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Are Rangie P38a as bad as people are telling us?

Tech Talk for Rover owners.

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Are Rangie P38a as bad as people are telling us?

Post by amshaw »

G'Day,
Just thinking out load.....are the P38a ('95ish+) as bad as people say? :?

Why?....we have just been told to stay away from them because of to many Elec issue's and very very heavy on juice. :roll:

Anybody with real life experance with a P38a ? Please dont just tell me there a piece of crap.....please tell me why are they a piece of crap? :P
Andrew

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Post by RaginRover »

well,

I like them and I will own one soon all I can do is give you an impression of what owning them is/was like for my dad and one of my mates.

Amongst all this I would say - you need to buy a p38 4.0 SE - they seem to have less overheating dramas and warped heads than their 4.6 brothers.

The old boy had a 4.0SE with leather electric seats - had everything but the sunroof - I should have bought it !

I have answered a few threads before but here is the one where I typed it all up

http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/viewtopic ... hlight=p38

and anothery with some help from Hardy

http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/viewtopic ... hlight=p38
Tom
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Post by Laurie Griffiths »

I bought a '95 model HSE back in '97 it had approx 80,OOO K's on it when I got it and when I sold it in 2001 it had 240,000 K's.
During this time I did many trips to the high county, out through the back blocks of Broken Hill and I never had any serious problems.
The niggling problems I did have were a suspension failure with air bags, replaced with new ones and they were still fine when I got rid of it.
About a 3 months before I traded it in on my 100 series the air con went and I got a quote to fix it and it was in the vicinity of about $3,500 hence why I decided to trade it in.
As a 4wd it was very capable off road and a very comfortable tourer, unfortunately I think the cost of repairs are what has driven the prices down but if you have a Rover mechanic that you can rely on to get the parts at the right price then I think you could do a lot worse.
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Post by XR6T »

I'm looking at these cars now. I also started a thread asking about them not long ago.

The quote to get the aircon fixed is a bit off putting though.


Is there a certain age where the motos just die? It seems all the ones for sale on the net with more than 150,000 kms have had a motor re-build.
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Post by RaginRover »

XR6T wrote:I'm looking at these cars now. I also started a thread asking about them not long ago.

The quote to get the aircon fixed is a bit off putting though.


Is there a certain age where the motos just die? It seems all the ones for sale on the net with more than 150,000 kms have had a motor re-build.
Have seen them with 300,000K on them dad ran his up to 200,000K without any engine dramas, the 4.6s need to be cared for most of them that have been "rebuilt" have done so because they have been cooked

Tom
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Post by Hardy »

www.rangerovers.net

You decide...
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Post by RANUKI »

I have a 96 4.6 HSE, it is getting up around the 260,000 mark now and all that it has had replaced is the airbags, and they are not expensive if you shop around.

It has all the bells and whisles and not one electrical problem yet (touch wood). I think that buying a rangie is something you can not rush into, look around and know what you are getting. All rangies are the same as far as the love hate relationship goes, pay peanuts and you will get someone elses junk.

I love mine, it drives awsome and is always up to a bit of heavy footing when there is a rice burner around, gee I love that sports button....
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Post by Aquarangie »

From my limited experience with P38's they seem to be many variables, some are cpap, some are good and the rest fall in between. My old man has a 98 4.0 spec P38 and has about 185K on the clock. It's primarily a weekend Rangie and a 'shopping trolley' with the occasional beach and off-road trip but bar the suspension issues at times (there's an EAS fault ATM, pump is dodgy though) it's been trouble-free. The HVAC was replaced late last year at a lovely $2700 sum inc. labour is been the most costly repair to date.

I know several people with P38 Rangies in the club and thety seem to be reletivly hassle-free.

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Post by Reddo »

Interesting comments.

My thoughts are that they are not nearly as bad as people make out, and in many cases regular repair/maintenance bills that would be considered acceptable for Mitsu, Nissan and Yotas are for some reason deemed unacceptable for Rovers. Something about the Aussie psyche in relation to British products. Remeber the old slogan "buy British buy bad". A hark back to the convict times perhaps??

Now as an example, Pajeros are good reliable vehicles made in Japan (who we foought in the War) and have a very good reputation but at times and as they get older they invariably require some very expensive maintenance/repairs. Auto box and manual box problems are not uncommon at higher milages (the auto box is a copy of an earlier US product) and 4K to fix cannot be considered cheap. Likewise for cam belt replacement (1K every 100K) and other bits and pieces eg.,CV boots at a couple of hundred dollars, idler arms that flog out at 100K+, and so on.

So do your homework and look for a vehicle that has been reasonably well maintained otherwise no matter what the brand you'll be buying clapped-out rubbish.
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