Hi All
Just registered and wanted to shoot out a bit of an intro. I'm not a fan of first posts of "I bought a car and can someone help me rebuild the engine." So I'll do an intro and then separately create a thread for rebuilding an engine

I'm picking up an absolute worst-case-scenario '97 D1 tomorrow. It's sat for 10 years, outside, and has rust in at least the brush guard, causing the left side to sag. Mold (light) in the interior, and pretty wet in the engine compartment. 115k miles, so that's not horrible, but the story is that it needed brakes and was replaced before being retired. Sounds a little suspicious. I'm told it runs, but didn't have the ability to start it when I saw it due to a dead battery.

I'm a car guy and needed a new project and it was offered at a price I've set as an "always-buy" so I'm going to give it a go. The cosmetics are SO bad as to require it to be a "beater" and remain that way. Body-wise it's OK (minus a front fender and the brush guard) but the paint is either missing, or faded, or covered with peeling clear coat. I don't mind the patina one bit and hope to move it to our place in Tahoe, where it can stay uncovered and should fit in well with the locals.

LRF seems to be the place to go, and I've already scouted out some first steps. I'll see if the gas tank recall has been done and if not, have the dealer clear out the 10 year old sludge. I guess I need to see if it's drivable before that. Brakes should be easy and running are a good start. Are there typically transmission issues with these?

Anyway, my name's Peter, and I'll probably be hanging out here for a while. I tend to lean hard on google and forums, so shouldn't be asking too many dumb questions....

Hello!

 

Welcome! i am a bit partial to the D1 models, and the grille guards tend to rust out from the inside out. Best thing to do is to remove it. As usual with a British vehicle, the electrical is a mess! get a good copy of the RAVE manuals (link on a lot of the signatures on here) the body is mostly aluminum so it won't rust but the frame underneath is steel and likes to rust. Once you get to run, they are a lot of fun!!

 

Actually drove it home today. Stalled and wouldn't start 1x due to a dead (10 year old, mind you) battery. Ran surprisingly well--engine seems strong. Tires have great tread but cracking due to age, and drove like they might be ovals, which they probably are. Lots of built up dirt/scum/tree debris, but I'm going to resist washing it for now. Just clearing out the pine needles and spider webs in the engine compartment.

Looks like the main issues are: Anti Lock Brake light on, battery, power steering leak, driver window non-op, maybe original plugs . I'll probably run through those, all the fluids and then try to figure out how to get the moldy smell, and mold, out of the interior.

 

I started a similar odyssey during Covid quarantine.
My 99 D1 sat for 8 years prior to me purchasing and exhibited many of the same issues you’ve already detailed.

Things to think about include not trying to start it until the bad gas and gunk is all out. On mine, the previous owner clogged the fuel filter and subsequently and injector.

I replaced the injectors with the “Volvo/Ford Mustang” Bosch injectors for a much better spray pattern and smoother running engine.

For brakes, I just replaced all of the calipers and rotors. The front calipers had frozen from sitting. You can replace both calipers and rotors with the significantly better units off of a late model Defender. You gain vented rotors and significantly bigger pistons on the new calipers. All you have to do to make them fit is to bend the brake line.

Suspension is probably the easiest update. OME and Bilstein are a pretty nice combination. In my case, I went with the significantly cheaper Terrafirma medium duty kit, mostly because I was replacing so many other parts on the truck to want to invest so much money into shock absorbers.

For electrics/sensor issues, there are 3 major sources of heart burn on these trucks. The Vehicle Speed sensor is a wear item and can go out. It manifests as cutting power to the engine when the eco believes the car is exceeding 140mph or thereabouts.

the crank position sensor can fail resulting in a no start when hot situation. If the car starts after being left to cool down, it’s the cps.

the oil pressure sender has a tendency to leak like crazy, so if you have a big oil leak on the passenger side of the truck, check that sender first.


headgaskets are a big thing with these aluminum engines. Typically, someone before your ownership either overheats the truck or try’s to defer a headgasket job and gums up the radiator and heater core with “stop leak”. One thing you can do , aside from replacing thermostat, hoses and flushing the radiator and heater core, is to run a real time temperature gauge off your obd2 port. The stock gauge stays in the middle until the sender gets above 230 degrees, which is too late.

You didn’t mention if you have sunroofs or not. It’s worthwhile digging into the roof to make sure everything’s water right, especially for a car that sits outside. A good time to do that is when the headliner is out.

 

Welcome to the forum. You'll get plenty of help and remember that a picture is often worth more than 1,000 words. You'll find all the workshop manuals you'll need in the google drive link in my signature. Download them and have at it.

 

+1 on the links !! they help a lot when you are going crazy trying to make these things work right!! Just remember you have a D1, even though it is a 99. they came out with the D2 in 99 and some of the books won't list them right so just pretend it is a 98.

D1 was made about 1/2 way through the year, and they switched to the D2 at the same time. NOT the same vehicles...

 

thanks for the warm welcome guys! I posted half a dozen pics but think they’re pending approval due to my new account. I’m sure they’ll make it eventually.

It’s a 97, so definitely a D1. Went to the local pick n pull today and scavenged a few parts off a relatively fresh 97 in Richmond CA. I have the “anti lock brake” light and pulled the ABS pump from the PnP donor but bailed out when they gave me the price. I’m assuming/hoping it’ll be one of the wheel sensors.

it’s an LSE, still not sure what that gets me but it does have two sunroofs. I think something leaks as there was/is a certain amount of mold and the smell of mildew. So cleaning what I can on the seats and will rent a steam cleaner and do what I can on the carpet.

 

The ABS light is probably a sensor.
The window is probably a bad solder on the window ECU (behind the glove box).
Dump the brush guard. All they do is multiply damage.
Drain every fluid and re-fresh.
Vacuum all that debris out.
That engine bay looks pretty good apart from the leaves.
Get an OBDII dongle and an app for your phone to monitor sensor values, temp, etc, and to clear codes (but not brake codes). It is the best $20-50 you'll spend on the truck and save your hours of time.

 

Push in the wheel sensors, pretty easy to do. Look in the Rave for their locations. In the past it took several posts before you could upload pics..... glad that's over with. Sunroofs are leakers because they never get any attention. The scissor mechs don't get any lube, silicone. Being parked under the trees, drain tubes I can without hesitation say are plugged. Try a shop vac to suck out the dry debris if you can get the sun roofs open..... Fabreeze and close it up for a few hours. Looking at your LSE it's not showing all they come with like chrome paddle handles, color matched bumper corners/mirrors and it does have a chrome front pumper. The wheels aren't correct for an LSE either.


*Edit, I saw the center section on the front bumper and because it's so faded it looked like dirty chrome...... not.

 

Ditch the brush guard and shop vac the hades out of it. I love it. Keep coming with the photos of the interior.