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Thread: P38 Rangie Air Con Problem ?

  1. #1
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    P38 Rangie Air Con Problem ?

    Hi All,
    Have an interesting one, In my 96 4.6lt HSE Range Rover the A/C in the last few days (mostly when very hot) goes into like a limp mode !, The read Manual!! icon came on on the climate control ! Its still working but no where near as good !
    When I read the Manual it recomends taking it to your Friendly Landrover specialist

    Any one have any more info on what this can be ?
    I remember somone in the past with this model tell me that the inside temprature reading went haywire and caused some A/C grief ?? not sure if anything with that is going a miss...................I did see it do somthing strange the other day but mostly seems to read correct !

    Thanks in advance

    Jeremy

  2. #2
    P38ace Guest
    Check the 2 yellow blower relays in the main fuse box. If too hot either of these can fail intermittently. If one faults the cooling efficiency drops drastically.

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    My P38a exhibited much the same symptoms.
    Intermittent 'testbook' symbol accompanied by loss of efficiency.
    Finally the 'testbook' symbol remained on.
    The fault ? Burnt out blend motors.
    The cause, failure to maintain the pollen filters correctly causing debris to lodge in the system.
    While the dash was dismantled we took the opportunity to replace the heater 'O' rings.
    As your 'testbook' has illuminated a fault will be logged in the hevac module. A quick check with 'testbook' or similar will give you a read out on your problem.
    Hope this helps !

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    Quote Originally Posted by ivery819 View Post
    My P38a exhibited much the same symptoms.
    Intermittent 'testbook' symbol accompanied by loss of efficiency.
    Finally the 'testbook' symbol remained on.
    The fault ? Burnt out blend motors.
    The cause, failure to maintain the pollen filters correctly causing debris to lodge in the system.
    Sorry old son. Failure to replace the dirty and clogged pollen filters will have no affect on the blend servo motors. There is no way they can. Unless of course someone has removed the filters and something has jammed the flaps.

    A lot of people also believe that clogged pollen filters can cause the blower motor relays (RL6 and RL7) to fail. Again, I disagree.

    If you block the inlet side to blowers, then the fan blades stall and the motors actually draw less current. This reduces the current through RL6 and RL7. Also, it only ever seems to be RL7 that burns up together with the fuse box.

    What Jezzaol needs to do is have the fault codes read. There are numerous causes of the chequebook symbol being illuminated.

    Jezz, you say the air con is still working but at reduced efficiency. There is a possibilty that the connector to the blower motor is faulty. This is a known problem on early cars. Mine had it and exhibited the same symptoms. There is a TSB on it. I have described the fix with photos on the RangeRovers.Net forum but I can't access that from here to give you a link.

    Another possible cause is the heater core temp sensor on the heater pipes - another known problem child.

    I'm afraid that you can throw a lot of money at the HEVAC if you don't have the fault codes read.
    Ron B.
    VK2OTC

    2003 L322 Range Rover Vogue 4.4 V8 Auto
    2007 Yamaha XJR1300
    Previous: 1983, 1986 RRC; 1995, 1996 P38A; 1995 Disco1; 1984 V8 County 110; Series IIA



    RIP Bucko - Riding on Forever

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    Thanks again,

    That link would be good !



    There is a TSB on it. I have described the fix with photos on the RangeRovers.Net forum.
    Last edited by p38arover; 9th January 2008 at 12:50 AM.

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    I'll look it up when I get home.
    Ron B.
    VK2OTC

    2003 L322 Range Rover Vogue 4.4 V8 Auto
    2007 Yamaha XJR1300
    Previous: 1983, 1986 RRC; 1995, 1996 P38A; 1995 Disco1; 1984 V8 County 110; Series IIA



    RIP Bucko - Riding on Forever

  7. #7
    P38ace Guest

    Smile

    Jezzaol,

    Unless you can get someone to check for free I would not waste any time or money on fault codes.

    Apart from often being misleading as to the cause, there may be old codes stored there which were never cleared after previous work and these are going to send you off in the wrong direction.

    The problem you describe is most likely one of the blowers not working. 99% of the time it is failure of blower relay 7. When this overheats and fails the book symbol comes on (but will go off again when fixed) and all appears normal but airflow from the vents drops off and becomes noisy.

    Despite what you'll read on the interweb the aircon is usually simple to fix but I won't recommend anything else until you've checked this.

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    Ron
    I am only relaying my own experience in the hope that it may be of some help!
    The pollen filters disintegrated and the bits lodged in the ducts and flaps !

    We also suspect that in the process of a previous filter cleaning bits of debris were allowed to drop into the system when the filters were removed. This was evidenced by bits of what appeared to be dried gum leaves found near the blend flaps.

    BTW The main plenum filter was also absent.

    If he reads his faults he will get the answer.
    I totally agree with you :
    "I'm afraid that you can throw a lot of money at the HEVAC if you don't have the fault codes read."

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    Quote Originally Posted by P38ace View Post
    Check the 2 yellow blower relays in the main fuse box. If too hot either of these can fail intermittently. If one faults the cooling efficiency drops drastically.

    thanks for your postthe wife's blower fans are now working again......

    but now the air compressor wont which on so no cool air

    any suggestions ??
    130's rule

  10. #10
    P38ace Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by hiline View Post
    thanks for your postthe wife's blower fans are now working again......

    but now the air compressor wont which on so no cool air

    any suggestions ??
    With the first cheap fix out of the way you now need to check the next ; the compressor clutch airgap (assuming the system was working recently and you're not out of refrigerant due to a leak).

    Too large and the clutch won't engage due to lack of voltage. This was an issue on most early models and there was a TSB electrical fix. This TSB fix has usually been performed by a dealer so assuming its not that, the air gap can commonly be reduced by the removal of a tiny shim washer.

    Take the serpentine belt off the compressor, holding the pulley remove the centre nut, then the clutch, then the washer if present. Put it all back together minus the washer and you're done. Hopefully cold air.

    The P38 has one of the coldest aircon systems I've come across outside of a Toyota.

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