P38A Engine Immobilised

myfirstl322 said:

"Green Goo", in household electrics has been attributed to a plasticizer within the pvc sheathing leaching out.
This plasticizer reacts with copper.
(I think the cables are made better nowadays.)

Although nothing to do with cars, household PVC cabling deteriorates if it touches polystyrene cavity insulation.

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Not quite correct. The problem is the lubricant they used to put on the copper cores prior to the pvc jacket was slightly hygroscopic and therefore it was the moisture leaching out of the lubricant.
They tried with French chalk but that doesn't stick well to single core copper conductors so is more suited to stranded cores.
They now tend to use a silcon based lubricant.
(the reason for the lubricant is to stop the pvc sticking to the hot copper when the vacuum draws it down. It'd be a bugger to strip without the lube.)
Innuendo anyone?

Ok.
Anyway, I think what you get in cars is different, moisture is the enemy.

Check the wires in the door as well. They should be tied so they don't foul the window as it goes up and down. If not tied and they have fouled the regulator then the wire might be broken inside.

mozz smith said:

hey al , bruce thinks his "truck"is a Sheila !!!!!! ha ha ha ,, anyway matt nevermind , so carry forward before you start stripping microswitches out , check down behind bottom of A frames in front footwells reveal the white connectors and give them good clean and spray with electrical contact spray !!!!! NOT wd40 , never use this **** on a rangie ,,, once cleaned and dry . try operating micro switches repeatedly see if ok , cos lot of times all connectors in rangie get damp and get the dreaded green disease wich I believe is called "oxydization " im sure someone will put me right !!!!! a lot of these damp problems need a process of elimination first before ripping stuff out and changing them and then finding out after blowing lots of dollars that they were ok and it was afterall weak or bad electrical connection ,,, wich IS the biggest and most common problem on the overdesigned electrical and over complicated installation electrical appliances on the P38 , that many on here think the original designers were high on sheep dip or something alike when they created that monster !!!!!!!!! ok matt by the way its mozz not muzz ????? ave u been on the sheep dip ???????????? .carry on and best of luck , cheers MOZZ .

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He's been on he Bunderberg or Castlemain xxxx, oh you were right Mozz, sheep dip.

Isn't there a malt whisky called sheep dip

stemac33 said:

Isn't there a malt whisky called sheep dip

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Dunno. But there is definitely a beer called Sheep Dip. Quite nice too.

stemac33 said:

Isn't there a malt whisky called sheep dip

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There sure is and I think it got its name from the way it was smuggled past the tax inspectors in bottle labels sheep dip but I might be misinformed on that one.

According to the Google,
Tis a blend of 16 single malts, and you are correct on the origin of the name, only it was Fife farmers who were making their own hooch that labled the bottles Sheep Dip to dupe the revenue men.
Local Heroes.

The connectors at the bottom of the A pillars (whilst they are worth checking as they can corrode... though I would think not as much of a problem in Oz) don't contain wires for the central locking or anything. Wiring from the door latch goes to the outstation, which then talks to the BECM on a serial link. The connectors to the door are different to the ones behind the kick panel, and are further up the pillar and are accessibly by pulling the rubber cover from the door loom away from the vehicle side and they will be hidden in there.

If you are having issues with the central locking, then it's a fair chance that it's the CDL microswitch in the door latch that's the problem.

If you wiggle the wires and it starts working, then it's work checking the continuity of the wiring between the door latch connector ( in the vehicle wiring loom) and the door outstation connector. As Grrrrr mentions - it can get caught in the window regulator mechanism and cause a break in a wire.

It's also worth doing resistance checks on the door latch microswitches. On my website, or the P38 forum at rangerovers.net, I've put up a test sheet for the microswitches, with expected results.

The microswitches are replaceable, but the difficulty in doing that depends on what version door latch it has in there... the early ones are easy - the later ones are a pain in the backside, but still doable.