Hi all,

I bought a P38 a few weeks ago and thought I'd post up about it. I looked at a few before buying this one as most of the cars out there are pretty much knackered. It's just a weekend toy to be honest and something to tinker with.

It's a 1998 4.0 SE with 81,000 miles on the clock. It's got a good service history, both sets of keys and no advisories on the last MOT (which I always think is a good sign). Bodywork and interior are very good for the age.

Since buying the car I've cleaned and re-dyed the interior seats and steering wheel, etc (pic below). 14 years of use tends to make cream leather pretty dirty! I've also removed the tints off the front two windows as it made the car look a bit 'eastern european gangster' imo.

As usual, it does have a few electrical 'issues'.....

1) Exterior temp sensor - takes a few minutes to start registering a temperature on the HEVAC panel after you start the car so you have to wait a bit for the AC to kick in. I'm ordering a new sensor for this.

2) Air distribution servo/blend motor - luckily its stuck blowing out the demist vents and side fascia vents but I'm going to follow the guide on rangerovers.net to replace it.

3) First night at home I checked to see if the RF receiver for the central locking is waking up and sure enough it was. I've disconnected the aerial for the time being (can still open doors using the key or using the blipper by the rear windows).

4) New passenger door latch needed as you need to lock it from the inside. Minor annoyance really.

I only paid 2k for the car so I'm pretty chuffed (well until something falls off or it overheats, etc! )



Here's the interior. Ignore the tape round the steering wheel, that was to mask it up during the dye process. I used a scuffmaster kit from gliptone which I've used many times in the past on other cars.

Welcome don't forget to post problems with your car in the dedicated range rover section

And it take a thick skin in anything goes good luck

Hi ,, ive bought the same jeep 99 2.5 dse tho same colour and same interior , i love the job you have done with the leather looks great, did u dye the gear sellect and handbrake cover to ?

my hvac heating has the same problem stuck blowing on window luckily have you tried the repair job yet ? i was looking at doing it myself but looks like a big job removal of dash etc ?

looks good

99rangie said:

Hi ,, ive bought the same jeep 99 2.5 dse tho same colour and same interior , i love the job you have done with the leather looks great, did u dye the gear sellect and handbrake cover to ?

my hvac heating has the same problem stuck blowing on window luckily have you tried the repair job yet ? i was looking at doing it myself but looks like a big job removal of dash etc ?

Click to expand...

Yes, I dyed the cream door pulls, steering wheel, gear knob, handbrake and some parts of the seats.

I started cleaning first using the gliptone leather cleaner and a nail brush. It's not a harsh cleaner so wasn't really up to the job. So to finish the cleaning I used one of those magic erasers you can buy from Robert Dyas. I've seen them used on detailing forums before and the results are impressive. You do need to be careful though as they are slightly abrasive and it's certainly something you would only want to do to the seats once. I attached a pic below taken part way through cleaning one of the rear seats. I left one of the leather 'strips' dirty so you can see the difference.

Once the seats are clean you can simply dab the dye on the areas that need it. The colour match is perfect (lightstone is the colour for mine). Some parts might need a couple of coats. I tend to leave it 24 hours and then use the gliptone conditioner. It's a very easy job to do to be honest. Luckily my seats were just dirty and not cracked.

As far as replacing the distribution servo, I'm going to it myself without removing the dash using the instructions on rangerovers.net and it looks quite straightforward. I don't mind getting stuck in to jobs like this, I've owned TVRs, etc in the past so it's no bother really. It's certainly not something you'd want to pay a garage to do as I can imagine it would cost hundreds in labour!

Ha ha - just look at the difference between this and the Defender threads. This one's all about upholstery and electronics. If you look at the Defender ones they're all about blown head gaskets, broken half shafts and oil leaks. It's a different world among Range Rover fanciers.

Welcome anyway.

Brown said:

Ha ha - just look at the difference between this and the Defender threads. This one's all about upholstery and electronics. If you look at the Defender ones they're all about blown head gaskets, broken half shafts and oil leaks. It's a different world among Range Rover fanciers.

Welcome anyway.

Click to expand...

Being that iv had both the defender will out live range rover three fold

And yes lots of broken bits,but how often do you go rock climbing, swamp, river crossing ect ect in your pristine range rover now back to reality !