P38 - how mad am I?

[cpas]

Hello there.
I am considering selling my very reliable 2005 Mundeno (!!) and buying a 10 year older P38 for about the same money (Diesel as I don't want the fuel bills of the V8!). Am I completely mad and an I letting myself in for some serious cash burning? I'm pretty handy with the spanners so won't be paying garage bills.

[rex]

Serious cash burning. I have had a classic LSE, P38 4.4 petrol, Disco 3 and Disco 4. Have also blown up a 2.5 diesel P38 owned by a friend.
Out of all of them the 2 P38's were the most cash intensive. The 2.5 diesel over 5 years and about 60,000 miles cost over 12K in service and repairs.
Don't do it.

[uk_vette]

Intensive open wallet surgery

[BLUETHUNDER]

Dont do it.Buy something else.

[edc]

If you can find a good one then you'll be ok. However, finding something good, espcially at the cheap end is not easy. Touch wood, ours has been ok. It had a slight leak to the oil cooler (seems to have stopped now); it's overheated twice due to pipe to expansion tank coming off (now clipped on properly!) and I haven't checked the RF receiver but suspect it is running an old version; new tyres, basic servicing and a new middle box and track rod end for MOT and all seems well ...

[Kevin VRs]

Another point to note is that the P38 diesels were rather slow and still consume a lot of fuel.

I am looking at the moment and much though I am into Range Rovers (had 3) I have come to the conclusion that for £6-10K a Jeep Grand Cherokee is a much better bet. This will be until I have saved up for a RRS.

[GKP]

Depends on the car you buy. If you end up with one needing lots of the ususal items replacing it will be an expensive ownership. If however, you buy one where all the regular issues are sorted it will be fine for many years.

[edc]

Diesel - yes very slow. 22mpg in stop/start commute, never gets above 50mph. High 20's or low 30's on a motorway run at 65-75mph.

[cpas]

Thanks for your replies - I think that's helped me make up my mind!
Sounds like I should stick to Plan A then and look for a Disco.
I'm hoping to sell the Fffford for about £4k and spend about £3k on a replacement.
I occasionally need to tow a large trailer (a white one with Avondale written on the back !!!) and have been told that the TD5 Disco isn't really up to it unless chipped.
I'm not too worried about fuel consumption as long as I can average 25mpg.
I know the workings of a 300TDi much better than the P38 but fancied a change.
We sold a 50th Aniversary Disco 3 years ago and now wish we'd kept it .
If I do ignore all the good advice (ha ha ha), what's likely to go wrong apart from the air suspension and glow plugs?
I would really like another Landy as I am a member of a local club and do a lot of shows.

[edc]

Have a look on rangerovers.net but reading around since picking up our P38 reveals:
- HEVAC aircon system
- air suspension (on coil springs)
- alarm related problems (often down to RF receiver)
- overheating apparently ( I suspect this is down to poor maintenance rather than any inherent fault)
- hot start problems (not encountered, but 'fix' is apparently readily available)

[cpas]

edc said:

Have a look on rangerovers.net but reading around since picking up our P38 reveals:
- HEVAC aircon system
- air suspension (on coil springs)
- alarm related problems (often down to RF receiver)
- overheating apparently ( I suspect this is down to poor maintenance rather than any inherent fault)
- hot start problems (not encountered, but 'fix' is apparently readily available)

Cheers for that.
I was going ot allow a £400 contingency for converting to coils and make sure that everything else electrical works. Most overheating problems can be cured bu a good flushout so that shouln't be too much of a problem I think all Landys suffer with alarm problems.
I'm still tempted because it wouild fit me and the family in so well (I'm 6'4" and the P38 seems to have loads of leg room behind the seat when fully back).

[Kevin VRs]

I mentioned it earlier but will again. For that money you are far better off buying a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Much faster and more economical, can tow the same amount. Fairly bullet-proof mechanicals (2.7TDi from Mercedes).

[edc]

cpas said:

edc said:

Have a look on rangerovers.net but reading around since picking up our P38 reveals:
- HEVAC aircon system
- air suspension (on coil springs)
- alarm related problems (often down to RF receiver)
- overheating apparently ( I suspect this is down to poor maintenance rather than any inherent fault)
- hot start problems (not encountered, but 'fix' is apparently readily available)

Cheers for that.
I was going ot allow a £400 contingency for converting to coils and make sure that everything else electrical works. Most overheating problems can be cured bu a good flushout so that shouln't be too much of a problem I think all Landys suffer with alarm problems.
I'm still tempted because it wouild fit me and the family in so well (I'm 6'4" and the P38 seems to have loads of leg room behind the seat when fully back).

Heated seats also go as the element cracks - not too bothered about that personally.

If you know your way round a motor and do your homework before you get out there then you might be ok. I'd probably be tempted to go for one that has high miles and good history rather than a 'minter' which may have been off the road for ages with problems.

Bought ours late last year with 173k on the clock and done 10k in circa 7 months.

When it did overheat I did a quick coolant change and rad flush which couldn't be any easier as you don't even need to jack up the car.

[plasticpig]

edc said:

Have a look on rangerovers.net but reading around since picking up our P38 reveals:
- HEVAC aircon system
- air suspension (on coil springs)
- alarm related problems (often down to RF receiver)
- overheating apparently ( I suspect this is down to poor maintenance rather than any inherent fault)
- hot start problems (not encountered, but 'fix' is apparently readily available)

There is a fix for the RF receiver. LR produced a new one at the end of production that is far less sensitive.

Having driven a couple diseasel's I would never buy one because they seem too underpowered. A V8 with a decent multipoint under body LPG system will be just a economical.

[RedLeicester]

Saving pennies and buying the diesel? FFS do your sums again and get a V8.

[edc]

RF receiver - part numbers available on rr.net

V8 lpg - worth while consideration but don't know enough about them to recommend per se.

V8 - come with their own issues, again overheating seems to be a common complaint.

Price-wise there isn't that much difference. Assuming the price gap between diesel and petrol remains roughly the same then depending on your annual mileage diesel like with any other car needs to be considered. I the performance is lacking then a diesel-box is worth looking at.

[agent006]

I find most of the P38 DSEs are horribly maintained and mostly complete sheds. Oddly the TD5 ES Discos of the same price range (4-6k) seem to be far better looked after.

Air suspension is very simple to maintain and should be the least of your worries when buying a P38. I'd love another one but I just can't face the possible problems. A DSE will avoid the problems of the V8 porous block but has its own issues with flywheel and isn't immune from grenading itself. It's also barely 140BHP in a 2+tonne car.

[alchilds69]

no dont do it, i had 99 p38 dse, very well maitained and serviced only on 75k miles, it was very slow but once chipped it went very well. but! it caused tons of overheating issues and eventually ended craking the cylinder head. other than overheating 4 times on the m25 it was a great car. get td5 disco instead or strech to a later shape rangerover.

[cpas]

OK, point taken!!! So I should buy a Disco. I've had a real late 300 TDi before and loved it - and should never have sold it!! I know the 300TDi pretty well but not the TD5. Does the TD5 have an array of ECUs waiting to go wrong like the P38? Apart from air suspension and oil seeping into the engine wiring harness, what else is likely to go wrong with an early TD5? I'm probably looking at a budget or ad £5k to £6k (or £3k for a late 300TDi).

[RedLeicester]

Nappler said:

Don't buy an L322 either!, I've had mine 2 weeks and it's already cost over £1000 and that's not including petrol!.

Had mine for 3 years and 50k, and not a thing went wrong with it...