Simon_CSK

Does your RAC policy come with a key replacement? Mine does and have used it a couple of times without any hastle. Car has to be Taxed, MOT'd and insured in your name to qualify.

It was helicoiled to take M12's which are now fitted and working fine. The helicoil work was done by a local retired Aeronautical engineer so I would think that he has done it right. I have helicoiled into aluminium before for exhaust manifolds without any problem so I am nore than confident that all will be well. Nice to have the car back on the road just need to get one wheel stud changed and then I can get it MOT'd and hopefully sold. Having said that I have four cars that I need to MOT before the end of the month so this is going to be one expensive month.

Did you try my solution above?

On most TD5;s the difflock was fitted on the gearbox and it was the selector that was missing.I beleive it was omitted because all TD5's had traction control which was deemed by LR to be better. However with both traction control and a difflock the Disco became a much better tool off road.

Thanks for your help guys. That was one well stuck bolt. Welded on a bolt three times before we manager to remove it and even then we needed lots of heat on the cali[per. I think someone had cross threaded the bolt. Now will get it helicoiled and refitted.

I have been working on the brakes of my L322 TDV8. When I removed the callper one bolt holding it to the car hub sheared while being removed. The calipers are Brembo cast aluminium so as above I now have a bolt stuck in. Fortunately there is a sizable portion sticking out above the caliper enough to allow me to grip with Mole Grips. What I need to know is can I use the tried and tested method of applying heat to the alloy and gently rocking the bolt back and forth until it releases or should I use another method on the caliper?

Plan Insurance are the brokers, Eridge is the insurance company.

I have my own Architectural Practice and have a part time traders policy which I use to help my brother who moves vehicles around the country and for me when I am buying and selling. All above board and have been with the company for 3 years and am about to renew in September. I had one bump last year that was settled without any issue. The cover allows me to work in my day job and in my play job. I am allowed to have 10 vehicles on the policy and can change them whenever I wish through an online portal. Last month I bought a Range Rover Sport that was vandalised and was collecting it in Gloucester and driving it home (to Scotland). As it was a trade car, i.e. one I bought to sell, I technically didn't need to register it on my policy but to save ANPC cameras pinging on the 400 mile trip with the potential for multiple stops I put it on the night before. Generally I have 5 cars on the policy at any one time.

An electric car towing a caravan will not have a range issue! Just means that the holiday will not be that far from home, of if a touring holiday a fortnight around the M25

Agree and being dyslexic means I always make lots of typos and am always correcting when I can.

It was meant to sound snooty but with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek.

I have a posh Range Rover so certainly don't want any dirt on them

Interesting However I have replaced them with steel ones for two reasons the first being the galling and the second being the colour. I am getting my wheels powder coated gunmetal and the car is Black so silver wheel nuts would be just plain odd.

The studs were undamaged fortunately.

Oh has the site changed then? Sorry I didn't notice

Ok point take however I will need to use them until I get the replacements as mine were totally destroyed taking the old one off.

How? The whole idea is that stainless will not rust

I have had two that have been LPG'd. The current one I have just done (before the valeters knackered the BECM) and is certainly very economic by comparison. However I have just sold my TD6 L322 which was returning for me 21mpg ( I have a very heavy right foot) however the new owner os getting 30mpg around and about and 37mpg on a run. I am using a TDV8 L322 at the moment and can achieve 25mpg on a trip even with a heavy right foot. It might be worth considering the L322 the prices have come down.

I have been buying a few L322's recently and have regularly been looking at the MOT history. That should be your first stop and that will give a good indication if it has been properly maintained. I have found that there are some cars with extensive failures and others only have things like bulbs and tyres. The minor or no failure vehicles are the ones you want to look at. I would consider the V8, never had a Diesel one but have had 3 V8 4.6's and they are very smooth cars. Check the front drivers floor carpet to see if it is wet. That will determine if the BECM is likely to be sitting in water which causes some of the electronic problems. Having broken about 6 or 7 of them I have never found corrosion issues mostly V8 engine problems and electronics.

The force on any bold into the floor will be a shear force as it is acting against the side of the bolt. So long as it is held down securely I would doubt there would be any great force on a rolling chassis. Replace the ratchet straps with a rope and a snatch block and pull the chassis up with another vehicle. The loads should be relatively small. I moved 250kg concrete railway sleepers down my driveway using a snatch block and it was very easy and this had a friction surface as it has no wheels over rough ground.

Valid point however I don't intend to have a repeat of this. The calipers are stiff so I am going to replace the front pads and make sure the sliders are operating correctly, then when I put the wheels back on I am going to make sure that they cannot get stuck on by putting a tiny bit of oil on them.

Scored them with a dremel as deep as I could go then hit them with a very sharp chisel until they started to turn. Then put mole grips on and turned them off. Now just need my new wheel nuts and my refurbished wheels and I am good to go.

Would agree however you cannot get the studs as a separate itm one would need to buy a complete hub. However having said that I have removed a stud from a Discovery 2 hub that I had lying around and it looks to be the same size. Certainly the same thread size where the length is the came remains to be seen. Unfortunately there are recessed wheel nuts on alloy wheels so that option is not available. I checked warious sizes on the standard wheel nut and found that the main shaft was 22.5mm diameter and the recess where the captive washer sits in 21.5mm. I went to tool station and bought a 22mm HSS drill and have drilled out the nuts. I exposed most of the 21.5mm collar which took the lip off the wheel nut.. That got the studs off enough to remove the wheel which are now away to the powder coaters. I still have the threaded part of the nut welded to the stud so, probably tomorrow afternoon, I will take the Dremel and cut along the length of the tread to remove it.

The nut is softer metal certainly and having thought about it I may be able to drill the head off the nut with a 23mm drill without damaging the stud. that should allow be to remove the wheel and then the tension will be off the threaded part so can either cut it or unwind it. Would agree but that is what the RAC is for. Have ordered new stainless steel bolts so am not worried about loosing them

Am in the process of removing the wheels on my L322 to get them powder coated. Have three wheels off but have hit a big problem with the NS front. I have three nuts that will not budge even with some heat. I have removed the stailess steel cap and have driven on smaller sockets however the only resut is that the nuts themselves have now rounded. I can afford to damage the finish on the wheel but not the structure and have oreder new wheel nuts so they can be cut off somehow. I did start to drill the studs out but they appear to be hardened. Has anyone had this problem and if so what was the solution?