[dhallworth]

Rather then having these scattered around the “What did you do today“ thread I thought I’d put them all in one place.

4th Jan

New toy arrived today. It was delivered to me as it had a misfire. I also didn’t fancy trailer it 250 miles and trying to cross into England when Wee Nippy it claiming she’s shut the border.

Welcome my new to me 2007 Range Rover Supercharged.

I spoke to the seller who said that his LR specialist had diagnosed a misfire on one cylinder but refused to work on the car due to it having LPG. The LPG specialist had told him that it would be valve seat recession and it would cost him 3-4 grand so the car was placed on eBay.

A deal was done that saw me purchasing the car for a third of the price of a running one, I paid £287 for it to be delivered and this afternoon had a rummage. I read the fault codes and found a misfire logged for cylinder 1. I whipped the covers off the coils and instantly saw the problem.

Whilst playing guess the fault on eBay last week I found a used coil for £10 that I thought might help diagnose the fault. Thankfully it was delivered on New Years Eve so it was promptly fitted and the car is purring on all 8 again.

I now have a very tidy Supercharged Range Rover and enough change from 3 grand for a night away and a nice meal.

I’m going to give it a full service now, rebuild the Supercharger, and de-pimp it before getting the paint corrected. Should be a decent enough winter bus.

David.

 

[dhallworth]

9th January 2021

Got a few bits looked at on the Supercharged RR today. When it’s cold there is a very slight miss which changing the plugs hasn’t cured so I’ve ordered 8 coils for it. There’s also an oil leak from the unit the filter mounts to. There’s a rubber seal between it and the block so I’ve ordered that. I’ve not found anything untoward or out of the ordinary other then effectively a major service and a few odds and sods.

I noticed that there was a leak from the water pump so took the fan and both belts off to get into the water pump. It’s the gasket between both halves of the pump that’s leaking but it’s not worth messing around with so I’m going to replace the whole unit.

The idlers and tensioners for both belts didn’t feel particularly nice either so I decided I’d replace them. I don’t like aftermarket parts as I’ve had bad experiences with them not lasting in the past. Genuine idlers are expensive for what they are too. Thankfully, all of the pulleys on this are metal so I pressed the bearings out today.

The bearings in both idlers and both tensioner pulleys are the same. They’re 6203-2RSH bearings. The numbers were visible on the original bearings along with NTN Canada manufacturer markings. A quick trip to the Bearing King website and I was able to order 4 SKF bearings, including delivery for less then 20 quid. They came out very easily using a socket and a vice so the new ones should go back in nicely enough.

Step 1 of de-chroming the car was completed today... the chrome mirror caps weren’t factory fitted thankfully so have come off and left the mirrors underneath intact! They just need a clean and some panel wipe to get rid of the sticky tape residue. Door handles and side tubes next!

 

[dhallworth]

10th January 2020

I managed to source a genuine set of standard side vents for the Range Rover today. That’s another step of the de-chroming process ticked off the list.

The seller wouldn’t post them but lives just around the corner from a friend of mine in Welwyn Garden City so they can sit with my Spires exhaust and Draco wheel until I can get down for them.

I also figured out why the door handles had chrome covers stuck on them today. When i prized the chrome covers off they were in a horrible condition.

Thankfully, they’d done an awful prep job before they painted them so after an hour with a plastic scraper and a screwdriver they’ve come up pretty well. They’re not perfect but they’re a damn site better then they were.

The coils and belts arrived today by DPD which was surprising with it being a Sunday. Just need the bearings to arrive now!

David.

 

[dhallworth]

13th January 2021

There’s been couriers arriving on and off most of the day today. That’s me got all of the bits for the Range Rover now. Mad to think there’s a grand in boxes on the bench!

I gave all the pulleys a clean and pressed the new bearings in this evening.

Started cleaning the mating face for the water pump but I’d forgotten to charge the torch so that will have to wait till tomorrow.

David.

 

[dhallworth]

15th January 2021

I went into the workshop this evening expecting to make some progress on the Range Rover. Unfortunately I had my arm twisted into fitting and balancing a set of Pirelli Scorpion Verde’s to my sisters Evoque.

I did manage to get the door handle covers from Powerful UK fitted though.

Before:

After:

They took seconds to fit and look great. You can tell they’re covers when you open the doors as you can just feel the lip on the back but seeing as you can’t paint these handles due to the high wax content of the plastic, they’re a quick, cost effective fix that really brightens up the look of the car.

 

[dhallworth]

16th January 2021

It's been a productive day today.

The new water pump is fitted with it's new gasket.

The new thermostat is fitted, unfortunately, someone has been in there before and as the old seal was flat they sealed it with instant gasket. I've scraped it all off, replaced the thermostat and have emailed the dealer who sponsor the Range Rover forum to order a new thermostat seal.

The new auxiliary belt and supercharger belt have been refitted with the pulleys after the new bearings were fitted.

All of the coils have been changed and I've done the Supercharger oil as well.

The old oil was pretty filthy coming out.

Old vs New

New oil going in.

Looking at the above, I'd like to change the oil in the Supercharger on my XFR but the plug is at the back and can't be done with the Supercharger in situ I don't believe

Once the thermostat seal has arrived I can get the cooling system filled back up and bled, then I can warm the engine up and change the engine oil and filter, and do the gearbox service as the oil needs warming up to do the level.

David.

 

[dhallworth]

23rd January 2021

The thermostat seal I’d been waiting on for the Range Rover arrived yesterday so I got that fitted and got the car running again today.

Running perfectly on all 8 again now with the occasional stumble. When it stumbles I can hear air hissing so I’m assuming I’ve got a vacuum leak. Had a quick look for the leak unaided then went for a tin of brake cleaner but couldn’t find it with that either.

Whilst thinking about the vacuum leak and whilst the car was warm I dropped the oil out and did the engine oil and filter. Gearbox is on the agenda for tomorrow.

Looked on Gumtree and found someone locally selling a disco fog machine with a gallon of fluid for £30 so tomorrow’s plan is now to run a hose from the fog machine to the air intake and see if I can spot where the smoke is escaping from.

The 4 bearings I fitted have worked a treat as the anciliaries at the front are whisper quiet now. The supercharger bearings are noisy though so trying to decide how far in to go before putting any miles on it.

David.

 

[dhallworth]

24th January 2021

Been a busy day on the Range Rover today...

First step today was to find my vacuum leak. With the help of the fog machine, it turned out to be the orings on the PCV valve. I could hear it in that general area so that’s been confirmed. I tried replacing the orings on it with some I had on the shelf and it’s better but not perfect so I’m going to order a PCV from LR tomorrow.

I used a rubber pipe from the nozzle on the fog machine to the inlet manifold. I took a rubber glove, cut the finger off it and taped it to the pipe and put the glove over the air intake. With the ignition on and the throttle wide open after a couple of squirts of fog I could see a small amount around the orings.

After the vacuum leak was found I moved onto servicing the gearbox.

 

[dhallworth]

24th January 2021

I drained the oil out and found it was very low on oil and the electrical sleeve was wet so it was due a good going over.

I started off with replacing the bridge adapter and the 4 rubber dowel like seals. The old ones were flat as a pancake and the new ones protrude nicely so that was a worthwhile change. The bridge adapter wasn’t as flat as I was expecting but it wasn’t as good as the new one.

I then turned my attention to the solenoids on the valve block. I’d put a plastic sheet down on the bench to keep the valve block clean but it served to catch the oil too which was helpful!

First step was to remove the electronics unit from the valve body.

The bar that holds the solenoids in place was then removed.

And then replacing the solenoids was a very straight forward job.

When I was removing the sump I thought it had been done before as it had the bigger T40 torx screws in it which I thought was a later thing but the date stamp on the sump was 2006 so it’s a long overdue service.

It took more oil then the 7 litres I had so I need to order another couple of litres from LR this week too.

David.

 

[richardxj]

Admire The hands On approach David . Are you a Mechanic ? I mucked about with bikes when younger and will do self servicing etc myself ,

 

[TheStig]

Good move on the dedicated thread. It would have been a shame to have this project lost in the clutter that is the WDYDT thread

 

[OBC John]

Makes me want to go out and find an old 5-litre, supercharged Range Rover seeing as they're so easy to maintain and repair.
Really though, I'm in awe of DIY skills like these.

 

[dhallworth]

Richard - I'm not a mechanic, I'm a computer networking engineer by profession. Cars and tinkering are just a hobby. My Dad, Brother and I share the same interests so we've gone a bit further then it being just a hobby really. We've got a 75ft x 30ft workshop with a 4 post ramp at the far end of it so it's perfect for doing projects like these.

John - I lusted after the 5.0 Supercharged Range Rover for a long time but couldn't find one that ticked all my boxes which is why I ended up buying the XFR. The 4.2 engine is much more reliable then the 5.0 from what I've read and it still makes a 2.5 ton truck shift

David.

 

[Rigger]

Really liking this thread.

You're nearly up there with Jordan for the pic

Jesting aside - looking forward to the updates.

hope it all comes good.

 

[dhallworth]

Having just spoken to Powerhouse Automotive about the noisy Supercharger, I think I'm going to send them the full unit. From listening to the video I sent him, he reckons that as my coupler is good it's likely to be the bearings in the screw pack that are gone. Apparently the gears in the M112 are slash cut gears meaning there is constant pressure pushing on the bearings and he reckons mine will be worn allowing the screws to move back and forth.

The bearings need to be machined out of the casing, replaced and TIG welded back in.

We've got a TIG welder but I don't really fancy doing it as if I get it wrong it means my charger casing is a write off. They don't have any prepared at the moment so I'm going to give them a call next week to have a chat with them and see what availability is like.

David.

 

[richardxj]

Thank you for replying David . Very envious off the huge workshop , please keep up the good work

 

[dhallworth]

Powerhouse don't have the rotor packs in stock and it's likely to be 3 weeks before they do again and patience isn't a strong suit of mine.

I've managed to find a used Supercharger with a 6 month warranty on it for £320 including delivery so that should be arriving tomorrow or Wednesday so I can hopefully get the car sorted and back together quicker.

David.

 

[dhallworth]

The bearings in the Supercharger definitely weren’t right on this car. I spoke to Powerhouse who reckoned it was the bearings that are cast into the case at the front. They can repair them but the lead time on the parts for this specific repair was 3-4 weeks.

I’m inpatient so I found a used Supercharger with a 6 month warranty on it so have bought that and if this one starts to get noisy I’ll have the other one rebuilt so there’s no down time for the car.

Last night I removed the old charger and when undoing the plug from the MAF sensor the smallest wire on the plug snapped as soon as I touched it.

I released the pin from the plug in the hope that I could open it up and replaced the tail on it but it was crimped so tight it wouldn’t budge.

I moved on and started to do the diff oils when I had a thought. Thanks to Spud for pointing out that this was the MAF. I Googled the part number on the sensor that the plug goes into and found that it was also common to the Mk 2 1.6 Petrol Ford Focus.

A quick call to a local scrap yard and I found out they had a Focus in stock. 30 mins later I was back at home with a plug and tails from the MAF sensor on the Focus.

I’ve removed one of the pins from the plug from the Focus and will add it to the plug on the Range Rover tomorrow and then solder the tail to the cars wiring loom.

I also got all of the diff oils done today. I ordered the oils from Land Rover directly as I wanted to be sure I was putting the right stuff in the right place. The oils I drained out were reasonably clean but the rear diff was overfilled. I reckon it’s been filled to the drain plug rather then having the specified amount of fluid put in it. Hopefully it’s not going to have done any damage.

In case anyone is interested, these are the correct fluids for the SC:

Rear Diff: (I think this is the same oil as the XFR rear diff)
(Interestingly, this is bottled and labelled Castrol but has JLR’s address on the back)

Front Diff:

Transfer Box Oil:

David.

 

[cutlea01]

BOT 720 is specified for electronic locking diffs. Is the rear diff locking on the Rangie? I doubt it'd hurt to use this oil on a non-locking diff, I believe it has friction modifiers in it for the friction plates.

 

[Ancill]

Dodged a bullet there, nice find on the broken wire