V8 starts on the nose,and idles fine, from cold. A couple of times the other day i "had fun" restarting when I'd just stopped for 5-10 minutes. Engine turned over no problem, but didn't fire up. After a few attempts it just about caught, and I had to keep it rev'd to 1500 for 15-20 secs for it to stop choking. As soon as I had it under load ie in reverse or 1st then it could idle at 650 again.

Does anyone recognise the symptoms?

I haven't yet cleaned up the IACV since i bought it, or fitted a new fuel filter, and i will shortly change the exhaust down-pipes and so clean the oxygen sensors at the same time. MAFs clean, injectors are ok, spark plugs and HT leads are new

I know, if we had a pound for every post about a rattle, knock or squeak in a p38 we'd all be millionaires, so to help you on your way....

I have an infrequent tap from the direction of the LH rear door or under the back seat. It sounds a bit like if you took a plastic handled screwdriver and tapped the chassis, or bodywork. It only seems to happen at low speed, less than 10 mph. It fairly often does it after slow braking, when the car's almost at a halt. Some times it does it just rolling along. Occasionally when I'm stationary, or if I turn the ignition off, but it's all low speed stuff. I have put the EAS up and down a few times to see if that had anything to do with it - seems not. I had the air con switched off, to be sure the clutch was not creating a phantom noise.

What moves almost randomly under the rear end of the car? I suppose I can check the rear calipers/ guide pins, but they were all thread locked anyway. something come loose in the fuel tank? I cd maybe check the exhaust mountings

As I look back I had two near misses this summer, both on hot days, after 15-20 minutes of slow traffic ie just the fan running at barely above idle, and no air ram effect on the rad... I pulled over quickly each time, let the engine cool, and then as soon as the traffic cleared, hit the open road and no problem, back in the centre of the dial. OK, so I did subsequently have one HG go, which I'm sure wasn't helped by the first over-heating episode, but a HG change was in the tea leaves anyway.
So my question is, should I expect (and so try to avoid) these kind of heavy traffic/ hot weather over-heating scenarios, or does it sound like my waterways might be bunged up (ooerr). All the hoses are changed out since I bought it, but I haven't touched the water pump (yet) or the rad. The system did have some rad weld in it for a few weeks last year, but I have done a couple of changes of the coolant since then. I was wondering if the radiator was free flowing...if I stuck a hose in the top of the rad and blasted it through would it make any difference, or should I consider a new rad - I couldn't swear to it being the original one, but it's certainly the normal abs/ aluminium build and so possibly due a new one anyway

I got "Abs/ Traction failure" today. Nanocom read the fault as "normal rotation on all wheels, incorrect air gap on RHF sensor". The rubber boot on the sensor needs replacing, but I've been nowhere near that corner for a long while, so nothing's been disturbed. I was off on a drive, so all i've done so far is give the sensor a bit of a tap with a hammer to check it was seated properly, nada.... I'll pull it out tomorrow and give it a bit of a clean, and maybe blast the port with air. Any other thoughts? If spring cleaning doesn't work then I'll prob end up getting a replacement sensor.

Tnx, Rob

Simple enough request...lots of folks seem to have searched for the programmable solution, and failed in the past. So what's the most elegant way to achieve this? I. Insert a relay on the headlight position of the rotary switch for the lights ( and tie the relay across an ignition dpdt wire, such as the stereo's position II live), or II. Change the +ve power source for the head lights in the fuse box from a perm one to an ignition dependent, or some other....
I had a self inflicted flat battery this weekend ( ie left the lights on) and want to eliminate the risk of that again...I'm sure someone smarter than me's already cracked it

No sooner had I fixed the RH head gasket than .... gearbox fault....

I don't believe it's the battery,.... nanocom says "invalid throttle angle data", and then scrolling right says "engine torque fault.... On a short test drive i feel the box changing down as i brake (where before all was silky smooth), and it doesn't feel happy.
When I was doing the HG it was on a 10 degree slope (to my garage) for a couple of weeks. There's definitely D3 in it, need to wait until it has cooled to be sure of the level, but it was all v smooth before, and there's no reason to believe there's been a catastrophic leak while it has been stationary. The battery was disconnected during that time, I've put it on charge just in case.
And the sunroof spat out a rubber seal today too, but i'll deal with that another time...

Last weekend I started to get cheep cheep cheep sounds from my V8 under any kind of load (but not idle). I replaced the LH head gasket earlier this year. This time it seems to be the RH one. Not sure what triggered it, I had a minor over-heat in slow traffic on a hot day a couple of weeks back, but pulled over very quickly, let it cool, and as soon as I was on open road the RR ran fine.
After removing the HT leads to plugs 2/4/6/8 one by one - the cheep disappears on 4 - so I'm hypothesising there's a failure coming on 4, which I'll deal with in due course. I'm just trying to work out how driveable this is...if the HG leak goes to a full chuff chuff steam engine sound, and I were in the middle of nowhere (say 100m away from home) and I had to remove the HT lead and disconnect the injector on no 4, would that do any damage to the engine (and assuming the other 7 cylinders run fine, which they do)? I'd much rather be able to self-recover than call out Admiral and wait x hours etc etc Tnx, Rob

I had a short in my seat which was blowing one of the fuses on start-up. I tracked this down to the lumbar support ( tho I was sure it was going to be the seat heater). I depinned it from the BECM connection, and so i have everything else working except the lumbar support Being a quasi-perfectionist (struggling to get excited about my non-operational cruise control) I was wondering whether the lumbar support pump/ bladder would be the sort of thing that was easier to replace, or it's fairly rudimentary once you're inside the seat? Has anyone had a play with this before?

Ta, Rob

or the "nose" for the top hose... First weekend I got my P38 it over-heated because some fool had fitted a second thermostat in the coolant elbow. I subsequently put on a new gasket and used hylomar on both sides. I pinched the two bolts up as much as I dared, but the joint still (very slowly) wept coolant. After doing a head gasket I did the same - gasket and blue hylomar, and got a torque setting from my Defender 4.0 (26.45.01) of 21 ft lb (the P38 manual seems to overlook the torque for this joint, presumably since it's meant to be empty). Now I've got a new-fangled low range electronic torque wrench I redid the joint with a fibre gasket but no hylomar (manual says not to use compound unless explicitly advised) - now seems to be weeping worse, even after after i flattened it off with 2000 Grit. Has anyone found an effective method for doing this joint?

This P38 is testing my sense of humour... I think since owning this I have averaged about 48 hours of worry free motoring before the next major system failure - today EAS..

I was just playing with the nanocom this morning in EAS resetting ride heights as it was a few cm higher on the right than on the left, on level ground. So obv the EAS was having to work a bit harder than usual, and it was hot... I got the settings I wanted, but now I have ended up on bump stops, and can't get to any other ride height. The Compressor works still, and the whole system was working fine before. No discernible leaks. So either something simply failed, or I was wondering if the Nano has some functionality that cd have disabled EAS ( as a result of me messing around). I'm looking for the quick win before I have to go through things methodically - seems like something gave out on me - any quick things I should try before I have to start pulling EAS apart?

Hi guys,

Any recommendations for a good/ sensibly priced tracking alignment garage in SW London. Two different guys are wanting to charge me c£150 to do it...which seems a bit of a p*** take. Or should I just invest in the ebay laser kit that's showing up on the "uneven tyre wear" thread?

GEMS 4.6

Engine is perfectly driveable, perhaps a bit of a tappet-like rattle on one cylinder, but notably smelly at idle... I don't have a nose for these things, but it smells a bit rich... Does that mean the cats are up s*** creek (distinctly possible, but sounds expensive), or the MAFs playing up (i haven't removed it/ cleaned it at this point) ? HT leads and plugs are new. All the old plugs looked good on removal too. LH head gasket recently replaced. All injectors resistance tested consistently (although high end of expected range).

Any thoughts from our experts?

Rgds, Rob

98 GEMS
So O rings done, I've now got full cabin heat, but the UK weather just went tropical (for a few days, anyway), so now I need the AC... Last summer the AC worked, after I replaced the condenser and added a 2nd hand drier.

This year the AC is not playing. The compressor works, when I give 12v and and earth direct to the connector (C166P) the clutch engages, and the cabin chills as expected. In normal use though nanocom says AC grant "no", but as far as I'm aware the nanocom doesn't also tell me the AC request status - if I could find that in the nanocom menu somewhere it could help with diagnosis, and if I could force it on that would be even better. I also need to disconnect the BECM diagnostic connector as it apparently interferes with the Nanocom's interrogation of the HEVAC ECU - I haven't done that yet - but I don't know if that wd screw up the readings or not.

It crossed my mind that one of the many sensors may be feeding in rubbish data to the HEVAC ECU.
I got ambient 12.7 (fine)
aspirator 18.2 (fine)
evaporator 16.2 (ok, just replaced with a 2nd hand one off a freelander, but same Valeo part number)
heater core temp -0.20 (although it climbs once I've turned up to Hi)

Is the heater core temp way off - seems so. What range should it read in? If that were the case is that going to explain why the AC is not being requested? I recently did the o rings so cd have disturbed something on the sensor

In general any HEVAC faults I have had in the last year are clearable. I have a rare "compressor open circuit" message (but I had that last year too, when the AC was working) and the right blend motor needs fixing at some point. I have a periodic service book come up, but I think it's usually triggered by me asking the jammed blend motor to move (ie by pressing the "wrong" button to adjust the air vent flow)

Seems my first job is to get to air con grant "yes" and then I can start testing stuff... And maybe pressure test the aircon system

I stumbled across this self help group quite by chance a few days ago, having loitered on rangerovers.net for the last year. You guys must be the People's Front for Judea, I was with the Judaean People's Front. Anyway I recognise a few folks from their user names and/or garage contents, and impressed by the camps you guys seem to have periodically.

I have a 50th Defender and a 50th P38. Defender runs well, always has, on the back of basic servicing. P38 I picked up a year ago, and I keep telling myself it's only such a PITA because it was neglected for so many years. I've replaced the rear diff, changed the HU to after market, done a head gasket, o rings and various fluid changes. Next biggies: radius arm bushes (I got orange poly), panhard bushes (not so big) and working out why my air con is not playing, now that it's got hot again.

Cheers, Rob