P38 judder and stop

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Antiquarian

Antiquarian

New Member
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5
Location
Suffolk
HI, I'm new here and in need of some advice.
Bought a P38 4.6 HSE 1996, my dream car, running gas so I can afford to use it. Had if for six days no problems at all, even starts on gas, {manual switch over}. As I say ran perfectly, until we went to see the mother in law, {yes I know but we do get on quite well}. Stayed at a steady 60.mph, all as smooth as can be, when with no warning, the front end started to judder hard shaking the front wheels and car slowed. I drove it onto the grass and stopped the engine. Lifted the bonnet and looked and poked, but not being too mechanicly inclined saw nothing to aid my diagnosis. Stupidly undid the overflow cap for expansion tank and got second degree burns, added to the misery a tad. Lost most of the water as it fountained out and over the engine. Managed to get the car started first go after half an hour for it to cool, and drove very slowly to filling station. Filled water up again and ran engine for a few minutes.. No problems at all. Then decided to drive it under 50.mph home, a distance of forty miles. No problems again, now my heart has slowed its beat a touch, I'm left wondering what the hell happened? Any ideas or clues most warmly welcomed.
Thanks, Ade.
 
Antiquarian said:
HI, I'm new here and in need of some advice.
Bought a P38 4.6 HSE 1996, my dream car, running gas so I can afford to use it. Had if for six days no problems at all, even starts on gas, {manual switch over}. As I say ran perfectly, until we went to see the mother in law, {yes I know but we do get on quite well}. Stayed at a steady 60.mph, all as smooth as can be, when with no warning, the front end started to judder hard shaking the front wheels and car slowed. I drove it onto the grass and stopped the engine. Lifted the bonnet and looked and poked, but not being too mechanicly inclined saw nothing to aid my diagnosis. Stupidly undid the overflow cap for expansion tank and got second degree burns, added to the misery a tad. Lost most of the water as it fountained out and over the engine. Managed to get the car started first go after half an hour for it to cool, and drove very slowly to filling station. Filled water up again and ran engine for a few minutes.. No problems at all. Then decided to drive it under 50.mph home, a distance of forty miles. No problems again, now my heart has slowed its beat a touch, I'm left wondering what the hell happened? Any ideas or clues most warmly welcomed.
Thanks, Ade.
Click to expand...

Did you check the engine oil level. Sounds like something like a piston picked up.
 
Hi welcome to the mad house no idea what caused your trouble as you had no warning lights on?? Did you notice if the temp gauge was high or not ?? Seeing as its running fine now keep an eye on it check your getting heat from the heater just to make sure your nor air locked and ensure you have bleed your cooling system properly.

The juddering from the front end is the odd thing unless you have worn steering components and or prop UJs which started to shows up at that speed the search function is your friend
 
Thanks for the welcome, much appreciated. Got the car I've dreamed of, and the missus finally gave in and we bought one, was hoping for a few miles under the tyres before the problems emerged. Sorry forgot to add more info, just a bit shook up with the event. The engine has done 203000 but had a bottom end rebuild in 2012 and top rebuild in 2014 so thought engine would be fine. Steering rack and wheel bearings replaced in 2014, pads and discs in 2015. Guy who had it before was a genuine guy, who had moved up to a much younger Ranger. The gas system is a single pointer I think. I've had Jeeps for the last ten years, all running gas, so I know how the system should run and never has anything like this happened on them before. Nothing in the vast amount of paperwork that came with it to say that steering was a problem any more due to parts change. The wheel bearings seem fine, I've jacked it up and tried to rattle em, they're solid. No warning lights at all, before or after.
biketeacherdave
Have checked the oil level and its bang on the centre, same with the gearbox. Temperature stayed the same, right in the middle on either gas or petrol. Just drove it around town and think I didn't twist the overflow cap on tight enough, as water is now coming out and puddling on the ground. I am a little worried it might be a head gasket failure, but don't know enough about these motors to call it. The piston picking up? God I hope not! How do I tell if it is please? Will do a proper water change tomorrow and see if it's ok, details found on how to do it here, have helped so far.
Was told about this site from a friend who runs a Disco diesel. Have to say, he was right about the quality of the info given here, best site I've found yet!
 
Check the small overflow pipe from the expansion tank - once the caps on tightly - and see if the water is coming from there. Welcome to the wonderful world of Range Rovers :confused:
 
Something similar happened with my first RR, turned out the previous owner had disconnected the steering damper(cable tied up in one end), solution was simply connecting it.
Did put a new one on later
 
Forgot to say welcome and why did you undo the expansion tank cap? Expecting to find what?
 
Removing the cap on a hot engine is not the best idea you would ever have. Can be done but there is a trick to it.
 
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