Feared for its electrics, loved for its comfort. What to check on a P38 before it becomes a very heavy garden ornament.
The P38 is the Range Rover everyone warns you about, and half of them are wrong. Feared for its electrics and loved for its comfort, it is now cheap enough to be tempting and old enough to be brave. Buy a good one and it is one of the great long-distance cars; buy a tired one on price alone and it will teach you humility. Here is what actually matters on a viewing.
The 2.5 DSE diesel is the BMW-sourced straight-six: economical and willing, but it hates overheating and a neglected one can crack a head. The 4.0 and 4.6 V8s are smooth and cheap to buy but thirsty, and the later Thor engines are more robust than the early GEMS. On any V8, ask about the cylinder liners — slipped liners are the expensive V8 story and worth a compression test to rule out.
The horror stories nearly all trace to three things: the BeCM body computer and its battery-drain quirks, the EAS air suspension, and the key fobs and immobiliser. None is unfixable, and a specialist with a Nanocom can talk to the car properly. A P38 that has been kept on a good battery and serviced by someone who understands it is far less frightening than its reputation.
Arrive to a cold car and watch it start and settle: the suspension should rise to normal height and hold, the temperature gauge should sit rock-steady, and no warning should linger once it is running. Pull every service record you can, look hard underneath for corrosion, and treat a full history as worth more than low mileage. A cheap P38 with no paperwork is rarely cheap for long.
A Nanocom (or a specialist who owns one) is the single best tool for buying a P38 — it reads the BeCM and EAS faults a test drive will never show you. Budget for one before the car, not after.
There are no cheap P38s — only ones where someone else has already paid, or ones where you are about to.
Ivan Petrov · Master Technician
Book it into the Ram Parts workshop, or order the parts and do it yourself — either way you get the same advice.
