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.

Thanks guys,
I regularly disconnect my battery and top it up with a good charger, just to avoid any low battery issues, so I'd like to think it's not that. I did that just 10 days ago.

This happened under really gentle conditions - not offroad, and with the engine barely above idle/tickover. I just needed something to pull a boat / trailer out of storage backwards. I needed to control the jockey wheel at the front of the trailer, and that's why my wife was driving the car, and I put it into low box, just to be sure that everything was happening really slowly. So no traction control, no wheel spins, just a gentle trundle along my gravel driveway.

It seemed to happen during/just after moving the gear lever across the gate from high to low, or back again.

It hasn't done it since, so it could just be something transient caused by the ratio change, and nothing to worry about. On the other hand, if it's pointing to something else that might be about to fail, I'd probably try to buy that part and then fit it now, or whenever it gets worse.

I'll be very happy if it's just something they all do, and nothing to worry about. I do have a Nano I could check with though.

Hi folks,

I had reason to pop my car into low box the other day to shift something. I don't do it often, but I have done in the past with no problem at all, and probably to shift heavier loads than I was working with at the weekend.

It wasn't me in the driver's seat, but my wife. I was managing the trailer end of things.

On a couple of instances - the 'traction failure' message popped up, and then cleared. There was no great distance involved in this work - maybe 5 - 10metres - little bit backwards, little bit forwards.

Is this more or less normal behaviour, or something to worry about, watch out for with something else about to go 'pop'?

I did search, and see that this could be ABS sensor linked, but mine are all 'new' and relatively recently installed, and don't give any other problems that I'm aware of.

thanks.

This might be the perfect occasion to buy one of those 'mechanics stethoscopes'?? If you did as suggested above, and jacked the wheels, then you could go from one to the other seeing if you could hear a difference? Obviously you can't put it on a spinning wheel...... (!) but you would probably pick something up from the hub or knuckle - somewhere you could get the probe into.

I say this as I've bought one years ago (not expensive) but not found the opportunity to use it yet.

A reply just to say 'thanks again' for the advice and support.

I'm delighted to report that synching the key in the door lock, turning and pressing buttons, worked perfectly. I know have two 'happy' fobs - and that makes me happy too!

I did wonder this morning why the car had gone from 'normal' height to 'extended' when parked overnight in a locked garage, on a perfectly level floor.... but that's one for another thread if it happens again.

Thank you very much. For tonight I was happy just to get it back in my garage, and the battery on charge “just in case”.

I have one fob that’s happy; one that’s not.

The happy one was taken straight to the car, and used immediately next to the receiver. I can’t really say how they were using the ‘unhappy’ one.

I’ll try that sync process tomorrow. It seems to me that I haven’t had to use that in the past. Even when I changed the batteries I just stuck the key in the ignition barrel, and all was OK - though clearly that was with the car unlocked.

I’m going to print off the eka number and your explanation and leave them in a card in my wallet.

Would one fob need the EKA (if it was un-synced) yet the car would respond properly and happily to the second synced one? I find that quite funny!

Internally generated intermodulation…? Nope, you’ve lost me!

Aragorn wrote:

syncing the fob on mine required some dance with pressing the fob buttons while actuating the lock. I have a feeling later cars are supposed to be better/more automated at that process though

Yep, I think all I need to do is put the key in the door lock - but that doesn’t seem to be working at the moment.

Thanks Bolt - yep it was Simon’s boards I was referring to. Soldering - I have a solder iron, but zero soldering experience. Always managed to avoid it. This would be a bit of a negative for me, but either I could press-gang someone who does, or I could learn and practice first.

On my troubles today, I went down with the spare fob and it all worked OK. The doors wouldn’t work on the fob, so I had to open by the key. Then when I turned the ignition switch, there was a wee moment when I thought it wasn’t going to work, but it did, and the car is home.

The mobile mast next to the location is not very high, and a double-layered one, so I reckon the fobs were just being drowned out - though again, why today, and not during the previous three weeks??

Got home, and thought I’d see what the original fob would do. Nothing. Won’t open the car even in an environment with next to no extraneous radio interference. And, when I put the key in the lock, only the drivers door unlocked, and I got one beep from something - the alarm sounder?

There has been an ‘alarm fault’ on the display since the MOT a couple of months ago. Doesn’t seem to do anything and I was just leaving it until I put the roof lining back, and therefor the ultrasonic sensor. Relevant?

Does the car think it’s in the middle of the EKA procedure by some chance? If so, how does this reset? Should I just pull the fob battery and see if that works?

Thanks Aragorn,

So, the other fob 'should' work? And EKA will not only open the car in an emergency, but turn off the immobiliser?

If the fob sync was cleared, wouldn't it re-sync again if put into the door? I'm assuming the fob battery is connected, as I can see the light flashing whenever the button is pressed. Can't say whether it was disconnected in someone's pocket earlier today.

(There was a thread a little while ago about someone who 'does something' to the ECU to remove the immobiliser altogether. I read it, and filed it away, but it wasn't a priority until now.)

Off home shortly to get my spare fob and see how that goes.

hi folks, I'll try tagging this on here as it's current/active thread, and I've a very similar question, and I could really (really!) do with some help.

My car - 2001 m/y 4.0V8 - so a Thor/Bosch system - has been at the bodyshop. They've had it three weeks (two weeks for the job; 1 for covid). In all that time it's been in/out of their shop and worked fine. Today, when I go to pick it up..... the engine won't start, and the car will not open/close on the fob, even with the fob a couple of cm away from the receiver. There is a bloody great mobile mast less than 100ft away (but then why today, and not over the last three weeks?)

Car opens/locks fine using the key in the door. Tried disconnecting the battery - achieved nothing.

Even pressing the fob button before turning the key doesn't work. I can see the LED flashing, but the message centre still says 'engine disabled'. Fob battery is pretty new - did it myself about 12/18 months ago. When I say nothing is happening, I mean nothing is happening - no cranking, no nothing.

So as I see it my options are:
1) Go home and get the spare fob, and "hope for the best"
2) Go home and get the Nano, and turn off the immobiliser (Can I do that when it's "active"? / is it the 'right' immobiliser?)
3) Try the EKA code?? I'm an EKA code virgin, I don't even know if it's involved with the immobiliser? I don't know the condition of the door handle or its switches.
4) I have no option 4...(Edit - thought of an option 4 - maybe all the short runs, from yard to workshop have drained the battery a bit?? But I don't know why this would affect the immobiliser when the key is placed in the ignition and all the message centre and dash lights work OK?)

Beyond this, I think I'm going to have to turn off the immobiliser. I just can't have something randomly causing a problem like this. I appreciate it's probably not 'random' and that something will have caused it, but either way.

Pierre,
I can't say with certainty in relation to the P38. While I've had to replace a couple of the vacuum tubes, so far I've had no issues with the switches so haven't needed to look.

But, I'd be very surprised if the brake pedal didn't have a CC switch. You can imagine the scenario - trundling down the motorway at 70mph, and you need to brake. I'd expect this to disengage the CC immediately. You may not bother/need to use the clutch initially, but the CC would need to come off with the brake. Certainly this is my experience of how more modern cars work.

When I had such a fight getting the bottom clips out of my front bags I decided I wasn’t putting mild steel back in there - even if I never remove them again.

I bought something like 2 x 50cm of 2.5mm stainless rod from eBay and made up copy clips using a couple of sets of pliers. Same length of rod did the top clips on the rear bags when the time came.

It’s a bit of a fiddle getting the shape just right so that there’s sufficient tension on the clips that they don’t just fall straight out, but I’m happy.

I haven’t delved into the doors of my P38 yet, so any advice offered might be a tad agricultural… based on my Defender.

For window mechanisms I’ve used whatever I’ve had to hand. I still have most of a tub of Castro CL grease (sticky, waterproof, lime-based I think) but these are manual windows.

For the glass/rubber channels I’ve had good results with a spray tin of Halfords glass and rubber lubricant, but I suspect it is silicone. I usually use it into the open channel (I.e. window down) and in conjunction with a paper rag to avoid overspray.

Thanks mad-as - when I went into the error code via nanocom for the first time, there was something about 5 times or 5 cycles, but as a nanocom newbie I didn't save or photograph the message before clearing it.

There's no doubt though I was getting the 'alarm fault' message in the dash every time the key was put into the ignition - just another one of the beeps it fires my way routinely.