I've got a new (to me) Range Rover Classic!

Well, after looking at quite a few sheds (RRC/P38's & Disco 1's!) and getting quite frustrated, I've finally found a nice, solid Classic and bought it!

It's a 1994 Classic Soft Dash and is an Autobiography (they introduced the 'Autobiography' options list this year, albeit without the stickers like on the P38) and has also got an LPG conversion (100 litre tank in the boot).

It is basically a Vogue SE with a bit of extra wood, some slightly fancier leather and, rarely for a non-LSE car, EAS (air suspension). It also has extra speakers on the front door pillars, lower front doors and a sub + amp in the boot I think.

Car is in pretty good nick - very little surface rust, no serious rot that I can see, all the usual places checked out OK - either original and solid or repaired.

The interior is pretty good - the seats are mint, door cards a bit mucky, but they'll clean up. Dash is spot on, and so much better than my old "hard dash" Classic.

There is, of course, a *short* list of niggles that I need to work through to get it tiptop (see below), but for now I'm really chuffed. Picked it up Friday afternoon and it's taken us on a 300 mile round trip to the Midlands and back in perfect comfort and pretty good fuel economy too!

I did mention a few problems, which are:

- Sunroof doesn't open 90% of the time - there's power and a little bit of movement, but that's as far as it goes. Every now and then it does open fine, and when it does it closes too, works perfectly in fact.
- Rear windows - about 30% of the time they won't open or close either, from the transmission tunnel or rear door control. Rest of the time they work fine.
- Rear doors - one doesn't lock with the rest, the lock tries to go down and then pops up again, bit odd. The other one locks and unlocks fine but is quite hard to open, needs a really good tug.
- Cruise control - doesn't work, previous owner thinks its the brake switch? My first thoguht was vacuum pipes
- Upper tailgate - aluminimum replacement but it's a bugger to shut, can they be adjusted/greased to make it easier?
- CD changer doesn't work, but probably gonna replace the standard headunit with a DVD/iPod compatible one anyway!

Think thats it - will post some pics when I've had a chance to clean it!!

looking forward to seeing the pics !!!!

service the eas system now..before winter

order valve block and compressor repair kit,new inlet filter..check bags for damage..they have a manufactor date check it.original ones will be fcuked..replace if nessary.(look for splits in rubber at base when fully raised...£36 each autopost dunlops)

yes the tailgate is adjustable on the catches. if you take the ally angle cover of the inside bottom you will see the hexagonal adjusters either end, some spanner fiddling and your sorted.

however its often that the whole tailgate is slightly bent on the ally ones which is the price you pay for no rust. I press mine either end every time to make sure its locked wheras my old steel one was slam and its sorted but sadly it rusted out lol

Glad to know you listen to what I say fett lol.
AS for the door having to be lugged hard to open, try pull handle then pushing door towards the car. if it opens nicely after that the springs have gone.
the non locking door may be down to sticking actuator. bit of wd or grease should sort it. I may have a spare here if its not.
Check all the wiring on Cruise. Mine never worked and when I took it all out, found that the connector under the bonnet was total rotten.

lol , that was about 2 years ago you old fart it did work though lol

on your door locks it also might be worth the plastic/powder coating on the catches themselves- when this tears it gets jammed when you close the door and makes it hard to open the catches. I had it on my drivers door on the 1990

Hi Mike....I had a Classic Autobiography. It should have the stickers on the rear in gold. You'll know if you've got a real Autobiography because you'll have a 4.2 litre engine under your bonnet. Should have kept mine really. It was a stunner. Have a look at the pics in my profile as mine was in great nick.

Thanks guys! I'll try and adjust the tailgate, see what I come up with. I've been trying slamming it like the standard tailgate (pressure on both sides, not the middle) - is this incorrect for an aluminium tailgate?

Back door is a bit annoying - even if I look it manually, when I then look all the doors remotely it then unlocks the back door again! Really strange. So now I lock all the others, then open the back door and lock it normally, so want to get that sorted.

Engine seems really sweet, runs nicely and the gearbox is very very smooth. Definitely down on power when running on LPG, but it's still better than the 300Tdi Disco I test drove!

James R said:

Hi Mike....I had a Classic Autobiography. It should have the stickers on the rear in gold. You'll know if you've got a real Autobiography because you'll have a 4.2 litre engine under your bonnet. Should have kept mine really. It was a stunner. Have a look at the pics in my profile as mine was in great nick.

Click to expand...

It doesn't have the original tailgate, so no sticker sadly! It says Autobiography on the log book, but has the 3.9 engine - like all Autobiography stuff, it was an "options" list rather than a package, so the bigger engine was an option. Mine has the EAS, some extra wood trim and an uprated (but still crap!) stereo, that's about it I think!

Hi Mike...there were 26 Autobiographies produced in all. All of them in green with cream leather and all of them bar one had the 4.2 litre engine and body kit (like a Brooklands one). The only one that didn't have the 4.2 was the 'prototype' which was an electric blue one with black leather and is a hard dash. If it isn't one of them then it is not likely to be a proper Autobiography. The 'prototype' was bought by a friend of mine until the previous seller revealed it had been crashed. If you look back through my posts, you'll see a thread about them where the Range Rover Register chap tells even more. He's on here.

i fort eas was common on the soft dash? And with regard to the rules....wheres the piccies?

I reckon EAS was standard fit on post 93 Vogue SE cars.
The bit I have just read suggests that the whole point of the autobiography scheme was to allow whatever you wanted in the way of colours so it seems unlikely they were all green except the motorshow one that was blue.

It was the only way of getting a 4.2 in a 100 inch car but again an option?
I remember seeing yours James when you bought it and very nice it was too (well in your pics). Are you sure it wasn't yet another final run out version?

Nope. All the Autobiographys were green with cream. They all had 4.2s. The Autobiography scheme that you're referring to started with the P38, not the classic.

Check this out (knew it was somewhere...just not this forum!)......

Range Rover Series 1 1994 4.2 Ltd Edtn 100 inch chassis Autobiography

James,
I'll see you that and raise you this!
http://www.range-rover-classic.com/...990-s#TOC-1994-Range-Rover-Autobiography---La

The 3.9 was an option, whether or not they came out or not it seems.

dkl1971 said:

James,
I'll see you that and raise you this!
Range Rover 1990's - Range Rover Classic

The 3.9 was an option, whether or not they came out or not it seems.

Click to expand...

Good find dkl! I must admit, that was my understanding of the Autobiography program and the highlights below confirm my suspicions:

built by Land-Rover Special Vehicles Division at Solihull​

- Abilty to custom build the Range Rover with the customers own choice​

i.e. Posibility to order a Range Rover 100 inch wheelbase with 4.2 litre EFI​

with special paint and upholstery.​

- Range Rover Autobiography where often delivered with Autobiography decal on the tailgate​

- The Range Rover Autobiography Scheme program ran from 1994 MY to the end of RRC in Feb '96​

It's unclear, isn't it? I have been told by RRR that all are green with cream and with 4.2. Maybe try e-mailing Richard Green. He's very helpful.

Well, regardless of what it is...I've been cleaning it over the last couple of days (and boy did it need it!) and here's some pics!






And here's one of the one I sold, just for old times sake:



So, what d'ya think?

Very smart Mike - and it is green. Is there any sort of dash autobiography logo, I think they had those.
Do things like the cruise and heated seats work? Got to fix mine :-(

I'm liking the white trim lines on the sides

Where did you find it?

dkl1971 said:

Very smart Mike - and it is green. Is there any sort of dash autobiography logo, I think they had those.
Do things like the cruise and heated seats work? Got to fix mine :-(

I'm liking the white trim lines on the sides

Where did you find it?

Click to expand...

Haven't actually looked for an internal 'Autobiography' logo, will do at lunchtime. Sadly the original bootlid was rotten so was replaced and that needs a respray, along with both rear corner panels (behind the lamp units). Other than that the bodywork is pretty good!

Cruise control doesn't work, needs a new brake switch and possibly vacuum pipes - the latter has been replaced but I don't think correctly.

Passenger heated seat works, drivers doesn't - think it's the seat base heater element that has failed, but they're wired in series so the backrest one doesn't work either. Is it easy to replace the seat base element if I wanted to get them working?

Aircon is ice cold which I'm impressed with!

First thing to sort is the EAS as the compressor runs a lot more often than I think it should, and need to make sure it won't burn out...