Project Domes shonky autos - Grand Cherokee departs, Kangoo titivation and 911 dug out.

[Supernaut]

Ah.

I see mr dome has decided he doesn't like having any spare money any more.

[dome]

It's not even leaked anything overnight. This means it must have no fluids in it 😭

[GMcD]

Looks bloomin great in daylight. 

[320touring]

@Gerrymcd want me to post you my glasses? 🤣

[Tayne]

3 hours ago, dome said:

It's not even leaked anything overnight. This means it must have no fluids in it 😭

There seems to be plenty of fluid in that taillight.

 

I think you need this sticker for the rear.

 

[dome]

Ok, had a quick prod around this at lunchtime. First impressions are pretty good for what it is. 

I had a play with the underseat airbag connections and got the light off. Behold, no warning lights! 

Yeah, we'll see how long that lasts.

Took some pictures, as much for you guys to tell me what I've got as anything else. 

Headlights have a Landrover part number on them so they can stay for the time being 

Cooling system has had work done including a lower temp thermostat than standard-apparently a common mod. 

Tyres are 3 recent Pirelli Scorpions and one Goodyear-good to see an actual brand(or brands) on it. 

Cone filter apparently normal on these as lpg system eats into space for the airbox

Rocker gaskets replaced recently too.

And have some more pics.

 

Arches seem decent with just a couple of bubbles. 

Interior is in decent nick too, I'm gutted the phone doesn't work though😭

 

Stay tuned as I get some miles on it and see how it goes!

 

 

 

[dome]

11 minutes ago, Tayne said:

There seems to be plenty of fluid in that taillight.

 

I think you need this sticker for the rear.

 

Yes and Yes!

[Wack]

The phone might just be the battery ,i bought a Nokia, worked for about a week in the E280, battery dead, phone dead , plugging it in doesn't do anything now

[horriblemercedes]

2 minutes ago, Tayne said:

This lights on the front don’t look right, are they from a Range Rover Sport?

Sport lights won't fit. I think they're after market or maybe just dodgy tinting 

[cort16]

It looks smart. I think the light looks weird as they have a black background

dome and fraz next week.

[dome]

18 minutes ago, horriblemercedes said:

Sport lights won't fit. I think they're after market or maybe just dodgy tinting 

Yeah, i think this is it. It's had facelift lights and grill fitted, a common thing on these. Although the lights have an LR part number on them so I think they're genuine, albeit messed about with.

It should have this light and grill setup

This is the 2005 (ish) facelift which mine has, albeit with some dodgy tinting I think to the surrounds

And this is the 2010(ish)-

Not to my tastes but I'm not going to fuck about with things that are working, not for a while anyway...

[Bren]

Dome 5 minutes ago.

BMW V8 engine fitted to range rover.

WCPGW?

[Isaac Hunt]

7 hours ago, Tayne said:

There seems to be plenty of fluid in that taillight.

 

I think you need this sticker for the rear.

 

The fluid is the optimal extra goldfish bowl, is very in vogue on older Rangies.

 

[rickvw72]

I’ve looked at these, and Discovery 3 things, recently.

Despite knowing better, I’ve been wondering “how much will it break down”.

Cheers for finding out for us!

[blackboilersuit]

Even though I'm still in treatment for the TPSD that discovery ownership left me with a decade ago I'm actually a bit jealous of this! I think that the pez version could actually be the best value for these. Derv versions carry a premium, because MPG but invariably end up being real high milers and are just as capable of generating real horror show repair bills. A low mileage pez in good condition could actually be cheaper for cost of ownership in the long run as long as you're not doing mega miles in it. 

[warninglight]

Nice purchase! A little bit of de-blinging will make that look even better IMO. I think there's nothing that looks cheaper than a Discovery or Range Rover trying to look younger than it is. Embrace the ridiculous depreciation and revel in its age.

I had this similar beast 3 years ago, with (I think) and BRC LPG kit. It worked very well but the 200 mile range (250 on a run) was a little bit tiring. It had about 200k on the clocks, I had it for about 8000 miles in 8 months, I had one breakdown which wasn't even the fault of anything to do with the RR, and had I known more about it at the time, could have fixed it at the roadside and not wasted a day and £200. One of the coolant hoses for the LPG system split at 70mph at 4am on my way to the Belfast ferry. seemed impossible to get to, and the recovery agent dragged it back to base and charged me 3 hours labour on the ramp to barely fix it. Turns out, there's a very large panel in the centre of the scuttle, I think for the pollen filter. 2 nuts removes that and opens up a lot of access to the back of the engine bay. Once I realised that I sorted it properly in 20 mins and it never leaked again.

I hoped the Disco 4 would feel as special as the old L322, and it has a fair stab at it, but the extra complexity isn't worth it. I'm tempted by these again, as my mileage has dropped significantly.

It was difficult even 3 years ago to find an unmolested one! I sold it to a guy from London who was telling me of his plans to wrap it black and fit 22"s - it only lasted for one more MOT.

 

 

[dome]

Took this a waft last night and all seems well so far

Only problem was with the throttle pedal-it's floor hinged and I caught it with my foot getting out and pulled the pedal out of the ball and socket. I only realized this a mile or so after getting back in when the pedal went unresponsive as the plunger had fell to the side.

I've popped it back in for now and have a new pedal on the way. It's a BMW part for all you naysayers  

I passed an LPG station so stuck some fuel in. 60 miles to £10 isn't bad. 

Airbag light is back on-I have been fucking about with the seat position though so will check the connections again. 

First commute completed today in it.

Observations...

1. It's fucking huge
2. Folk get out of your way
3. Except for the fanny in the Fiesta ST who pulled out in front of me on the bypass
4. It's faster 70-cough than a Fiesta ST in sport mode 😯

I've ordered standard silver radiator grill and side grills for it. 

Will look at trying to get the tints off-a steam cleaner seems a good idea. 
They look in excellent condition though and might be fairly new so might be more trouble then it's worth to remove them, especially with aerials and heating elements built in. 

The aftermarket stereo fitted is a mechless double DIN job with no DAB. No use to me as I listen to DAB/CDs all the time so I picked up a double DIN with those features yesterday. Unfortunately the dash top needs stripped off to change it so that can wait. 

[dome]

Quick Range rover update-it's now looking less council estate and more country estate after removing the tints and fitting standard grey grilles. Final touch today was a new set of wheels in silver-I'm not a fan of grey/black wheels on a car. I'll get some better pics when i can actually give it a wash-it's a bit chilly up here just now!

I've also just replaced the expansion tank and coolant cap after noticing a bit of coolant loss. There was a light sign of dampness around his area so hopefully that'll be the cause. Sadly I can't drive it very far just now to find out as we're locked down again  !

[dome]

Meanwhile I've been doing a steady job of stripping and selling bits off the S4. Lots of it has gone (I've got more money back than i'd originally hoped for already)but lots remain, including the full running gear.

Between Christmas and New Year We spent a day getting the engine and box out. I'd stripped the front end and disconnected everything so it was a fairly straightforward job.

With the engine out I could start stripping it down and look for the cause of my problem. It didn't take long to find this- I was able to fish it out of the RHS timing gear by taking the rocker cover off.

A plastic chain guide, it had detached itself from the metal carrier and lodged itself somewhere and had got pretty mashed up. Possibly explaining the death rattle but the rattle sounded A LOT worse than a plastic guide getting mashed by a chain/gears.

Further stripping down revealed the timing gear-remember this is at the back of the engine. 

 

Complicated, eh? It would be a pretty interesting design if I wasn't looking at it only because VAG cheaped out on the timing guides

Once the covers were off the plastic part of the guide was soon found to have came from here, on the bottom guide of the right bank

 

Now bear in mind I fished it out of the top of the engine with only the rocker cover off, that's a fair journey!

Some more pics of the guide. 

I'll pull the sump at some point and see what the damage is like but the safest bet would be to strip the heads and all ancillaries off to sell on and then make myself a coffee table out of the block. 

In the severely unlikely chance that the engine isn't fucked I could stick a new timing chain on it and advertise it for sale for A Lot Of Money. I'd not be comfortable doing that going by the fucking horrible noises it was making though. 

Still, it was a big relief to see that it was a timing failure and not something I'd fucked up when I had it all in bits!

 

 

 

[HMC]

Bet the Range Rover de barrying was satisfying. They look classier without trying too hard. 

[dome]

14 hours ago, mk2_craig said:

Similar bits fell out of my wife’s BINI when doing the chain last month! Is the engine still worth half decent coin in semi-fucked condition for someone else to have a go at fixing up?

If you search on ebay for Audi BBK engine you'll see what they go for. I might pull the sump and check things and list it as spares or repair...

[Tenmil Socket]

15 hours ago, dome said:

Meanwhile I've been doing a steady job of stripping and selling bits off the S4. Lots of it has gone (I've got more money back than i'd originally hoped for already)but lots remain, including the full running gear.

Between Christmas and New Year We spent a day getting the engine and box out. I'd stripped the front end and disconnected everything so it was a fairly straightforward job.

With the engine out I could start stripping it down and look for the cause of my problem. It didn't take long to find this- I was able to fish it out of the RHS timing gear by taking the rocker cover off.

A plastic chain guide, it had detached itself from the metal carrier and lodged itself somewhere and had got pretty mashed up. Possibly explaining the death rattle but the rattle sounded A LOT worse than a plastic guide getting mashed by a chain/gears.

Further stripping down revealed the timing gear-remember this is at the back of the engine. 

 

Complicated, eh? It would be a pretty interesting design if I wasn't looking at it only because VAG cheaped out on the timing guides

Once the covers were off the plastic part of the guide was soon found to have came from here, on the bottom guide of the right bank

 

Now bear in mind I fished it out of the top of the engine with only the rocker cover off, that's a fair journey!

Some more pics of the guide. 

I'll pull the sump at some point and see what the damage is like but the safest bet would be to strip the heads and all ancillaries off to sell on and then make myself a coffee table out of the block. 

In the severely unlikely chance that the engine isn't fucked I could stick a new timing chain on it and advertise it for sale for A Lot Of Money. I'd not be comfortable doing that going by the fuck going by the fucking horrible noises it was making though. 

Still, it was a big relief to see that it was a timing failure and not something I'd fucked up when I had it all in bits!

 

 

 

Wowsers, that looks complicated!

[Bren]

I would consider having a go at fixing the audi's motor - assuming the parts are'nt expensive. I would imagine there are lots of knackered ones for sale but not many good ones.

[bezzabsa]

doesn't the 4.4V8 look very similar to this when stripped down??? seem Samcrac on yootoob getting elbows deep in his RRV8

[dome]

1 hour ago, Bren said:

I would consider having a go at fixing the audi's motor - assuming the parts are'nt expensive. I would imagine there are lots of knackered ones for sale but not many good ones.

The noise it made sounded far worse than I'd have thought a guide knocking around the timing gear would have. Will see what it's like when I drop the sump though. It'd be untested so it'd be a gamble for the buyer.

[dome]

6 minutes ago, bezzabsa said:

doesn't the 4.4V8 look very similar to this when stripped down??? seem Samcrac on yootoob getting elbows deep in his RRV8

It may well be, at least in the M62 the chain is at the front though!

[dome]

Have some pics after a quick wash.

I'm much happier with it now it's looking more standard. 

 

[stripped fred]

13 minutes ago, dome said:

Have some pics after a quick wash.

I'm much happier with it now it's looking more standard. 

 

That looks really nice. Lord of the manor...

[dome]

When I changed the expansion tank on this one of the orings inside the coolant hose connection didn't want to seal again. Apparently a common problem on these and BMWs of this era. I've applied some PTFE tape in the short term.

It turns out BMW don't make the orings available separately and the hoses seem hard to get a hold of. I found this guy selling hose kits for BMW, he confirmed that the X5 M62 kit fits my car so I've ordered a set. Seems like A Good Thing to change them. 

[beko1987]

That's the handy sort of pack of o rings that even if their just there for when you need them, rather than change everything at once it'll transform fixes!