The Amber Suspension Fault of Doom
So there I was, driving along the road when out of the blue there came the bong from the dash with a message. When I looked down I was drawn to the amber image of the car with arrows obviously informing me of a problem with the suspension.
This is the ongoing story of how I used trial and error on an extremely tight budget to find out the reason for the fault condition and then how I went about fixing it.
Fuel-Burning Heater (FBH) Issues
This nifty little gadget is fitted to all UK specification diesel powered cars to act as an auxiliary coolant heater when temperatures are below 5ºC reducing the time taken to for the engine to get to operating temperature. A side-effect of this is that it also reduces the time for the cabin heating to work!
It’s rather temperamental and will stop working for almost no reason. This is my troubleshooting experience trying to get this little known gadget back into service.
Split Boot Glass Section Release Unresponsive
One early morning I tried to open the glass section of my boot and nothing happened. It just wouldn’t release.
After much locking and unlocking of the car, banging, tugging and shouting, I realised there must be something wrong with the electrical connection as I couldn’t hear the lock mechanism firing.
I was driving around the M25 one day, a day when it wasn’t snarled up to the point of being standstill, and a stone was flicked up by a van in front hitting my passenger wing mirror.
Once I stopped to check, I found the wing mirror plastic moulding has been neatly shot and now sported a 2cm hole.
A close shave with a white truck only removed a few letters from the trim and created a deep scratch. It could have been much worse but luckily it’s only plastic.
These the the options I had and what I decided to do to repair the tailgate trim.
The rear badge on my RRS had faded so completely that the green and gold enamel had gone completely leaving jut a dirty silver badge.
This is how I went about replacing it without paying through the nose at the dealer.
Fuel Tank Cradle Excessively Corroded
So on my most recent service (July 2018) there was an item to say that the “Fuel Tank Shield Excessively Corroded”. Well, I thought, the shield is corroded. I can worry about that later – it’s only a shield and I don’t plan on taking the car off-road any time soon.
However, the name used is a bit misleading. It should really say, Fuel Tank Cradle. It’s the metalwork that looks like a shield but actually holds the fuel tank on to the bottom of the car – it cradles the tank. No cradle, no fuel tank.
Replacing The Windscreen Lower Cowl
Last time my windscreen was being replaced by one of the national companies selected by my insurance group, I noticed he was sticking the lower windscreen cowl down with mastic. When asked, the answer was the moulding no longer fitted on the screen without leaving a large gap. It seems the plastic had just lost tension against the screen over time. I also had a feeling one or more of the clips holding the cowl in place may have been broken as well, as the centre of the cowl seemed springy. After he’d gone, I also noticed that one of the A-Pillar mouldings was missing both the grommet and rivet and the other had a broken rivet. Thanks mate.
Cold driver’s seat, unhappy wife, how to remedy
One cold morning the driver’s side heated seat stopped working. For a few months there had been a hot spot so I had an idea the heater element was about to burn out and it seems that came to pass.
This is a quick guide of the success and pain involved with replacing the foam and heater element inside the seat base. This is just the base, not the seat back which I believe is more involved due to air bags.
The Trials of a Range Rover Sport Owner 
You must be logged in to post a comment.