Another ‘to-do’ list
James needs to put some hard graft in on his demanding Range Rover now
1991 RANGE ROVER VOGUE SE
I still haven’t got very far with the ‘to-do’ list I drew up for the ‘Cyclops’ (Rover 75) a couple of years ago. That’s mainly because the dear old thing just keeps on going as it is, and doesn’t complain. The other reason is because all my spare time and toy money has gone on the Range Rover over the last couple of years.
And now the Range Rover has its own to-do list – and some of the jobs are a bit more urgent. In my last report, I said that the ABS warning light had come on again. As I haven’t had that investigated yet, the vehicle has mostly stayed in the garage, bar a few local runs to make sure that everything stays lubricated and working.
A second problem associated with the brakes has come up, too. If the vehicle’s been standing for a while, the brake lights come on (and stay on) when the engine is fired up. A stab or two on the brake pedal restores normality, and everything then works fine. But could this issue be related to the ABS fault?
Third on that to-do list is the central locking. It’s not a big problem, but using the key in the driver’s door won’t
’The Range Rover had its own to-do list - and some of the jobs are urgent’
always unlock everything (although it locks okay and everything unlocks from the passenger’s door). I suspect a poor connection somewhere, and have just invested in a proper door trim removal tool so that I can take a look without doing any damage.
Item four is purely cosmetic. As this is a Vogue SE model, it should have body-coloured alloy wheels. It did when I bought it, but some of those wheels were very scruffy, so to get it back on the road I settled for a set of the grey-finish wheels used on lowerspec models. However, I’d like to get the green alloys refurbished and back on the vehicle with a new set of tyres as well.
The fifth item to sort is just a bit of trim, but it’s proving difficult. The tailgate release handle on the inside should have a plastic finisher, but mine doesn’t. I ordered a new one from my local parts supplier, but the only one available is the grey one standardised with all interior colours for the 1995 models. What I want is the brown one that our Range Rover would have had when it was new. Does anybody out there have one?