Range rover p38........What should i be looking for??

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What else will take you in limo style on a long journey, pull you out of a muddy field, think nothing of the recent snow and put a smile on your face every time you get behind the wheel. And all for as little as 3K (and that will still get you a goodun)

Yes they are juicy (you are feeding 8 pots at over 4 and a half litres a time,in my case) They will break down (like most 10 year old motors) but there's plenty of help on here to help you out and parts are readily available.

If your budgets tight, don't get one. If its not buy it and enjoy.

Spot on!!!
 
Every 1 says if your budgets tight don't get 1 but what does that exactly mean. How much spare cash do you have to have lying around to own a p38.lol. And if you have that much why not buy a newer rangie :p
 
I love my diesel even though I know I am going to have to spend some money on it. But then it don't matter what car it is, you are going to have to spend money on it at some point.
When I first started looking for my rangie someone commented that these cars were built for and sold to people who did not need to consider the cost of repairs or fuel. That said the beauty of these cars is the cost of aftermarket spares make proper maintenance affordable especially if you can do some yourself.
 
Every 1 says if your budgets tight don't get 1 but what does that exactly mean. How much spare cash do you have to have lying around to own a p38.lol. And if you have that much why not buy a newer rangie :p

Put it this way,i brought my 1997 4.6 HSE last march for £2400. 112k with service history, since then ive spent over £1000 on it just putting silly things right! I admit i did get the head gaskets done as soon as i got it by a mate that that used to work in a Landy garage but he only charged me £200 labour plus i got the parts, so you can see it does mount up almost straight away. Ive done all the work myself other than the above so no labour on this figure,and as i said thats just silly stuff, window reg, door locks, cats, ac condenser, lpg ecu, coil pack, crank sensor, head lamp unit, fog light unit, and mostly second hand parts, the list goes on. And its still not 100% perfect. Checkout Range Rovers for a list of faults!!!
Dont get me wrong its a great car, i love it, would get another, but thing is, and dont take this as big headed but i can afford to fix it when it ****s up, and can do the work myself, if you dont have a pot of gold to dig into every time it goes wrong you will end up selling it, and probably at a loss.
Lots of people buy them cos they are cheap, true, but NOT cheap to maintain.
BUT the people on here are great and will help you out if you need any advice, or a hand, just buy the best you can, and do it with your head, not your heart. :)
 
Every 1 says if your budgets tight don't get 1 but what does that exactly mean. How much spare cash do you have to have lying around to own a p38.lol. And if you have that much why not buy a newer rangie :p

How long is a piece of string. For example I filled it up last night at a cost of £105, another week of short journeys in London traffic so she'd only covered 220 miles. You can cover 220 miles even in short journeys in a very short time. If you've never owned a proper gas guzzler it can be a shock to the system.

To be honest mine has never let me down (other than loosing sync with the becm) but to keep it up to scratch I have replaced 4x air springs £250, 3x blend motors £250, steering rotary coupler £120, becm resync tool £120, stereo amp £85 (£450 from a stealer) EAS kicker £120. None of that is routine stuff on most motors and if you couldn't do the work yourself there would be labour on top. And not forgetting the routine maintenance. If you want a P38 to stay in good order it will cost you, exactly how much is impossible to tell. But when its running right you'll drive it just for fun.

Basically you will not run a P38 on a shoe string, even if its the most reliable P38 in the world.
 
How long is a piece of string. For example I filled it up last night at a cost of £105, another week of short journeys in London traffic so she'd only covered 220 miles. You can cover 220 miles even in short journeys in a very short time. If you've never owned a proper gas guzzler it can be a shock to the system.

To be honest mine has never let me down (other than loosing sync with the becm) but to keep it up to scratch I have replaced 4x air springs £250, 3x blend motors £250, steering rotary coupler £120, becm resync tool £120, stereo amp £85 (£450 from a stealer) EAS kicker £120. None of that is routine stuff on most motors and if you couldn't do the work yourself there would be labour on top. And not forgetting the routine maintenance. If you want a P38 to stay in good order it will cost you, exactly how much is impossible to tell. But when its running right you'll drive it just for fun.

Basically you will not run a P38 on a shoe string, even if its the most reliable P38 in the world.


thank fook i got a diesel then :D:D
 
thank fook i got a diesel then :D:D

I bet on stop start trips the dervs get less than 20mpg and it costs more. And at least when I bury the right foot it brings a smile to me face, do that in a doozel and the chap behind gets a free soot shower and is late for work coz it takes yer half an hour to hit 60 :D:D
 
I bet on stop start trips the dervs get less than 20mpg and it costs more. And at least when I bury the right foot it brings a smile to me face, do that in a doozel and the chap behind gets a free soot shower and is late for work coz it takes yer half an hour to hit 60 :D:D


like fook it does mine got a powerbox on it i bet if you plant your boot down you get less than 10 mpg in yours :D
 
Haha i know what you mean labour is the killer on most cars. I mean i'm no mechanical wiz, my dad usually helps out with that sort of stuff, has done headgackets on my cars clutches, changed engines for me........might just buy him a range rover maintenance Manuel for his birthday :)
 
Every 1 says if your budgets tight don't get 1 but what does that exactly mean. How much spare cash do you have to have lying around to own a p38.lol. And if you have that much why not buy a newer rangie :p

My 2000 DHSE ran 23 months without problems, true I replaced the suspension airbags as soon as I got it and the aircon condensor, since then I've replaced a height sensor, a window regulator and engine oil cooler pipes, not bad in 18,000 miles, cost less than £500 in total. Averaged 24mpg over that time (I keep a brim to brim record).
Now, at 103K the gearbox has failed. C'est la vie. It will be hard work changing it, but I have a spare. Even if I needed an exchange re-con from Ashfords it would only come in at around £800 or £1260 fitted. So my expenditure will still be less over 2 years that it was with my 2 year old Nissan Xtrail and the P38 is incomparably better:D
 
How long is a piece of string. For example I filled it up last night at a cost of £105, another week of short journeys in London traffic so she'd only covered 220 miles. You can cover 220 miles even in short journeys in a very short time. If you've never owned a proper gas guzzler it can be a shock to the system.

To be honest mine has never let me down (other than loosing sync with the becm) but to keep it up to scratch I have replaced 4x air springs £250, 3x blend motors £250, steering rotary coupler £120, becm resync tool £120, stereo amp £85 (£450 from a stealer) EAS kicker £120. None of that is routine stuff on most motors and if you couldn't do the work yourself there would be labour on top. And not forgetting the routine maintenance. If you want a P38 to stay in good order it will cost you, exactly how much is impossible to tell. But when its running right you'll drive it just for fun.

Basically you will not run a P38 on a shoe string, even if its the most reliable P38 in the world.

I filled my diesel the other day, scared me to death! I usually run on home made biodiesel but my processor is down at the moment. However, it will soon be back up and running and I can start enjoying my new car.

In terms of repairs and maintenance I think the P38 is an enthusiasts car, you have to be an enthusiast to keep in good order, if you dont - it'll cost you!
 
The deisel is not as slow as the petrol heads would like to think it is & its a lot quicker than the pajero I had. Good and regular servicing is the key. What to watch out for- anything that has a wire attached, if its electrical consider it dodgy. Make sure if it goes up and down, locks or sends a signal to warning lights that it works.
I think my 2.5 TD auto is great, and personally i think the deisel engine is better suited to the auto but others will probably tear me apart for that.
Happy hunting
Davie
 
The deisel is not as slow as the petrol heads would like to think it is & its a lot quicker than the pajero I had. Good and regular servicing is the key. What to watch out for- anything that has a wire attached, if its electrical consider it dodgy. Make sure if it goes up and down, locks or sends a signal to warning lights that it works.
I think my 2.5 TD auto is great, and personally i think the deisel engine is better suited to the auto but others will probably tear me apart for that.
Happy hunting
Davie

You are right, the diesel is much better suited to the auto. It has no real power below 2500 rpm so it is a pig pulling away in a manual, the torque converter masks the problem nicely. With a power box fitted it is certainly quick enough and as you say a lot quicker than a 2.8 Pajero and also more economical.
 
The deisel is not as slow as the petrol heads would like to think it is & its a lot quicker than the pajero I had.

I would have to agree with this. I cursed the other morning when a diesel P38 got in front of me right at the start of my journey to work, but I struggled to keep up with it and it didn't even look like he was trying!

No huge clouds of exhaust either. I was very impressed.

Guy
 
I would have to agree with this. I cursed the other morning when a diesel P38 got in front of me right at the start of my journey to work, but I struggled to keep up with it and it didn't even look like he was trying!

No huge clouds of exhaust either. I was very impressed.

Guy

They had obviously swapped the badges over:D:D
 
well 'v had both lpg and petrol, lpg in the long run costs far more, speaking from experience. Went thru 3 engines in 29,000 miles, replaced lpg injectors twice, had a prins system, then zavolli (really crap) and finally a dream system.Had nothing but trouble with lpg....Now got 2000 model dse, bought in november for 3.3, had a load of silly issues, ie wife snapped gearlever off (manual), had to drop gearbox to replace pin, then car would not start when hot, bought hotstart kit fitted, started doing weird things to idling, had main fuel pump re-time as 90 degrees?? out, now starts perfectly hot or cold, then clutch pins snapped, so replaced those and bunged in a new clutch.....considered selling but then test drove defender, discovery, landcruiser and they're truly horrible to drive after being in a p38.Buy range rover, it will cause lack of sleep from worry, but all is forgiven every time you drive them!!
 
Just got rid of my 2002 chassis P38 vogue 4.6, a truly fantastic truck, had no real problems except rebuilding the suspension pump @ 80k, no electrical issues what so ever! Loved it but not putting fuel in it at 16mpg average! Didnt want to LPG it so sold it after 3 years and 40k miles in it and now got a disco td5 03, what a pile of ****e but it's getting better everytime I get the spanners out! Soon be a good truck but will never go like the P38.
 
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