Thank you. Thank you, Thank you

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GFour
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Thank you. Thank you, Thank you

Post by GFour » Thu Jul 19, 2012 12:35 am

A big thanks to all on here, for the advice and friendship freely given and for all the posts of best wishes.

A special thanks goes to many including Non Stick Nick for the loan of the sand plates/ladders, Gary at GNVP for the rods and tea and Jurie W for making the the time to make so much good sense, also Bodsy, Andy and others.

The launch event went better than I could have hoped.
It was supposed to be the off today, but due to the replacement of the EPB module and the fact that it too all day for the new to arrive and the required removal of the auxiliary fuel tank etc theres been a small delay in the off till Monday. But I'm glad to say Tango was back on the road tonight looking and feeling good and ready.

Now apart from getting a pair of 50mm waffle boards I am all set and all I need now to do is to look forward to meeting fellow International Disco and Land Rover enthusiasts around the world who may even want to join me to share and /or show a trail or two.

Best wishes

Julian

http://www.sports-trek.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



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Bodsy
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Re: Thank you. Thank you, Thank you

Post by Bodsy » Thu Jul 19, 2012 2:08 am

Ive got a pair of 50mm waffe boards here, not sure if theyd get to you ontime now though....

Let me know ASAP if you want them and how we might get them to you. :thumbright:
Ive got Scout Camp from saturday for the week. so need to get it done thursday or friday. :thumbright:


Check http://tinyurl.com/brakebible
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GFour
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Re: Thank you. Thank you, Thank you

Post by GFour » Sat Jul 21, 2012 7:18 am

Hi Bodsy, I did PM you, But no problem, maybe next time. Must catch up when I get back.



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Re: Thank you. Thank you, Thank you

Post by countrywide » Fri Jul 27, 2012 6:34 am

How is the trip going



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GFour
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Update

Post by GFour » Thu Sep 20, 2012 7:06 am

Hey!

I'm now in China and have been meaning to catch up with the forum for sometime now.

I finally managed to leave from London and to get away 2 weeks later than hoped on 26th July, and I'm pleased to say all is good. :D

Internet has not been readily available and to be frank I'd rather be out there doing and enjoying the journey than worrying about internet etc too much. But I wanted to update you on a few things. Obviously as you can see from the website, blog and Facebook and twitter that I made it all the way across to Vladivostok some 9000 miles, but not without "D3" issues.
(see http://www.sports-trek.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; with links there to the Blog and Facebook)

The travelling has been great and all helped along the way with waves and honks of appreciation from drivers, pedestrians and 4x4 owners. And the driving in Russia is actually not so bad once you get over the shock of the state of the roads and some of the crazy driving, lack of road signs etc . But I think it helps to be a little bigger and bright orange and when I got it wrong, most were pretty forgiving. I was only stopped by police 3 times and each experience was good and no hint of corruption etc Borders too were good but just take forever and I'd say that most were helpful and never went into any degree of searching or difficult questions.

So about the issues..
First was before I left home - I had a full on EPB failure, which cost me loads. I was lucky that Brit Part have come on board with the project and Richard Pigg has been very helpful.
But I had a fairly well known independent expert come to fix it, service the car and give it a once over before I left. He was obviously very knowledgeable and showed me tips and even how to remove the alternator.
I had also taken the time to research D3 issues and learn some mechanics on here and the other disco forums.

But it was only the first day and 500 miles in to the journey that it so very nearly all ended in tears. Having got to the fast autobahns of Germany I noticed a squealing fan belt just a few miles from my first stop. It was dark so I decided to continue and look at it in the morning. If you haven't already seen my blog and pics thereon you will the full story there on how the alternator fell off!!!

http://sportstrek.blogspot.hk/2012_08_01_archive.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm still waiting for a response from my expert on this as I think he should bear the responsibility. (What do you think?)

So after this all was good I made it through to Siberia and in Mongolia I decided to get adventurous and stray into the wilds of Altay Mountains, afterall thats why I was there.
I was on top of a mountain in the snow line about 3000m up when I had just traversed a snowy slope and lost traction as I scrambled to get to the other side. It was a little hairy! But it was the only way over. So of course a long way from anywhere, when I then got a suspension fault and all the lights came on with the car dropping so low it was impossible to drive. It was cold up there and sunset was not far off so I had to risk some damage to get off the top and out of the wind.

In short - Car VDU showed suspension failure on all 4 wheels and my Brit Part diagnostic read ; Vehicle Dynamic UO 421 - invalid data from ride level control module. Red and amber lights flashing all over the place!

After hard reset attempts failed and a chilly night, I endeavoured to jack up the car up in the morning to get to the rear n/s wheel arch but the car was so low it wasn't easy. Then the jack handle broke under just a little strain (clearly not fit for purpose). But I had the Takla air jack and was eventually able to get to the module and wiring etc under the wheel arch. After checking the connections and seeing all was in place, all was suddenly and miraculously good again. So maybe it was a poor connection or earth I don't know, or maybe it was the computer system resetting itself after recognising it was grounded on the air jack?

I had before and intermittently afterwards, been getting an "HDC Fault" "Suspension lowering" read out which cleared after a switching on and off and applying the EPB. Land Rover in Ulaanbaatar serviced the car and said the HDC fault was common and would look at it. I have only had it come up once more but have not driven anything too tough since.

Apart from that I'm meeting some great people along the way and fellow adventures on motorbikes and some are driving very large cars called Toytos or something and now looking forward to Australia and venturing to the outback.

Of course I have sat phone, emergency equipment, spare water and food, survival eqpt etc but I have to say that I'm now very wary about travelling anything too difficult solo and will definitely be with others when I venture into the extremes.

So I will try to stay in touch and will be updating the Facebook, and blog with pics and stories when I can, where it will also be good to hear from you.

regards

Julian

PS. Tango will be shipped to Melbourne arriving about the first week of November. So look forward to hooking up with fellow G4 club member MIkeS down under and hopefully other fellow adventures/ Land Rover/ Discovery owners there and around the world who may want to join me on some of the trails.



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Re: Thank you. Thank you, Thank you

Post by Bodsy » Thu Sep 20, 2012 7:23 am

That's a great update, thanks.

Just browsing the blog again. :thumbright:


Check http://tinyurl.com/brakebible
Here for How to change your Brake Pads, Disks, EPB Shoes Adjust, removal, cleaning & fitting Guide.

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Gearbox Transmission Flushes and much more

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Re: Thank you. Thank you, Thank you

Post by Bigcarpchaser » Thu Sep 20, 2012 8:46 am

Nice one J :)


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Re: Thank you. Thank you, Thank you

Post by marco110 » Thu Sep 20, 2012 10:47 am

Hello G4 ;)


What a great adventure! :thumbright:

I wish you many good things!



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Re: Thank you. Thank you, Thank you

Post by PillowSmuggler » Thu Sep 20, 2012 1:31 pm

Thanks Julian, great update :thumbright:

I cannot remember which model year your car is, but it could be that the nasty suspension lowering fault was in fact simply due to partially failed brake light bulbs which affected 2006 and earlier cars I think. Might be 2007 too. The fault occurs when the brake and sidelight filaments touch and send a signal back into the ECUs which then get confused and throw their toys out of the pram, bringing the rest of the platform with them in their electronic funk.

If it happens again (hopefully somewhere more sane!), see if you have a failed stop lamp (I use my fire extinguisher on the brake pedal and scoot the drivers seat forwards to hold it there if I'm on my own). A new bulb or two can make quite a difference to the cars behavior sometimes :shock:
If it's not that, a gentle wriggle of the wires going into the brake pedal light switch and wriggle of the switch plunger can also cause miraculous results if the stop switch has failed as it can temporarily resurrect it, hopefully for long enough to get a new one. Again the fault is caused by ECUs getting confused by the signals sent by the switch.

I believe these are the two most common causes of suspension down, if anyone knows different please say so :)

Happy trails!


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Re: Thank you. Thank you, Thank you

Post by benp » Thu Sep 20, 2012 9:32 pm

Fab to hear from you ... oddly I was wondering how you were getting on the other day 8-)


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