What's happening with your P38?

What happened to the 'new' edit post button?... anyway, an after-thought about my missing panel 'brake' bulb..,I'm sure my 'ABS' and 'Handbrake on' warning lamps work.

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Originally Posted by fixes

However, the blue and pink ingredients coagulate into clots and blockages when mixed, so the silicates (in blue) must be dissolved from the block surface by driving around on plain water for a few flushes (couldnt find any info on how many) before they can be replaced by those in the pink OAT.

The only chemistry explanation I can think of to explain Keithy's leaks after change-over is that leaky joints were being plugged by evaporating silicates (the mechanism used by StopLeak et al) but which dissolved after the switch.

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I hadn't even thought of that... running just water to flush out the system. Aren't there associated overheating risks? Or is it a matter of letting the engine idle in the drive for a relatively short period to do a flush rather than driving around for weeks with only water in the coolong system?

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Originally Posted by 4X4V8

It's very quiet in this section of AULRO. I suppose that P38s are dying off a bit generally now they're all at least 18 years old. Still seems to be a lot of enthusiasm in Facebook groups, though mostly UK-based it seems.

I'm probably posting this for just about no-one to read or respond to but what the heck, why not. I'm bored. Maybe it'll get some interest and discussion going on P38s again.

I wish there were half the cars being wrecked here as there is in the UK, because getting good used trim parts at a reasonable cost is hard in Oz. I actually bought a used parcel shelf in good nick out of the UK on eBay. eBay seems to subsidise postage on some international items, so the whole thing landed was about $150 cheaper than I could buy here. There is a certain yard in the south of Australia that has plenty of used P38 parts but quoted me some really high prices.

I've been keeping fairly busy working on my MY02 Vogue. The roof liner seemed to take me a long time to do, I think because I had so many interruptions and stopped work to allow time for glue to set on the broken trims I had to repair, and the sunroof cassette had me foxed for a while. Don't you love it when you assemble stuff the wrong way (like seatbelt bolts before the trim that goes around it [bighmmm]) because you're pushing on trying to finish something after a long day at it already?Anyway, a great result and now the interior looks very good. I was lucky with my car that by some miracle the leather seats came up really well with a clean, almost look new, even the driver's seat.

I had a noisy engine pulley and discovered that they all have some play when new to allow for heat expansion. So while I replaced the tensioner/idler assy and the idler under the alternator, still not sure which was the culprit. I'm keeping the old units in case I need to reuse with fresh bearings. Only discovered you can replace just bearings alone too late.

I drove a 600km round trip for work last week and the P38 went well. It averaged 12.5L/100km on the highway, overall average of 13.2L/100km including some off-roading. The steering started to kick a lot more than usual when off-road, and of course later found the steering damper leaking. It was the original one, I think, with "LAND ROVER' and MADE IN SPAIN" stamped on it. I suppose 19 years is a good run for a steering damper.

Main jobs to go are to pull the dash to repair sticking blend flaps (and replace one blend motor with gear damage as a result) and probably replace heater o-rings while I'm there. In two minds with going for OEM o-rings or Viton o-rings. Viton are apparently much more durable? Also have a noisy fan motor or two: plenty of leaves and disintegrated plenum foam in there, I think I've cleaned all up when replacing the foam and pollen filters, but it sounds like the motor bearings are shot.

I replaced rear rotors and pads and fronts look okay but I wonder if the accumulator is on the way out. The servo motor doesn't power up excessively often -- I think - but brake pwr assist could be a little stronger. The brake fluid reservoir sits at the top mark when the car has been driven, but when left for a while fluid is maybe 5mm over the full mark. Not sure what that means -- failing accumulator or just normal.

The cooling system is behaving so I'm loathe to go in there to disturb it yet. It has green coolant in it, should be red/pink OAT. Just before my work took a nosedive a month ago I bought new coolant and as many of the coolant hoses, thermostat etc I could, but some hoses were out of stock. Not sure if I can justify the $ to buy the hoses I don't have just yet and get stuck into it.

I love the colour combination of my car -- Oslo blue with the lightstone beige interior -- but the paint has seen better days, esp on the roof and bonnet. There are many stains from tree sap and bird poo and the clear is coming off here and there. I'm going to rub back the serviceable bits with 2000-grit wet and dry and buff. It'll come up well overall, but really it needs fresh paint here and there to get to the standard I want. That's not happening for now though.

Well that's all from me. Hope your P38s are going well at the moment, and that that continues for at least a few trouble-free days [smilebigeye]

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I am a p38er new to this forum, we love our old girl. My poor baby needs 2 front seats. Light stone trim, some in Australia call it parchment. Trim code is p. Seats are electric, no heater.
only need front ones, black piping. Most cost effective option would be to buy two new seats; are a little bit in the dark hear about where to find some. Thanks

I am a p38er new to this forum, we love our old girl. My poor baby needs 2 front seats. Light stone trim, some in Australia call it parchment. Trim code is p. Seats are electric, no heater.
only need front ones, black piping. Most cost effective option would be to buy two new seats; are a little bit in the dark hear about where to find some. Thanks

Ok so Rosie has new brakes all round, rotors all round, rh rear axle seal and a water pump and belt.
That's all for the moment.

Next, front steering- bushes etc then 2 tyres.

MJS

It was found to have an oil soaked abd sensor where the axle seal failed and I wondered if that was the cause of the random raising of eas to extened without imput, but alas no.
After a proper gentle test drive on new brakes and rotors I must still must have a bad height sensor somewhere.
Poo.

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Originally Posted by Joanne Mansell

I am a p38er new to this forum, we love our old girl. My poor baby needs 2 front seats. Light stone trim, some in Australia call it parchment. Trim code is p. Seats are electric, no heater.
only need front ones, black piping. Most cost effective option would be to buy two new seats; are a little bit in the dark hear about where to find some. Thanks

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I think your best option is to get them re upholstered. New would be very unlikely/costly here.
I can put you on to a upholsterer if stuck but there are plenty auto upholsterers around, should be one close to you!
good luck. Your seats will have heaters but doubt if your hevac has switches to activate them.

Some of the front suspension components of the front suspension and steering links have been replaced, but many others didn't at 180,000km I think the rest should be. The previous owner replaced the radius arms bushes around 6 years ago and I replaced the steering damper and genuine dampers about 2 years ago. This last week I replaced the Panhard Rod bushes but I know that many copies are too soft, so I bought genuine ones from the UK. I have had a 15T press for 30 years but rarely use it, but it paid for itself and these bushes needed 10+T to remove and replace these. The vibration in the steering at 100km improved but there are separate issues, I think. Mostly harmonics, but the tyres are near worn out and the toe-in are out so I must finish this work before we replace the front tyres. While the front upper ball joints were replaced before me, the lower ones weren't and are trashed so it took me hours to remove the track rod and drag link without breaking anything. I bolted everything back in before I started to remove the brakes/ABS/hubs/CV+axle and I'm sure that pressing the ball joints will be a challenge. I have the 21/22 bj kit that others here and the USA recommended so we will see and I have new Lemforder bj/steering components so.... And I have to work out to replace the CV boots without cutting the new ones. I'll let you know.

Well, this could take a while. I started to pull down the front right corner of the suspension. While I was removing the newish disc I found that there were surface cracks on the outside. I wrote that up recently on:

Best Brake pads !!, #13.

These cracks should not be an issue as I cleaned the studs and hub very carefully and the wheels nuts were always torqued down evenly. I'll check the wheels (Comets) later but they were near new when I bought the car 4-5 years ago. I'll check the other 3 discs later as they were all new about 3 years/20,000km.

I removed the disc shroud and the ABS sensor, without any problems with the light corrosion. The calipers came out easily as I rebuilt them about 2 years/10,000km with new pistons, seals and pins as well as new brake hoses. The swivel hub showed the top bjs were replaced at some time before me, but the lower bjs looked original and the axle seal looked new, replaced in the new style, so it was not leaking when I removed the hub with the drive shaft complete.

I tried to get the ball joints out using pickle forks and freeze/release but nothing worked, even with a decent tap with a large copper hammer. This took about several days without damaging anything so I started reading more. I thought heat was required so I started seeing what others were using. I found there was little advice in the local tool suppliers but I found that BOC and Gasweld Tools pointed me in the right direction. I set up a larger burner with a valve, hose and safety valve with a handful of adapters on a usual bbq lpg/propane 9kg bottle. I'm not a qualified mechanic, welder or gasfitter, and I did a short course of domestic welding at the local college (braizing, stick and mig but 30 years ago) but I got enough heat to break the tapers without burning down the garage. I just started slowly until the heat built up and the penetrating oil moved when the forks did work easily.

And then when I was walking back to the bench I stubbed my main right toe on a heavy jack in the garage and I broke it. That wasn't part of the plan. More later.

I've just had ball joints done on Rosie. They charged me all up 10hours of labour to get them out! Apparently one guy for nearly a whole day, so well done you.
I just can't do those heavy stuff any more with my ****ty hands.

My toes are still intact tho. [emoji6]
Seriously, that's the sort of thing I do, celebrating a win in life by stubbing a toe. It's the workshop Gods bring you down a peg or two.

MJS[emoji40]