A great thread and good to see a Range Rover being driven on unmade up roads and through water, just like they were designed to be! 👍

RobWheatley wrote:

Will see if I can pop along to it, is it all 4x4's, LR or Fatty's?

Is that the diner in northfleet high street? 2010 L322 3.6 TDV8 Vogue Stornaway Grey

Yes

I had loads planned today in addition to washing all 3 motors, but pain threshold was reached and then some, so the cars just got washed. All had a 3 stage clean, with a 2 stage foam wash. No energy to T-Cut or polish them, so after being dried, I had to call the day quits and rest. But happy that both Range Rovers have had a deep clean, finally getting to dust off the pressure washer.

Today Tank got a little attention in preparation for tomorrow. The inner sills had very light surface corrosion, luckily today my partner did this job as I had my operation yesterday morning, but first the corrosion was removed with a wire brush, then Kurust was painted on, left for over 4 hours to dry, then a coat of hammerite was painted on. this was only done as the brackets for the new sidesteps will cover up a big part of where the surface corrosion was from the previous side tubes.

So Monday I am taking over my parents drive so we can custom fit the new side steps. Knowing my luck, the customisation will fail

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Took a trip down to my parents yesterday. The brackets were altered and side steps fitted. I am not happy with how the new brackets sit, so I am sourcing some mild steel box tubing and will be going back down to my parents to further modify the brackets. There is just one section on each that hang too low, and when driving at motorway speed, make a bit of an annoying noise. But they make 1 hell of a difference for me for getting in and out of the car, and I love the look of them, even though they currently need a deep clean and polish. So the steps are a working progress.

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I have to say, I had a brilliant day today, learned lots of new things, built up more confidence for some of the jobs. Tank now has a new injector as injector 1 was beyond . Now starts first flick of the key no matter what temperature the engine or outside is. Also discovered that my EGR Cooler had not in fact split, but was not bolted up properly. This was done during the last owners time with the car, but the EGR Cooler is now blanked off, and there for the sake of looks only now, and WOW does my car motor along now, and the fuel economy has improved drastically. Only downfall with my car is, discovered the turbo cartridge has lots of play in it. So that is added to the list. Absolutely head of heals in love with Tank again.

Next job on the list though is building new brackets for the sidesteps so that I don't have anchors under my car anymore.

A huge thanks to Dartford Transmissions and its owner for looking after my car and I.

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That was lucky, number one is the easy one to change. Couldn't believe the difference the egr delete made to my td6.

Glad it's running well again.

I know. Absolutely shocked at the huge MPG increase just from 1 injector and a full EGR system delete as well as the performance on top of the remap.

I have not got a list of jobs to get on with next weekend.

The power steering is heavy and the fluid is manky, so not this weekend but the weekend after I am going to flush and change the PAS fluid, and get the inlet manifold off, give it a clean and replace the vacuum hoses that are hidden under it on the right hand side. I suspect that this will take the afternoon up as long as the weather is ok.

Monday I took Tank down to my parents, and between myself and my step dad, custom made sidestep brackets were made, sadly, the final bracket went a bit wrong as we were exhausted from 7 hours of working on the car and custom building each bracket, so another trip back will be needed in about 6 weeks as my step dad is having an operation on his shoulder this week.

But we have made them sit out about 2 inches further than before and heavily reduced the anchor sized down hang of the original brackets so no more humming or weird noises.

Just got to grind down the edges and the welds and then paint the brackets with hammerite spray paint before they are totally finished apart from the 1 bracket that needs extending a bit. But I know these welds are great as I was bouncing up and down on them and I am a heavy and they held perfectly.

The Cold Climate PAS fluid from Islands arrived yesterday as well, along with a new air filter and rear wiper blade, so next weeken, 1 day will involve flushing and filling the PAS fluid to resolve the heavy steering problem, and taking off the inlet manifold, cleaning it out, and fitting all the rest of the vacuum hoses and changing the air filter.

I am also looking at getting the 4 wheel alignment done ASAP as well as hopefully getting the dash pixels repaired soon.

I have find your story and read all sides, I love such working story’s , I have the same in Germany with my TD 6 and when I think the car ist ok , the next days come a new mistake or an accident , so my carstory will not end but I love the old Range , it’s a cool car and we have only british cars in our family .
So I will wait of your next posting and pictures

Best regards
Frank

Cheers Frank.

This beast is still going strong, but today after running around for everyone else, I was finishing the day off by doing 1 last little favour for my neighbour, was supposed to be fitted the tow ball in the westfalia receiver and towing his trailer up to Windsor to collect the seats that were on here free and on Ebay, but the tow hitch would not lock on, so ended up with him taking his Ford Fusion up with the trailer, and me feeling bad. Tomorrow I will be cleaning the receiver out and seeing if I can borrow his tow ball to try and get my tow bar working if I have time, as I am also going to be sorting the power steering, air filter, drivers sidestep and vacuum hoses out.

Met some lovely people today, and got more to help tomorrow, although they are coming to me tomorrow.

Sunday was fun day. Got stuck right in with getting some jobs ticked off the list. Lots of bad language, a few injuries, 1 part that lost the end cap to knows where.

The power steering was almost lorry heavy, a real workout to use. Found out why, 1. The power steering cooler had a thick layer of insects and crap on it. Cleaned this off and luckily the cooler looks great, and also a strange smell that we couldn't find before has now stopped, must have been the smell of fried insects
But the filter in the power steering fluid reservoir was also clogged along with the nastiest looking colour fluid that I flushed out. So cleaned the filter, flushed the system, took 2.5 litres of Ravenol total to flush and refill, and the steering suddenly became much lighter. Not as light as other TD6's I have driven and worked on, but it much lighter than it was, and a squeal from under the bonnet has now stopped, I guess the noise was contaminated PAS fluid until the engine warmed up and removed the condensation from the pas pump.

After this, I felt like I was on a roll, so moved on to a bigger job, FINALLY replaced all the vacuum hoses that were well hidden under the inlet manifold. That was a nightmare, the pipes were disintegrating faster than I could trace the damn things, but got it done. Cleaned out the manifold which was thick with crud. Must have left a little bit in it when I fitted it back on as we heard it fly through the system and through the turbo but while refitting the manifold, one of the orange caps on the end of the bolt that holds the manifold to the car by injector 1 vanished. I have done around 100 miles today, so assuming it didn't go down hole number 1 Also changed the air filter while we were at it.

Had to take the drivers side step off so I could make the brackets a little safer in case anything or someone should accidentally end up underneath as the brackets were razor sharp, and gave them 3 coats of hammerite, but ran out of time to get them back together and re-fitted to the car.

And the final job which was a PITA of a job, was the receiver on my towbar did not want to receive, My partner spent around an hour wire brushing and cleaning it out while keep trying to insert the towball I borrowed from my neighbour and finally the towbar became usable. As I needed it for today as I have got to tow a trailer for a little job. And of course, my personal trailer is still an ongoing project in the back garden So luckily my neighbour is letting me borrow his.

All in all 6 hours to do the above, It was a total PITA, but would I do it again, Absolutely, without a doubt, in a heart beat, my partner hates working on cars with me, but I loved it. Apart from driving byways, I couldn't think of much else more fun out of the bedroom to be doing

Here is the pictures from it all.

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Good job done there. Doesn't look like that has had much maintenance over its life.

Just as well it has you to take care of it.