MikeAK

Hi, I think the document Filip is referring to is this one. I just happened to have it handy after looking at a mates P38 today. Regards Mike EAS - System Information Document.pdf

On the top ball joint I dismantled it's only the the split tapered nylon sleeve that's spring loaded to keep it snug around the pin. The pin is free to move up and down. Got it all back together this week. In the end as Escape said, I just adjusted it so that the oil seal flange (or whatever it's called) on the driveshaft was central to the seal recess in the axle case. I think that should be OK, I'll keep an eye on it for the seals leaking. Took it for MOT and it passed, no advisories. Happy days. Mike

Hi Northward, Thanks for the info, had a search on youtube and found the video you mentioned. Thanks for the offer of a loan but I'll be able to come up with something similar with what I have lying around if I need to. Having got chance to have a go this afternoon as the rain stopped for a few hours, I have got the ball joints out. to say they put up a fight is an understatement! Now they are out I understand how the adjustment works. The upper ball joint is not a ball joint! It is a parallel sat in a split tapered nylon sleeve, the sleeve is spring loaded to keep it tight around the pin. The pin is free to move up and down when the swivel height is adjusted. I cut the old one open to see how it worked, pictures below. So I think my idea of measuring the gap between the top of the swivel and the bottom of the axle case adjacent to the top ball joint is valid. They are both flat machined surfaces so I punched the side of the swivel and the axel case so I can measure in the same place when I put it back together. Providing it was correct before disassembly, which I think it was as it all looked original ant the axle seals weren't leaking, it should be OK on re-assembly.

Hi All, In the next few days I will be changing the swivel hub ball joints my P38. Reading the RAVE manual it says the swivel height has to be adjusted. But the procedure says to first fit the upper ball joint nut and tighten, then use the lower adjustment bush to set the height. How is the height adjusted? it looks like there can be no movement as the upper joint is fixed. It will probably all become apparent when I get it apart, but I would like to understand before I start so I can be sure to have everything I need before starting. Also how have others set the swivel height? I don't have the LR tool and would expect others wouldn't either given the price! My plan is to measure gap between the top of the swivel and the bottom of the axle case adjacent to the top ball joint and ensure this is the same after re-assembly. Thanks Mike

Hi all, Thought I'd give an update on this now I've been driving it for a couple of months. Turners did send a new set of lifters out, these were the same as the first set just plain white box no branding or identification. These behaved in exactly the same way as the first set. I'm always suspicious of products where the manufacturer isn't prepared to identify themselves. So I decided it was time to bite the bullet and source some different known brand lifter. I found some BGA branded lifters that appear to be new old stock manufactured in 2010. Fitted these and the engine went quiet within a minute of starting and has been fine ever since. Prior to fitting them I dismantled one of the BGA ones to compare with one of the turners ones. I have no means of measuring the clearance between the outer case and the inner plunger, but feeling by hand the BGA ones had barely detectable clearance very hard to feel. In contrast the Turners lifters had easily felt clearance, much slacker in comparison. I think this was causing excessive leakdown? Googling around it seems that this is now a common problem, not just on RV8s but on many older engines. It seems that as OEMs stop making lifters for these older engines the supply is increasingly coming from China etc and are just not made to the correct specification. Problems seem to range from excessive leakdown to being made out of chocolate and destroying camshafts. Regards Mike

Hi, Yes lifters are definitely full full of oil. I don't have an oil pressure gauge but the oil light goes out immediately the engine starts and doesn't comeback on for several seconds when stopping, also oil is visible at the rockers when running. I have spoken to Turners who are sending out a replacement set. Speaking to them they said they used to supply Ajusa lifters until recently but these are no longer available and they have changed to another brand. Will be fitting the replacement set this weekend. As a side note Turners have been brilliant with their customer service, so hopefully this will get sorted soon. Mike

Hi, put this in International although it's a Range Rover as it's a generic V8 question. Hi just fitted a new cam and lifters to a 4.6 V8. The engine has now run for about 1 hour and the lifters are still very noisy. So I took off the rocker covers to had a look and noticed that the lifters seem to leak down very quickly over a few seconds. The attached video shows me manually turning the engine taking a valve from closed to open and the lifter leaking down. All lifter behave the same. lifter.m4v This surprised me as i would normally expect the lifters to hold up for several hours otherwise the engines would clatter every time they are started which normally only happens if left for several days. Rang Turners who supplied the cam and lifters and they recommended running it longer to see if it "settles down". I will do this but thought first I would double check the lifter preload in case I messed it up but all are correct in the 0.04" to 0.06" range. While doing this I emptied the lifters of oil to check the preload and it was very easy to push the oil out using a wood dowel pressing on the lifter cap by hand. in contrast the old lifters needed to be put in a vice to push the oil out which is what I have experienced before. So it seems like a radical difference between the old and new lifters. So I put one of the old lifters in the engine and bolted the rockers on with the cam at it's peak and after several hours the lifter had not leaked down. It seems to me that the new lifters have a far to high leak down rate, but would like peoples thoughts before getting back in touch with Turners. Thanks Mike

Hi, thanks for the replies. Emailed Turners with the pictures, but got an automated message back saying office closed this week. Will ring next week and see what they have to say. Mike

A few weeks ago I overheated my P38 4.6 on a play day. Got a radiator full of mud and didn't notice the temperature gauge hard over until steam came from under the bonnet! what a muppet I am! Since then it's been using water, about 1/2 an expansion tank over about 10 miles. Doesn't overheat as long as it's kept topped up, temp gauge sits bang in the middle. Put some UV dye in a couple of weeks ago but so signs of external leaks. Cooling system holds pressure on a pressure test at 1 bar when cold. Radiator hoses get very hard when hot so I assume combustion gas getting in the cooling system when the engine is hot. So yesterday I decided to investigate properly and did a compression test when hot. All cylinders around 175 to 180 psi apart from number 3 which is 145 psi. Followed that by a leak down test but was surprised to see no significant difference on number 3 and no bubbling in the expansion tank which I was expecting, but engine had cooled down somewhat by then. However obviously something wrong with number 3 so today I took off the left hand head and found this. Looks to me like a crack in the cylinder wall, but would like the opinions of people with experience of these things. The crack (if it is) is adjacent to one of the head bolt holes, which I supposed is the more stressed area of the bore. I presume the block must also be cracked behind the liner to allow passage of water/combustion gasses? Does this mean it's beyond top hatting? Thanks Mike

Yes, getting on a year later, heater and outside temperature display working perfectly. Mike

Hi, Just taken my P38 for MOT this morning and it passed 😀 But got an advisory on all the front axle swivel ball joint boots "Suspension arm ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated". The rubber has multiple cracks and will not last much longer, none of the cracks have yet punctured the rubber and the MOT tester said joints themselves are fine - no detectable play. So as the ball joints can be absolute sods to get out and I would rather keep the original joints as there is noting wrong with them, I would like to just replace the boots. But I haven't managed to find any. Does anyone know of a source for these? Regards Mike

Hi, Mine was doing this. I took door cards off both front doors and checked microswitch operation which turned out to be perfect. I eventually tracked it down to a corroded connector in the left hand door pillar (I assume the right hand will have similar). It's accessible behind the where the rubber tube enters the pillar, just pull out the rubber and fish out the connector. I cleaned mine with switch cleaner and packed with dielectric grease. No problems 12 months later. Mike

Have you tried re-syncing the keyfob? Maybe hey have got out of sync due to RF interference at the hospital P38 Range Rover Remote Fob Resynchronisation Procedure. If the battery in the fob has gone flat and has been replaced or the vehicle battery has been replaced or other things have rendered the fob unusable it may be necessary to resynch the fobs to the vehicle. 1. Make sure all doors, bonnet and boot are closed. 2. Make sure all exterior door handles are fully closed. 3. Put key in driver’s door lock 4. Press and hold the remote lock button 5. Whilst still holding the lock button in turn the key towards the rear of the vehicle. 6. Still holding the lock button in count to 10 7. Still holding the lock button in turn the key to the centre position 8. Still holding the lock button in remove the key from the door lock 9. Release the lock button 10. Try the remote buttons. You must do this on both remote fobs.

I've just been given a box of old tools most of it useful stuff, but it also contained this. I have no idea what it is or what it's used for. Thought someone on here may know. The knurled knob at the bottom alters the position of the hook. The lever closes the jaws and doesn't move the hook. Mike

Thanks Paul, I took a guess and of course have got them the wrong way round. I'll swap them over. Mike

I removed the wiper arms on my P38 yesterday to replace the the heater blower plenum foam and re-seal around the air intake "buckets". I didn't realise the arms are different so didn't take note of which one went where. One is about 40mm shorter and has a distinct twist near the spindle end. Anyone know which one goes where, I can't find anything in owners manual or RAVE. Thanks Mike

Good news. An easy and quick fix. Certainly cheaper and less hassle than a faulty BECM.

This may be common knowledge, but I wasn't aware of it so thought I'd post in case useful for anyone else. After re-installing the dash in my P38 I was getting "Airbag Fault" in the message centre. However the SRS (airbag) warning light was working correctly, illuminating approx 5s at ignition on then going off indicating no faults. Never any faults in SRS ECU when read by Nanocom even when message present on message centre. Googling around I found references to having 2 SRS warning lamps and bulb failure detection. Pulled out the instrument pod and there are 2 lamps behind the SRS indicator one of which was not working. Not blown but high resistance in socket due to tarnishing so not working. Cleaned a re-seated it a few times so it operated correctly. That cleared the "Airbag Fault" message. So even though the SRS ECU didn't log any faults for the inoperative lamp I assume the dash must do some sort of bulb resistance check and put up the "Airbag Fault" message if it detects a lamp not working. In short if you have "Airbag Fault" on the message centre but SRS light appearing to behave normally and no faults logged check that both lamps in the SRS light are working. Mike

That's good, if RL16 is clicking you can discount the BECM. Remember just because a relay clicks doesn't necessarily mean it working, I've been caught by that before. But as the relay is clicking there's not much else it can be. Try a link across pins 3 and 5 of the RL16 socket in the fuse box to see if it cranks. You may have it but here is the starter wiring for a 1999 on from RAVE in case you haven't. Mike

Does the yellow check engine light come on? If the BECM is happy with the key it sends the de-immobilisation code to the engine ECU which if correct turns on (via the BECM) the check engine light. So if you're not getting an immobilised message and the check engine light is on everything should OK as far as immobilisation goes. At least that how it works for GEMS, I assume Thor is similar? Which is yours? Assuming the above is OK then I would be checking basic stuff. You say you hear a click from the BECM when you turn the key, is that to position 3 (start)? If so that's probably the BECM internal relay trying to operate the starter via RL16 in the fuse box. I would be checking that at relay 16 to see if the is coil is energised when the key is in start position. You can then trace on from the relay to the starter motor or back too the BECM depending on what you find. Mike

When you turn the key to position 2 do you get the usual messages in the message centre about windows not set etc. that always happen after battery disconnection? If not you may have a problem with the BECM itself. Do you get an engine immobilised message in the message centre? If so could need re-syncing to engine ECU. If not immobilised then it should crank, so check basic things as for a "normal" car i.e. starter relay operating (RL16 I think in engine compartment fuse box). You were asking before about the connections to BECM. The N wire is permanently live via MF4, the NLG wire is permanently live via MF1 and the NK wire is permanently live via MF5. Might be worth checking. Above is from my 1996 GEMS P38, I assume later ones are similar. Mike

Is this what you want?

While repairing my P38 heater I noticed that the heater core temperate sensor STC3256 and ambient temperature sensor STC3257 were both giving incorrect readings. The ambient temperature in the display showing 55C and both readings in Nanocom around 95C. Both sensors were reading in excess of 150K ohms regardless of temperature so they were duff. The heater core sensor appears to be obsolete and although some suppliers list the ambient air sensor on enquiring I haven't found any in stock yet. I don't think I would be prepared to pay the £70 they were listed at anyway! So I decided to see if I could find alternatives. I put a resistance box in place of each sensor and monitored the indicated temperature in Nanocom and plotted the results. I then looked for some thermistors that would work. The results I got are... For the heater core sensor above the blue plot is the temperature reading in Nanocom against the applied resistance in K ohms. Orange trace is the calculated resistance value from the thermistor data sheet. The divergence at lower temperature I think is probably acceptable as I think the main purpose is to monitor when there is sufficient heat available from the engine. Also I think it well within the error that could be expected from the HEVAC controller tolerance and my resistance box tolerance. For the ambient air sensor above the blue plot is the calculated resistance value from the thermistor data sheet and the grey plot is from the the data in RAVE for the ambient air sensor fitted to later P38 (data is given for the earlier ones but I believe they are functionally equivalent). The plots are pretty much identical over the range given in RAVE. The orange plot is the temperature reading in Nanocom against the applied resistance in K ohms. This seems to be a pretty good match within expected tolerance. So I decided to give them a go. The ones thermistors I chose are EPCOS B57863S0303F040 for the heater core sensor and EPCOS B57863S0103F40 for the ambient air sensor. They are RS part numbers 629-8736 and 629-8720 respectively. They should be available from many suppliers (Farnell etc). They look like this... Obviously they need mounting! For the heater core sensor I used the Dremel to grind out the sensor interior, soldered in the new thermistor and then re-potted with Araldite. I thought I'd taken a photo of the thermistor fitted before potting, but apparently I didn't! I put a blob of computer heatsink compound on the rivet at the bottom of the cavity and sat the thermistor in that before soldering it in to and potting to ensure good thermal contact. I haven't properly installed the ambient air sensor yet, it's just dangling out of the window on wires at the moment for testing! I think I will extend the existing wires and mount it behind the front bumper as later P38 had it rather than its current position of below the LH pollen filter where it's a pain to get at. Good news is both temperature readings are correct now, so it seems like a successful modification. Even if the original sensors can be obtained the modification is a considerably cheaper solution. Just thought I'd post this in case it's useful to anyone else. Mike

I managed to get some more time on this a couple of days ago. Cobbled together an adapter to put some argon in the A/C system to pressure test it. It was leaking from the condenser faster than I could put it in! Pulled the front grill and A/C fans off and found a crack in one of the condenser tubes. Squirted a load of Araldite in and left it overnight to go off. Next day put about 50psi in it and didn't seem to leak. Left it overnight again and it was still holding pressure the next day. So I don't think there are any other leaks, just needs a new condenser. That can wait for warmer weather, don't need A/C at the moment. While waiting for the for A/C pressure test I had a play with the thermistors I bought from RS to replace the faulty heater core and ambient air temperature sensors. Both worked correctly giving correct temperature readings. I'll start a separate thread about the sensors so the information is available for anyone who needs it. So todays job was refitting the dash. Managed to get the main dash in , but still have to fit instruments, glove box and airbag. It was to cold to complete it! Couldn't work with fiddly screws with gloves on and fingers didn't work in the cold without. Either way couldn't feel and just kept dropping things. Not to much to do now though when it gets a bit warmer! Mike

Started putting it back together today. Another advantage of removing the heater box is that you can clean out the years of muck and small plastic toys in the the evaporator housing and drains. Another cause of wet carpets. Putting the heater box back in. And fitting the modified bracket. Not going to do any more re-assy of the dash yet. I discovered today there is no gas in the AC system. So I want to pressurise it first to make sure there are no leaks in dash before I go any further. Thinking of putting in 20 to 30 PSI of Argon from the welder which should be clean and dry and enough to find any leaks. Need to make up an adapter tomorrow. Thermistors ordered from RS so will be having a play with them tomorrow as well. Mike