Range rover P38 Diagnostics

Given that the HVAC, fuel gauge and the air suspension have problems on my new P38 - I know its going to be much easier to troubleshoot using diagnostics. Simple ELM322 / Generic OBD2 readers are no use, you need specific systems that understand the car.

Blackbox Solutions

Blackbox Solutions have been around ages and are trusted. You can purchase their products in “Single Vehicle” mode, where they lock themselves to the VIN of your car.

You can add  another two “single vehicles” for around £250 in the case of a P38. This means that if I sell this particular car and purchase a newer P38 or early L322, I will be able to add that car onto my hardware.

Even if I sell this P38 and purchase another P38, you can get it re-locked to the new car for about £50.

Right:  Faultmate MSV Extreme - Circa £600 for a single car.

Testbook T4

The official Dealer Kit is called “Testbook” or T4, which costs around £10k - which is not in a DIY’s league.

Essentially its a Dell laptop with specific hardware which allows probing for voltages and frequency.

Left: Official T4 system

Right:T4 Handheld system

(Photos from Omnitec website)

Autologic

Autologic is a widely used system in the automotive arena. It supports many cars, not just Land Rover.

Very expensive and not really a DIY proposition.

Hawkeye

Left: Hawkeye handheld unit. £249. Good price, but limited module support.

Right: Supported modules for P38

I decided against this unit due to the lack of modules supported.

Experience.

Overall the product is good and it does everything they say it will. I’m pleased with my purchase, but the registration process was somewhat frustrating, not helped by the matter-or-fact attitude to new customers.

I’ve worked in IT for 25 years - I’ve registered millions of pounds worth of software and have setup several other car diagnostic systems (BMW GT1 for example) - so I like to think I’m not an idiot.

The supplied documentation is pretty brusk and to the point. With big red dire warnings about not reading the documentation properly. So I fully read the PDF’s cover to cover.

It starts by telling you to create an account at Black box, which can only be activated during working hours - so if you are in a hurry, you are out of luck. I completed the site in the evening and it was activated the next morning.

The next step, which I got wrong is that you need to connect the faultmate to your car so it can pull in all the module names (and serial numbers presumably) - you send this information to black box, who again only during working hours will then create an activation code which appears in your customer portal.

I omitted to notice that the process was described in the welcome email, which in my enthusiasm I failed to fully read.

This process is NOT documented in the included documentation or PDF’s, as they are more oriented around full licences not single vehicle users like me.

Please see the next page on the actual process of registration