first trip out

first trip out with the rangerover 2.5 towing my caravan and found it a bit gutless to be honest up the big hill out of chesterfeild very slow and temp gauge hit the red but soon went back to normal when over the top but disapointed .think it need a remap .its an auto and its good on the flat but hills a bit of a joke . so how do i drive it in sport mode hen i come to a hill or just gun it from the bottem of the hill

Try moving the gear shift down?

what like put into 3rd will try it on way home thanks never towed with an auto before

Yep use the gear lever, the auto box is not overly responsive. You need to put the pedal to the metal to get it to move!
A re-map or power box will eat your gearbox sooner or later as the torque will exceed the gearbox limits.

If the temp gauge hit the red you should fix that before anything else.

JotaPê;1989008 said:

If the temp gauge hit the red you should fix that before anything else.

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Dito that.:behindsofa:

Cooling system overhaul before owt else my man.

ok thanks having a bit of a job getting on here am using my phone as modem for lap top so checked water all seems ok ,when i get home will have the cooling system flushed out and a new thermostat any thing else i should be looking at and do i just leave the suspension as is for towing or can you lock it in one position as my mate who followed me said it seemed to weave a bit on the moterway .must admit i felt it wander now and agian when i got in the tram lines .but i thought thats becuse its on air . any thing i should check right now before i set of for home in a few days

dockrat said:

ok thanks having a bit of a job getting on here am using my phone as modem for lap top so checked water all seems ok ,when i get home will have the cooling system flushed out and a new thermostat any thing else i should be looking at and do i just leave the suspension as is for towing or can you lock it in one position as my mate who followed me said it seemed to weave a bit on the moterway .must admit i felt it wander now and agian when i got in the tram lines .but i thought thats becuse its on air . any thing i should check right now before i set of for home in a few days

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Use the lock button to stop the suspension changing height, you can lock it at normal height as LR recomend, or, depending on your rig, lock it at motorway height. For my caravan I use normal height, for my trailer it's motorway height.
To flush the rad properly you need to remove it, If you get a new stat, check it opens in a pan of boiling water before you fit it, lots of duff ones about. Water pumps shed impeller blades, but my money would be on the viscous fan being knackered. I can send you a mod to use the aircon fans for cooling, PM me with an email address if you are interested

with data viscous fan is getting weak dont buy a britpart one there rubbish and fall apart.
island 4x4 do an oem one at a good price after issues i had with britpart ones!
i chipped mine, £120 from ves sport available on ebay have to solder it in yourself, best thing i ever did so much better to drive and i tow 25ft twin axle caravan with it still doesnt exactly storm uphill but as long as i get a bit of a run up it handles them pretty easily.

right how do you lock the suspension .sat here reading the handbook
i will be interested in the fan mod but wait till i get home
will have the viscos fan checked out as well cant a lot here only got bare minimum spaners and such so thanks for all that

dockrat said:

right how do you lock the suspension .sat here reading the handbook
i will be interested in the fan mod but wait till i get home
will have the viscos fan checked out as well cant a lot here only got bare minimum spaners and such so thanks for all that

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Button to the right of the 4 height indicator lights, push it in and you can use the up/down buttons to select either normal or motorway height, or if it's already at normal height just push the button in to lock it
With the engine hot and idling, stick the end of a tightly rolled newspaper into the blades, mind your fingers, if it slows or stops it's knackered, should shred the paper or bat it out of the way

just been for a blast round castleton up winnits pass no better at pulling up there useing the 2and 3rd very slow get to the top heading for buxton only slow on a few hills then onto bakewell same again then from bakewell back to castleton via the back roads around the cement factory at hope there are some steep hills and tight turns on these roads .and it was a good ride out . and a good test for the vehicle if any of you know this area at all but very slow at getting going up the hills i think its going to get good service when i get home . as i think it should perform better than it dose though no complaints on the flat its very good and comfort what can you say spot on

I remember a post when I was looking at DSE advice....

Post 1: Are the Diesel P38's really as slow as they say??
Post 2: No....They're Slower....

Datatek said:

Button to the right of the 4 height indicator lights, push it in and you can use the up/down buttons to select either normal or motorway height, or if it's already at normal height just push the button in to lock it
With the engine hot and idling, stick the end of a tightly rolled newspaper into the blades, mind your fingers, if it slows or stops it's knackered, should shred the paper or bat it out of the way

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Or with engine hot stick your flat hand in the right side of the fan cowl. And apply pressure to the fan with your finger tips. If fan stops it's knackered, if when you pull your hand out you have four bloody stumps left, it's ok.

I've heard that diesel P38s are sluggish without a caravan, so with one it's going to be worse. There's plenty of press to say that the BMW engine is marginal in a Rangy at best. The only one I've driven was a manual and it needed working to move. It was showing 29.8mpg on the computer mind!

I remember being told that the diesel has about the same torque as the 4.0 V8. It should tow your caravan up the hill fine, granted it probably won't accelerate.. I have no problems with my 1 ton speedboat.

well i cant beleive we made it home with the caravan on the back .down to 15 mph on the hills coming from castleton to chesterfeild then get on the moter way down to 35 on the run from juction 29 to the m 18 wouldnt hold top gear kept sliping down the box engine screaming its tits of and temp going into the red only because it was very slow and no air flow into the front being over taken by fully freighted lorrys up hills just made it even worse i should of out run or kept at 60 at least rev counter sat between 2.8 and 4000 engine working very hard i thought it would blow up the amount of revs it had .now i know there sluggish i dont want a flying machine just something that will keep up with normal road speed when towing .would like your thoughts on what could be wrong with it or what to check out .heres some pics of her but i wont be keeping it long if i cant cure her she was bought to do a job .tow my caravan if it cant do that well its gone

Did you take the caravan hand brake off??

Sludged up intercooler? P38 diesels are slow but they shouldn't be that bad.