Four-headed monster

[wuvvum]

This is my most recent purchase - a 26-year-old Range Rover turbo diesel.

 

 

To be honest it hasn't got off to the most auspicious of starts.  I picked it up from the seller's house about 35 miles from mine, and after about 15 miles, with no warning at all, the water pump seized solid.  Fortunately I was right near the Asda in Norwich at the time, so I was able to pull on to the car park and spend the 3 hours the AA took to send a tow truck reading car magazines in the supermarket.

 

Next morning I set out to try and find a water pump.  Ebay wasn't a lot of help - there was a pump for the later 2.5 VM engine, but the outlets were in completely the wrong place.  I went to my usual motor factor and the pump they listed for the car bore no resemblance whatsoever to the one that was fitted.  The assistant dug out an old QH catalogue and we painstakingly went through every car I could think of that used the VM engine - eventually he found a picture of a pump for an Alfa 90 diesel which looked spot on.  He couldn't get hold of one, but he Googled the part number and found one for sale on the Bay, so I ordered it.

 

Much of my Bank Holiday weekend was spent trying to change it.  The old pump actually came off reasonably easily, but getting the drive pulley and viscous fan off was a completely different matter.  When I did eventually manage to get everything off, it became apparent that not only did the Alfa pump not have the mounting for the viscous fan (which I knew), but the impeller shaft was about an inch shorter, so the pulley sat an inch too far back.  Other than that it fitted perfectly, although the other difference was that the bottom outlet, which was blocked off on the original RR pump, wasn't on the Alfa one.  The new pump did helpfully come with a couple of little brass discs, which baffled me initially but which I eventually worked out must be for blocking off unnecessary outlets.  So I tried the smallest disc in the bottom pipe and it fit perfectly - so perfectly in fact that I couldn't get the bastard thing out again.  So it's now sat blocking the hole, but as it's just metal to metal the seal isn't perfect and there's a drip when the engine is warm.

 

Anyway, that was a minor problem - the major problem was how to spin the pump with the pulley in the wrong place.  It was actually closer to lining up with the power steering drive pulley than the original water pump pulley, but it was still a bit out.  Various people (including some on the Stupid Question Amnesty thread on this very forum) advised that a fanbelt probably wouldn't last that long being forced to cope with that much of an offset.  Then my neighbour came up trumps with one of those temporary belts that joins together in sections and appears to be made out of some kind of rubberised foam.  So I fitted that to drive the water pump and PAS pump, and a separate shorter belt to run the alternator, which was originally run off the water pump belt.

 

It works, sort of.  The temporary belt can't really get enough grip to run the PAS pump properly, so the steering is rather heavy, but the water pump seems to be doing its job - I've done about 40 miles in the car and it hasn't got hot.

 

It has a variety of other issues too.  The extra lights, which worked fine when I picked the car up, have all died for no apparent reason.  I lost the clutch on the way to a mate's the other day - it seems to have a slow fluid leak, as topping up the fluid brought it back, more or less - although it still needs bleeding.  The driver's door internal release doesn't always work, and on Sunday whilst winding the window down (keep fit windows FTW), the glass fell down into the door.  Removal of the door card revealed that the glass cradle thingy was completely rotten and sat at the bottom of the door bent almost double.  I don't know whether that had just happened and caused the window to drop, or whether the window had been precariously balanced on the mechanism itself and simply fell off.  Either way, I've wound it back up and it's staying there for now - at least with the door card off I can pull directly on the release cable to get out.  And it's scruffy as anything (although at least that means I don't get cut up).  The paint on the sides was even more faded when I bought it, but I went round a mate's on Saturday, and he had his 10-year-old nephew staying the weekend who decided he wanted to polish the car - I wasn't going to stop him...

 

Other than that it isn't too bad.  All the original electrics work apart from the stereo, the interior's in good nick (and a stunning shade of light brown velour), and the engine seems healthy enough.  There's a fair bit of transmission whine and the brakes feel very vague, although they do stop it OK, but I suppose that's par for the course with an old Rangey.  The engine is typical VM - comedy turbo lag with no go at all below 2,000rpm, interminable preheat time, hilariously unrefined and vibratory, but more than adequately punchy when on boost and bloody good on fuel for such a big beast.  Here's a picture of the engine bay - note the stylish bright orange fan belt.

 

 

So overall it's probably not my best eBay purchase ever.  I'm a realist, and I wasn't expecting a sub-monkey T&T'd Rangey to be in concourse condition, but it would have been nice if it was a bit less fucked...

[Bobthebeard]

Maybe the car is just feeling embarrassed. Try removing the spotlights on the roof, the bull bar, the spotlights on the grille and the small fish tank under the off side bumper..... See if that helps?

There may be a 'One life, live it' sticker lurking somewhere too... Remove it.

It will thank you for doing all this and will run and drive faultlessly* for another 26 years.

[Claphamrangie]

Ooooooh, If my geeky reg no retention trait serves me, that was owned new by the dad of a school mate of mine

[Bobthebeard]

Ooooooh, If my geeky reg no retention trait serves me, that was owned new by the dad of a school mate of mine

In that case, could you go on Facebook, contact your old school mate and ask him to get his dad to ring Wuvvum to apologise?

[cort16]

"Other than that it isn't too bad"

 

Now that's what I call an optimist!

[Claphamrangie]

In fairness, it didn't look quite such a bullock's knob when it rolled out of Mann Egerton in Norwich in August '86

[Rusty_Rocket]

This one will keep you busy  I approve of course.

Tdi engine swap is probably the most painless option if it's a keeper

[Bobthebeard]

In fairness, it didn't look quite such a bullock's knob when it rolled out of Mann Egerton in Norwich in August '86

My first wife looked fine back in 1986. So did I...Suspect that now she too will have water pump issues though. Plus she was a lot less fucked back then. Such is life eh?

[phil_lihp]

That looks absolutely horrible.  Well done!

 

It seems odd that you can still get a water pump for an Alfa 90 diesel when there probably aren't any left in the UK and yet you can't get one for a Range Rover which must have sold many thousands more than the Alfa.  Has it had an engine swap?

 

Are you putting the front valance/splitter back on?  They do look rather odd without it.

[wuvvum]

Ooooooh, If my geeky reg no retention trait serves me, that was owned new by the dad of a school mate of mine

 

Now that's raised an interesting point.  I've just been looking through the paperwork following your post, and looking at the service book, the car appears to have had several number plates - it was originally registered as D261WVW to a haulage company in Essex; it was then sold to a Mr. Lawrence of Rayleigh in 1989 and registered as D363XAR, and it appears to have acquired its current Norfolk plate some time later.  The service book is defo for the right car as the VIN number matches the current logbook.  Strange.  (And probably not the one your mate's dad owned from new.)

[wuvvum]

Has it had an engine swap?

 

Nope - it's the original engine.  I have in fact since found that I can get a correct water pump for the car from Rimmer Bros and a few other specialist outlets - I believe the list price is £361 + VAT.

[phil_lihp]

Ouch.  Does that come with a working engine attached?

[chaseracer]

It's a VM diesel. So, no...

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I love VM diesels

[RichardMoss]

"Other than that it isn't too bad"

Now that's what I call an optimist!

It just sounds like pretty much any other Landrover product

[dollywobbler]

There's a VM specialist in Chesterfield - I suggest having a word with them. Can't recall the details but I'm sure Google can help.

 

Needless to say, it's absolutely imperative to keep the coolant level bob on. 

 

My later 2.5 was hilariously unrefined and the Tdi is better by a ridiculous degree. I do like the VM despite that though. I like diesels that behave as diesels should. 

 

Clutch leak could be the slave like my Disco. It didn't really drop any fluid, but plenty came out when I removed the slave. I'll warn you now - when you remove the slave, the bar that goes into the bellhousing MUST stay where it is. If that comes out with the slave, you need to remove the gearbox to fix things.

 

Overall though, I approve. Flog the 'sensible' lamp upgrades and bullbar to the ONE LIFE mob and you'll have a really nice looking motor. IIRC, the diesels didn't have the chin spoiler from new, which makes them much better off-road.

[hairnet]

wuv again surprises the shite out of autoshite

 

insane whats acceptable mpg for these?

[meggersdog]

  (And probably not the one your mate's dad owned from new.)

Nah, that registration was D701SWL

[dollywobbler]

I think mine used to do about 27/28. My Discovery appears to do 27/28. On that score, they're pretty even then.

[mouseflakes]

The driver's door internal release doesn't always work, and on Sunday whilst winding the window down (keep fit windows FTW), the glass fell down into the door.  Removal of the door card revealed that the glass cradle thingy was completely rotten and sat at the bottom of the door bent almost double.  I don't know whether that had just happened and caused the window to drop, or whether the window had been precariously balanced on the mechanism itself and simply fell off.  Either way, I've wound it back up and it's staying there for now - at least with the door card off I can pull directly on the release cable to get out.

 

This is Autoshite, distilled. It's as perfect as KruJoes barbed wire tow rope. 

[jakebullet]

Doesn't look like it'd be that hard to knock up a spacer out of a bit of bar to move the pulley back to the right place? True, wouldn't look as stylish*