Range Rover P38 BASEish - loads of exciting* stuff fixed!

[N Dentressangle]

So, you want a V8 but not a fast one - too much licence losing potential and no point trying to drive fast these days anyway.

A useful one would be good, so plenty of space and towing ability is important.

£3k is available, so new stuff is out. It's going to be old and shit, so cheapness of parts is important.

Off road trial ability would be good, so a Land Rover product it must be. Already had an RRC, and all the ones in my price bracket are laughably off road prepped or as rotten as a carrot. But hang on, what's this?

4.0 V8, 125k miles, MoT til Nov?

£800????

It was 5 miles down the road, so what could I do? Oh, and message to Nationwide - a £500 daily cash machine withdrawal limit is insufficient for a life of shiting, and will simply be circumvented by repeat cashback purchases from Morrisons.

More to follow...

[timolloyd]

Looking forward to this. I’m guessing velour seats, no wood, manual?

[N Dentressangle]

Yep, still a P38 at the back, too:

and all in a grubby Rioja Red, with poverty spec black plastic bumpers. Mmmm, me like.

There's something about base versions of luxury cars that's really appealing - think old Merc 300SE's with that strange corduroy interior, or manual BMW's with that threadbare manky tweed cloth. Base Jags don't seem to work quite so well.

But a BASE P38 just seems to erase some of the HSE / Westminster / Autobiography cars' 'pub landlord' character and become more what I'd like - something really good off road but comfortable as you like for most of the time when you're tatting about in it.

What's that? A leather interior? Nah mate - finest grey dralon!

 

[N Dentressangle]

8 minutes ago, timolloyd said:

Looking forward to this. I’m guessing velour seats, no wood, manual?

Autobox - the usual ZF4HP24

I think you had to kidnap the dealer's grandma and post him her ears and other body parts each week before they'd order you a manual

Apart from the V8 it's a Greta Special - very few trees were harmed in the making of this car

[sutty2006]

7 minutes ago, timolloyd said:

Looking forward to this. I’m guessing velour seats, no wood, manual?

I’m not looking forward to it. I’m guessing he’ll be ready to commit suicide within the first month of ownership. Good luck, you’ll need it! 

[N Dentressangle]

1 minute ago, sutty2006 said:

I’m not looking forward to it. I’m guessing he’ll be ready to commit suicide within the first month of ownership. Good luck, you’ll need it! 

Don't be mean. There's not that much to not work.

Which is lucky, as what there is doesn't work that well

[captain_cal]

Leather steering wheel though, you posh bugger. AND you've still got the electronic climate control - this is a mere bASe pretender sir!

[N Dentressangle]

5 minutes ago, captain_cal said:

Leather steering wheel though, you posh bugger. AND you've still got the electronic climate control - this is a mere bASe pretender sir!

You have a point. There was worse penury available in the P38. I'm not sure I could have lived with the plastic steering wheel, although the climate control just feels like tempting fate.

[500tops]

Give it 5 years and offer it to Kingsley; I'm sure they could turn it into a 150k+ whip with a bit* of work

[Stevebrookman]

Same colour as mine.

[N Dentressangle]

Before we go on it's worth mentioning I'm still only in this for £294:

Crazy but true.

And this P38 is going to basically a trialler. Only the bare essentials need to work - I don't care about the rest. Which is lucky, cos there isn't much.

[N Dentressangle]

7 minutes ago, Stevebrookman said:

Same colour as mine.

So that's what mine might look like washed!

Job for tomorrow.

[Broadsword]

Well bought!!! I may sound a bit weird but I much prefer the cloth seats in a P38, really comfy. That grey vulgalour would look fantastic in my 4.0 SE manual in my minds eye! You had better get used to the beeping these things make when something goes wrong…

[mercedade]

This is fantastic. Have been keeping an eye out for a suitably brave gamble round these parts, but nothing has quite pushed me to action yet

[captain_cal]

On 2/26/2022 at 9:31 PM, N Dentressangle said:

although the climate control just feels like tempting fate.

By all accounts the climate control was the same electronic unit but operated by knobs instead, so it was just extra punishment for choosing the base, with the added bonus of when (not if) the climate control went tits up there was no screen to tell you so!

The 4.0 always struck me as a weird middle ground - what's 600cc between friends? You're going to get the same dismal mpg regardless, might as well enjoy the extra 40 brake,

[Minimad5]

You posh individual !! you've got Auto gearbox, third rear brake light and digital Hvac.

My Derv is manual gearbox, manual hvac and no third rear brake light 😅

Brilliant cars 

[N Dentressangle]

Not had much time to poke at it yet, but here's some more anyway.

My RRC had an auto-dip rear view mirror. This doesn't:

No heated seats or heated screen - my RRC had both! (although neither worked, obvs). Of course I've now got that fecking book symbol on the display, despite not using the car at all. FFS, WTF??

No wood. My RRC had wood. AND the switches don't work probably, mostly because of their ridiculously crap design - there's a YT vid somewhere that shows you how to fix them:

No headlamp wash/wipe. Guess what my RRC had (that didn't work either)?

Most gloriously though, there is no fecking sunroof. I hate sunroofs. If I'd wanted a hole in the roof I'd have bought a fucking convertible. Noisy, leaky, stupid things. Plus someone had had the headlining replaced, so no glamping look for me!

What this car does have though, and the reason I bought it is this:

 

A wonderful V8 engine. Doesn't every car need one?

I also took pity on it and gave it its first wash for a while:

Hopefully I'll get time to start fixing some of its current maladies in the next few days...

[vaughant]

On 2/26/2022 at 9:14 PM, N Dentressangle said:

Hi 

There's something about base versions of luxury cars that's really appealing - think old Merc 300SE's with that strange corduroy interior, or manual BMW's with that threadbare manky tweed cloth.

 

 

I agree. 

I think often they're actually better put together as well, from an insiders perspective, production hate putting complex bits of trim on and connecting extra bits of wiring for things like heated rear seats. A BaSe model run comes down the line fire a bit and they love it, can get their process done quicker and chat about the more important things in life.

Another side is that production still seem to have this belief that if you're selected to work on a "Ghia" spec model, you're somehow at a higher level than those working on the lower end cars which can lead to complacency and also it makes those on the base line go "fuck this, let's show them how good we really are",underdog mentality. 

Pretty much every job I've ever had, I've ended up in the worst department with the least desirable product as I dont really fit into the corporate image of having a dangerously low BMI and wearing my PPE EXACTLY as it was intended...... Or being related to anyone in anyway. Hence usually I'm the one repairing age old shit equipment that nobody wants to run 😂😂😂

But I've found by sorting out the niggles, fixing things, modernising stuff and helping make productions life easier you reap the rewards which is really hard to do on a brand new line.

Usually because some nob who's most interested in you not getting a panel "dirty" while they feverishly mop up 1ml of spilt oil totally oblivious to the fact their machine has been making scrap for most of the shift..... But at least its clean. 🙄🙄🙄

[vaughant]

Looks amazing washed by the way. 

Always wanted one of these, got offered a one owner late reg madness one with BMW's 3.0d in it, I think it was 03 or 04?

Got had bought it new and used it for motorway pottering really, he had the newer L322 at the time as well but preferred this one. I fancied it but back in 2007 it wasn't an old car and in truth was more than I could afford, think he wanted about £10k for it as it had done 125k or so which seemed fair. 

[RichardK]

I am EXTREMELY jealous of this.

[stuboy]

please no oversized knobbly tyres, snorkel and 1 life live it sticker..

[N Dentressangle]

1 minute ago, stuboy said:

please no oversized knobbly tyres

Sorry - it's getting a set of those to be used in trialling

1 minute ago, stuboy said:

snorkel and 1 life live it sticker..

I was thinking of going for the 'one wife - livid'  ones because they're SO FUNNY. Might glue on some chequer plate too:

😉

[N Dentressangle]

Finally had the chance to start on fixing a few of the glitches on this wonderful* machine.

First up was the driver's side window. It seems to tilt forward as it goes up, meaning it's not closed properly at the top rear. I meant to get a pic but forgot. Anway, I got the door card off to reveal:

Now I'm not one of those guys who expects his bride to be a virgin on her wedding night. Luckily. But this is like finding a vajazzle and the names of all her previous fellas tattooed on the inner thigh. I mean, I know I'm not the first, but it's never good when it looks like the last person to work on this door was a patially sighted toddler. Hmmm.

https://www.mez.co.uk/index.html seems to have had exactly this problem though. There's a runner / seal at the front of the window you can see here:

which he replaced, and which sorted the problem.

£20 later and I have a new seal from Land Rover all fitted, and it has made bollock all difference. I is annoyed. Let's hope the next job is more successful...

[Minimad5]

@warren t claim - Show them real poverty spec 😎

[N Dentressangle]

Other bits n bobs done: re-instated the original stereo:

Much nicer than the cobbled in Pioneer, and the right width for the slot.

When I got the car it had a noticeable regular misfire, both at idle and throughout the rev range. Nothing that threw a 'check engine' light, although there might well be error codes stored. I haven't got a code reader of any kind, let alone the kind of thing that would talk to a 22 year old P38.

So, knowing how tough these engines are on their ignition sytems I thought I'd try the plugs first. The leads looked in decent order, and the coil packs are nestling somewhere between Shergar and Lord Lucan at the back of the engine, so I was really hoping it wasn't those. Here are the plugs that came out:

New Bosch plugs fitted, and no misfire! Woohoo!

The L bank plugs are noticeably sootier than the R (can't tell if this shows in the pic) so I've ordered a new lamda sensor for the L downpipe and we'll see if that sorts things out.

[warren t claim]

On 3/2/2022 at 9:17 PM, Minimad5 said:

@warren t claim - Show them real poverty spec 😎

Here's a 38 minute guide to the P38 I watched yesterday. Due to my P38 being DHSS spec and totally devoid of features the only relevant parts of the video could be condensed to less that five minutes.

[mercedade]

Stupid thread.

I'm hoping to take a look at this over the weekend (it's ended now, but unsold - hoping an offer might prise it out of his hands).

Mmmmm.....lacquer peel

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265565699491

 

[Tommyboy12]

Mmm I do like some Range Rover goodness. I shall be keeping an eye on this!

[N Dentressangle]

2 hours ago, mercedade said:

Stupid thread.

I'm hoping to take a look at this over the weekend (it's ended now, but unsold - hoping an offer might prise it out of his hands).

Mmmmm.....lacquer peel

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265565699491

 

That looks alright - had the right stuff done to it, anyway.

Not worth £1900 with the lacquer peel though, so I'd definitely have a go with a realistic offer. That colour would probably match up OK with panel cans if you ever wanted to smarten it up.

[mercedade]

46 minutes ago, N Dentressangle said:

That looks alright - had the right stuff done to it, anyway.

Not worth £1900 with the lacquer peel though, so I'd definitely have a go with a realistic offer. That colour would probably match up OK with panel cans if you ever wanted to smarten it up.

It's like you're in my head.

Comms have been sensible and grown up (and literate, which always makes me more confident), it looks like it's been cared for, if not lavished and it's only the peel that really sets my teeth on edge. For the length of MOT, I reckon around £1.5k feels about right, and I'll just deal with sagging headlining in the same way I - and everyone else - dealt with it in the XJ40 days.