P38 LOW RANGE SELECTION

Hurrah - after years away, I might be about to buy another Range Rover! A V reg P38.

The drivers door window sometimes opens and shuts almost all the way but not the last 1 1/2"; anyone any idea why? Sometimes won't move at all.

IMPORTANT ONE: On returning from the test drive, I had my foot on the brake, put main box in neutral, lifted the lever, shifted over to low range, and the expected bleeping and warning lamp started. Then it kept bleeping. And bleeping. It wouldn't go into low range - any idea why? Lack of use? If so, how do I free it off? Did I do wrong keeping the selector release lever up? I checked the owners handbook and it's not clear!


It's good to be back!

Ian.

Any grinding noises from the window? The window regulator tends to chew it's teeth off and won't go up but usually you get warning noises as it starts to go.

To go into low you normally just shift the lever across the H to the left hand side. Cannot remember if you stop in the middle as it has been a while since I drove the auto.

The motor for the high/low switch is on the back of the transfer box. If you take it off you can turn the triangular shaft by hand to move between high and low.

daphnesdad said:

Hurrah - after years away, I might be about to buy another Range Rover! A V reg P38.

The drivers door window sometimes opens and shuts almost all the way but not the last 1 1/2"; anyone any idea why? Sometimes won't move at all.

IMPORTANT ONE: On returning from the test drive, I had my foot on the brake, put main box in neutral, lifted the lever, shifted over to low range, and the expected bleeping and warning lamp started. Then it kept bleeping. And bleeping. It wouldn't go into low range - any idea why? Lack of use? If so, how do I free it off? Did I do wrong keeping the selector release lever up? I checked the owners handbook and it's not clear!


It's good to be back!

Ian.

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The window problem is teeth worn off the window regulator, easy job.
Low range is selected by moving the lever across, makes no odds if you keep the tab lifted (the lever does not lift). Failure is often due to lack of use, the motor seizes leading to the transistors in the ECU burning out. Not hard or expensive to fix. ECU's are available second hand on Ebay and the motor can be freed off. Timing has to be right when you put it back.

Window stiff on it's slides stalling motor.

You should be at a complete stop,.

Shift the lever across and a lamp will flash on the dash, Beep beep etc when this light goes out release the brake and be ready to crawl.

If it keeps beeping don't drive it shift back to HI.

window wider could be as simple as broken rivets holding the mechanism to the door

Thanks guys. The window wasn't making nasty noises, and today the dash info centre said 'Window not set', which it wasn't saying yesterday, so I'll start there.

New symptoms for the gearbox: Today I visited the car again to pay my deposit, and had a fiddle around. The beeper and flashing warning light kept going, pausing occasionally, presumably when the system had completed one cycle of trying. BUT I dared to put the car in gear in the low range slot, and it moved in every gear - so SEEMS to be selecting low range! \but the dash info centre was saying 'SELECT NEUTRAL' - does this collection of symptoms mean anything to anyone now?

Is the gearbox in danger of exploding and taking out the High range? I only use low range very, very rarely, but would like to have it working properly. More, I don't want the high range gears I have to stop working!

Datatek said:

The window problem is teeth worn off the window regulator, easy job.
Low range is selected by moving the lever across, makes no odds if you keep the tab lifted (the lever does not lift). Failure is often due to lack of use, the motor seizes leading to the transistors in the ECU burning out. Not hard or expensive to fix. ECU's are available second hand on Ebay and the motor can be freed off. Timing has to be right when you put it back.

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What ecu is this? one just for the gearbox? As I have an uprated ecu for the car under the bonnet.
How do you mean timing has to be right when you put what back?

If there is something wrong with a car.

The general consensus is to walk away, plenty of fish in the sea and all that.

Henry_b said:

If there is something wrong with a car.

The general consensus is to walk away, plenty of fish in the sea and all that.

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That is sound advice. Most of these cars are getting to an age where they have issues. One showing plenty will have more hidden for sure. Budget £1000 for remedial work unless you're just going to run it into the ground. If you cannot do the spanner work yourself then your pockets will be emptied quickly.

Low battery volts can give spurious warnings although the Window Not Set is because the window has not been run all the way down and back up until the message disappears after a battery disconnect. Not sure about the Select Neutral. Could just be low volts or problem with transfer box radio motor or XYZ switch adjustment or could be something else.

These cars have an ECU for each area, not just the engine one. All link into the BECM, the brain under the driver's seat. Gearbox one is under the passenger seat.

Thanks lads, but budget is limited and not going to get any bigger, this one has been looked after very well by previous owner-but-one then ignored for last 18 months by last owner; reckon it's worth spending a bit of time n money on. I am worried about this gearbox thing, but second hand boxes arent much and I have a good mechanic.

Could just be a connector or low volts but then again ...

We're all addicts here but we've all been burned by these cars. I'm still not sure why I have mine.

daphnesdad said:

What ecu is this? one just for the gearbox? As I have an uprated ecu for the car under the bonnet.
How do you mean timing has to be right when you put what back?

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The transfer box has it's own ECU located under the passenger seat (RHD) along with the auto gearbox ECU and the EAS ECU, 3 separate boxes.
If the transfer box shift motor seizes, the drive transistors in the ECU often burn out. The shift motor has a transducer that tells the ECU which position the gearbox is in, so the timing has to be right when re-assembling.

Grrrrrr said:

Could just be a connector or low volts but then again ...

We're all addicts here but we've all been burned by these cars. I'm still not sure why I have mine.

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I'm not an addict, I have a P38 because I cannot afford a decent 4 x 4

Hahaha Thanks guys...
I started off with a Classic, got another one, sold them and moved abroad, bought a P38 DSE, drove it from Poland to Serbia to Slovakia to England... where the EAS finally gave out and I sold it. I do love them.

daphnesdad said:

Hahaha Thanks guys...
I started off with a Classic, got another one, sold them and moved abroad, bought a P38 DSE, drove it from Poland to Serbia to Slovakia to England... where the EAS finally gave out and I sold it. I do love them.

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No hope for you. You're as f***ed as the rest of us.

Datatek said:

The transfer box has it's own ECU located under the passenger seat (RHD) along with the auto gearbox ECU and the EAS ECU, 3 separate boxes.
If the transfer box shift motor seizes, the drive transistors in the ECU often burn out. The shift motor has a transducer that tells the ECU which position the gearbox is in, so the timing has to be right when re-assembling.

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So what we are saying here is, likely disuse = siezed transfer motor, possibly transistor burnt out, not a major job?

Grrrrrr said:

No hope for you. You're as f***ed as the rest of us.

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Yup! I saw this poor mistreated baby, hoped it was a DSE and almost cheered when I got round the back n saw it was... £1200, from a decent local RR seller. Fingers crossed...
TBH I have been diagnosed with Parkinsons n want to enjoy myself a bit more! Also want something very safe. And there he was...

daphnesdad said:

Yup! I saw this poor mistreated baby, hoped it was a DSE and almost cheered when I got round the back n saw it was... £1200, from a decent local RR seller. Fingers crossed...
TBH I have been diagnosed with Parkinsons n want to enjoy myself a bit more! Also want something very safe. And there he was...

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Sorry to hear that. Went through that with my father-in-law and also the best boss I ever had.

Simple job, yes.

Grrrrrr said:

Sorry to hear that. Went through that with my father-in-law and also the best boss I ever had.

Simple job, yes.

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Ta lads. When it actually went into gear but the info centre sulked about it, I thought it might be something like this.
Haven't actually come to terms with the Parkinsons thing yet, early days, just started meds, seeing nurse & physio soon, wondering about the chances of a blue badge on a P38...