Hevac and rocker cover oil control

Were on role here today.

This section is one that can confuse a little so may not be ideal for non technically mind people.

First up is the HEVAC unit, you know the unit that controls your interior fans and temp settings.
On later P38's, 1999 and up a different unit was used which did not power the AC unit directly to engage the clutch, later models did this via a relay but as the later units can be difficult to locate a early model (1995 to 1998) can be used but requires a daft simple mod.

The process requires you to remove the AC relay in the engine bay fuse box and add in a loop wire, yipe its that simple..
Thanks goes to "Handy Andy" in Johannesburg or "Jozi" as some call it, also not to be confused with "Little Johannesburg" in the USA, this is Johannesburg, South Africa

The next topic can always bring up a hot debate on this mod.

I agree manufacturers spend lots of money and time on development but do they always get every bit right.........NO, if you say yes we can argue till the cows come back from Neptune..

On the Famous Rover V8s oil consumption can be a issue, on some motors not so and it be original not ever opened, a head job or rebuild.....some motors will burn oil......why why why nobody seems to know... and it got me thinking.

Dip into a Range Rover classic and on the right side rocker cover is a fat vent tube sticking up, if you remove this tube inside it filled with a type of mesh, its not there for no reason.

Its job is to prevent oil being sucked into the inlet manifold the vent tube pipe is attached too.

On Disco II and P38's as the pictures show below there is a baffle plate to prevent oil being sucked through the vent pipe, if so then why is there oil in the inlet manifold....its simple really and its to do with oil vapour, oil companies and motor manufacturers alike call this "Inlet wetting".

In the first picture you can clearly see the plenum gasket is wet where the large holes are, this gasket seals up the upper inlet cover to the lower inlet manifold and the inlet ducts are where the large holes are wet, this wetness can only be caused by the vent system on the engine and occur on cruise and de-acceleration which in turn creates high vacuum on this vent circuit.

To possibly remedy this issue I came up with the idea in the pics below, I hope it works as the results are not in yet and will only know in a weeks time, if anyone does this mod please let me know your findings as I'm convinced it will work.

Please e-mail feedback to williams4x4@gmail.com

Also note that this problem is notorious on VWs

On the Gems its a simple job but not so on the Thor engines (Disco II and later P38s)

A light coat of oil is clear, dark rings around the large holes

Inside the right side rocker cover, or some call it a "Tappet cover"

Seriously though its called a rocker cover.

Inside this cover is a baffle plate (Gold) and that's suppose to stop all the oil..

Remove baffle plate

Oh before you strip it down did you remember to buy brass pot scourer.

If you forgot I assume you have a bicycle.....

mmm do I need to say more, ok place the brass scourer around the vent tube section inside.

Before closing it all up remove the plastic bit inside the vent tube and make sure its clean, DO NOT FORCE IT OUT, IT WILL BREAK (Disco II and later P38s)

Do remember to install the baffle plate...

Here's hoping it does as it should and convinced it will.

(Update to follow)

P38 load space light add on (LED)

As with many vehicles, even in today's expensive cars and including new SUV's I often wonder what they were thinking when it came to load space lighting.....nuff said and can be a long process of why nots.

I guess manufacturers think we rarely use our load space or for a better wording "The boot" I find it weird that they can add lighting to spaces like the door panel storage bit and interior door handles but not give a thought to the boot space, well on our P38s its a breeze to add on and the results are like "Wow, why didn't I do that ages ago"

First up is to give you a idea where the LED light's will be fitted, no pointers here as the pics to follow are clear enough.

Right side panel

Left side panel

Left panel, LED mounted

Right side , LED mounted

The above is a LED mounted on the high level brake light cover.

You cant go lower as the upper tailgate fits flush with the lower tailgate.

There you have it, looks alot better than in the picture.

With the LED mounted on the high level brake light cover it lights up the lower tailgate and the parcel shelf nicely.

Parts needed:

2 or 3 number plate LED lights or what ever you prefer

I went the number plate lights as they are bright and housed in a neat package.

2 screws per light, here I prefer machine screw. (screw with a nut)

Around 1,5 metres of double wire (Basic speaker wire is ok)

Electrical heat shrink wrapping or good insulation tape (I always use wrap)

Solder and soldering iron

And least but not last...brains.

How to go about it:

Flip both seats forward, now remove little covers from the seat belt securing bolt on the plastic covers nearest both rear doors, remove left and right seat belt bolts (17mm) remove 1 retaining round clip that joins the plastic to the rear load space panels,  remove plastic trim covers.

Remove 1 screw each side that joins all three rear panels together.

When re-installing these screws its wise to use a large flat washer to help secure them all together and works well.

Go to rear and remove 3 round clips that secure the finishing top panels to the boot load space side panels.

Remove top panels on either side.

This is where the brains come in.

On either side you will see a wire harness that goes up beneath the panel where the shoulder part of the seat belt is attached, here you are looking for a plain purple wire and a purple with red stripe, these two wires supply a feed when you open the door to turn on the interior lights, simply splice into them and solder the wiring that's needed for the LED units .

Remember that LED lights will only work if they are correctly connected, ie: positive to positive, negative to negative and no you cannot add the negative of the LED unit to the body of the vehicle as the interior lights come on when the earth is applied, in other words there's always a power on state to the positive side of the interior light circuit.

The high level brake light can be easily done without completely removing all the trim, using a firm piece of wire to feed the extra length of cabling required is relatively easy and soldering the wires to the upper tailgate is simple enough as the light simply pops out.

I could easily have added pictures in detail but it can at times look complicated and put you off, all in all without beers on a nice sunny give yourself a hour from start to finish.

Oh if you want to do this addition and have a Vogue P38, the one fitted with the DSP amp in the back I highly recommend you move it at the same time so add on a extra 30mins play time and is shown below.

DSP Amp relocation:

Why:

Alot of these amps are failing due to moisture and not age as one would think.

Seeing as you want to do the LED lights then you would be crazy not to relocate the DSP amp.

I'm not going to go into detail here as alot of know how with tools etc is required

The relocation is where it should have been placed originally.

Bending the one mounting point to allow flush fitting with the wheel arch is easy

with a pair of pliers, drill and apply thin foam tape of sorts to seal rivet

Use a nice large fat flat washer to secure amp, a trial run before you drill is ideal by placing panel back in place to make sure it all goes according to plan

Looking down with amp is situ

Bare in mind that this relocation requires the harness tape up to be cut to allow the amp cable to move to its new position, remember to tape up the harness again to prevent any chaffing 

Cooling systems...again, for the sake of your motor

Yipe we're back on the subject off cooling.
I see this to often so....

Without question the number one cause of a majority of engine failures and break downs, the pictures below says it all.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to maintain a clean, healthy cooling system.
It's really simple:

Drain and flush cooling system every three years, more so in extreme dusty conditions (once a year).
Refill with quality Ani freeze, use a pre mix if doing a DIY job.

Use a light pressured pressure clean to remove debris from fins, in the pics below we remove radiators for this as we are able to clean the AC system too.
If you are capable then remove the radiator, it will be well worth it.

And I wonder if this was a partial blame for the below

Damaged flex plate

Damaged exciter ring on flywheel

Exciter ring damaged crank sensor

All back together after some major repair work, looks like new cos we use some really high quality chemicals.

The events:
Vehicle broke down on his way to his annual holiday treat far from home, engine was removed and all seals replaced to stop oil leaks, valley gasket included.

When you have a poor cooling system the engine starts to be starved of external cooling air blowing over it, sure the gauge says all is ok but then not all sender units or gauges can be trusted, the result is accelerated wear and mild above temp operation and causes all sorts of unwanted problems.

Tailgate opening problem, update your rear view mirror and fuel hose replacement

Just to spike your intesrest, this new page will be updated very, very shortly (2 to 3 days)

This addition is somewhat a mix of two, first up to the dreaded tailgate not opening caused by either a failed opening button switch or actuator.

The procedure is very simple and ideal to do before a problem occurs which I can assure you.....its inevitable.

If this has happened to you and you cant open the tailgate you will need to get into the back by folding down the seats and climb in, no need to lift out the spare wheel cover as per other Internet remarks regarding this issue.

I'm sure the below pics will be clear to all, do it now and test before it happens to you.

Above is simple enough, once you have measured make a mark with a marking pen (Black dot)

Measure from edge as per picture, make a mark on tape, measure from (opps I'll update this 2mrw, forgot if its top or bottom) edge of plastic and you have your punch hole you are going to make with the screw driver, time needed.....about 2 minutes, 10 if you put the kettle on

Basically you need a marker, some masking tape if you like and a thin flat bladed screw driver, the only part you need is a small plug of sorts...read on

Do not line up with lower securing board screwy thing, its not that simple and that would be too easy..

Once you have made the mark simply punch through gently, now test with the screw driver straight in by merely going sideways to the left, not up and down, the screw driver is acting like a lever, the first click opens the upper tail gate and the next the lower section, screw driver will go on quite a angle but you'll get the hang of it.

The plug part is to close up the hole and ready for when you really need it, also serves as reminder that you have a solution at hand when it does happen one day

All neat and to the point, you could possibly really have a boring debut one day with another Rangie lover and point them to this blog about how important that little hole really is, I rank this simple but important mod the 1st to do on your list.

Rear view mirror upgrade, this is for P38s from 1994 to 1998, pre Thor engine setup

A quick overview.

The introduction of the...wait for it... the "Electrochromic interior mirror" or shall I merely say electronic rear view mirror is a nice addition to the the P38, however the early models are now problematic and to replace them cost a arm and a few other body parts but it don't need to as a Disco II electronic mirror works.

The only minor snag you will notice is the mirror sits slightly lower, but that can be moved up on your next windscreen replacement, the other is the wiring as the colours are not the same and so a little logic is needed to perform this fantastic upgrade, I say fantastic as the later mirrors are so much better.

Your old crummy mirror, dull and yellow

Below the DII, has a intersting vague blue tint to it

The replacement Disco II mirror, if you are lucky you might be able to pick up one with a built in compass, mine has the compass and is not that common so hunt one down if its really that important.

Most D II electronic mirrors don't have the compass bit. 

What you need to do is to try and get the plug end off the donor vehicle, I was not so lucky and had to struggle abit to solder the wires together

You will need to remove the securing metal tab from your old mirror and install it onto the replacement mirror

If you cant get the plug end from the donor vehicle you will need to cut off the mirror side part from your old mirror

This is the DII mirror plug, alot different......really try and get the other plug side

Don't mess here as this is the compass bit, mess this up ad it wont work

Installed and works well, not pictured is a tidy up tube added to exposed wires in top of pic

The three wires on the P38 1994 to 98 is as follows.

White = Power supply +

Brown = Negative (Earth)

Grey = signal from gearbox in reverse (supplies a negative)

I'll add the D II mirror wire colours and functions 2mrw

++++++VERY IMPORTANT++++++

The DII gearbox reverse signal is positive, do not connect yet as I'm scouting for a micro 12 volt relay to convert the signal to positive, the P38 1994 to 98 is negative and needs to be converted to negative for the mirror to come out of dim mode when reversing at night, update to follow very shortly showing how to do this (very simple)

FUEL HOSES (1994 on - GEMs) Critical

I advise anyone with a GEMs setup to replace as an emergency to do, you must replace your fuel hoses now.

I know now of 7 P38s that have gone up in flames, one was caught in the nick of time and minor damaged occurred..

The Rest....total burn outs

How to do it

But most importantly use High quality hosing and clamps, trust me your spare shop will try and sell you cheap fuel hosing and clamps, go to a hydraulics company and get the best

First remove the plastic bracket retainer to allow for easy access of fuel hose crimp cutting

Here we used a mini hand hacksaw to cut through the crimp section, do a Little at a time to ensure you don't cut into the steel hose section

The crimp section is now ready to be prided open using a large bladed screw driver will do it easily, you will need to tear the crimp section that you wernt able to cut, easily done with a pair of pliers.

really simple and its off, now you can remove the pipe and replace it

When doing the pipe that is connected to the fuel rail using a pipe fitting it is best to remove and place in a vice to cut the crimp section of the fitting. 

Now a new quality fuel hose can be attached

New piping and clamps attached, give your self a good half hour to do the job

DO NOT SKIMP ON QUALITY OF PIPE, there's loads of rubbish out there

Water leaking into vehicle (Wet carpet) RDH - Further additions to follow very shortly

Have you washed your Rangie or its been raining cats and dogs and now you have wet carpets, well the fix is relatively straight forward but requires attention to detail.

My personal vehicle always had this problem but I was not able to trace as every time I wanted too take it further the vehicle effected parts had dried up, after moving from Johannesburg or Joburg as our foreign visitors will know it down to the sunshine coastal city of Durban where it can rain a lot and it does…… I one day pounced on the vehicle and solved the riddle.
Without further delay here are my findings and remedy, since the fix there has not been one drop of water or misting up of the windscreen during any type of rain drives recently.
First up you need to remove both wiper blades

Remove Windscreen side finishers – trim

Remove windscreen lower finisher – trim
Remove plenum plastics that allow air through the grills and into vehicle (vent intake)

By now you would have gone through the pictures, important to note that a quality silicon sealant must be used in the sealing up of the effected parts.

Consult someone who knows sealants and not your spares guys, they will sell and miss inform you just to sell a product, very few parts guys really know anything technical, the rest are know jack shit.

Do Not be over whelmed by the many picutres below, once you start its not that bad, for a quality repair put aside 5 to 6 hours, if you have someone to help you it goes alot quicker, we charge 4 to 5 hours for this repair, depending if there are no major issues like re-meshing vent intake

Please note the beow pics are for Right hand drive vehicles but doubt its much different for LHD

Remove trim from under dash, as circled these are wet patches and is a sure sign that water is leaking in

Wiper arms and lower trim needs to be removed

Windscreen side finisher - trim to be removed, there are screws that hold this in place and are hidden under the rubber flap of the trim

Once you have all the vent intake trim (Plenum) removed you can start by sealing this section.

Not in the picture there is a rubber blank that goes in here, apply sealant around edge and insert rubber blank

Its all wet and it should not be (Red cross) right circled indicates one of the problems where water seeps past , left circle shows where water has been dripping on to wiper arm mechanism, this should be dry.

By now you would have inspected and cleaned all the removed parts, this is the steel plate that covers the pollen filter cavity, the circled section is where the water is making its way past the foam seal, in effect this is a bad design that is now only starting to pop up, when it was new all was ok....so we thought.

As the water works past the foam it absorbs the water and allows it to run along the entire length of the foam seal (blue), this was identified by using a flex mirror to poke under this panel prior to removal, this is only one of the problem areas.

All three circles is where the water works past, the right circles is the area that needs serious attention and is detailed in the below picture, the middle is where one of the bolt's goes through that retains the plate in position, the left circle is also a major leak area, all three need proper cleaning and sealing up.

Sealant needs to be applied with great detail in this area, work the sealant as far up under or up to the windscreen glass edge and along the panel edge, note that the panel was re-installed after cleaning and  sealant was applied to the foam seal, DO NOT apply sealant to the foam seal and then mount the panel, if you do it will promote rust in no time

This part is abit tricky but not dangerous, the plastic piece here is for when the windscreen is replaced and aids the installer to mount the windscreen correctly, this part however needs to be lifted up to allow abit of sealant to be applied underneath, just lift it up a little, one of two tags may give but that's ok as its going to be sealed up anyway, do not try and remove it.   The blue indicates how the water works past in this critical and main area of concern

Water works its way around and under this plastic screw insert, you need to clean and properly seal around this section.   Water here drips past and onto arm (circled) and then drips onto pollen filter where it saturates the filters and pours through the fans into the vehicle.

No doubt you know where this is, well its another area that needs attention

And this is what you need to do, apply and work in the sealant well.

Assemble the trim panel while the silicon is still not cured as this will allow for better sealing all round, note I even applied sealant into the screw hole.

Now you can see why you need to seal very well in the previous pictures, this plastic finisher panel was removed and as you can see there is water around (not through) this screw insert, the insert itself does not leak but will do if you use screws which are too long

At the start I assume you would have removed the pollen filter, if so you can give it a wash or replace.

To wash simply soak it in a cold bucket of water with abit of dish washing liquid, let soak for awhile and rinse well, leave in the sun to dry while you carry out the sealing up repair.

It is important to make sure that the pollen filters are installed, failure to do so will allow dust to settle on the fine fins of the AC system and block it up, this in turn will make the AC compressor over work and cause premature failure due to accelerated wear (High duty cycles).

Three years later after installing the mesh instead of the foam on the vent intake it still looks pretty good, note the absence of leaves, twigs etc, a good rinse out is all it required and the water flowed through the drain channels quickly, mesh repair is detailed on this blog in depth

Water water everywhere

To spike you all a cure has been found for the really bad water entry into spare wheel compartment and here is one of the pictures detailing one of five problem areas, the rest is to follow very shortly

This is a problem on ALL p38s, from 1994 to 2002

The green indicates ok as this is not the problem area.

Blue is how the water runs

Red is where one of the problems start.