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New to RR and I have some kind of problems

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3K views 17 replies 6 participants last post by  jarhed123 
#1 ·
I have been looking about the sight for a couple of weeks now, and here is my first post. Unfortunately I don’t have good news. My wife fell in love with a 2001 Range Rover 4.6 HSE and bought it. I am mechanically inclined, but my specialty are Fox Mustangs and classic V-dubs. This is our first Rover and it has started out with problems.

When she was buying the RR it turned off once while idling, but she was easily able to turn it back on and eventually drove it 125 miles back home. During the last two weeks I have replaced the water pump, AC relay and charge the AC.

Our RR’s EAS system has been replaced with coils and I have a SLOW 35MAX SPEED message on the speedometer. How can I get this off from the display?

On the center display where the AC controls are, there is the simble of an open book showing. What is this all about?

Lastly, yesterday as I was driving the RR turned off on me as I was changing lanes to pass another car. I put on my left turn signal and pressed the gas and the RR just turned off. It was so unexpected that I did not immediately realize it had shut off. I was able to park the RR and noticed that none of my electronics in the RR where working. I made an attempt to start the RR but it did not turn on. The starter was turning and the horn was working but nothing. After approximately 20 minutes, the RR turn on and everything has been working fine. Once I got home I checked the battery and the alternator, but both are working fine.

I drove the RR today and I haven’t have any trouble, but it is in the back of my mind that it could turn off again. My friend tells me that the RR might have a system that will turn the vehicle off it were low on coolant. Is this true? The coolant level is as it should be now.

Any help will be greatly appreciated and I am looking to enjoy my wife’s choice in vehicle as much as I enjoy my own.
 
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#2 ·
Our RR’s EAS system has been replaced with coils and I have a SLOW 35MAX SPEED message on the speedometer. How can I get this off from the display?
You need this:- http://www.ebay.com/itm/Range-Rover...icles_CarParts_SM&hash=item2ecf9e1c77&vxp=mtr

On the center display where the AC controls are, there is the simble of an open book showing. What is this all about?
That's the very worst part of the Rangie- even more trouble than the EAS system. It means something's wrong with your HEVAC system and could be anything from jammed blend flaps, dead blend flap servos to a warped heater/cooling coil box.

No choice but to poke a diagnostic computer into the car, read off the error message (which'll say something that makes no sense like "The tortoise is wise but he cannot swim") and take it from there, eliminating possibilities as you go along. Most commonly the servos have failed and you'll need to replace them but as they cost a bomb and require pretty much the entire dashboard to be removed before you can even get to the old ones, I suggest trying to divine what the error code that's throwing up the "chequebook" symbol is.

Lastly, yesterday as I was driving the RR turned off on me as I was changing lanes to pass another car. I put on my left turn signal and pressed the gas and the RR just turned off. It was so unexpected that I did not immediately realize it had shut off. I was able to park the RR and noticed that none of my electronics in the RR where working. I made an attempt to start the RR but it did not turn on. The starter was turning and the horn was working but nothing. After approximately 20 minutes, the RR turn on and everything has been working fine. Once I got home I checked the battery and the alternator, but both are working fine.

I drove the RR today and I haven’t have any trouble, but it is in the back of my mind that it could turn off again. My friend tells me that the RR might have a system that will turn the vehicle off it were low on coolant. Is this true? The coolant level is as it should be now.
Can't help you here as mine's a DSE which thankfully has none of the v8 engine's *ahem* idiosyncrasies. Maybe someone else who has been through this will be along in a moment with better advice.

Good luck.... and welcome to the joys of P38 ownership!

`)
 
#10 ·
I want to thank all of you for all of the advise and knowledge you have filled me with. Because I am a car guy, I enjoy reading all about the mess I am getting myself into. Today the wife and I drove to my friend's shop that is an hour from my home so he could put the computer to the RR. The RR did not turn off the entire way. The good news is there are no major codes being sent my way. He did tell me the that the "checkbook" could be reset but it would just turn back on before I hit the road. He also said it could just be a flap or something I wont miss. All the heating and cooling is working fine so I will just learn to ignore that "checkbook" signal. DarthDude was right:
It means something's wrong with your HEVAC system and could be anything from jammed blend flaps, dead blend flap servos to a warped heater/cooling coil box.

No choice but to poke a diagnostic computer into the car, read off the error message (which'll say something that makes no sense like "The tortoise is wise but he cannot swim")
On the way back home the RR turned off on me and would not start so I slapped the fuse box three times and the RR started right up. No more turning off as of yet. The only problem now is that the speedometer stopped working after the last loss of power.

Guess I will go buy me a new fuse box and install it on the weekend. Ill try to figure out the speedometer later, It must me a loss of power to it.

I'm glad to have found this sight and thankful for all of your help with the P38.
 
#6 ·
If the AC has been recharged and is working then the book symbol is almost certainly due to a sticky blend motor. It will come on if the system detects a fault which in most cases is either low pressure or a blend motor. How to diagnose a blend motor problem and repair it is here http://www.rangerovers.net/repairdetails/blendmotor.html. Don't believe all the scare stories, I set aside a day to do the first one on mine and had it finished in 55 minutes. Same goes for the fusebox repair, dead easy if you can use a soldering iron. If either of these jobs are beyond you, it will cost you a lot of money, if not then you will not only have a car that works as it should but the satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself.
 
#7 ·
Chequebook symbol will also come on if any of the 4 temperature sensors don't report a plausible value.

I've had it on mine before because the heater core temp sensor was intermittent. (coolant damage from leaky heater core when I got it)..

It could also be blend motors, or a blend motor fault because the flaps themselves are sticking and if the HEVAC doesn't see a change in blend motor position (be it stuck flap causing motor to stall, or faulty motor) within I think 5 seconds, then it throws the book symbol, logs an error and won't try to use that motor again until the ignition is cycled.

It could also throw an error if it doesn't detect a return voltage from the blower motors (so it knows what speed they're running at) which as mentioned could be due to a faulty fuse box/fried relay that supplies power to the blower motors

Random stopping and almost complete electrical failure to me says underbonnet fuse box. They are known to have issues and fail in some form or another, so I would start there.

Also as mentioned, diagnostics is the best way of telling what's wrong in the HEVAC. I usually connect up to it, and clear all the faults that are logged, then fiddle with the HEVAC until the book comes up again, and then re-read the faults to see what's triggered it... Then it beats trying to decipher some of the fault codes as sometimes it seems to log random faults (like saying a blend motor is both short circuit and open circuit at the same time...

Marty
 
#8 ·
Oh yes and there's no need to spend a stupid amount of money on a few bits of wire to get rid of the SLOW 35MPH MAX display either. There's a bodge you can do by linking some pins in the plug that goes to the EAS ECU that gets rid of it. A link has been posted to it quite recently but I'm afraid I disapprove of coil conversions so much you're going to have to search for it yourself, I'm not going to help in this case ;)
 
G
#9 ·
I too think a P38 should be on air, but am a bit less rigid as Gilbert ;-)

here is a simple solution to get rid of the 35miles per hour message:

Getting Rid of EAS Fault Messages
If you convert to coil springs, the EAS system will get confused and constantly issue "EAS Fault" messages accompanied by annoying beeps. The different conversion kits have different methods of dealing with this problem, using proprietary electronic workarounds that fool the BeCM into thinking everything is fine. If your kit does not address this problem, or you do your own conversion, you can use the following home-grown method discovered by Dennis Altman. To clear the "EAS Fault, slow 35mph max" warning from the dash, put two jumpers on the connector to the ECU, one from pin 7 to pin 18 (ground ) and the other from pin 25 to pin 1 (+12v). (Note: As alert reader Robert Seccomb points out, the jumpers go on the back of the connector, under the shield, and the connector remains attached to the ECU). When you start up you will get a soft beep and short "EAS manual" message, then normal message center operation will resume. (This also work whenever you have the ECU disconnected - eg when in hard fault, waiting to get a reset and using manual operation).
see: http://www.rangerovers.net/rrupgrades/suspension/coilconv4.html

remove the trim around the seatbase of the left seat
remove big connector on EAS controller unit
remove cap from connector (little screw)
take two pieces of electrical wire with both ends stripped for about 5-10mm
make the connections (1 to 25 7 to 18) by sticking the stripped wire along the terminal in the connector
replace cap over connector en reconnect to ECU.
replace trim over seatbase
ready.




 
#12 ·
I too think a P38 should be on air, but am a bit less rigid as Gilbert ;-)

here is a simple solution to get rid of the 35miles per hour message:



see: http://www.rangerovers.net/rrupgrades/suspension/coilconv4.html

remove the trim around the seatbase of the left seat
remove big connector on EAS controller unit
remove cap from connector (little screw)
take two pieces of electrical wire with both ends stripped for about 5-10mm
make the connections (1 to 25 7 to 18) by sticking the stripped wire along the terminal in the connector
replace cap over connector en reconnect to ECU.
replace trim over seatbase
ready.




GOSH!! Is that all it is? Hoboy... I know a lot of ex-P38 owners who'd converted to coils during their tenures who'd be KICKING themselves if they knew that!

Wow! Well there ya go. Guess I'm going to bed tonight knowing a little more than when I got out of it this morning.


Because I am a car guy, I enjoy reading all about the mess I am getting myself into



God bless you, jarhed123...... for what it's worth I think that's EXACTLY the mindset for a P38 owner. Just keep laughing and smiling your way through all the craziness this car will put you through in the months and years ahead and you'll be fine. It's been 9 years for me and for all my wingeing and whining and threatening to roll it off a cliff, truth be told it'll probably be with me a good few more years.


Good luck, mate!
 
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