Yes, I know that I am in the LR3 section.....it seems that nobody ventures into the Range Rover section, at least re the Range Rover Sport. I mentioned last week that I am looking at a Range Rover Sport 2007. It has been sitting at a body shop for about 5 years. It has been in a minor front end collision, damaged that right front fender, bumper and grill. Also possibly some damage to the hood. Has 25k miles on it. Clean title. Like I said, it has been sitting for about 5 years. I know that the fuel system will need to be cleaned out, besides dropping the tank and probably changing out the fuel pump, will replacing the fuel, adding some seafoam and running the truck clean it out sufficiently? Anything more that I should have done. I plan on draining and refilling the coolant and draining and changing the oil and filter. It is sitting on the bump stops right now, hopefully with a fresh battery the suspension pump will come back to life and the shocks don't have cracks in them. Then is comes the mystery of what the rats might have eaten or peed on.......if I can buy it right it just might be worth it. The seller has all of the parts to put it back together, lights, bumper, grill, trim, radiator, etc. Not sure about airbag sensors, I will leave that to a pro. As for the value, the motor should easily bring $3k to $4k and the tranny and transfer case $3000. Axles and diffs about $1k, interior trim $1k and all of the body panels, glass and doors maybe $2k so the worst case scenario, I break even.....hopefully, Thoughts......by the way, the vin is SALSF25446A958486 if anyone has access to a vin history report... thanks phil

 

Don't forget to flush the brake fluid! That's a long time for a hydroscopic fluid to sit. I let my motorcycle sit for two years without riding it and when I pushed the pedal for the rear brake, I could still turn the rear wheel by hand. Not so good... Hopefully you won't have any rust in the lines, but you can get a good idea of the brake line condition by how the fluid looks when it comes out.


I would also squirt some oil directly in the cylinders before firing it up for the first time. There hasn't been any lube on those cylinder walls/pistons in a very long time and it will take the pump a while to circulate oil up there after you start the car. Just remove the plugs and squirt a bit down there on top of the pistons.

 

The plot thickens. I finally got access to the Range Rover Sport again. Turns out it is a 2006, not a 2007 as listed (I believe it was an honest error). The dead rats, nests and most of the rat poop is gone, serv-pro cleaned it up, well most of it. Did I mention that I hate rats.....Smells less, but still smells, my wife wouldn't ride in it at this point. I haven't done the ozone machine yet.

I took a new battery to check codes and what systems I could. Surprisingly, it still had codes stored. It also showed some faults, suspension fault, parking brake fault and neutral fault. Gear indicator on the dash showed E. When I plugged the scanner plug in, a few turds dropped from behind the kick panel cover.....yuck, I hate rats....Codes were U0155, U0101, U0121, P0500, P0198, P0071 and P0851. The hood/bonnet switches had been removed so the truck thought that the bonnet was open. Thus, the suspension wouldn't function. It is totally bottomed out. I am wondering if the codes were a result of a battery issue, some wiring issues as a result of the collision (less likely) or maybe the resident rats have been chewing on some wires.........most likely cause. Truck wouldn't turn over at all, nothing, probably a result of the bonnet issue or the parking brake faults? Any ideas? How hard is it to track down and fix bite marks caused by delinquent rodents? My enthusiasm for this vehicle is waning... On the positive side of things, I did find that it only has 15k miles looks like the collision happened right after the last service......Ideas? thanks Phil

 

Post pics. Sounds like a worthwhile project to fix....

 

The air suspension should function with hood open (works with tailgate open).
Did the compressor run at all? (probably not if engine wasn't running).
If not, good idea to check fuses and relay (although wires could be eaten).
Corrosion on inside of compressor could have it seized up.
Hard to figure out if the engine isn't running as computers will only allow short run times with engine off.
Perhaps you could set up the "Land Rover" button on the key fob to run the compressor, I know this is possible on the LR3 but the manual says that programming the key to run the compressor must be done within one minute of switching off the engine, so good possibility this won't work either.


not starting issue probably has more to do with the neutral fault or park brake fault.
see this thread or search "starting" to find other useful info.

If you believe that you will break even on selling parts and have a lot of free time, then fly at it; but if you want it to run and function as a whole car that you can own or sell... may be better to let someone else have that one and spend money on one that runs rather than spend money on diagnostics, parts and labour.

Either way, good luck! Life would be boring if we didn't have Rovers to figure out...

 

For a thousand dollars, do the owner a favour and take it off his hands; for five thousand, allow him to get rich on it.

The rats are the real problem; everything else one could fix but the smell and what the rats may have done to the wiring looms can be unfindable and hence un fixable; hence new wiring looms once you figure out how many are problem looms.

As above, if you have lots of time, it would be a real education as you will have to pretty much learn about every system and all the quirks of each.

Even if the major parts are OK, you will probably have to spend about 20 thousand getting it going. If you had a donor vehicle for the interior and wiring looms, that would make it very possible; without the donor vehicle, it will be expensive.

 

Run don't touch it for free

 

well, I bought it. got it for about half of what the guy was asking 5 months ago and about $15000 less than the guy paid for it 7 years ago. 2006 Range Rover Sport HSE, 15815 miles. Giverney Green with cream interior, might be alpaca. Previous owner claimed to have all of the missing parts, he didn't. Missing front bumper cover, fog lights, air bag. Got it home cleaned it up, ran the ozone machine for two days, still smells, but it is much better. Still have rat nests under the dash, dash coming out this weekend. Dropped in a new battery. Interestingly, when I turned the key the thing fired up! I quickly shut it down as the radiator is out and the gas is 7 years old. I will syphon out the gas this weekend. I pulled the battery cables while doing some work. When I connected it up, it is still showing some wild codes and flashing lights, it may be that I haven't tightened up the battery cables. Emergency lights are flashing, back up sensor light is flashing, parking brake lights are flashing, parking brake switch doesn't seem to do anything. so far all of the wiring seems to be in tact. I do have to say, having it fire up was a big and pleasant surprise.

 

When you do install the radiator and fill the cooling system, you might want to realize that the aluminum ingot that is presently an engine is near impossible to bleed the air from - and that is by guys who have experience with the cooling system.

That tangle of little rubber hoses Land Rover seems to think are required to circulate water to the various engine parts seem better at trapping air pockets and inhibiting water circulation than one might otherwise think.

As to the red lights etc, I would be more concerned if there were none. If it all is well, it could take a couple of weeks for the error messages to work their way out of the computers unless you have some sort of D3/LR3 specific code eraser.

I would also keep the battery disconnected while I worked on the machine and if there is any air in the air springs, if working underneath, have the vehicle on frame jacks unless you have spare body parts available as well.

It can be either a mean machine or a real gift, depending upon how you treat her. Thanks for the update and please keep us up to date.

 

The flashers going off, along with the PDC light flashing could be the Medium Speed CAN being down, I am assuming it wouldn't crank once this started?

If the overheat light was on at the same time, step one is going to be the connector at the rear of the Instrument cluster, the contacts on the board get loose.

As to bleeding the cooling system, it can be a nightmare to bleed in the normal fashion. I would recommend investing in an Air Lift(several manufacturers with various names) that will attach to the expansion tank and pull a vacuum on the system, and then suck the fluid back into it. This is what I use, however for a one time use, it might not be worth it unless you can find a good deal(it requires an air source to function)