 4 corners of the car however were nice and level:

Originally I'd always said I was going to get the front bumper resprayed before refitting it as it was very scruffy. I had to move a trailer in a field today so ended up putting it back together anyway:

As the car has no MOT or Tax at the moment I figured that testing it off road was the easiest way of giving it a run. There were no signs at all of overheating, gear change is smooth and the brake pedal feels nice.

Interestingly though, I do have an ABS Fault and Traction Failure displayed on the screen. The two faults shown on Testbook are:

11,6: Pressure Switch Failure
12,5: Rear Left sensor short to another sensor

Interestingly though, if I try and clear the faults with Testbook, Testbook crashes. I'll need to do some digging and see what's what there at the weekend. Hopefully it won't be the ECU!

David.

Gordon popped down this evening to get his P38 plugged into Testbook so I had an evening off house move stuff to tinker.

We sorted out his high idle and then had a look at the EAS on the VSE. I put an inline pressure gauge between the compressor and the tank and left it running with the door open, about 10 minutes later the compressor cut out as the pressure gauge was reading 150psi. We then shut the door and the rear of the car went straight up and when the valve block opened the solenoids for the front you could hear air escaping and the pressure gauge was dropping rapidly.

We slid under the car and Gordon spotted that the airbag had become separated from the top part that the airline goes into. We removed the bag from the car and used a little bit of tyre lubricant on it as it dries out rather then staying slippery and slipped the bag back together. We put the airbag back on the car, reconnected the airline and started the car and the front end raised from the dead.

I've disconnected the battery over night and left the car in the air and left the pressure gauge connected so that I can monitor the system for leaks. I rebuilt the valve block with new o-rings last week so that's one less thing to worry about.

This car has a bill for €1300 for a new compressor and reconditioned valve block in 2011. Some of the o-rings split when I squeezed them so it obviously needed a rebuild.

Anyway, fingers crossed it behaves.

On a separate note, does anyone have a spare copy of the sat nav disc for the factory system? The disc is missing from mine.

David.

The RR is now running beautifully every time I turn the key, the temperature appears to be rock solid at exactly half way on the pin. I've checked various parts of the cooling system with my IR Thermometer and everything seems to be heating evenly which is nice.

I had a brief look at the suspension as the rear rises perfectly but the front won't come up off the bump stops. I got some soapy water in a spray bottle and lightly sprayed the valve block, as the solenoids for the front bags were energised I saw bubbles on the valve block so I've ordered an o ring kit to rebuild the valve block which I'll hopefully get done this weekend.

I spoke to the guy I bought the car from who has advised me that he has an amplifier and will send me it to replace the knackered one which is handy :)

David.

I've unplugged the Sat Nav drive in the boot and tested the radio again and there's no noise at all coming off the speakers at any volume. I'll fire a CD in the changer later just to make sure it's nothing stupid.

Those amplifiers can't be beyond repair, surely not, they're only components in them. I think I'll remove this one and open it up before spending a fortune on a second hand one, especially as they've got a habit of failing.

David.

Well, the new water pump arrived yesterday, as did the tensioner.

I got them both fitted last night but ran out of daylight so didn't have it running. I've bled it through and had it running this morning, the engine on it is silky smooth and so quiet.

The bearings in the old water pump had definitely gone as the impeller was able to slide back and forth and you could see where it had been touching the water pump casing.

The rear air suspension rises very quickly and the compressor is silent, the front stays on the floor though. I've removed the pipe from the top of the bag and there's not much air going in so I'm about to venture back out with a pressure gauge.

The audio system powers on, the head unit does its thing, there's a thud from the rear as it powers on but there's no audio so I've got a horrible feeling the amp is knackered.

The disc is missing from the sat nav too but I've got one here somewhere.

More updates to come!

David.

I got a Dayco tensioner for £20 delivered on eBay and Euro Car Parts will have a Circoli water pump in stock for me tomorrow which cost £48.29.

:)

David.

I've had dozens of orders from Island in the past and have never had any problems off them. Their service is great.

David.

I tried Euro Car Parts in Glasgow today for the water pump and belt tensioner as I want to get on with it but there's nothing in stock anywhere. Drives me nuts! Patience isn't a strong point!

David.

Hopefully.

The car cost less then any other Vogue SE I've ever seen for sale before.

I've ordered an auxiliary belt tensioner and a water pump today which I'll get fitted and then get the belt back on. Halfords replaced the old battery under warranty this morning too so it's all good so far.

I know it's a project and that it needs a fair amount of work but I'll get it to where it deserves to be. First step is to make it perfect mechanically and get it through an MOT then once it's usable I can start picking away at the bodywork. Other then respraying both of the bumpers and a good session at the local detailers for a full paint correction there's not a massive amount of work required.

David.

Well, the Vogue SE has finally arrived.

It was collected in Gloucester yesterday at around 1pm by Beamish Transport, from there it went to Birmingham, Newcastle, Coatbridge, Linwood and then to Langbank where it was delivered at 1.30pm today. A massive thanks to them for such a pleasant and efficient process.

The car itself needs work doing to it, I knew it did when I bought it. The front bumper is removed and in the back as it was removed for painting but never painted, the interior has had parts borrowed from it for other cars. All the parts that were removed are present so it just needs putting back together.

The car drove off the lorry, I had to unload at my flat rather then at my folks where the workshop is. It's definitely a Range Rover I bought... it had to be jumpstarted whilst on the lorry and it then broke down on the 1.5 mile trip! The small return spigot from the radiator to the expansion bottle was sheared so the coolant was spraying everywhere. Thankfully as soon as I saw the temperature gauge go up I stopped it and used the other P38 to drag it up the hill.

There was a brand new radiator in the back of the car so I've fitted that tonight. The coolant return pipe was some crappy piece of pipe so I've replaced that with a proper one, and I've replaced the bonnet struts as they were shot too. I've had it running tonight, it was beautifully smooth but after about 10 minutes there was a bearing from something on the auxiliary belt that was screeching. I took the belt off and felt the pulleys, there's a bit of wear in the tensioner and the water pump so I'll check them out tomorrow. Other then that, the car has been running and has had the cooling system filled and bled out and it's running beautifully. The rear air suspension came up no problem but the front didn't so I'll get a look at that too.

The engine is spotlessly clean so I do believe that it's been changed recently too. The seller has the receipt for the RPI engine that's in the car and is going to send it on so that I can keep it with the cars history file. There's some amount of money been spent on the car over the years, including a receipt from a Land Rover dealer in Benidorm for €1300 for an air suspension compressor!

It does need a lot of work doing to it however I believe all of the parts are in the back of the car but for the price I paid for it I think I've got a fair project. Current mileage is 104,800. It's done about 600 miles from it's previous MOT before it sat off the road for 2 years.

Pictures:

There's some unusual wiring coming off the battery that I wasn't sure about when I saw it earlier. It has however just occurred to me that it's probably to do with the split charge system for the 12S towing socket.

The battery on the car is totally dead, I put it on the reconditioner earlier on and it said the battery was faulty. I was going through the service history tonight and the receipt for the battery is there. Thankfully, it's got 13 days of warranty left on it so I'm going to get a replacement battery for it tomorrow. :)

More updates to come as progress occurs.

David.

Your VSE is really fighting you every step of the way!!

Hopefully you'll have it fighting fit in no time at all!

David.

Well, time for another update!

The DSE now has the new gearbox fitted, I just need to put everything back together around the box and swap the radiator. I'm in the middle of renovating the new house at the moment as we were meant to move on 2nd May... It looks like that's been massively pushed back already so tinkering time has been at a premium.

I have however done the deal on the 2002 Oslo Blue Vogue SE so once the DSE is on the road and MOT'd she will be looking for a new home!

David.

Well, this DSE project is dragging on now as works been busy and I've not been able to find the inclination to get cold in the workshop. Anyway, I need to get this project finished as I've agreed to take on a new project... a 2002 4.6 Vogue SE. As soon as this is finished I can get the Vogue SE home and get it sorted.

I've not even seen pictures of the car yet but from the description I've been given it doesn't need a lot of fettling and 5k miles ago it had a brand new RPI V8 engine fitted to it.

David.

I was expecting that to happen as the same thing happened on my 4.6.

I'm hoping I can cut the pipes near the unions and then remove the whole cooler from the car. Hopefully with it on the bench I can slice the nuts open with the air cut off saw or dremel and remove them.

Got a funny feeling I'll need a new cooler but if I can do it without I'd rather not put another hundred quid into it before even having driven it.

Once it's moved under its own steam and I know it's good the plan is to go over it thoroughly and make it a good 'un.