1996 Range Rover P38 4.6 HSE Autobiography

Well after a gap of two years almost to the day, I’ve gone and bought another P38. I sold my last one prematurely as I needed the cash to buy the wife a new car.

I still had my autotrader and ebay searches active from last time so was still getting alerts through which I would gaze at thinking about the possibilities of another car.

One thought ws to buy a non runner with a head gasket (or more likely porous block) and then fix it up as a project. The problem with a non runner is getting  it back home. As we all know, a Range Rover is very heavy and the only thing that can just about tow it legally is another Range Rover with a decent braked car trailer - assuming your gross weight doesn’t exceed 3500 Kilos.

The other alternative was to pay someone to go and get it for me - but this can run to a few hundred pounds if its more than 100 miles away.

So my searches were limited to cars within 30 miles really. The one below turned up just 16 miles away and was a runner - although SORNed without tax. So I still had to get it recovered which cost £75.

Buying

So did I follow my own buyers guide? - Well of course I did and here's the list of problems:

• Fan blower adjustment not working
• No Air Con
• Book icon on HVAC display
• Wet driver carpet - Heater O rings gone
• Nearside wing mirror not working
• And Since getting it home, unsurprisingly I have the Remote Radio receiver problem waking the car up every few minutes. Worked around for now by removing the aerial.
• Oil leak from top end around valley gasket area.
• Front Air Springs perished

Plus the following problems which the seller listed:

• Dent in wing and boot
• Drivers door glass getting stuck going back up (My last one did this)
• Fuel gauge problem
• Air suspension bypassed with schrader valves (listed as a good thing..)
• Sunroof not working

Engine seems sweet - not pressurising or getting hot.

Job list

Right now the car is off road as SORN. This is handy as it forces me to get on with the jobs that need doing and assuming its not going to snow again, I don’t really need the car on the road right now.

• Find out what's wrong with the HVAC - including air-con. Fixed
• See if I can reinstate the Air suspension back to fully automatic. FIXED
• Heater matrix O Rings FIXED
• Fuel Gauge fault - fixed
• HVAC Blend Motors - may as well do them whilst its in bits. FIXED
• Identify top end oil leak - fixed
• Drivers side door glass jamming - fixed
• Sunroof - Fault identified.

New items:

• New Spark Plugs
• New Plug Leads
• Fuel Injectors “ASNU” cleaned and Serviced
• New Fuel filter
• New air suspension inlet filter and dryer
• New Air Conditioning Dryer
• New Air-con radiator
• New Main Radiator
• Professional Air Con service (not cheap quick-fit fill-up)
• New front air suspension springs
• New air filter
• New front disks and pads
• Oil & Filter
• New serpentine belt
• New Middle and rear exhaust
• Replacement Air-con pump
• 71MM throttle plenum and gas-flowed manifold

Shopping list

• Diagnostics - see below
• Floor mats
• EAS Delay Timer
• OEM Radio with code
• EAS dashboard Switch
• EAS ECU (possible)
• Nearside front wing, good condition, Paint Code 575
• Nearside Mirror
• Instrument Binnacle / fuel gauge?

The Job list begins with the Heater O Ring replacement

January 2012 - this car is now sold. The story continues with my 3rd P38.