I raised this with PayPal and opened a case but the cases on PayPal are time limited.
Due to the length of time AUTODOC took to acknowledge the fault and refund me, PayPal closed the case and will not reopen it. Nor will they let me open another case.
From now on, I’m only using a credit card when shopping online.
David.
Good afternoon, all!
If anybody is considering ordering parts from AutoDoc, I'd strongly advise against it as when you have problems, their customer service is non existent and they will never refund the entire cost of your order!
On 12th May I ordered 2 new height sensors for my Range Rover. Upon fitting them to the car and following the correct tightening procedure as per the workshop manual, both sensors broke.
It turns out that the body of the height sensor stood proud of the mounting points which meant that they snapped when tightened. You can quite clearly see this when using a straight edge across the sensor in the images below:
After discussing this with the supplier they asked me to return the items to them using a prepaid shipping label. I packed the items and took them to the post office and 8 weeks later received an email stating that my claim had been accepted and that they'd be refunding my money.
5 days later I got a message from PayPal advising that I'd received a partial refund from Autodoc. When looking, the refund was £8.43 short of the amount that I'd paid. I questioned this and have been told that because Autodoc had to pay a courier to deliver the faulty items they sent me they won't be refunding the entire amount.
So... in a nutshell, THEY send me parts that are quite clearly flawed, I then go out of my way to provide the packaging and make a trip to the Post Office to return the parts but they withhold the cost of postage from the refund.
It has taken me months to get to the point of actually getting a refund and now they are refusing to refund the cost of postage. Admittedly, it's less then £10, but it's the principle that stinks. Especially as it took them over 2 WEEKS to deliver the items to me in the first place!
I'd love to say this was the first issue I'd had with Autodoc but I've received broken parts from them in the past as well.
Buyers, be warned!
David.
Those readings dropping in stages sound about right IIRC.
0.05 is about spot on when everything is asleep.
Weather stations and the likes used to be a bugger for keeping things awake, however, if your RF receiver is disconnected it shouldn’t be that causing it.
David.
The tyres that were on this one prior were FullRun or something like that. Whatever it was on when I got it.
The Michelins are much, much quieter. They look good on the car too. Daft as it sounds, I like the design on the side wall lol.
David.
The reverse signal is picked up from a plug that's located behind the NSR tail light. The rest of the kit bypasses the car loom in it's entirety.
David.
The centre fill speaker on the dash was standard on all of the late (2002) Vogue SE's. The half wood/leather steering was an optional extra on all of them and not many had it. I retrofitted it to mine.
I'm very impressed with them. They're quiet, drive nicely and do what they need to do.
It's been a week from hell since I returned from my break thanks to work but I'll do a decent post on them when I get 5 minutes.
David.
I think that might just be a Vogue SE badge as it's missing the dash speaker that the SE's have a standard.
EDIT - Checking the reg does indeed reveal it to be registered as a Vogue SE. Weird.
Either way, seems a bloody shame to do that to a P38.
I towed an Ifor Williams cattle trailer to Newcastle and back a few weeks ago. It’s taller then the RR, the front is very flat and it was like dragging a bungalow behind me. With a tail wind it took off, when going into the wind it was noticeably slowing me down.
I’d wanted to hire a fibre glass box trailer but couldn’t get one so had to use what we had.
I got 8mpg over 390 miles on that trip.
David.
The P38 will tow it just fine but it's lacking in torque to do it as effortlessly as the newer ones do. Our L322 doesn't even know the caravan is behind it, but with 313bhp, 516lbft of torque and 8 gears to choose from, it shouldn't!
I drive my P38's with a degree of mechanical sympathy so if I end up in 2nd gear on a steep hill, rather then having it screaming away at 5k rpm I tend to slow down and hold the traffic up a bit. Other then that, it's easy enough to do 50-60.
Just make sure your bushes and steering are good as a big lump on the back will amplify any movement in the car.
David.
The Vogue SE that I've just put the engine in needs a brake accumulator I think. If you park the car up for 24 hours, then jump in it, start it and move off straight away there's no brakes. Thankfully, moving straight away for us is going into reverse and turning around on the driveway but the first time it happened I did brick myself!
Going to order a new accumulator and a new radiator as the Eurospares one from Island 4x4 hasn't lasted 500 miles before it started to leak. There's no damage on it but when the cooling system is up to pressure it's leaking. Annoyingly, it's 1 month outside of it's 12 month warranty too.
David.
The Swift Conqueror 630 that we have is a fairly light caravan by todays standards at 1532kg (3377lbs).
It's modern equivalent is the Elegance Grande which has gained a few pounds coming in at 1745kg (3847lbs).
https://www.swiftgroup.co.uk/caravans/swift-elegance-grande/technical
The newer vans are 8ft wide now as well and the majority of them are between 400-500kg (880-1100lbs) heavier.
The Buccaneer Barracuda that my folks have looked at briefly is 1900kg (4188lbs) unladen.
We’ve just dragged the caravan back from Roy Bridge to home, a distance of 115 miles.
Other then being in 2nd gear on a couple of hills the P38 took it in it’s stride.
It's such a shame they've cut the bodywork. Especially seeing as it was done when the car was 3 years old and still had a significant value to it but when you buy the car at 15 years old there's not much you can do about it unfortunately.
The other Vogue SE we have has it nicely hidden behind the fuel filler flap and it's much, much neater. When we converted our last P38 ourselves we fitted it where the additional towing socket would be also. I've only ever regretted putting it there once when I had to unhitch the trailer to get the LPG filler to fit.
The paint looks good enough in the pictures!
David.
The LPG filler on the Vogue SE we've just fitted the new engine too is tucked in the behind the fuel filler cap. It's very neat.
I actually hate this one as it's a big hole in the rear quarter. I'd rather it was under the bumper to be honest.
David.
FINISHED!! :-D
She's been out for a run on the new tyres and is running perfectly. The tyres are much, much smoother and quieter. I nipped the steering box by a tiny, tiny amount and it's taken a bit more play out of the steering.
It's just a shame that the weather was disgusting tonight so the pictures look dull but it does show the shine.
David.
I had to extend one of my EAS pipes as it had been trimmed to much by someone before I bought the car. I got several or those blue ferrule connectors from a local airline supplies company and they've been spot on.
When the VSE was getting the new engine I bought 4 of them and threaded some schrader valves onto them and they were fine too. I keep an eye on them and regularly leave my car in off road height for a couple of days to check for leaks and all has been good so far.
I guess you use what you can get quickly when you need them.
Hmm, it's either a crap part or there's a leak causing it to run an awful lot more then it should.
It could be a number of things causing the book symbol to appear from low refrigerant in the air con system to knackered blend motors.
The only real way to find out what is upsetting it and causing the symbol to appear is to have the codes read from the HEVAC ECU. That'll give you the best indication of where to look for the fault.
David.