Melting Fuse Box and Several AC Issues
 

Hey Guys,
I got the dreaded Book! light and took my 98 RR 4.0 to the shop. They diagnosed it with the following:

Melting Fuse Box, $750
Blend Door Motors, $2100
A/C Compressor, Bad Clutch, $1650
Heater Core Temp Sensor Bad, $175
Rear Wiper Motor Bad, $720

I'm pretty confident working on the truck, and most of these things seem like problems I can fix on my own except the AC Compressor. Has anyone here replaced that, is it tough to get to?

I assume the Blend Door Motors are the same as plain old Blend Motors, right?

Thanks!

Well the AC compressor is a firly easy one to fix. The issue with that one is the proper way to evacuate the coolant that is in there. For enviromental reason you should take it to a shop and have them do it, if you do not care then crack open the lines and let it spray out. When it is clear un hook the manifold for the lines and then replace with a new compressor.

The other itmes should be very easy to do, the only one I do not knw is the blend motors. I am sure there is a write up on the m here somewhere. Do not pay those prices though, find parts from Roverland or a local yard or someone parting out their truck.

First, I would take the repairs step by step as it may not be all the listed things.

My first guess would actually be the fuse box since they quoted fuse box corrosion. It is a fairly common problem on P38s and generally the corrosion is around the RL7 relay. See if you see any burns or cracks on or around the RL7 relay. Try swapping or replacing the fried relay and see if the book symbol disappears.

You are correct in that blend door motors are the same as blend motors. Bit of a pain to replace and will take a good chuck of time but beats what shops charge.

I'm guessing you don't have RAVE... i'll PM you a link so you can look at the replacement procedures and a link regarding a possible compressor clutch fix.

Regards

My old P38 has been diagnosed almost identically to yours over the years. Besides the rear wiper motor, which should have nothing to do with the "notebook" symbol - I have only ever had the AC compressor replaced. You'll find a prior thread or two on this "notebook" and melting fuse box issue. Under the hood where the 2 blower relays are, we consistently have to replace those 2 blower one's each year. They sell at NAPA for about $22 a piece. I turn the car off, replace the relays, pull the ac fuse under the passenger seat and re-insert, then start the car and we're back to good. I don't know why it works this way - I think I read it years ago in one of the blogs but have been doing it ever since. And, it works.

Mike

Hey Mike,
Thanks for the input. I'll look into getting some relays this weekend and see if I can track down a compressor. You haven't lost any heating or cooling with these issues?

I was a little concerned with the melting fuse box, you haven't had any problems out of yours? The dealer will make you believe that not doing it today will cause the world to stop spinning tomorrow.

Thanks!

If the fusebox truly is corroding, and not just experiencing the bad circuitry problems of many Rovers fuseboxes, it can lead to any number of problems with the electrical systems. Replacing relays will be a very temporary fix and may cause further damage when it overheats as the problem lies with the fusebox circuitry. New relays may work for a while for you or they might melt to useless within a matter of days. Replacing the relays is a very temporary solution and can become quite expensive with the cost of the relays.

Regards

Ok cool. I'll look into getting a new one then. I don't need any more electrical issues!

True, you could have all sorts of problems - but you might not. And for $46 you can find out. The dealer will ALWAYS tell you to take the most expensive route. This is a once per year item for my old '96 P38. It's never led to other issues....could it? Absolutely. I'd take the path of least resistance here myself. Still owning 5 Rovers and having had 10+ since 87, - I've been around the block a few times with this particular issue.

Sorry Mike wasn't trying to imply it is a bad idea to just replace the relay. I was just trying to recommend confirming it is simply a bad connection between the relay and board and not true corrosion (from battery fume exposure of otherwise). If it is just the board construction (which seems to be a pretty common problem), and the relays aren't blowing all too often, as they are fairly expensive suckers, then replacing relays may make much more sense. Just wouldn't want someone to be replacing expensive relays all the time or dealing with the problems that could be caused by true corrosion.

Regards

No offense taken, nor did I assume intended. This year - maybe back in July or August, it was that "annual" time to replace one of the relays again....the notebook came on, the blowers wouldn't adjust, etc. The prior year, being smart for a change, I had kept the NAPA receipt and the blown relay in the glove compartment in the parts box when I did the replacement. Ironically, it had gone out 12 mos and 1 day from the year before. There's a post on this somewhere on this forum. My fusebox has some internal "charring" I guess for lack of a better word, where the relay goes in. The only reason I never went the whole dealer route as above was when they priced me to do this years back on this truck, they didn't have all the parts. By the time they called me to bring it in, I had tossed in another relay and the problem went away. So, I never took it in and figured why bother. A year or so later when the issue reappeared, I took the path of least resistance, and cost - and have done so ever since.

Coincidentally, this P38 - the one Rover I consider to the bain of my existence, just came out of the shop again this past week after me consulting of course via the phone with Disco Mike....ball joints, front main seal, rear main seal, tie rods, etc. $2800. There's really little left to do to this thing since the EAS went away 2 years ago after about $5k of worthless fix attempts. It's running the wheels and larger tires (with hubcentrics) off of my old '05 (which is now gone) and only has 123k on it. I always wanted to part with it but can never find someone to give me what I feel it's worth - certainly not what it's worth considering I paid almost $70k for it some 13 years ago and have probably paid that amount again in damn repairs. It was always the intention to trade it on one of the newer one's and I just giggled every time the dealer offered me less than the latest repair had been on a trade. I thought about giving it (and our recently departed DISCO II) to one of the kids but decided I liked the kids too much to saddle them with broken POS Rover's all the time and bought them both new Honda's.

I'm one of those people that started out with that old mentality of "you need 2 Rovers so you have something to drive when the other is in the shop." Now, we have 4 extra - but it's not uncommon to have a couple with something wrong on them at the same time.