A few faults with my 99 P38 Diesel :(

Hi guys.

Newbie here I know, but I need help . I have a 99-model year 2.5 diesel Range Rover. Been after one of these since my dad bought a classic RR years ago.

However. I have a few problems. It started a few weeks after I bought the car. The gearbox started to hesitate on the up shift from 1st to second. It almost jolts me out of the seat when it does change up. (No better in Sports Mode). I have found some paperwork in the dash that says it had a recon box 4000 miles ago. Now out of warranty of course. Also, when I take my foot off the accelerator, the engine management check light comes on for a split second; this can result in no acceleration then all is well. I found a small blue box under the bonnet after I bought it that says Allisport. I believe it has been chipped.

Then, I was reversing onto my drive, when the dashboard started beeping and the messages, Traction Control Failure and ABS Failure came up. I slowly drove it to a mechanic mate of mine who couldn’t connect his laptop to it as there is no OBD socket under the dash (apparently 99 is the change over year). By the time I got there the lights had gone out and the messages didn’t re-appear.

Now I’m finding that selecting reverse after moving forward can cause the tick over to drop right down and occasionally stalls the car. Always re-starts and runs fine.

These are all small niggling things, but I’m hoping they aren’t a major gearbox fault that’s going to raise its ugly head.

What can I use to connect and read any fault codes, and has anyone got any ideas on the other problems??? Your help is greatly appreciated. I love my truck, just don’t want to have to get rid of her if she’s gonna turn into a major money pit L

Thanks in advance.

Rob

Check your battery and alternator, these RRs are really sensitive to battery drain and throw out a heap of faults including transmission faults like you've described if either is weak.

It is likely that your car is chipped, standard they are dog slow so most are chipped. Just be a bit careful, its not a fast car and if you dog it they can bite back. The BMW engine is prone to blowing head gaskets/cracking the head in the Range Rover and this can be expensive (I ended up needing a new block also - V.expensive). But the chip gives much better fuel economy and diveabiity so don't ditch it.

You need to find a specialist near you who has rovacom/faultmate/autologic to read the faults. A 99 model might be readable by an OBDII reader but if it does work (my OBDII scanner wont read my 99reg but 98MY rangie) it will only read SRS and emission data so you need to go to a specialist for any real fault finding. The EAS can be read by an EAS kicker (brilliant little tool) or you can download a laptop based EAS reset tool from the great guys on rangerovers.net. You should download the RAVE software from them as well. After that you're in the lap of the gods, if stuff starts to go wrong with these cars you need either deep pockets or a really big toolbox. But if you love em there is no substitute!
This site is the best for support on diesel issues and rangerover.net is great for other stuff. Best of luck!

Rob,theres an auto electrician on City rd Sheffield,used him a few time he's approx £45.00 to fault find and reset,I'll look for his number,he's opp the big cemetery.

TIMMYTIM. Your a star. Need to get it hooked up and find out what the problem is. It's such an anoying problem on an otherwise brilliant car.

Rob

Hi Rob,just been to Ma's for dinner and passed the garage,so heres the number for Autotronix 01142648038 or 07778396654