SRowells P38 Range Rover 2.5 DSE

[Eeyore]

Hi All,

So unfortunately the school that owned the sailing centre closed so I no longer have the use of a truck to launch boats into the river. Im not going to do it with the saab as the salt damage would be crazy. Instead me and my Dad have been on a look out for a truck to launch the boats with. Everything seemed expensive and we were initially looking for a shogun as we had one previously and it was great. I was specifically looking for something with a torque converter to avoid burnt out clutches. Anyway what we did end up with is a manual with a clutch...

So here it is. Its a 1998 P38 Range Rover with the 2.5 BMW diesel lump and a manual R380 box. 140hp and chipped so probably a bit more. DSE is mid range spec but it has full leathers, heated seats, arm rests, and lots of lovely things. Main issues with these is rust and the air suspension. What is good news is that the whole underside was ziebarted years ago when somebody noticed it was in great condition. Also good news is air suspension works. Its done 6k in the past two years and the previous owner who was a family friend needed to free up some cash.

Its some kind of dark grey but havent found the proper name or code. It has disco 2 18" alloys which are worth £500 a set and some chunky toyo tyres.

And what did I pay for this beast? £800 with a years MOT and 3/4 (75L) of a tank of diesel. £240 tax and £400 insurance for me and the parents for 6k miles (bought online extremely quickly to use it that weekend).

---

After the first 600 miles happy to say its all going well. On the motorway Ipswich to warwick and then 30 miles of back roads it averaged 32.7MPG. It gets better MPG than the Saab! Acceleration isnt a thing and its much nicer sitting at 2.5krpm at 60mph than 3krpm at 70. Its lovely to drive being high up.

The service or at least oil change is every 6k but seeing as it was new to me decided to give it a service. The engine anyway until I work out how to do the diffs and transfer box. No good pictures here but I have to say its the easiest thing I have ever serviced. The air filter box is held together by two clips and no screws. The oil filter and fuel filters are both next to each other in the bay. No jacking up and the sump plug is 17mm and dumps the 8L of oil out quickly. Had to swap from pan to bottle mid way and got oil across the drive.

The cost of servicing parts is redicuolously cheap. Britpart seems to be the most common brand and fuel, air and oil filters were £18 posted and two pollen filters were £10 posted. Pollen filters are two phillips screws for each one and then they slide straight in. Never had it so easy. 10w40 shell helix in the engine. Topped up the PAS, coolant and brake fluid.



Pollen filters were in need of a change!



Unfortunately within two weeks of having it I caught the rear on a gatepost. The opposite side that I hit in the rallye. Luckily seems to be only be a shallow 20mm dent with no paint missing, one trim slid off and slid back, worst bit is multiple cracks in the bumper but its unpainted so should be easy to source a replacement however Im more likely to take it off and try to plastic weld the reverse of it.

Issues and jobs so far:
Full clean inside and out
clean engine bay
Rear washer doesnt work
Sagging sunroof lining
Sagging headlining
Drivers heated seat doesnt work
Blend motors are stuck so only blows feet and windscreen.
tailgate is rusty along bottom edge so will wire wheel and hammerite.
oil cooler and rocker cover gasket leak
fix cracked bumper
replace washer fluid cap

[welshpug]

I wouldn't worry about the manual boxes, strong agricultural things, plenty of uprated clutches available if needed, the auto boxes are the crappy ones that you can get clutch pack issues!

[Eeyore]

Took this over the Bashs on Sunday night and he confirmed what I read online. No modifications required to run veg oil! I want to give it a go but Dad isnt keen. We went halves on it so £400 each and then the tax and insurance split. Maybe Ill put some in without him knowing. Im sure 30% veg would be fine.

[welshpug]

they're fine on 100%, beware that the seals often start leaking on them if run on bio/veg, but a genuine seal pack is only £15 but if the main seals go then you need to take the pump off and require a special tool to extract it from the timing chain.

luckily only the top cover on mine leaked.

ENDtuning chip is well worth it.

[hotrodjacko]

Nice, family have owned a couple of the 4.6 versions of these. Lovely things. Can't help but feel these always needed a more powerful diesel, not that I've had much experience of the 2.5. Cool thread.

[Eeyore]

yeh its strange you have a choice of.... 4.0 V8, 4.6 V8 or...... a 2.5 Diesel?

[welshpug]

tbf the v8's were pretty lame compared to the BMW variants and later Jaguar variants used in the L322, 100bhp short!


its what they had to hand (given they were BMW group at the time) can you imagine one of these with a 300tdi in it :o but it was pre TD5 coming out, and a shame they only pegged it at 134 bhp, when just a simple chip can take them to 175 bhp on standard boost levels.

[Eeyore]

All going well in Range Rover land. Seems to be an issue where slowing down and then accelerating when its clear at junctions the engine will just die. This has left me in the middle of a roundabout at 10pm which wasnt ideal when traffic came quickly under the bridge towards me... FB seems to think its the crank sensor.

[Eeyore]

Update. This has been off the road for a while. I found one of the propshaft bearings didnt have a grease nipple on it so have a replacement for that. Unfortunately my G clamp shattered when trying to get the old one out.

About amonth ago the alternator stopped working. I managed to get it home but its been sitting since which has then caused the battery to die. Replacement was £99 not £300+ from ecp or other places.

Fitted a replacement alternator £105 and the battery today so at least I can use it in this snowy period.

MOT in January. New aux and ac belts to fit along with tensioner and all aux pulleys. Couldnt get to them today as I couldnt get the rad out to get access.

All fluids topped up and its ready to go to warwick tomorrow!

[welshpug]

if theyre the same tensioners as when in an e34 and its just the rollers look up on gaf for their part number thwn pop ot into ebay. i got an INA branded one for my e34 tds for £13 delivered. was £35 on the website!

[Eeyore]

yeh i found the bmw numbers and then googled them. Got febi ones which seems to be a decent brand in my experience so far.