I confess that I bought a job lot of three new height sensors off eBay for about £20. They weren't OEM but I thought that for the price it was handy to have them as spares.
nigelbb wrote:
Another year passes & it's time to renew the insurance. I have the P38 plus a Smart FourTwo. Last year the cost was about £350 for each car with LV. The price on the Smart is higher than normal as my wife only passed her test just over a year ago & LV wouldn't even insure her on the P38. The renewal price was £380 for the Smart & £535 for the Ranger Rover so I started to look at comparison sites & ring around. I was happy to stick with LV for the Smart. I got a remarkably wide variety of quotes for the P38 including my wife driving. On one comparison site it was about £400 with Aviva & on another £350 with RAC Online (minimal customer service via web chat). Footman James was £866 Lancaster £755
Finally I entered my details for a quote from NFU Mutual & got a call back the following day. I had a forty minute call with a nice Scottish gentleman called Graham. The upshot is that the P38 is now insured fully comprehensive for £338.34 & the Smart for £272.55. I thoroughly recommend NFU Mutual who are not on any comparison site so you do need to speak to them on the phone to get a quote. It's nice that like LV they are a mutual so aren't going to rip off customers to pay out shareholder dividends.
Another year on & it's renewal time. I was very pleased to have the P38 at £312 & £278 for the Smart. A nice touch is that I can pay by monthly direct debit at no extra cost. I will still take a look at the comparison sites but I doubt that they can beat the NFU Mutual price.
Fifty years ago I was in hospital after an accident. The young chap in the opposite bed had been riding his motorbike when a pheasant crossed his path & hit him full in the face. His whole face was swollen beyond belief. He was lucky not to have died.
The sidewalls of my tyres weren't cracking. I was attempting to describe very fine fissures on the tread.
Aragorn wrote:
Not sure i'd have been replacing them with the same given how knackered they were...? Perishing and bulging inside 5 years isnt great!
I swapped to ZX7s five years ago but replaced the front tyres a year ago at the last MOT as there was a cut in one inner sidewall. I prefer to have the same tyre brand all round. The Avon ZX7s are great especially for wet weather grip. All tyre brands are prone to the occasional bulge due to the method of manufacture. Five years & 40K miles seems a reasonable life for tyres to me. What experience do others have?
Yesterday I got two new tyres for the rear wheels. I noticed that the rear driver's side (RHD) had an egg sized bulge in the sidewall. Closer inspection revealed that while there was plenty of tread left the rubber on both rear tyres was looking tired, cracked & perished. There had also been an advisory on the recent MOT regarding condition of the rear tyres & checking I noticed an advisory on the previous MOT too so it was definitely time for new tyres. I replaced the Avon ZX7s with a pair of the same as this is what I have been running on the car for a few years now. Looking back through my receipts I think that the tyres being replaced are five years old which must mean they have done about 40K miles which isn't too bad.
Checking www.blackcircles.com & ringing our local tyre place the best price that I got was £125 per wheel. I then checked Halfords who do an 'at home' service. I have used them before on other cars for convenience but their prices are very keen too. Total price was £221.40 or £110.70 per wheel.
My P38 had a ticking noise both when cold & warm for about ten years & 80K miles. It never got any worse nor seemed related to any performance problem. I always put it down to sticky lifters. It was only cured when I had V8 Developments completely refurbish the engine 18 months ago.
As well as replacing the screenwash reservoir level sensor as I documented in the other thread I also over the last couple of days have fully serviced the car with oil filter, oil change, air filter, pollen filters etc It's now done about 190,400 miles.
The most important thing is that it is now all back together & everything works including the headlamp wash wipe. When I first switched on after re-assembling everything I still had the low screenwash error message. Happily this turned out to be correct & when I filled up with screenwash the message disappeared.
Chrisp38 wrote:
Lots of bolts on these things are overly long.
Is it an option to mole grip the other end and unscrew the broke bits that way?
I tried that without success. I was able to drill a hole adjacent to the sheared off bolt & the reservoir is now securely held in various places with substantial cable ties. I had spotted that there was a small leak from the pump that washes the main screen. I swapped it for the identical one that I had with the used reservoir. When I got the rubber tubing off the pump I discovered that the outlet pipe was fractured & would in time snapped off completely.
When I removed the headlamp I had to snap off one of the lugs because it was impossible to undo the bolt. It seems to be held securely with the other three nuts so I don't think that I need look for a replacement.
My used screenwash reservoir with pumps & sensor arrived this morning. The good news is that this float does float so it's looking good so far. I'm not really looking forward to putting it all back this weekend as I think that I might have lost one or two screws/bolts plus I managed to damage one of the lugs on the headlamp that takes the retaining screw. I have also got to figure out how I replace the two bolts that secure the reservoir as I sheared off the heads while attempting to remove them. There is no space to drill them out.
I just found a reservoir complete with 3 pumps & sensor on sale for £33.29 so have ordered it. Interestingly it has the same arrangement of pumps as my reservoir with the rightmost pump different to the other two so I suspect that it is original. Fingers crossed that the sensor is OK. I would still have preferred a new sensor but I haven't seen any similar while Googling.
The actual sensor AMR3270 is NLA but it is still possible to purchase a genuine LR reservoir complete with pumps & sensor for about £300. I could buy a used reservoir complete with sensor for about £40-£60 on eBay but surely there must be some after market float sensor that would be suitable. The sensor gives me 81.8 ohms when up in the 'full' position (1st image) & infinite ohms i.e. open circuit when in the lower 'empty' position (2nd image).
I soaked the bolts securing the reservoir in penetrating oil & left them overnight but still I managed to shear off both bolts as I tried to undo them. I have managed to loosen the reservoir enough that I can drop it down & access the sensor which is much further back than I thought so it was little wonder that I couldn't reach it without loosening off the reservoir. You can see the hole where the sensor fits & also that the rightmost pump is different to the other two.
I am not sure how but the sensor itself is working OK in that if the float is moved to the upper position the error message disappears. The problem as I discovered when I put the sensor in a glass of water is that the float doesn't float.
Chrisp38 wrote:
Loose hoses could be off the fog lights.
Front bumper removal is easy really as they never seem to be rusted up like the rears.
The fog lamp is currently dangling by the hoses. I was intrigued to notice alongside the cables that there is a hose either side of the lamp unit & wasn't sure what they are there for.
Most of my time today has been taken up with attempting to get at the washer level sensor (see other thread) but I also took the opportunity to do a couple of things that were quick wins.
I replaced the lower tailgate strap that snapped when I jumped up in the tailgate the other day.
I had problems with the tailgate button some months ago & managed to revive the rusty spring enough that it would work again but I had bought a stainless spring packaged with a couple of rubber gaskets which today I finally got round to fitting.
Finally I replaced the driver's armrest with a used one from eBay as the old one had broken so the arm wouldn't stay up any more. Ever since I first got the car it's never parked upright properly as it would swing round onto the back seat if I let it but finally my new armrest works as intended.
My RAVE says I need to remove the RH wheel arch liner to remove the washer reservoir. In fact it doesn't seem to be necessary. I previously removed the fog lamp to get better access & I have now removed the grill, headlamp & indicator lamp. I still cannot see or feel the sensor or identify any connector. I can however get to the two bolts that hold the reservoir to the chassis. They look very rusty so I think that I probably need to give them a good soak in penetrating oil before I start trying to undo them.
My plan is to drop the reservoir out so that I can get at the sensor. I will try reviving it as it may be that it's just sludge up. It looks like the only way to get a used sensor is to buy a whole reservoir including pumps & sensor which seem to go for £40-£60 on eBay. I need to sort out the headlamp washers as only the driver's side currently works I have found a couple of loose hoses that look like they should be for the washers. It will easier to see where the various hoses run with the headlamp out of the way.
Interestingly looking from the from of the car my right hand pump is different to the other two with the connector on the top not on the side. It's not been replaced in the 14 years that I have owned it but perhaps the PO did it?
I've been trying to get at the sensor lead all afternoon & I just cannot reach it. I removed the right fog lamp to give me better access & I can run my hand over the top of the pumps but I cannot feel where the lead goes to the sensor. Does it mean that I need to remove the bumper to get access?
In my research I have found contradictory messages as to whether you need to disconnect or short out the connector to the sensor. In particular I found a couple of separate posts by @Martyuk stating that you only need to disconnect the sensor to get rid of the error message but I also found someone who had actually needed to short out the connector lead to get rid of the message.
Access is difficult but while disconnecting is possible (& I thought that I had done this) shorting out with a piece of wire would be difficult. The solution would be to get one of the blue connectors that is on the end of the sensor fly lead & short it out with a soldered wire then disconnect the plug & plug in the ready shorted connector. I have looked the ETM & the connector is C192. Where can I get one of these sockets?
I have been getting the low screen wash error message for quite a while now & I have been investigating how to fix it. The screen wash reservoir is of course full. At the recommendation of @Gilbertd I left a hose running in the reservoir as apparently they can get sludge up. This did work the first time that I did it but the error message returned. I have subsequently left a hose running for a couple of hours to no effect.
The sensor AMR3270 is NLA & the only way to get a used one is to buy a complete reservoir with pumps etc & then you take the chance that the 20+ year old sensor won't work anyway.
The only issue with having the low screenwash message is that to conserve screenwash the headlamp wash/wipe is disabled. I have read that just disconnecting the sensor should get rid of the message but that doesn't seem to work for me. Access from underneath isn't great but I thought that I had found the blue plug that connects to the sensor & disconnected it but perhaps I got the wrong plug?
I need to look in RAVE to see how easy it is to replace the sensor. Even assuming that I could get a replacement it looks like it would be quite a chore to get at it.