P38A A series of faults

Slooby said:

It's the only working one that I have and all three USB ports work fine for other duties.

Currently sitting in the RR having shunted my trailer out into the Orchard to unload it. Suspension is all over the shop and now when tge compressor kicks in the engine struggles to idle due to the additional electrical load... Could this be signs of a faulty alternator and therefore insufficient ergs are available to run everything causing the car to do random things?

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Low volts causes all sorts of issues. In some models the compressor and starter are on the same fuse - not sure if that helps or not. I was thinking a dodgy earth might stuff alternator and there might be a link between the 2 somewhere.

Other thing worth checking is the plugs inside the EAS box. The pins have been known to come loose before and cause issues.

Grrrrrr said:

Low volts causes all sorts of issues. In some models the compressor and starter are on the same fuse - not sure if that helps or not. I was thinking a dodgy earth might stuff alternator and there might be a link between the 2 somewhere.

Other thing worth checking is the plugs inside the EAS box. The pins have been known to come loose before and cause issues.

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Now that I have emptied the contents of the trailer (parts for my 3 x series projects) in the Orchard, I'm going to haul the trailer back round and hopefully get a chance to run through the EAS electrics, but will test the alternator output before disconnecting the battery, assuming I can find the procedure to do it, unless of course there is a hidden menu for the dash display that shows it like you find in BMW's

When I stripped down the EAS control system under the bonnet to rebuild the valve block I did go through all the connectors associated with it there. I do have a spare valve block and controller so I may swap the control boards just in case.

Slooby said:

It's the only working one that I have and all three USB ports work fine for other duties.

Currently sitting in the RR having shunted my trailer out into the Orchard to unload it. Suspension is all over the shop and now when tge compressor kicks in the engine struggles to idle due to the additional electrical load... Could this be signs of a faulty alternator and therefore insufficient ergs are available to run everything causing the car to do random things?

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More likely a sign of a duff battery.

The battery was brand new last weekend! Not a cheapie either; a Yuassa 3000 heavy duty

Slooby said:

The battery was brand new last weekend! Not a cheapie either; a Yuassa 3000 heavy duty

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Did you charge it before fitting? If not the alternator will be stuffing amps into the battery at the same time as trying to feed the compressor.

They charged it before I picked it up (got it from GSF by ordering online and they then pick it and charge it, only telling you it is ready for collection once it checks out ok) even got a print out of what it was charged to.

But I'll put it on charge in a minute as I've finished shunting stuff about

...and of course, having done a bit of shunting with it jammed in full height mode I go back out to move it over to nearer my workshop to put it on charge and the suspension works absolutely fine again...arggggghhhhhh it's toying with me!

With nothing that since fitting the new battery the engine has been kicking into life on the second turn of the starter. It veritably springs into life for a 215k mile engine

On charge now will see how long till the (Noco Genius G3500) charger says it's at 100%

Slooby said:

...and of course, having done a bit of shunting with it jammed in full height mode I go back out to move it over to nearer my workshop to put it on charge and the suspension works absolutely fine again...arggggghhhhhh it's toying with me!

With nothing that since fitting the new battery the engine has been kicking into life on the second turn of the starter. It veritably springs into life for a 215k mile engine

On charge now will see how long till the (Noco Genius G3500) charger says it's at 100%

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Have you checked the earth points on the inner wing under & close to the EAS box?

Datatek said:

Have you checked the earth points on the inner wing under & close to the EAS box?

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I did, but that was back in February...I will try to take another look tomorrow, assuming it's not throwing it down still

Battery charger reported full charge in about an hour, it's an 'itelligent' charger so spends a fair bit of time probing the battery while it charges it so doesn't instantly report a full charge, but goes through a sequence over a period of time.

Slooby said:

I did, but that was back in February...I will try to take another look tomorrow, assuming it's not throwing it down still

Battery charger reported full charge in about an hour, it's an 'itelligent' charger so spends a fair bit of time probing the battery while it charges it so doesn't instantly report a full charge, but goes through a sequence over a period of time.

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You could always use a jump lead from the negative battery post to the engine to rule in or out an earth problem.

A dodgy EAS driver pack can also cause some weird faults.

tomcat59alan said:

You could always use a jump lead from the negative battery post to the engine to rule in or out an earth problem.

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I am tempted to run some new dedicated earths as I do have some terminated battery earth cables kicking around. They certainly wouldn't do any harm.

Datatek said:

A dodgy EAS driver pack can also cause some weird faults.

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Now that is a very valid point, and I did get a spare back in January just in case. I will swap it out and see what happens.

Might have to happen after the MoT that I have booked for 1 though!

Slooby said:

I am tempted to run some new dedicated earths as I do have some terminated battery earth cables kicking around. They certainly wouldn't do any harm.



Now that is a very valid point, and I did get a spare back in January just in case. I will swap it out and see what happens.

Might have to happen after the MoT that I have booked for 1 though!

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Bear in mind that your spare may also be faulty. The common problem is the failure of an electrolytic that effectively suppresses back emf from the solenoids which otherwise causes the ECU to go crazy. Changing it may change the fault but not cure it. I can give you the info to replace the electrolytic if you want it.

+1 on driver pack or intermittent pins in the driver pack connector underneath the valve block.

If the connections are intermittent, when the ECU commands adjustment, it does not see height changes, so either faults or over-adjusts ! Even if only small changes, this will cause pump cycling as the air gets used, but car height change is hard to spot if the intended adjustment is only 5-10 bits.

Failed the MoT on an excessive oil leak from the engine. It's either the filter housing seal or blowing oil out the dipstick tube at the top. Was fine till it got warmed up on the run over to the MoT garage. Also blown numberplate bulb...which I just replaced...

Suspension meanwhile has collapsed onto bumpstops now

Slooby said:

Failed the MoT on an excessive oil leak from the engine. It's either the filter housing seal or blowing oil out the dipstick tube at the top. Was fine till it got warmed up on the run over to the MoT garage. Also blown numberplate bulb...which I just replaced...

Suspension meanwhile has collapsed onto bumpstops now

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Oil blowing out of the dipstick is a blocked breather either in the rocker cover or just next to the rocker cover in the breather pipe. There should always be negative pressure in the crankcase.
The plastic topped oil filter housings sometimes leak after a filter change because the new O ring provided with the filter is often the wrong size.

Indeed, now I have of course been fiddling as I wasn't happy with the amount of oil I found in the intercooler and intake pipe (air filter to turbo). When I changed the rocker cover seal I re-seated the breather vent tube on a bed of RTV securing it to the rocker cover with some M4 set screws and tapped threads in the casting. This now goes to a small vented catch can. Initially it just stopped at the catch can but that did cause too much back pressure and I saw it blow oil out of the dip stick. So I then put a return line from the catch can back to the inlet to stabilise things. Or that's what I thought I had achieved.

Meanwhile my oil filter housing is the alloy type.

In terms of the oil coating in the engine bay the obvious wetness is around the dipstick and the filter housing lid and sides.

I had to replace one of the oil cooler hoses and did the by cutting the old perished rubber hose from it, swaging a bead onto the metal pipe ends and then replacing the hose with new correct size oil hose with jubilees. That seems dry. I did also fit new O rings where the cooler hoses join the oil filter housing.

I have a piece of cardboard under the engine and have sprayed it down with brake cleaner. Will go take a look in a minute to see if it's run off enough to enable me to more easily spot the source of the leak

It's important to have the negative pressure in the crankcase so the pipe must be connected to the inlet.

Oil is coming out of the dipstick. Bypassed my catch can and connected the breather directly back to the inlet, still spitting oil out of the dipstick tube.

Changed the EAS valve block controller over to the spare. Cleaned all the earths. Cleaned all the contacts in the engine bay for the EAS. Still no comms with EAS Unlock, just RX reading PP. I'm guessing now I have completely fried something critical.

Engine still will not idle properly, probably the Ronbox I foolishly installed and bricked something else being hamfisted.

Feeling utterly despondent and regretting wasting a year on this bloody thing