Thread: Air Compressor

If you look at tank there is a drain plug on it. Depending on year you can change it over with a staight tap or drill and tap the brass plug and fit a tap a lot easier and safer than messing around with valve blocks etc. also you can change over the system to run purley of the pressure switch and tank so the valve block is not needed (worth some bucks on ebay). if you want further details pm me.

Hello there, This is my first post so I might be covering something that has already been covered but here goes anyway.
I am the owner of a P38A 1996 HSE and have been through the standard list of faults that can plague this particular model.
Prior to owing the P38 I have had many different cars and 4wd's ranging from a Hufflinger by Puch, landie series 1 diesel, valiant ranger, Alpha Sud (real piece of crap!), host of new cars and of course the P38 a total of 40 + cars in total. So this indicates a level of madness so forgive me if I get off track.

Back to the P38.
I purchased a one owner Gem, serviced every 10,000km for its life, so well maintained and never used for off road.
In the first 12 months (after the 3 month warranty period by 1 week won't mention the dealer but rite ter now I have no interest in promoting their after sales service) I had the following.
EAS total failure, pump failure, leaky valves, 3 air springs with perished bags.
pressure switch failure.

ABS braking Hyd pump failure

Dropped sleeve no.1 cylinder.

Purchase price of car. $26,000.00
Repair cost after spending many thousands trying my own modifications.
$22,000.00 which included a multipoint gas injection system.

The moral of the story is that the $48,000.00 spent has purchased a top shelf car that would outpace cars worth twice as much.

My car is basically standard and is used regularly for outback trips where it out performs the modified toytas and hosts of others.

I am convinced that the work I did was well worth it.
My RR is certainly No.1 in my experience.

If you are considering using the air suspension air for pumping up tyres etc think about the options first. A separate air compressor fits easily into the cover adjacent to the cd stacker or in the wheel storage area (even after a gas conversion. Total cost of a top shelf system is $600.00.

I have a Thomas Big Red compressor I use for this purpose. If something goes wrong with the compressor I get to drive home with no problems.
On the other hand the on board system is hooked into the computer system and is you strain the system and cause a fault to occur, you will be riding on the bump stops until you can get it reset. The replacement of the on board compressor if you fit it yourself is $600.00. The other thing to consider is that the on board compressor is a high pressure low volume pump and the pressure in the tank is set to 160Psi. So the pump up time of the empty tank is about 5 mins from empty. If you try and start the car with an empty tank you will most likely get a hard fault on the computer EAS FAULT. Tis will need to be reset by the local RR dealer. ON the other hand if you have removed the air suspension then it is up to you.

Spending time trying the manual pumping of the air suspension cured me from this for ever. The car is heavier on the driver side and the level of the car from empty fuel tank to full fuel tank take a 5 psi change to keep the car level! So manually adjusting the pressures in a constant job, one that detracts from all the good reasons for owning one of these cars n the first place.

The other major reason for not using the air tank for anything else is that condensation balance in the air system will be compromised and the air bags will end up this condensation in them and possible corrosion issues. Certainly not worth risking this.

Originally Posted by RickP38

Is this the same bloke who has managed to fit a Disco 2 ARB bullbar to his P38? That I wanna do!!

I think was Peacey - clever bugger

Originally Posted by DT-P38

I am pretty sure Andrew E (of e-bay bypass kit fame) was looking at producing a kit or something that is designed to do this job. Hope he doesn't put the plug in point to the fuel filler area though... mine is stuffed full of lpg filler cap. If it came to it, usability would see me voting for rear bumper or under bonnet as preferred locations.

Lucky me... I am a beta tester of the Andrew E/SoB kit. It looks great but I haven't tried it yet as my engine is in pieces. It is intended to be mounted in the engine bay but there is no reason that you couldn't use a T-piece to run another outlet at the rear if that is what you want.

I'm also installing a Thomas air compressor from Rover Renovations to replace the standard LR compressor. Even then, I will be keeping the Black Max in the boot as a standby compressor.

Cheers, Paul.

Originally Posted by RR01

Purchase price of car. $26,000.00
Repair cost after spending many thousands trying my own modifications.
$22,000.00 which included a multipoint gas injection system.

The moral of the story is that the $48,000.00 spent has purchased a top shelf car that would outpace cars worth twice as much.

My car is basically standard and is used regularly for outback trips where it out performs the modified toytas and hosts of others.

I am convinced that the work I did was well worth it.
My RR is certainly No.1 in my experience.

Sounds about right. Spend something close to the purchase price within the first 2 years of ownership... $26k is a lot for a '96 unless you bought it around 2005.

P38A is definitley a love/hate relationship. Love it when it is out-performing lesser 4WD's (pretty much everyting else), hate the downtime when lesser 4WD owners have an opportunity to stick it back to us

Welcome aboard this unruly ship 'o RR fools.

Cheers, Paul.

Originally Posted by PaulP38a

I think was Peacey - clever bugger

There was another one who did a great tutorial on RRnet. He's from Melbourne too.
Soarer someone rings a bell. He's on here too from time to time (or was at least).

Originally Posted by PaulP38a

Sounds about right. Spend something close to the purchase price within the first 2 years of ownership... $26k is a lot for a '96 unless you bought it around 2005.

P38A is definitley a love/hate relationship. Love it when it is out-performing lesser 4WD's (pretty much everyting else), hate the downtime when lesser 4WD owners have an opportunity to stick it back to us

Welcome aboard this unruly ship 'o RR fools.

Cheers, Paul.

!!!

Willem