My Father in law is looking for a p38, probably an lpg'd 4.6.
Upto 5K budget, i don't have a scooby about this model. Any basic info that you can guide us in his quest to find something half decent would be appreciated. directions to said info, etc?

thank-you

RangeRovers.net has a massive amount of info on the petrol P38's 

Have a look at www.landyzone.co.uk. Their RR section is mainly P38 owners. I've never had a P38 but from reading they are plagued with more problems than the L322. Alot of the stuff on our cars were trailed on the P38. The V8 suffered from pourus blocks and were prone to HGF, slipped liners were the main problems. When the block was bourd out to 4.6 the gap between the cylinders became very thin and oftern cracked. Think this was the slipped liner issue but not 100%.
That can be fixed with top hat liners and think makes them pretty strong. The guy who does my work is a landy nut and he's got several P38's and his best advice was to get a deisel and one with as few toys and electronics as possible.
Hope it helps.

I've got a p38 4.6 on LPG and a L322 4.4 on LPG and although the p38 is a great vehicle (until you drive a L322!) the p38 is a nightmare to keep up together. Go for a L322 if you can - they're cheaper to run. 5.0 supercharged autobiography
Gone-4.4 Vogue Lpg now unmapped
4.6 HSET Turbo Lpg mapped
Gone-Defender 90 200tdi
Gone - 3.9 Sprintex supercharged LPG
Gone - 3.9 Vogue LPG

ians father only has a £5k budget so a l322 will cost to much..

My point is a my p38 costs on average about £400 a month in bills on a 20K mile year. Having said that this year it's only done 3000 miles and had a gearbox, a front prop, an airpump and head gaskets ...so cheap this year then!  5.0 supercharged autobiography
Gone-4.4 Vogue Lpg now unmapped
4.6 HSET Turbo Lpg mapped
Gone-Defender 90 200tdi
Gone - 3.9 Sprintex supercharged LPG
Gone - 3.9 Vogue LPG

Tidy one owner for the dosh ..
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/adv...?logcode=p

THATS A TIDY ONE
i dont know very much about the p38 but was told avoid the 4.6  "RANGEISM WILL NOT BE TOLERATED"
www.futuresecurityservices.co.uk
Pretlove says , '' I want my car back "

Jonno wrote:

My point is a my p38 costs on average about £400 a month in bills

You're doing it wrong!

The P38 is built far better than the L322 in actual fact, it's already rather obvious that the problems the L322 has (especially the early ones) are very significant problems.

As long as you leave the A/C on in a P38 so the BeCM doesn't start to rot then you won't get the electrical issues (funnily enough P38's in other climates where they are not too tight to leave the A/C on don't have electrical gremlins!)

The EAS can have problems when the bags start to perish - this is not a fault with the car though really. The EAS pump's wear out after 150,000 sooner if there is a leak in the system that has gone un-noticed.

The gearboxes are rock solid.

The engines are good AS LONG AS THEY DON'T OVERHEAT from lack of maintenance.

Unfortunately people buy them second hand and don't maintain them, they spring a small leak in the air bag so the thing drops overnight but they never get it fixed. Then the next thing to fail is the EAS pump. They never change the coolant so the radiator fills with gunk, next thing that happens is you overheat and blow a head gasket/drop a liner.

Every electrical data connection to the BeCM is double wired so if one wire is cut for example it will still function - there is massive redundancy built into the system. The car was light years ahead of its time and only now out of BMW ownership is the RR starting to move forwards again rather than using BMW tech from the 90's.

I had my 1996 P38 for 3+ years and spent less than £1000 in total keeping it going. That included some self inflicted issues. I think the most expensive repair was the gearbox oil cooler - £300.

My mum had a 2.5DSE and although was slow, it was solid and rarely had any issues.