P38 buying advice

gencybay said:

The whole car (mine anyway) has a sweet spot just short of 90 mph.

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I agree with that, about 88mph requires so little throttle I'm only just taking up the slack in the pedal, she just turns into a completely effortless vehicle. It is as though the boys at LR designed her with the Autobahn in mind.

The cruise control I grew out of favour with after trying it for a mile. I didn't feel in control, I like to know when I get off the gas it'll slow down, and it just felt clumsy.

Well I took the plunge!
Got it home without it exploding or falling apart. Didn't get close to 90mph though, the wobbling was far to pronounced at 70 to go any quicker.

Its already costing me money! Got stuck in the wrong lane at the Dartford crossing so didn't get any change.

Not noticed any extra major issues since getting it home, the wobbles the main concern. New tyres and alignment at the weekend hopefully that will go some way to addressing it.

Slight oil leak from the oil cooler pipes but that seems to be quite a common issue, also another small one from the rear of the engine, have to take a look underneath in daylight to see where that's coming from.

Some rust on the strut that the battery sits on. By the looks of it the water pipe to the front headlight washer has come off and I suspect its been dribbling there for ages.

Many other minor cosmetic items!

Daughter loves sitting on the tail gate, its won friends already.

emoose said:

Well I took the plunge!
Got it home without it exploding or falling apart. Didn't get close to 90mph though, the wobbling was far to pronounced at 70 to go any quicker.

Its already costing me money! Got stuck in the wrong lane at the Dartford crossing so didn't get any change.

Not noticed any extra major issues since getting it home, the wobbles the main concern. New tyres and alignment at the weekend hopefully that will go some way to addressing it.

Slight oil leak from the oil cooler pipes but that seems to be quite a common issue, also another small one from the rear of the engine, have to take a look underneath in daylight to see where that's coming from.

Some rust on the strut that the battery sits on. By the looks of it the water pipe to the front headlight washer has come off and I suspect its been dribbling there for ages.

Many other minor cosmetic items!

Daughter loves sitting on the tail gate, its won friends already.

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Check the support straps are not rusted away inside the sleeve or daughter may end up on the floor and you will have a bent tailgate

Datatek said:

Check the support straps are not rusted away inside the sleeve or daughter may end up on the floor and you will have a bent tailgate

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Ah, good tip!
The straps don't seem to be under much tension, I though they were a kind of failsafe...will look at them closely!

emoose said:

Well I took the plunge!
Got it home without it exploding or falling apart. Didn't get close to 90mph though, the wobbling was far to pronounced at 70 to go any quicker.
.

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Tell us what size your wheel nuts are.....or take a photo of your wheels.

This will tell us if you have L322 RR (new model) wheels (22mm bolts i think) fitted... I bet you dont have spigot rings on them if the whole body shakes at that speed. The wheels aren't self centering and will lead to massive hub failure if you don't sort it. £20 fix plenty of spigot rings available on the net. Most owners dont realise this when changing the P38 wheels for L322.

emoose said:

Ah, good tip!
The straps don't seem to be under much tension, I though they were a kind of failsafe...will look at them closely!

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Straps were OK, buts nuts at each were rusting nicely!

aerofabrique said:

Tell us what size your wheel nuts are.....or take a photo of your wheels.

This will tell us if you have L322 RR (new model) wheels (22mm bolts i think) fitted... I bet you dont have spigot rings on them if the whole body shakes at that speed. The wheels aren't self centering and will lead to massive hub failure if you don't sort it. £20 fix plenty of spigot rings available on the net. Most owners dont realise this when changing the P38 wheels for L322.

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Best photo I have at the moment, wheel nuts are pretty big so could well be 22mm, will check when I get chance.

emoose said:

Best photo I have at the moment, wheel nuts are pretty big so could well be 22mm, will check when I get chance.

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Looks like original P38 with 24 mm nut you have there, i've swapped mine for L322 with spigots and nuts are the smaller 22 mm

You have the original p38 18" hurricanes so spigots arent needed. Next thing is check your tyres are r18/255/55 and balanced correctly. Check shocks to for any temp difference after a normal drive. Jack up one wheel after a short drive and see if you have diff wind up. Then drive again and check the other wheels.

New discs & pads all round this weekend and greased the UJ & shaft nipples. Couldn't find a nipple on the front shaft for the life of me!

Took it out to bed in the brakes and the wobble seems to have largely gone...not getting overly excited yet as I've not been for a proper drive yet, but briefly had it up to 70 and wasn't being shook out of my seat!
Perhaps the wheels weren't seated properly, certainly the front nuts were not very tight.
Did notice some windup when I jacked up a rear wheel, 10 to 20 degrees of rotation, is this a major concern? (some searches result suggest this is to be expected)

Not done the brake fluid yet as my none-return valve single handed bleeder kit wouldn't fit over the bleed nipples, need to do that asap as the brake fluid resembles Guinness!

Have a few questions about other parts I noticed, but I'll create specific threads for them.

Thanks again for all the advice.

emoose said:

New discs & pads all round this weekend and greased the UJ & shaft nipples. Couldn't find a nipple on the front shaft for the life of me!

Took it out to bed in the brakes and the wobble seems to have largely gone...not getting overly excited yet as I've not been for a proper drive yet, but briefly had it up to 70 and wasn't being shook out of my seat!
Perhaps the wheels weren't seated properly, certainly the front nuts were not very tight.
Did notice some windup when I jacked up a rear wheel, 10 to 20 degrees of rotation, is this a major concern? (some searches result suggest this is to be expected)

Not done the brake fluid yet as my none-return valve single handed bleeder kit wouldn't fit over the bleed nipples, need to do that asap as the brake fluid resembles Guinness!

Have a few questions about other parts I noticed, but I'll create specific threads for them.

Thanks again for all the advice.

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On mine there is usually a bit of movement when I jack a wheel. Check the VCU, jack one front wheel and try to turn it, it should require a lot of effort but you should be able to move it. Gearbox in neutral.

I'll check that tonight,
when I was trying to rotate the shafts to find the nipples I had both rear wheels up and one front one. I really had to shove the front one hard to get the shafts(and rear wheels) to turn, but they did turn. Not sure if this is testing the same thing though.


Went out for a good run in the new tyres yesterday, cruising at 70mph with no major wobbling

Still felt I could detect a certain hesitancy sometimes though.

How is the EAS running now? i heard that you mentioned it took a while to return to normal ride height? overworking compressor can lead to it knackering - which happened to mine, pretty easy to replace unit or seals though, not sure if you were aware i know Datatek used to provide us victims with all the lovely lead & gubbins to set your EAS up yourself if this should happen.. Other than that mate looks nice, didnt really have any major probs with mine in 2 yrs owning & would deffo have another,

EAS seems to be pretty happy, left on high suspension overnight at the weekend and it was still up in the morning.

I'm going to go round it and leak check the bags etc when I get chance, since picking it up I've only really had chance to do the brakes, busy again this weekend coming

I do notice an electrical whirr for a few seconds occasionally while driving, but I don't think that's the compressor. Certainly the suspension isn't going up and down unexpectedly and its pretty quick to get up to the high setting.

Person I bought it from was away on holiday (his son showed it) so It may have been sat for a couple of weeks when I looked at it.

emoose said:

EAS seems to be pretty happy, left on high suspension overnight at the weekend and it was still up in the morning.

I'm going to go round it and leak check the bags etc when I get chance, since picking it up I've only really had chance to do the brakes, busy again this weekend coming

I do notice an electrical whirr for a few seconds occasionally while driving, but I don't think that's the compressor. Certainly the suspension isn't going up and down unexpectedly and its pretty quick to get up to the high setting.

Person I bought it from was away on holiday (his son showed it) so It may have been sat for a couple of weeks when I looked at it.

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That will be the hydraulic pump for the brakes

Datatek said:

That will be the hydraulic pump for the brakes

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Aah, I'll put up with that then!