P38 Air Con Issue

Hi there,

Not sure if anyone can help? I'm currently looking to buy a well looked after P38 off my friends dad. He has completed the usual maintenance, new air suspension, compressor, poly bushed, fully serviced etc etc. 2 years ago though, he had a reconditioned auto gearbox installed. Since this has happened, the air conditioning has not worked. He assures me it's the pipe work around the gearbox that was not fitted, but I thought I would run it passed the brains on here and see if anyone can shed some light? He is old school and never used the air conditioning anyway (Hence why its not been sorted), but I wanted to see if anyone knows how hard it will be too sort? It's a 2001 2.5 Diesel if that makes any difference.

Thanks in advance.

There are no ac pipes that run by the gearbox....only the ac drains from the evaporator and expansion valve area of the heater box. These are just condensate drains either side of the gearbox.

All the ac pipe work is under the bonnet then passes through the bulkhead to the passenger compartment into the heater box.

Suggest you do some further research on what he is talking about......as it appears he doen't know.

Most common issues are low gas pressures, the tri-pressure switch, a holed condensor or a blocked expansion valve.

Top man thank you,

That's sort of confirmed what I was thinking. I'll try and have a good look round and see if anything is obvious and report back.

Thanks again

the pipes come out of the condenser (rad) just above the dryer. Am I right in saying the later p38's have a different size condenser? As stated the system can shut down due to being short of pressure (leak). Dryer or condenser leaks are more common, as per stV8.but have it checked all the same before randomly buying parts on guess!!

Cant remeber which way round but on the diesel models the condensor is sodding expensive....but cant remeber if it is the early one or the later one where the price is so eye watering.

I thought I'd heard this.. It's the later 2001 p38 diesel, smaller condenser that's more expensive.

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/condenser.311655/#post-3932497
there found it!
waiting for news!!
come on Mr Tayler!!

Yes, later ones cost a fortune. Earlier condensers cost about £110 for a Hella one from a local Factors. Apparently you can do a fiddle to get the earlier condenser into a later model.

Grrrrrr said:

Yes, later ones cost a fortune. Earlier condensers cost about £110 for a Hella one from a local Factors. Apparently you can do a fiddle to get the earlier condenser into a later model.

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it makes sense as the later and last model of the p38 still has the same grill and surrounding as the earlier model. Little adjustments made too late and unessential.

Mark Piercy said:

it makes sense as the later and last model of the p38 still has the same grill and surrounding as the earlier model. Little adjustments made too late and unessential.

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I think it is slightly more involved. Sure someone was talking about this recently. I think the hoses are slightly different and you may have to shift the oil cooler if it is the auto as well.

Don't quote me on this but i think the condenser on the later models was from one of the Rover cars that had gone out of production to use the stock up.