The Range Rover 4.6 HSE P38 Thor engine page

This section of my website is dedicated for information regarding my few unhappy
that I have experienced with my Range Rover P38 ano 1999.

I must say that I have not experienced many faults or problems with the engine during my time with the Range Rover P38 however just recently and at a inconvenient place and time it suddenly died and refused to start when it got warmed up.

It was wintertime and I was visiting my cabin in the Swedish mountains about 350km away from nearest authorized Land Rover workshop (a fairly remote location).

Luckily I had my Faultmate MSV-2 with me so I thought that ´I just hook it up and take a look at the fault log and order the faulty part´ ehh....... I thought, I checked every possible cause with the help of the Faultmate but it kept telling me that nothing was wrong.

Never the less the engine just died after about 5-15minutes after starting it (depending on outside temperature) and then refused to start for up to 2 hours.

Without having any idea of what it could be I started to read the RAV manual and found out that one of the sensors (I believe the only one) that wouldn't put the vehicle in link back mode in case of a failure and simply make it impossible to start was the crank angle position sensor.

However my P38 didn't exactly completely refuse to start it just did so when warmed up (not hot but warmed up), so I started to read some Land Rover forums to get some hands on experience inputs.

I now took the forum and RAV knowledge and put it in the mixer out of the mixer came some suspected components that I now sorted in to a ranking list for possible causes this is the list.

 

1. Crank angle position sensor
2. Idle control valve
3. Engine temp sensor
4. MAF (Mass Air Flow sensor)

 

Since my troubleshooting so far hadn't given any result I decided that it was time for shoot gun trouble shooting so I ordered a crank angle position sensor the #1 of my ranking list and crossed my fingers.

After a few days of skiing the sensor arrived (with my brother) and it was time for the verdict of my T/S "skills".

After some time and quite a few ugly words I found out that the best way to get to the connector for the crank angle position sensor was to remove the left hand wheel and plastic wheel arc, and even then I still wished that I had longer arms.

Finally the sensor was changed and the black pearl was put together again and it was finally ready for a test run. Engine started......and.............5minutes......10min....15min...and a....test drive for 30min idling perfect, I stoped the engine restarted it without any signs of problems can I trust it ehh...

I decided to trust my instinct and to make my diagnose positive, the patient was cured :0)

The conclusion is that even thought a diagnostic tool can and have the capability to log and report a faulty sensor it doesn't always do!

I might have been able to pinpoint and confirm that the Crank sensor was broken by using a frequency meter or a oscilloscope but I had none of those tools available at my cabin at the time of breakdown.

P38 Thor engine, Crank angle possition sensor Part number info.

Sensor, crankshaft pulse sensor for Land Rover Discovery, Range Rover
BOSCH Part Number: 0 261 210 158
Land Rover Part Number   : ERR 7354

Data: Resistance: 0,86 kOhm, Cable Length: 211 mm

    Range Rover P38

    Model 3.9
    kW 140
    HP 190
    cc 3947
    Engine Code 42 D
    Built from -> to07.1994 -> 03.2002

    Model 4.0
    kW 136
    HP 185
    cc 3950
    
    Built from 06.1998 -> 03.2002

    Model 4.6
    kW 160
    HP 218
    cc 4554
    Engine Code 60 D
    Built from 06.1998 -> 03.2002

    Model 4.6
    kW 165
    HP 224
    cc 4553
    Engine Code 46 D
    Built from 07.1994 -> 03.2002

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