Intro - crossed to the p38 dark side!

[Hobbes]

Hi all,
After years of running Classics x3 & being a regular contributor to AULRO, I'm back after a few years with a recently acquired 2000my P38, & as expected, there's work to be done!

For now, just an intro/gday - pending help with impending head gaskets/locks/keys...!

Cheers C

[PeterH]

Hi Hobbes, welcome aboard!

I also had a classic 89 RR before my 2001 P38, you will be well equipped with tools etc, thats a great start.
I've probably done just about every job on mine over 12 years, some jobs I'm starting to do a second time now.
Do you have diagnostic equipment?
I have a Faultmate extreme, which is worth its weight in gold, I hear nanocoms are good too.

A lot of the issues that come up are small annoying things, like hevac blend motors and fuse box niggles.
When the EAS is working as it should, it's a great system, you don't even really really think about it, it just works well.
Leaks are the biggest issue there, the valve block and compressor will need attention every now and then.

I hope you are enjoying your new P38, they are great to drive, I love mine!
Cheers, Pete.

[Hobbes]

Hi Pete,
Thanks for the welcome back & support!
I'm up for a head gasket replace as job 1, but I'll start a new thread on that.
Diagnostic wise, i think a Nanocom is the next step - i bought a EAS kicker but should have gone the whole hog..
Cheers
Chris

[Keithy P38]

Welcome mate!

Plenty of great help here! Sometimes it takes a few days to hear back, but you will get it!

Good to have you on the team 😀

Cheers
Keithy

[peter51]

You have bought a great car - I haven't had any issues for the last 10 years except for continually battery drain due to my garage pointing at the local airport(I am on a hill) and I reckon something from that location wakes my BCU continually. You can observe this by putting a current clamp on the negative battery terminal and you will see 800mA of current draw cycling every 20 minutes - BCU sleeps then wakes. Disconnect the key FOB receiver and BCU remains asleep. You may have the same problem if you park at major airports - I certainly do, and I have posted about this on AULRO and rangerovers.net - The airport signals are very similar to that emitted by the key FOB and use the same carrier frequency - I had the oscilloscope images I collected but seem to have lost them.
BTW - dont lose your keys - I hope you have 2.
If you want to pull the engine and do everything then its only about 2.5 hours to remove - you can PM me for a guide - not too hard.
You also need to know about the security system and its interaction with the immobiliser - I have the same model 2000.
PM me on those items when you have issues.
Definitely get a nanocom as it has a powerful feature which data logs engine sensor data for analysis - that way other people can look at your data stream and help. No other diagnostic units are as capable regarding all the system in your P38. There are plenty of cheap OBD devices purporting to display all data from the P38 but you are wasting your money. I have tried many of them such as icarsoft etc- all of them saying they covers all the ECU's - straight out lies.

[prelude]

Welcome to the darkside :)

They are wonderful cars to drive! you will enjoy it. One does need to be persistent to get an older car up to spec sometimes but it is worth it. Most parts are still available but some critical parts are no longer produced and no alternatives have stepped in unfortunately. A lot of knowledge on these vehicles on here so I am sure you can fix pretty much any problem :)

Cheers!
-P