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olbod
15th May 2009, 02:37 PM
G'day.
I know very little about this modern electrical stuff in vehicles these days.
Me Bro has the P38a which I often drive.
Things I dont care for: you put it into reverse and the side review mirror points at the ground, grr. It has electrical gismo stuff on the centre rear view mirror. When I get in and close the door it locks ! I keep forgetting about this and usually bang me head on the window because i've started
to get out but the door hasn't opened because it's still locked, POOH.
On and on, etc.
Question. If one were to cut the wire to the rear view mirror and tape it
up, so it doesn't point to the ground when you put it into reverse, would
the ecu or thingy go beserk ? Can this sort of thing be isolated by using
a pair of side cutters ?
Of course I dont want to attack his car but I might end up with it.

Another thing out of curiousity, up here in the tropics we dont need
car heaters, I've never used one.
The P38's have trouble spitting heater O rings. Would this problem still
occur if the heater is never used ?
Can the hoses to the heater be removed from the heater and just looped back into the block or where ever it connects to ?
I usually do this with my vehicles when they do hoses or start to leak
but with all these modern electrical mine fields I prefer to stand well back,
thats why I am asking first.
Tar.

PS: some might say thats modern life, live with it but I would rather not.

mike 90 RR
15th May 2009, 02:44 PM
Feel ya pain

Scouse
15th May 2009, 05:01 PM
The reverse dip feature is programmable. The details on how to turn it on/off/adjust are in the owners manual.

The doors should not lock by themselves so that is an issue.

The heater needs to be in working order for the climate control to work as it belnds hot air with cold to get your selected temperature.

Help?
:)

olbod
15th May 2009, 09:36 PM
Thanks Scouse.

p38arover
16th May 2009, 11:34 AM
Ref the mirrors, read the bloody owner's handbook! :p

Replacing the O-rings isn't hard. I've written the procedure up on the rangerovers.net website.

olbod
16th May 2009, 04:17 PM
Ron, I have the Rangy for a month while Bro is in Tassie, the owners manual is not in the car, unfortunately.

When things need doing to this vehicle it goes to the best LR mechanics
in the country ie, Landrover Spares Mackay.

The gist of my questions tho concerned the ecu thingy's. How far can they be tampered with ? ( side cutters ).
I know little about these things and I am not suggesting that I would
actually tamper with it but I am still none the wiser.

I think it was you that said you wouln't be game to take your P38 off
road but what if one did and had problems ? Suppose your o rings let
go along the Tanami and dumped the coolant ( is that what happens ) ?
Can the heater be isolated and the hoses rerouted and the radiator
topped up again without sirens going off and lights flashing ?
I've read up on the airbags etc and the little kits available to bypass
the compressor and so on but not having first hand Knowledge yet
I need to ask questions about side of the track repairs !!
If you see what I mean.
Tar.

PS: Despite its foibles and high maintenance costs, I still woudn't mind
owning it.

RickP38
16th May 2009, 09:33 PM
Hey mate, mine gets serviced by a LR dealer as well. I tow a lot so reversing a trailer with those mirrors was a real pain in the arse so I got them to disconnect/remove the function. (they did it at no cost so it must have been easy) However, the Mrs complains every time she needs to reverse into a park or alongside a curb:) :wasntme:

PaulP38a
16th May 2009, 11:54 PM
How to disable the mirror dip function:
Turn the starter switch to position ’I’ or ’II’ (do not start the engine) and select reverse gear.
Press and hold the seat MEMORY STORE switch for 2 seconds, the message centre displays ’MIRROR DIP OFF’ and a tone sounds.

Re the heater hoses, dunno but here's a couple of thoughts:


I understand that even in tropical FNQ heaters are useful to assist in demisting
bypassing the heater matrix might cause a fault on the HEVAC display - probably the "cheque book" symbol. Mine has been showing the "cheque book" symbol for ages, but heating and cooling still work ok.
I guess you could just block off the cabin-side pipes and loop the engine-side feed and return pipes and see what happens. Good luck.

Interesting that you seem so sure that P38A's have a problem of spitting heater O rings. I've had 2 P38A's so far and never had this problem that I'm aware of. Maybe I'd better have a closer look...

Cheers, Paul.

p38arover
17th May 2009, 12:39 AM
If the O-rings fail, they seem to just leak. As the age, they harden. I suspect that they are fine until someone plays around with the heater hoses under the bonnet and flexes the aluminium pipes.

I think that mine started to leak after I replaced the hoses.

I like the dipping mirrors, especially when reversing a trailer. I really miss the dip function when I drive my wife's Subaru.

olbod
17th May 2009, 11:21 AM
Thanks all for the reply's
I am not sure about anything regarding P38's.
When Bro first got the thing about seven or eight months ago he asked
me to look at the service records and see what I thought. It was previously owned by a woman Doctor and was well maintained and never been off road.
In it's short life, it's a 98 model, it has had four airbags replaced, the
compressor overhauled and the heater O rings replaced twice and the engine rebuilt by Bruce Davis as a beautiful 5 ltr ( which had only done 20
thou when Bro bought it ). I thought I had read a few posts about
heater O rings being a problem ?
There were many references to small problems like door locks, key fobs,
aircon etc and these niggling things that continue.
The latest is the petrol guage has slowly stopped working, I will try to trace the wiring to look for earthing problems.
Bro is not a diehard Landy man, I talked him into buying one.
He was in Sydney for a while when our Mum was dying, so he was looking
at Disco's. He rang and asked about a P38a HSE, I told him to stay away from it !! Too late he had already bought it.
These little niggling problems and high maintenance costs are piddling him
off, thats why he has threatened to give it too me, as revenge, as if it was my fault :). He looks at it from the resale value point of view and
of course it has none and he is going to lose money, which doesn't sit well.
I am the opposite, I dont care how much I spend on my beautiful D1,
it's the fifth Landy I have owned and its a keeper

Of course I would accept it, that's why I am asking questions.
It is a beautiful daily and this big engine is fantastic.

I will probably ask more questions, so be prepared !
Cheers.

BigJon
17th May 2009, 11:54 AM
I overtook a tidy 4.6 HSE coming down the freeway this morning and I thought "they are a nice looking vehicle, I could live with one of them".

If I could get one for the right price (very cheap) I would take it on as a project and diesel engine it with as few electronics as possible.

Still have the great look, but cheap to run and maintain.

LavisLane
21st May 2009, 04:50 PM
Mine runs like a dream 99% of the time and there's nothing quite like cruising from the freeway to off road in leather goodness wrapped up in a car that was around $110,000 less than 10 years ago :D

Here's something to consider;

The P38 isn't really much more expensive to repair, i've found it to be about an extra 10-15%. I've only had mine for about 2 years though. (i'll be very interested to see others opinion on this?!)

Imagine that the average 4WD costs you $1500 in maintenance a year. This means that you might need to pay $1725 for the Rangey.

In summary, you might pay another $225 a year. It's worth it.

The next argument is that they break down more than average - i've been lucky enough to have had minimal problems, less than my mates with run of the mill 4WD's.

I think that what Land Rovers and Range Rovers are all about - they're not boring run of the mill 4WD's and we're certainly not run of the mill boring drivers :cool:

Cheers,

David

parasnoop67
26th May 2009, 08:08 PM
I bought my P38 about 2 years ago and usually love it. In that time I have replaced tyres,4 airbags,4 shocks,all disc pads,brake accumulator,ö"rings in valve block,compressor piston and seal,water pump and fan,heater ö"rings,key fob buttons and batteries,head gasgets,tailgate gas struts,cubby box gas strut,battery,earth strap to motor,and fuel pump. Sounds a lot,but it was all done by myself except the head gasgets and I now have a fantastic and hopefully reliable 4wd.It is a very capable highway cruiser and really good off road.The heater "o"rings did leak fairly badly when they started so i removed the hoses from their pipes at the firewall and short circuited them till I got a chance to fix it. I have also fitted a manual air recovery system and always carry a TJM air pump in case of trouble. I had for a while a persistent air leak which turned out to be the valve block leaking internally,which was fixed with an "o"ring kit, but which caused a suspension fault on the dash,"which was cleared by means of a "buddy box" which was bought off the net,and cleared the fault in around 10 seconds. Also had the radiator cleaned and new top tank and thermostat.
There is no doubt that they can be a fairly high maintainance vehicle, but if parts are replaced when worn instead of broken, much trouble can be avoided.Things such as airbags have a service life and when that time comes, rip em out and fit new ones.saves leaks.Have the radiator cleaned and checked before it gets hot and stuffs that lovely motor etc.
Just my thoughts on ownership.

rs67

Forest
26th May 2009, 08:28 PM
In relation to the doors locking when you take off, is it possible that this feature is the anti hijack feature that many vehicles now have? I have this feature, and I have it programed to lock all doors, once the vehicle gets going, and think it is great (once you get used to it), and makes me much more comfortable about SWMBO driving at night in certain areas!!!

Very advanced for the manufacture date however if it is a design feature!

MoodyBlue
27th May 2009, 12:16 PM
Robert,
With your list of faults the one I can help with is the Fuel Gauge.
Replace the black plastic float with one from an EA EB ford.
The RR one is foam plastic that fuels containing Ethanol eat into.
When you take out the old float just chuck it onto a bowl of petrol and watch it sink to the bottom:o

I purchased a new fuel pump, and a new dash board, and replaced a whole lot of wiring before I got to the "Sunken Foat" problem.

Cheers
Jeff

olbod
28th May 2009, 02:52 PM
Thanks Jeff, we'll look into that.