Not too bad really

Its good they picked up the centre bearing as I've had them go before on other vehicles without warning and it can basically strand you.

My MOT is due in April and on a spares or repair RRS bought in Nov I wonder what will come up

Fuel tank cradle and prop centre bearing? Completed it mate. I’m so glad the tank didn’t fall out with £130 worth of diesel in it on the Motorway bringing it home 😆 Centre bearing WAS NOT worth it, such a faff of a job, if you are needing to do this, get a whole prop 😅. MoT retest on Wednesday and it’s golden for 12 months 🙌

Nice 1

Thanks, it has its access height attitude on today ready to go! Also, not me being totally oblivious to the missing front towing eye cover and only just noticing and discovering how expensive it is!!! It’s payday on Friday so to celebrate its MoT pass it can look good from at least one angle with a fresh pair of foglight bezels, a towing eye cover and a fresh set of letters so everyone it clear that it’s a Range Rover.

Latest parts haul; quite confident the RRS hasn’t seen any new genuine service parts for some time. Call me old fashioned but I always use OE filters on the cars, WZU will be no exception.

The bonnet safety catch was also missing, oddly. I could spend £29 on one from eBay that looked like it had been sat at the bottom of a river for month or I could spend £27.55 on a brand new one from JLR Classic Parts delivered to the door. Easy decision.



V888 is due back in a couple of weeks as they’ve had it that long now so hopefully the final bit of proof will arrive shortly and the elusive first registration document will show its company history.

Tow eye arrived and fitted too! Front end is slowly becoming more complete. More soon.

Long time no update, but I have been busy.

The V888 came back and it confirmed what I already knew, it is a Land Rover registered car but it was interestingly registered to Fleet Admin, not Engineering, so more questions than answers really.





After that I dug into the non working front speakers. I had bad alignment on one door card so I removed all of them and swapped the front speakers to the rear, no joy. I noticed more handwritten notes on the back of the panels.





I also ordered a new bonnet script and fog light bezels ready for its first show with the CVC Register today.



Unfortunately my little one was too ill to come so I couldn’t justify leaving her at home to miss out on her first LR show and I couldn’t take one child without the other so I’ll try again in 2 weeks at the Gaydon LR Fest but here it is for now, way nicer than when I picked it up

It does look good and the devil is in the detail. It's funny how these things make a big difference. 2006 2.7 TDV6 HSE in Cairns Blue.

As my little friend is showing signs of recovery I decided to get out and complete some of the engine bay prep post the service. I used 5w40 ACEA B3/B4 oil in it as the famous 2.7 low oil pressure and slight death rattle on start up were present with the 5w30. It never has a lingering oil pressure light now and it is the recommended oil by PSA for the 2.7 Lion in their cars from new so I feel good. I know some will say ‘stick to the 5w30 only, it’s what LR say etc etc’ and that’s fine if it works for you, but the 5w40 makes more sense for me. It’ll be on a 3000 mile interval now and it’s a 19 year old 139k mile engine, not new anymore.

Also feel good about how clean it’s getting. To think I dragged this poor car away from its old home as a tip car, never having been washed or serviced in over a year at least.

Looking forward to getting it to its best by Gaydon. Or as well as it can be in 2 weeks!

Click image to enlarge

LOVING your work so far! well done!!

Satisfying isn't it

Quick update, the car has been to a couple of shows with the CVC Register and will be at LRO Belvoir in September if anyone wants to come and say Hi. I’ve been plugging away with parts searching and I finally found another 734 Giverny Green car being broken up and I bagged a pair of doors, bonnet and a few other bits to replace my panels that were honestly too far gone.

I always wondered what the odd marks were on the tops of the front wings of the Sport. Can safely say I know what they are now. Previous bonnet wasn’t only painted badly, looks like it was installed badly and the marks were from the last bonnet change. Annoying as they are quite bad but I’ll try and touch them in to be even less visible.

It may look the same in the pictures (worse perhaps, because the aftermarket RR script on the old bonnet was only a few months old) but this is much more like it and the script is the proper font and colour that you can’t buy anymore and the patina matches the rear script. The paint is better overall than the bonnet it came with despite the chips on the leading edge and it’s green all over with much cleaner sound deadening too. Has polished up really well a for breakers yard panel sold with the usual ‘needs a respray’ caveat. The fuel flap was bust, the press latch didn’t work so this is nice bonus, better than opening it with a screwdriver. Clear glass here we come, but if anyone wants a tinted o/s rear window I can supply you with a choice 🤪

Oh and yes, I changed the bonnet over myself, no help needed. Doors weigh about half a ton each though, so will need help for those!!

Next thing to do is to service the gearbox as I drained a smidge out to see the condition of the fluid and I’m now convinced someone has filled my gearbox up with Coca-Cola instead of ATF!! I’ll be using my leave next week to drain, swap the sump over for a metal one with removable filter and refill.

Have you considered having the gearbox flushed? The standard drain and refill method doesn't get all of the old oil out. I'd be tempted to flush it and then change the sump and filter if you're going that route. Uses a bit more oil, of course, but then you'll have a full fill of new oil. 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

Great update

RRSTDV8 wrote:

Have you considered having the gearbox flushed? The standard drain and refill method doesn't get all of the old oil out. I'd be tempted to flush it and then change the sump and filter if you're going that route. Uses a bit more oil, of course, but then you'll have a full fill of new oil.

Steel sumps are notorious for leaking

Plastic is a little more involved, but never leaks