P38's are crap blah blah blah...this is what RR ownership is all about!!

Right well i'll start from the start.........

Drove my RR from Elgin north Scotland to Gloucester last month as i was sent on a month long course. When i got there my caliper was siezed on and the journey had used 2 nearly new pads in 510 miles. I sorted that the next day and left the family in gloucester to head of on my course in Norfolk.

I was commuting back to gloucester every weekend and managed to rock up 3500 miles in a month. Whilst in Norfolk i found a respectable off road course and thought i'd put the RR through its paces. Next thing BANG!! one snapped rear shock absorber.

Back in Gloucester i swapped that for a new one at a price of £24.

I got back to Elgin on Monday of this week and rang my local garage for the cars MOT. Tuesday i pitch up and the car failed. It needed rear discs, Off side front drag link ball joint, Near side upper ball joint and off side lower ball joint. The garage said they would not do the ball joints due to the magnitude of the job on the P38 and the high possibility of complications.

(Bear with me the pics are coming)

I go to local LR dealer and get a quote for just the ball joints....£440 labour and thats only if there are no complications. The guy said in his experience i'd be looking at around £700-£1000 realistically.

Well screw that no matter how big the job is i'll do it myself.

I started the job on Tues night and changed the Drag link in 10 mins then i started the ball joints. Well it took meabout 4 hours to get the caliper carrier bolts of on one side and then when i tried to undo the bottom balljoint bolt the nut sheared off It took me the best part of yesterday to just drill out the hardened steel of the old ball joint.

Today i started trying to remove the ball joint and with no tools available for the size of ball joint (even LR dealer said their tool is ****e and doesn't work) I started heating it till it was cherry red then battered it to death. After about an hour of this it finally shifted and i collapsed.

I'm now at the stage where the one side is now in and just got the hub off the other side ready to start again at 7am tomorrow. The tally is now upto £135 in parts (at trade price) I need new track rod ends and new bolts for everything as they are all totally shagged. I havn't even looked at doing the discs yet, my arms are cramped, cut, grazed my knees are blistered i'm sure i've got mild hypothermia but i don't care because its all experience and at the end of it i know my RR will be sorted and i've done all of it.

Thanks to some very good friends, my mrs bringing copious amounts of tea and bacon butties i'm getting there...slowly but surely i'm getting there.

(sorry its so long but its been a long few days lol)


Spot the rain




finally it moved

your a trooper! well done and keep going. let us all know how it pans out in the end!

oh and this is the first time i see another P38 with painted grill BUT black bumpers apart from mine!

Hackett, being as you have stripped the stub axles are you going to replace the other ball joints that didn't fail the MOT as well?

Nice work fella ! This is one of the great things about Land Rover ownership, getting stuck in and saving a fortune and as you rightly say, getting experience. You truely deserve the right to call your self a Land Rover owner. Seeing the pics of you working in the rain, is getting me excited about the day when I have to do mine.

keep the faith,you setting an example for whats coming for a lot of us.
good luck

surely my good fellow when you purchased the range rover the number plate must have given you some clue as to what you were letting yourself in for.
G2....... O NO !!!!!!!

Top marks for getting down and dirty with your range rover, and not allowing the main stealers to empty your wallet.
I would definately do both ball joints while its in bits though

Hi guys thanks for replies. Just to clarify my surname is Gronow hence the plate. My usual plate is the same font but no spaces but for MOT i put those plates on with the space after the 2.

Any way today was a dream, the other side came out almost instantly and after putting the new balljoint in the freezer and super heating the hole for it, it then went straight in with out even a hammer. Got it all back together, had a few problems with some of the bolts but got there eventually.

Only thing is now my ABS light is on so i've obviously snapped the connection somewhere but will sort it i still have a week before my 10 days re-test period runs out.

By the way i am replacing all of them but the other 2 will be getting done next month, i know it sounds stupid as i could have done it whilst i had everything off but i have to watch the bank lol

.......................tomorrow the discs