Yeah, Ant told me he accidentally drove it into a post or a tree stump (cant remember which), which ****ed him off as it scratched the drivers door.
Which supports my belief that had he 'bashed' it in any manner that would have caused damage to the headlight, he would have told you
Sorry to hear you are having a mere of a time with the old bus.
The 'bash' was not onto a front corner, it was onto the drivers door as I turned through a gate to tight.....linky to the vid here:
the 'incident' is at around 10:25 into the vid...then I get out and swear at myself!!!
The steering issue sounds like a slipping belt, which could also cause the belt to slip on the alternator pulley reducing electrical production and the ECU's to store spurious faults....as your mechanic chap said - the engine runs and sounds fine....and you have said yourself it pulls like a fecking train.
Range Rover ownership is not for the faint of heart as we discussed, I owned her for 5 years and spent nearly 3 times my purchase price in that time (nigh on £22k on niggles, diagnostics (when the Allcomms didn't help), parts, suspension bags and ball joints, ABS ECU, LCM, Various wiring harnesses, etc etc etc).
But, also as discussed, with a young daughter and the costs associated with her, running the Range Rover was becoming more and more untenable to me and I had to draw a line.....
The headlamp issue, I had ongoing problems with the passenger side one as it would be fine for 6 months then play silly buggers for a couple of weeks then be fine again. I could be the ballast or the connections thereto as they can get damp and the connections corrode.
The indicator issue with it being loose I think is probably the missing plastic clamp nut as when I replaced the indicator bulb, I dropped it down into the depths and couldn't reach it, then forget to try and get it later on - it could still be down in the bowels of the front wing or fallen out by now.
She was off-roaded and been along Greenlanes - why own a Land Rover product and not do that??!! - so shows some battle scars, but she was never whacked or bashed into trees - just a stupid mistake scrapping along a fence post hidden in the brambles!
If you had misfires on 3 cylinders and a blocked cat - she would run like a pig, never accelerate (due to the back pressure of exhaust gases) and shake your teeth out....you can drop on cylinder on a V8 and never notice unless pushing hard - but 3 would make her run so lumpy and off balance - you would know it!