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

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.

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.

I get to feeling I’m going to need to make a pact with the Devil to get this damn thing to work…..

I had the cassette out of the car earlier. With no glass in it, the mechanism moves beautifully smoothly, with both sides perfectly aligned with each other.

Put the glass in (cassette out of the car) and it works beautifully too.

Put them both back in the car and no…. (see “pact with Devil”).

As the glass is put in from above it’s initially outside the aperture. The winding mechanism isn’t strong enough to pull the back of the glass down ‘inside’ the car. Once I’d climbed up and pushed the glass gently down into the car, then the mechanism works well - the glass retracts back inside the roof. Then it comes back out again, but stops at the point where the ‘tilting’ action is trying to lift the back of the glass panel “outside” the car.

I think (could be of very little value) that when I refurbished the glass and put a new seal onto it, I added some sealant/bonding agent into the seal before putting that around the glass. I now wonder whether the whole thing is just marginally too big (back to front) and providing too much resistance for the motor/mechanism to overcome.

No problem, just get another new seal, trim off the old (new) one, and make very sure it’s fitted as close in to the glass as possible. Unfortunately though these part numbers seem to be NLA - EEQ100400 or STC171. That must be fairly recent as it’s not that long since I got a new one….

Does anyone know of a source of these? Or an alternative part number? Failing this I’ll just need to cut an inch or so off the end and see if I can buy something similar by the metre from the likes of Woolies trim.

On the plus side, my car left the garage today for the first time in about 5 or 6 months! All warning lights went out! Sitting nice and level on its springs, brakes really sharp, almost ready for an MOT…. if I could just get the sunroof to play ball.

Edit - finding a similar patterned extrusion will not be as easy as I first thought. Three suppliers I looked at have something close, but not close enough. Maybe if I sent them a bit.

But I have found that I have two ‘used’ ones in the shed. I think that’s my way forward if there’s no source of new ones. At least Ikd be able to say conclusively what the problem was.

The question is as simple as the title suggests. Does anyone have a good idea what size I should order for the sunroof E clips?

As you may know there are two used on each side as part of fixing the glass to the mechanism, but they are tiny, and being springy have an exceptionally high tendency to launch themselves into the darkest recesses of the car, no matter how careful you’re being.

Unfortunately also, on my vernier callipers the jaws are too wide to fit into the grooves that the clips engage with. I can get that it’s a 6mm overall diameter; I think the pin OD is 4mm; but I’m guestimating if I say 3 or 3.5mm groove diameter.

I realise this is a bit of a specific query - and I could just order several clips in the closest sizes - they don’t cost much. But I thought I’d ask anyway.

Edit - In the meantime I have ordered a couple of little bags of 2.3mm and 3.5mm clips, where those sizes correspond to the smaller, groove diameter. I have an idea 2.3 might be too small, and possibly 3.5mm be too big… going to see if I can find some 3mm ones somewhere.

Hi guys,

I’ll update my ‘ups and downs’ thread, but I have been making progress. The refurbished rear axle is back under the car and in place. Just a couple more things to sort out and I should have her back on her wheels. Hopeful for next weekend.

Now as with the top end engine rebuild I’m thinking there will be a lot ‘going on’ when I first power up - brakes will need bleeding and the EAS will be empty and need calibration (new rear EAS sensors).

So I’m thinking that I might take one of them out of the equation (EAS) by pulling the relay, but that it would still be nice to have the car off the bump stops.

So is there a view on the best ( or easiest - not necessarily the same thing) way to have a manual back up EAS, or the best/decent kit to buy, and where to install?

I don’t doubt this has been done before, but I did search and found nothing in the first page or so.

I’m hoping to have a sound and reliable EAS system, but apart from this refurb start up, it does seem like a good thing to have tucked away for emergencies.

Any suggestions gratefully received. Ta.

Hi guys,

I tried searching, honest… (see my other post on how the search function works) but haven’t found anything specific so I’ll just ask the question.

As I’ve removed the rear axle for a wee refurb I’m wondering if I should just do the rear diff pinion seal while it’s sitting on the bench? Though I tried to be careful, I have a suspicion that while using a wire brush on the grinder to remove rust from the casing some bits of rust might have sneaked between the dirt flange and the seal. I’d be really peed off if I fitted it only to find the seal leaked in a couple of weeks time. Based on the condition the half-shaft seals at the ends of the axle were in it probably wouldn’t need it otherwise, but it seems like a good idea.

Now despite owning two previous RR classics, and a Defender for over 20 years, I’ve never done one of these. So what’s it like?

I’m in two minds whether to buy a proper drive flange holding tool, or just to drill two holes in a bit of steel bar. Any thoughts?

Any particular issues in getting the seal out / back in?

Just generally any thoughts?

Ta.

Hi guys,

As I know this to be the best source for authoritative P38 advice on the web, I like to find info here rather than anywhere else. But I’m not sure I’m getting the best out of the search function.

For example, last night, looking for ‘pinion’ and ‘seal’ (investigating any pitfalls to replacing the rear diff pinion oil seal while the diff is on the bench) I was getting lots of results for ‘opinion’..

Today, looking for anything on depressurising the brakes, prior to removing pipes from the master cylinder/block, I’m getting loads of stuff on brakes, but nothing obvious on the ‘depressure’ side.

I know I could ask a question - it’s what a forum is for! - but if there’s already a relevant thread I feel it’s better to check that out first, and if necessary to add to that; keeping more relevant info in the same place.

Any hints on how ‘search’ works?

Ta

Hi all,

I have tried a search, and looked up parts diagrams, but with no success.

Where the rear brake lines come up the outside of the bulkhead, and enter the ABS block, does anyone know what the thread size is?

I think probably M10, but I'm told by someone who knows that he's seen M12 on some LR vehicles.

I'm revisiting a thought I had about redoing the rear brake lines in stainless/braided/silicone flexis and to price them I'm being asked what the thread size is. I could just take the existing ones off I suppose, but thought someone might know, or have a spare set kicking about they could measure?

(Edit - and while I'm at it, in case I'm having a newbie/numpty moment, can I confirm that the two lines from the rear just run up to ports 22 and 21 on the ABS block, and there's no fancy connector or splitter hidden underneath the block that I can't see?)

Ta!

Hi guys,
Not posted for a wee while, so the car has sat with the top end rebuild a little 'stalled'.

A few days off and hoping to progress but parts might be the issue.

Looking at the injector rail diagram on New LrCat shows the older rail - so I'm hoping the parts numbers are OK. Is ERR7309 still the correct number for the small/lower O rings?

Do I need to replace the centre ones? EAC2414L? Do I need to replace the 'top' ones? I haven't removed the injectors, just the rail itself.

And, again the LrCat diagram doesn't show the correct fuel supply pipe. Mine's a 4.0 Thor/Bosch with the supply pipe coming in at the centre of the valley with a square sort of 'spring' clip. I assume there's an O ring in here too. Will that need changed? - and if so what's the part number?

I think I missed the lower injector O rings when I was compiling my parts list for this job, so that could unfortunately cost me a couple of days. I'd be surprised if I could find fhem locally.

Thanks for any replies.

Hi guys,

I've got to the stage of putting my sump back on (4.0V8, Thor).

Of the three studs that are supposed to be in the front cover only one stayed in place on removal.The other two came out with the nuts, as they've rusted together.

I 'could' just screw the studs/nut combo back in..... but would rather get new studs. However the LRCat diagram doesn't show the studs on the sump page, or on the front cover page....

I think the nut is NH505041L (5/16 thread) but can't find the studs,

Any idea what the part number might be please?

I suppose I could hacksaw carefully through the two stuck nuts, and tidy up the thread below, but it's a lot of work for two studs.

Thanks

Edit - is it 252513..?

Oh dear,...
I removed the original sunroof to service/check the mechanisms, and wanted to renew the seal around the glass panel.

On three sides, the glass was no longer bonded to the frame - quite rusty on the metal frame. It was still bonded on the leading edge, and a pain to try and remove. So much so that I broke the glass. Not happy 🙁🙁.

Ordered a replacement, removed the seal and .... it's just the same. It's a real pain to try and get a blade in there. Probably do-able, but I think it will take a couple of hours.

So, does anyone know what the bonding agent is between the sunroof glass panel and its frame, and what the solvent might be? It looks rubber-ish. I tried putting a slice of it into acetone, and thinners and neither of those seem to make much impact on it.

Ta

Hi guys,

It looks like I'll be following my front axle refurb with a rear axle one.... what fun!

A quick glance at the rear brake lines tonight showed lots of very, very rusty connectors and hose ends - and quite complicated routing, which (at first sight) I don't fully see the point of.

When I did my Defender recently, I went for a full set of braided, stainless lines for the entire system. Should never need to look at them again.

So I'm wondering about a set of these for the back of my P38. I don't know what the cost might be yet ( I need to take some measurements first and send these and some pics to the supplier so he can make up a quote). The full Defender system was ca. £300/350 I think.

If I did this, then I could go for a much simpler routing. I suppose it would be possible to simply run a long, single hose from the ABS unit to each caliper, allowing enough length for axle flex and articulation. More likely I'd opt to have a join in them somewhere. As they are stainless fixings there isn't much concern about future maintenance.

I did a search for braided lines and didn't find anything, so my apologies if this is an old chestnut.

So, has anyone done this? Are there routing issues to consider? Why do the lines run up from the chassis to the top of the rear shocks... and then over the tank.. ? Is there any reason a much simpler/more direct route can't be used?

Even if there is a reasonable expense involved, apart from longevity, not having to deal with awkward joins and routing would probably be worth paying for in my opinion, and would doubtless avoid lots of stress and swearing.

As always, any advice or comments gratefully received.

Thanks.

Hi guys,

I've searched here, and googled extensively, but no joy....

I'm at the stage where I'm about to fit the swivels back on. I had to remove the old collets, so vertical adjustment will be needed. My googling has shown some Heath Robinson options and I might try a 'workaround' based on these. I'm confident that I'll get it "into the ballpark", but I don't really want to get into a protracted series of tinkering and adjustments, so ideally I'd like to get the proper dimensions and see if I could get something made up locally.

The web has thrown up nothing. Forum posters saying they'd measure and post and then nothing. There was a hopeful looking attachment on the rr.net site, but it can't be found. It's like looking for the 'poo' from the offspring of a unicorn and a rocking horse....

As we probably all know, the proper tool is about £1k..!

I think I did ask this earlier, but buried in a rebuild thread, so I thought I'd try once more and ask more specifically.

Ta.

(off out to the garage shortly to see how confident I am in the results of my workaround option)

Hi guys,

Been making some progress on getting my car moving again - working on the front axle 'refurb'.

While doing that, I was undoing the back of the OS radius arm and had a closer look at the EAS tank. It looks more than a little 'crusty', with maybe, some pitting.

With the axles/hubs I've found that a hammer and chisel is an effective way of removing the rust and it seems simply that corrosion has got in underneath the original paint.

I guess this could be the same - remove it, clean off the rust, prep and paint - but it is a pressure vessel.

What do you guys think with more experienced eyes? At the moment the system is drained down to change the front bags, so a good time to pull this out.

Thanks as usual

Hey guys,

One of these days I'll update my 'ups and downs' thread to say that the car is back on the road and MOT'd..... I think I've all the parts I need, I just have to find a solid 2 or 3 days to crack on with it.

In the meantime, assuming I get to that stage one of the things I might want to do is carry an open/canadian canoe. I have a choice of 2 but they're both 16ft boats, and benefit from the bars being as far apart as possible ( fore and aft) on the roof. On the Defender this is easy, with bars that clamp into the guttering wherever you want. On the other hand, they're not that heavy - roughly 25-28kg depending on which one I take.

How does the P38 roof rack system work? I have looked at ebay etc and it does seem like it's a little more resticted, with some of the pictures I've seen showing the cross bars to be fitted relatively close together given the available length of the car.

I can see that there's a 'genuine' rail and crossbar option, but even used it's spendy, so for occasional use I guess I'm more likely to get 'bars and feet' but does that mean I'm restricted to specific points on the car? Could I use the furthest forward and back points to give the maximum spread?

And, any recommendations at all for what to get?

Thanks

(Edit to say I did try to search first, but couldn't find a specific answer)

Hi folks,

This is a bit "what if" at this stage, just trying to understand what's possible - once I get the car mobile again! However, like the title says, my car has very basic grey velour seats, with only the up/down button on the drivers side, and even that's broken off and missing.

If I spend some more time and money getting the running gear sorted, and it looks more like the car is a 'keeper' then what are my options for replacement seats?

I see there's a couple of breakers doing complete interiors. I don't want to change the colour at all, but if I found a good set of grey leather seats are they a straight swap over? They seem much more commonly available with all of the adjustment buttons. Would they go into my car at all, and/or would the BECM need to be amended/reactivated?

If the answer is a straight no, then that's fine - one less thing to think about!

Any advice gratefully received as always.

Ta

Donald

Hello all,

I thought I might try to start a thread where I could keep all my sh!t together - ask my daft laddie questions, and once I get a picture hosting platform set up, post pics of the more crusty bits of my car.

I did introduce myself elsewhere, but for the purpose of this thread my car is a RHD, 4.0 Thor auto, 2000my. Base/economy spec, and currently only on about 78k miles. I bought it last December on about 73,000.

I recently asked a question about getting underneath the car safely ( https://rangerovers.pub/topic/1831-getting-underneath-a-p38-safely-and-the-reason-why ) to try and figure out what was causing a steering wobble. Now awaiting a bunch of parts to start tackling and tightening up the front end suspension and steering. As I say, I'll post pics of the more crusty bits once I get Imgur or the likes organised.

However...... and getting to my latest daft question....

On the way to work this morning ( short run - about 7-8 miles) no wobble to begin with, starts about half-way. On the way home, same story. So I thought I would rule out tyre pressures or a slow leak. Bend down to take the valve cap off the drivers wheel and the heat is just bouncing off it. You could 'touch' the wheel - but you wouldn't want to hold your hand against if for longer than an instant. The valve cap wouldn't unscrew properly because it was half-melted.... oh dear... Passenger side was warm - maybe a little bit warmer than I might have expected after an 8 mile run at town speeds, but nothing in comparison to the driver's side.

I've left it where it is to cool down, and then I'll put it into its carport.

I assume this is a binding brake caliper. This will be my first experience with the 'sliding' type calipers - previous things I've worked on (minis/Defenders) have been the fixed caliper/moving pistons type. So, I'm further assuming that the caliper is sticking on the pins that it's supposed to slide along.

The working theory is that I don't get the wobble when I start off because everything is cold - then as things warm up, especially with a sticky caliper, things start to bind. Having one brake acting on one side is generating odd behaviour, and maybe my steering wobble??

Does this all sound about right so far?

So, moving on to fixing this:

• am I likely to need new caliper components, or just to clean and lubricate the caliper slides?
• will the heat have damaged the wheel bearing??
• I suppose it's possible the disc might have warped (feckity feck) but I certainly haven't thrown water at it to cool it down or anything.
• is there any possibility this is not caused by a mechanical issue, but electrical/ABS sort of stuff? I've owned ABS cars before, but never worked on them (see previous comment about minis and defenders).

Having just dropped £400 on suspension components, the last thing I really need is to start rebuilding the brakes too!

Finallly, just for some light relief. If I put the car on axle stands to do all this, and pull the battery to put it on a trickle charge, does it really matter how long the car is disconnected? The reconnection routine will be the same after 3 weeks as after 3 hours?

I will appreciate any assistance and advice as always - keeping this old thing on the road will be a new learning curve.

Ta

Donald

Hi guys,
Well, just about getting to the point where I need to do a little more to my 2000 4.0. 77k miles.

One of the small mental obstacles has been: how do I get underneath safely without any risk of the car collapsing on me? I did read one thing about blocks under the axles, or something like that - harder to understand without pics - but I almost took it to mean that I would need to fit wooden blocks above the axles, between them and the bodywork.

I certainly don't think I'd be happy relying on the car's systems itself (locking with the switch, or with a door open) so looking for the practical but sensible methods that experienced owners use. I have a concrete floored garage, hefty axle stands, a big (3 ton?)trolley jack, and a 'little' trolley jack. Well used to using all of these on the 110 Defender, so not a complete novice, but it's one of these things that you don't know until you know. I've tried searching the web, but not found anything.

Why? I have a nasty wobble which I need to investigate. It feels like a wheel's about to fall off. (I've been there before with another vehicle). It used to be very occasional - i.e. happend on a longer trip back in March, barely happened again until last week.

I used to think it was speed related - if I pootled about at 50, then no bother; if I went up to 70+ then it would kick in, but ease again once I'd slowed. Now I'm not so sure - it happened on a short run home last Friday (and I haven't used it since - because I don't want a wheel to fall off!) and on that occasion it seemed to be present even down to lower speeds.

My thoughts are - in no real order - a duff propshaft UJ which is getting worse; a diff missing it's damper thing; or a wheel bearing that's on the way out. On a Defender I'd also be wondering about the front swivel tension.

Any help you can offer on safely getting underneath, and pointers on likely wobble candidates would be very gratefully received.

(off out now to replace a timing cover on a 1.2 Clio!)

Hey guys,
Hope everyone's well.
I think I've had my first brush with key fob shenanigans.
I was working on the car this afternoon, fitting the trim back in after fitting the new fan controller and refurbed switchpack and HEVAC controller. So I had two key fobs with me, both sitting on the top of the dash. After I'd finished, I put one key into the ignition, tried to start the car and got the engine disabled message.... and this was the original key that used to do everything. Puzzled.
But maybe I should go back to the beginning:
When I got the car I was given three fobs - we'll call them 1, 2 and 3.
Fob 1 was the only one I was using. The other two were in the house. I thought they were actually broken/dead batteries, but I was also concerned that relying on just #1 was a bit risky. Examining #2 and #3 I discovered the little red light was working on both. Result! So I took #2 down, synched it with the car just be sticking it in the ignition and had 2 good keys. Happy chappy.

So, today. Fobs 1 and 2 are clipped together (don't ask me why). Opened the car, drove it into the garage, took the keys out and left them on the dash. Because of the work, I had 2 or 3 of the doors being opened and shut frequently.

Finished the work, went to start the car, picked up the fobs, put #1 into the ignition, and got the engine disabled; press fob message. Tried pressing the buttons on fob #1 and it did absolutely nothing.

In the end I put fob #2 into the ignition, started the car, parked and locked it, with fob #2. Fob #1 - the original one I was using from the begining will now not lock or unlock the doors - but will start the car again!?

I thought synchronising was as simple as putting the key into the ignition?

I did look at the drivers manual - but couldn't find anything helpful in there.

I'm hoping it's something simple - but any advice on what I might have done wrong? Hopefully I've explained things clearly enough.

Ta

Donald