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.

Evening guys,

I'm after a spot of advice...

I'm about to put a new gearbox into the DSE, however, with this being a 99MY it doesn't have the transmission dipstick fitted to it. From previous experience, it's much easier to fill the transmission and to check the level using the dipstick from above then it is using the fill plug on the side.

I've got a 1995 MY 4.6 breaker with the dipstick and tube still on it, is it possible to retrofit it to the DSE whilst the gearbox is swapped out?

Thanks!

David.

Seeing as I'm about to be replacing the gearbox on the DSE I was thinking of flushing the oil cooler. I don't know what's gone wrong in the old gearbox and I don't want to risk any more damage then necessary by any crap that might be floating around in the oil system.

I've been looking on Google and found a video on YouTube of Eric The Car Guy flushing an oil cooler using a can of spray solution.

Video of cooler flush

I can't find anything similar in the UK so I was wondering about flushing it backwards with ATF or possibly Diesel, I just wondered if anybody had any suggestions or ideas.

Thanks

David.

In June 2014 my old P38, a 1997 4.6 HSE that I'd spent 2.5 years putting into concourse condition caught fire. I was on my way to London with my Xantia Activa on the trailer behind me. It was heart breaking as it was the only car I’d kept for 3 years and not wanted to get rid of.

Here she is the night before we left in all her former glory:

And this is how the Xantia and I finished our journey to London:

I didn’t realise it at the time but it knocked my confidence and trust in the P38 massively. We still had 2 others at home and I could not relax or get comfy when driving them so I bought myself a Supercharged L322. My next knock came when I tried to take one of the others for MOT and ended up with the fire brigade at that when I had flames coming from the front wheel due to a seized brake caliper.

I then sold the red P38 and we kept only our Oxford Blue 4.6 HSE. The bodywork on this one lets it down but mechanically we’ve done all the work to it and it drives beautifully. The other night I stupidly forgot the trailer was on it and as the windows were all steamed up I jackknifed the trailer and caught the O/S/R door with the trailer.

I then started scouring eBay and Gumtree for an Oxford Blue door and ended up finding the DSE that was local and in Oxford Blue that didn’t drive. The listing said it was a manual so I started researching the possible faults and decided it might have been the selector pin so if it was better then I expected I’d repair it. I then rang the guy and decided that I’d buy the car however upon collection found it to be in much better condition then I expected it to be… I also looked in the window and saw an automatic gear lever in there!

The car hadn’t moved in over a year so the brakes were stuck on but thankfully the winch on the trailer had enough power in it to break them free. I winched it on and we set off for home. It was pitch dark and the car was in a place called Forth, about an hour from us. Our 4.6 P38 was running like a dream, and towing the loaded trailer beautifully. When we were passing Hillington on the M8 (about 15 minutes from home) the P38 beeped 3 times and showed “EAS Fault” on the dashboard.

Thankfully it didn’t shut down to the bump stops and we managed to complete the journey home. The next day I went out in daylight and had a look at the DSE and noticed that the suspension on the 4.6 had sagged at the rear.

The DSE turned out to be in lovely condition:

I detest the after market wheels on the car so today I made a trip to Kilcreggan which is about an hour from here to pick up a set of Comet alloys. It’s a set of 5, 4 of which are great but the 5th is a bit of a mess.

I spoke to Ashcroft Transmissions for some advice on the gearbox. The car has no drive whatsoever but when you move the gear selector there is absolutelty nothing that happens. They advised that with the car in P if it will roll then the transfer box is knackered, if it won’t and the Park break works then the gearbox is knackered.

Having carried out the tests it is indeed a gearbox fault. I’ve managed to source a 4HP22 gearbox locally for £150 so I think I’ll begin the process of swapping the gearbox.

Today I decided to have a look at the compressor on the 4.6. It was bought from Island 4x4 in 2011 but has only done about 20k in the car. It turns out that the bearings in it are knackered.

http://vid15.photobucket.com/albums/a376/David306/DSE%20Project/5C353DAA-25DF-4D8E-AF56-2EE810123DD9_zpslvfr0sk5.mp4

So, it looks like I need to order a compressor.

I’ve got a 4.6 breaker which has a good 4HP24 gearbox, however, I’ve decided that I’m going to buy a 4HP22 for the DSE and keep my HP24 just in case I need it for our 4.6.

I’ve been offered one locally from a 4.0 so need to check that the internals are the same and it’s not going to cause me any problems with the ECU’s etc.

Anyway, that’s the last week covered and me up to date now :)

David.

Well, up until now I've only ever fiddled with 4.6 V8 Range Rovers, that is until tonight, when I collected a 2.5 DSE that was to cheap to walk past.

The car is a 99 V registered Oxford Blue DSE with Sandstone Leather, the car has 2 sets of wheels with it, both aftermarket, one of them is a set of 20" Eltex alloy wheels which Paddock retail at £410 a wheel including tyres, and the other set is a set of 19" Range Rover Sport wheels. I've already sourced a set of Comets for the car so both sets of these will be for sale. It's got Sat Nav but it doesn't power on and it's got an after market stereo fitted to it.

The main problem though is the gearbox - there's no drive at all. The selector is incredibly stiff, when you pull it thought the gears the indicator on the dashboard changes from P, R, N, D, 3, 2, 1 and when you move it to low it beeps and the light flashses and it says LOW on the dash but there's no clunk from the transfer box motor. In High or Low there's not even an attempt at drive. There's no noises or clunks as you move selector and when you rev it there's not even a shake from it as if it's trying to drive.

Unfortunately there's no dipstick on this one so checking the oil is a bit more tricky. I need to get under it and check the selector cable hasn't broken or come free from the gearbox, other then that, is there anything that is worth checking?

I've got a 4.6 breaker complete with a 4HP24 box on it, I've read a few things on the net and think with a bit of fettling it might fit. Does anyone have any information that could help?

Thanks guys,

David.