Hello, I have a 1999 4.6 P38 Range Rover (Thor). I have owned it for a couple of months, but before that it has been owned by my parents for over 10 years. It has only done 46,000 miles and whilst it will not have been driven hard, it will not have been serviced every year. It could be a great car, but the reliability issues make it a big problem especially as my wife (and 3 you children) want to use it.
The reason my parents passed the vehicle to me was that it has become unreliable, with various electrical issues. Principally these were:
1. When driving the speedo and rev counter suddenly drop to nothing. This is an intermittent problem and they can stay down for a period or flash up and down. It may not happen on some journeys and then on others it happens all the time or may stay down for 10 minutes.
2. This is accompanied by warning beeps and messages for example windows/sunroof not set
3. Sometimes the car will not start(nothing happens). The battery is fine (see below) and usually after a few attempts it will suddenly start.
4. Probably separate, and not important to me but just in case related I mention that the clock loses time.
I am not very good with cars and do not have the confidence to do much work myself, but I am quite good at problem solving (sometimes?!) and I have trawled the forum and found it very useful and informative and because of this I have undertaken the following works:
1. I got a local specialist in RR electrical to come and have a look. He checked all earths. Sniffed the under bonnet fuse box, took out the becm and cleaned it with a toothbrush and wd40 (since then I think I have seen that this is frowned upon). He could not find anything specific. The problems continued and his advice was to replace the under bonnet fuse box and if that did not fix it the becm.
2. I took the car to a local Land Rover independent garage. They said there was air conditioning fluid in the under bonnet fuse box which they cleaned out. At the same time I got them to fit the recommended aphaline battery and to replace the pollen filters. Again the problems persisted.
3. I got a local car electrician to look at the car, he saw the faults happening and cleaned a few earths. He said he found a few pinched wires, but the problems remained. On one day the problems were very severe with a lot of heat in the under bonnet fuse box and relays clicking with many warning beeps and warning lights with the car not starting. I got him to replace the under bonnet fuse box (with new fuses and the old relays put back in). I also asked him to perform the electrical tests sticky suggests in this forum which he says were all fine (but I am not convinced and I am afraid that I have lost faith in his ability to fix the car after 4 visits and him having it for 3 weeks).
So this is where it is now, the same problems identified at the very start still occur intermittently. I may have wasted much time and money, but I still do not want to give up on the car, she could be great!
As I have said above I am not very good mechanically and I have spent a good deal of time on the forum and could not find the same symptoms elsewhere (I hope I have not missed it!). I am downloading the RAVE CD as i type
Please help?! Many thanks in advance
Giles
The reason my parents passed the vehicle to me was that it has become unreliable, with various electrical issues. Principally these were:
1. When driving the speedo and rev counter suddenly drop to nothing. This is an intermittent problem and they can stay down for a period or flash up and down. It may not happen on some journeys and then on others it happens all the time or may stay down for 10 minutes.
2. This is accompanied by warning beeps and messages for example windows/sunroof not set
3. Sometimes the car will not start(nothing happens). The battery is fine (see below) and usually after a few attempts it will suddenly start.
4. Probably separate, and not important to me but just in case related I mention that the clock loses time.
I am not very good with cars and do not have the confidence to do much work myself, but I am quite good at problem solving (sometimes?!) and I have trawled the forum and found it very useful and informative and because of this I have undertaken the following works:
1. I got a local specialist in RR electrical to come and have a look. He checked all earths. Sniffed the under bonnet fuse box, took out the becm and cleaned it with a toothbrush and wd40 (since then I think I have seen that this is frowned upon). He could not find anything specific. The problems continued and his advice was to replace the under bonnet fuse box and if that did not fix it the becm.
2. I took the car to a local Land Rover independent garage. They said there was air conditioning fluid in the under bonnet fuse box which they cleaned out. At the same time I got them to fit the recommended aphaline battery and to replace the pollen filters. Again the problems persisted.
3. I got a local car electrician to look at the car, he saw the faults happening and cleaned a few earths. He said he found a few pinched wires, but the problems remained. On one day the problems were very severe with a lot of heat in the under bonnet fuse box and relays clicking with many warning beeps and warning lights with the car not starting. I got him to replace the under bonnet fuse box (with new fuses and the old relays put back in). I also asked him to perform the electrical tests sticky suggests in this forum which he says were all fine (but I am not convinced and I am afraid that I have lost faith in his ability to fix the car after 4 visits and him having it for 3 weeks).
So this is where it is now, the same problems identified at the very start still occur intermittently. I may have wasted much time and money, but I still do not want to give up on the car, she could be great!
As I have said above I am not very good mechanically and I have spent a good deal of time on the forum and could not find the same symptoms elsewhere (I hope I have not missed it!). I am downloading the RAVE CD as i type
Please help?! Many thanks in advance
Giles
