Well, that was all very entertaining. The headlines:
1) I'm home, with the car, and it got here under its own power!
2) thanks very much GilbertD. I hope you have a sense of how much your support was appreciated.

Once I'd got the BECM bypassed, the car started as sweet as anything. No issues whatsoever.

In the hospital car park, after I'd synched the keys (or not, if the immobiliser was on) I was getting nothing from the fobs. No lock/unlock; no engine.

Once I'd got the engine going and got to the office (where the car often sits) lo, and behold, both keys lock/unlock the car without any further attention. The only thing I can think of is that the particular corner of the hospital car park I'd parked in is swamped in radio traffic. The previous owner made a point of telling me that he'd cut back the aerial in the fob receiver, but even then I think there must be too much. There's the hospital itself, and on the far side of the car park, the biggest ambulance control centre/depot in the north of Scotland. Police HQ about 1/2 mile away.

I reckon if I reconnected all the wiring back to standard, and tried again, that she'd fire up.... but it's one less thing to worry about at a busy time of year. I'd always intended to implement this wiring 'hack', but to make it switchable. In normal circumstances the BECM and the immobiliser would be connected. If I came up against anything like today, I could flick a hidden switch and get going again. This episode has convinced me this is the way forward, but its a job for a warmer season.

Thanks again GD.

Hey ho. Thanks very much for keeping an eye on this and adding suggestions.

I've done the key sync thing, both ways, and it's not making a difference. I do get a "press remote" message on dash, but pressing that makes no difference.

Going to get down to it and do the wiring now.

Hmm. So back at the car, with nanocom ad EKA.

The ignition switch is OK; nanocom says it's asked the BECM to reset the alarm state, but I'm still getting engine disabled.

I'm about to do the rewiring thing now, see if that will get me out of jail.... or at least the hospital car park...

Edit - wiring isn't so easy with the cars adjacent closely parked, and the rain, and the need to get the driver's seat out of the way.

It has to be something simple, but complicated....

.... and finally, I'm getting absolutely nothing from the keys. Pressing lock or unlock buttons does nothing with either. Door latches? So two faults coincidentally at the same time?

It was all so good at 6.45 this morning.

Brilliant! Thanks very much for replying so quickly. I'll be heading down again shortly, and this is really useful.

Once I'd lubed the ignition switch and jiggled the key around a bit I did hear the 'clunk' on key removal, but I didn't know about the barrel centre popping out. I'll watch for that.

I am fairly sure I have the EKA 'somewhere safe'..... Because the car has been so good I've let my P38 guard down a little and I'll need to dig that out.

And popping a fuse into position is a whole lot easier than pulling propshafts! I'm going to store a screen-dump of this on my phone for future reference.

Thanks again!

(Meant to ask though - on your last bit about just sticking the box in neutral if it's to be pulled onto a truck. Will the gearbox go into neutral if the engine isn't running? Is that solenoid powered then?)

Hi guys,
Grovelling apologies are due. I've not been on here for ages, and contributed nothing, yet here I am asking for help.... On the plus side, the reason why I've not been on is that the car has been amazingly, consistently reliable for many months, and as I've been really busy at work I was happy just to keep on truckin'.

Today though... early morning appointment at local hospital. Jump in car at 6.45am, turn key, engine starts, drive to hospital car park. All good. I was a little early, so I sat in the car (turned off, but ignition key in switch) to look at my phone. After about 10 minutes or so, I got out, hit the lock button on the fob and... nothing. "Ignition key in" message was displaying even with the key in my hand. I didn't have time to muck about so I locked it with the key and got the big 'beeep'. My fault was clearly leaving the key in the ignition for that extra 10 minutes.... another lesson learned.

Came back to the car, and nothing had changed. "Ignition key in" message displaying, and if I tried to turn the engine on "engine disabled". I called the cavalry and got my wife to bring down some lock lubricant and the 2nd key. Gave the ignition barrel a squirt of lube, and jiggled the key a bit, and I 'think' that part of the problem is gone. However, the central locking still won't respond to either fob, and the engine won't start.

Fortunately our hospital car park no longer has a 'pay and display' so I'm not racking up parking charges, but I can't leave it there, so I'm looking for a solution.

There was a guy on here a while ago selling modified Engine ECUs to bypass the immobiliser. I bought one, and fitted it, but never got to the point of disconnecting the starter relay wires from the BECM. So at the moment, my plan A is to wait for it to get a little brighter and to stop raining and return to the car with a length of wire and some crimp terminals in the hope that once I take the BECM out of the circuit, the engine will start. That would - hopefully, fingers crossed - allow me to get the car home.

I do have a Nanocom, but I'm a very inexperience user. Would this help me at all - and would it even fire up with the engine disabled?

Then 'worst case scenario' - how do I get the vehicle transported home in this condition? I do have 'AA membership' - not sure if that will help, but failing that I can get a local recovery firm to come down once the car park empties. The gearbox is in 'park'. Would I need to get underneath and disconnect both prop shafts from the diffs?

Any advice is always gratefully received - but particularly grateful in this instance!

(year2000 4.0L Thor)

Ta

Donald

Very happy to do that. “There but for the grace of God”.

Thanks again. I hadn't realised they had such potentially significant value - that's food for thought, and if I can get a decent fraction of that price above then it certainly makes any decision about replacement easier.

As I said, the Defender is hogging the garage at the moment - front axle refurb and transfer box/overdrive re-install. Realistically, looking at other commitments in the calendar it's going to be there for at least the next fortnight to three weeks.

Apart from the noise, if all else is running OK, is there any real/likely issue with using the RR over that period? Gives me time to order up replacements cats and centre silencer anyway. (And also take a better check this is the issue. Finally a use for the 'mechanics stethoscope' I bought on a whim about 2 years ago!)

Thanks again.

ChrIs - My first thoughts were something like the shields - heat shields or something rubbing against a moving part. Then it was clear the noise was present even sitting still.

On the point about large and small cats, is the conclusion that bigger is better or more long-lasting; cheaper = smaller and will clog up quicker? Maybe it doesn’t really matter. If the originals lasted 22 years, though I’m in no rush to get rid of the car I can’t see my still using it in that timescale. And I saw the genuine ones for £4000 - that certainly ain’t going to happen.

Hi Gd,
That does sound 'about right' - that would be about the right place.

Also not just so inconvenient as I've been meaning to reinstate the middle silencer which the PO removed.

I'll try and get back underneath again and eliminate anything more obvious.

So, never having been in this position before what are the implications of running with a rattling cat? Is it a case of 'it'll last for ages' or get it changed ASAP?

I might even investigate the clamp option temporarily, but I think the car's worth a replacement given the amount of use and fun I'm getting out of it.

Hi folks,

Over the last wee while - maybe 2 or 3 weeks - there's been a 'rattle' from underneath the car. I only have one 'bay' in my garage, and the Defender's been hogging that, so I've been unable to get underneath for a good look or poke around.

It's only really audible from the outside, or from the inside with a window open and stopped alongside a wall or something (so the sound reflects back towards the driver). Engine runs sweet as a nut. It's been my daily driver now for the last 3 or 4 weeks at least, including some longer trips away with work. Oil good, coolant good, nothing showing on the gauges (though I haven't plugged in the nano.)

I thought it would be something like an exhaust clamp, or loose bit of heat-shielding, but with a very quick look underneath today there's nothing obvious. I've figured out how to post pics here, but a wee 18 second video I took earlier seems to be taking a long, long time to upload to imgur, and even if it did, I don't know if that would go up here.

It sounds 'light' and 'rattly', and it's there with the engine idling/car stationary.

If I can't post the video yet ( I need to go away for the weekend v. shortly) then I suppose what I'm really asking is: "What are the serious, terminal things it could be, with gearbox or engine?" - and what would they sound like.

I haven't been able to get under properly, so I haven't been able to check gearbox oil level, but like I say it runs really, really well. I can't really tell if the noise changes underway.

I realise this is a bit of a hopeless question - what's this noise, without being able to let you listen to the noise... but unless someone more web-savvy than me can help on that front I don't know what more I can do. I sometimes use an image compressor before posting pics on the web but that won't work on video files.

Any rough ideas though?

Ta.

"What have you done to your Range Rover today?"

Driven her hard, and put her away wet.... well not so much wet as frozen!

It's the road from Inverness to Ullapool again, heading for the ferry. The original 'Top Gear' crew reckoned it was one of the best roads they'd driven, and once I got past some of the traffic it's great to have the open road in front - even if it is covered in a mix of snow and slush.

Can't be many cars as confidence-inspiring in those conditions as a P38 with a nearly-new set of ATs on its feet!

I do indeed know where it is, and have been there a couple of times, even though it’s a very long way from home.

They’re pretty active on eBay with two or three different seller names. It’s pretty organised, with good stuff being kept to one side and eventually shells split from chassis and sent off to scrap.

It’s an old mining site, and he was telling me (though I forgot to go and see) that they’ve recently lost three cars down a collapsed shaft. That would make a hole in your pension!

He has P38s, some Classics and Discoveries, and a good few L332s

Chrisp38 wrote:

Pay close attention to the foam seal that goes around the outer edge of the steel frame, especially around the front end and corners. If this has come unstuck, usually around the front corners, or feels anyway floppy(compare it to the non uv exposed rear) you should replace it. Mine didn't leak at all until I removed the cassette, retrimmed the shade and refitted the cassette whilst I got on with the removed headliner recover so I could still use the car. Rain came in! It confused me for a bit until I realised that the foam seal, which I thought was just to stop rattling between the roof and cassette, is actually also a water shedder. The seal around the glass isn't perfect and any rain getting past it drips into the cassette channel and out the drain tubes. If the foam seal is iffy then some water misses the channel and ends up inside the car. My foam seal was quite bad, I removed the cassette again and renewed the foam with some closed cell stuff 8mm x 20mm off ebay iirc, glued on its 8mm edge. I then used 6 off m6 studs screwed into the roof where the bolts normally go and some m6 wing nuts to evenly pull the cassette up and then replaced the studs with the bolts one at a time. The studs made it so much easier to fit the cassette and I think it was the wrestling the first time I refitted it, without the studs, that finished off the original foam seal.
If you do decide to renew the foam seal don't go off my measurements above until I can find the purchase and confirm.

Hi Chris, I've been meaning to reply to this post for a little while. When I first read it I thought "That sounds about right!". I have removed/refitted the cassette, and the foam is still there, but definitely not in pristine condition, and it definitely doesn't meet the roof round the front of the cassette - where I'm getting water dripping off the roof and onto the dash.

I suspect that when I was working on the cassette, I left too much 'wiggle room' for the cover/panel and I think it's rattling a bit - enough that it's annoying. If I was going to remove the cassette again, then it would be a bonus to do something else that would help eliminate water leaks.

Did you ever dig out the speccs for the foam you used?

I feel vaguely inadequate..! I haven't done very much to my car of late, though I do eventually want to write up the things I have been up to in my own thread. I'll likely get round to that now that the nights are drawing in.

But I'm just using the car as/when I can. I've had a couple of good runs these last few days - up to one of the ferry ports in the NW highlands. Only me in the car, so I had a bit of "performance leeway". I enjoyed what might be called a 'spirited' drive - overtaking when safe and appropriate opportunities presented themselves. These are roads I know very well, and we're not into the frost yet, so it is just fun to get the old girl up to speed and keep her there. Planting the foot and letting the engine do its work on an overtake brings a smile to my face. Park her up for a couple of days, back off the ferry; fire her up and repeat on the way home!

It reminded me that the Range Rovers have always had a place in my heart since I saw my first ever, walking home from school about 1978/79, a two door classic in a lime/heritage type green. Only on my 4th now... but still enjoying it.

All that said, it's a heavy lump to be throwing about a twisty A road, and I'm not sure my Britpart shockers are doing me any favours... I'll dig around in the archives here and see what's what.

JimAHH wrote:

Was the weekend any good?
I am only looking at doing day trip in Devon.

Will ask LRE what they actually need to see. My ins says I am cover as long as it isn’t a race or competition. So we will see.

Will the old girl make it back? 😆

Weekend was really good. First time they’d tried a weekend apparently, as opposed to one day events. One day was tracks up in the hills, with a distinction made for larger ‘twin speed’ vehicles and other lower slung/more electronic 4wd. Second day was more on-site ‘events’ and a go on their off-road course. Again, harder/easier options for different vehicles. I thoroughly enjoyed the off road circuit as all the ‘challenges’ came along one after the other - mainly a variety of steep/awkward climbs and descents, which their site is really good for, with a pond followed by a rooty, slippy climb out to finish.

My Defender is a 28 y/o 110, 300Tdi diesel, and fairly road-biased. We did all of this with our roof tent and awning, and all the camping kit in the back. I always say it’s amazing what they’ll do, and the photos never do it justice. I’d love to have tried this in the P38 - maybe next year!

Fully non-competitive. The only competitive bits were small ‘keep the ball on the bonnet’ or ‘get the 15ft pole through the circuit of 10ft gates’ sort of thing - but they were in their collection of Disco/Velar/Evoque vehicles.

Just this weekend, I did an LRE weekend up at Dunkeld, though in the Defender, not the RR.

They also recommended off road insurance, made it sound nearly compulsory. So I called my broker, who looked into it and said they couldn’t provide this cover….

I called LRE and explained, and they said it would be Ok. Did the event, no damage, all good.

I guess there must be such a thing as off road cover, but maybe very specialised?

Wow. My last post in February.... it's not that I've been idle.

I had made a couple of other posts along the way about the sunroof, the dreaded heater matrix O rings, and most recently about the seat wiring, but there's been other stuff happening too.

After getting the sunroof in and adjusting it, and adjusting, and adjusting, I did think I'd got it leakproof, but I'm still not 100% convinced. I was getting water drops down from the top of the screen, and also down on top of the steering wheel.

It seems/seemed to be coming from right down at the top of the windscreen frame - there's a slight 'dimple' or opening on both sides, and it seems to drip from there. This is the driver's side:

This is the passenger's:

Notice the lack of roof lining - I'm just not keen to go to all the hassle of refitting it until I'm as sure as I can be that the roof or sunroof is near enough waterproof.

Along the way I also had a bit of work done on the rear wheel arches. I've realised I don't have 'before and after' pics - this is half-way through. As I think I've said before, I "could" do this, but welding, filler and paintwork really isn't my thing:

When he was doing the job, the guy at the bodyshop said he'd done another one recently and was expecting much worse. He also said that the sills were in really good nick, so that's nice to know. They also did an underbody lanoguard treatment, which might help keep some of the salt away.

On the other hand, I helped them out by taking off the rear bumper... it's definitely past its best. It's back on the car, but 'hanging by a thread' might be the best description. Not sure if these internal metal frames are available, or switchable?

And last, but not least, I've finally got round to begin fitting the black leather seats and the dark grey carpets. Getting the old stuff out wasn't "too bad", but it was interesting to see how much of the red coolant, leaking from the front of the car, had made it's way along to the back footwell.

This is the rear carpet, and the red tinge would sit behind the driver's seat. It was damp here still.

The driver's footwell, and the sill channel where the loom sits was much wetter - no surprise there then. What was a surprise was that it was so damp, but the car wasn't steaming up inside. Maybe Scotland's just not warm enough!

I'll come back later with pics of the interior and finished rear wheel arches.

Thanks guys,
I did my best to check that I had a high line BeCM before getting this far - though mistakes can happen. The sticker on top of the unit was too worn to read, but I do have a sunroof, a mid-line stereo, and the original seat had some power adjustment. So, fingers crossed I'm OK on the BeCM front, and there's no 'activate' option. That's a step forward.

I'll need to find the wiring diagrams I think. The length of the looms and relatively inaccessible plugs under the seat won't help when trying to test things.

If I removed the seat, and the loom, would I be able to test power from the BeCM socket?

EDIT - stand down, thanks. I'd made a 'numpty level' mistake which I noticed this evening. I now have the driver's seat behaving perfectly and can move on to the rest. I do have the wing mirrors playing silly b*ggers as was mentioned on the first page of this, but I'll sort that.

So, it was in fact 'plug and play' - but the important thing about that is that you actually need to plug everything in....

This plug is part of the seat loom.

I thought it would fit onto the seat, but there was no connector there... so I thought it was maybe for a function on the seats that my car wouldn't have. A closer look today, in better light found this socket (highlighted) hiding down under the fuse box.

I checked really carefully that the two were compatible and as the wires were exactly the right length I plugged it in and.... the seat worked OK. I wasn't looking forward to spending an evening with the electrical manual identifying wires and colours, looms and connectors so that's a result.

So, time moves on slowly…..

Today, in between rain showers, I stripped out the interior of my car - seats and carpets. I got the black/dark carpet in OK, and just the “new” driver’s seat before rain stopped play for the evening.

However, none of the buttons does anything - no movement anywhere. 90% sure we checked all the motors and adjustments before taking them out of the donor car ( but that was probably about a year / half ago, so my memory might be playing tricks).

As above, my original driver’s seat was supposed to have some power adjustment, though it didn’t work; the passenger seat had nothing. So I also installed the seat loom that was removed from the donor car, which runs both seats.

These seats do have memory options - though I’m completely not bothered about that, but not sure if that would affect their operation?

Do I need to go into the BeCM via nano and ‘activate’ electric seats? Is there a fuse in the circuit that might be missing?

I have to say I’m away from my home PC and my manuals, so at this stage I haven’t been able to check the circuits.

Thanks Gd, I'll have a look at the Nano. It certainly didn't come up on my way to work this morning, and I'm assuming it won't reappear this afternoon on the way home. So at this stage it hasn't come on during normal high box use.

I might see if I can replicate it with some hi/lo shifts first, and then check the Nano more promptly.