Have you thought about buying a 2003 that does not work and putting in a Rover Cannibal or Turner Longblock?

 

Called the dealer. Such a helpful guy. I was expecting a battle.

Cooling system was pressure tested to find a leak. Came up negative. I suggested maybe the coolant was being used in the engine combustion process, hence no leak. Ie HG. He said it was possible.

Asked if they typically serviced the cars with the orange coolant, Dexcool. He said yes.

As I go and view this thing, how can I double check the coolant system, without an ultra gauge? Ultra gauges for sale in stores? Was going to get one anyway.

Edit, ultra gauge only available online.

 

First, don't use KBB for the East Coast. KBB is out of L. A. and really doesn't consider the corrosion damage typical in older cars back in your area. Go to nadaguides dot com. Avg. trade in is $5k (low is only $3,800); full retail is $8,000...and that is allowing +$1,800 for the relatively low mileage.


$6k is a starting bid; you can ALWAYS go up, but not down. You may decide to come up to $7,000 if you REALLY like it. The odd-colored letter on the front was probably a half-assed attempt by the detailer to fix the missing letter prior to sale. These come in different colors from the dealer; you can just remove it, spray it black and reglue it on with some 3M Super 77 adhesive spray. Personally, I'd be more worried about going to Jamaica, Queens! This is like buying a car off a used car lot in South Central or East L.A.!!!


The headliner looks good; that's usually a sign of garage storage, as heat...especially on a black car, takes it's toll on the headliner.

...and keep in mind, due to the oil pump issues and lack of a CDL, the '03s book for about $3,000 less at all levels than an '04!


Here's a lower-optioned 'S' trimmed '03 with 96k miles in Woodbridge, NJ:


http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-s...75611598&Log=0



Check the VIN to see if it's one of the questionable ones, as it IS early in the 03 MY: SALTL16473A798105

Good Luck!

 

That 03 is in 'the' vin range. Will look into the differences between S and SE. NJ is huge. Always a PITA.

04 with 87k. It was very very nice. Spent 45 minutes all over it before driving. Drove like a new car. Phenomenally well presented. (Headliner had fallen. Seller had tried a bad spray glue job) After the rubbish I've seen, this was great. Diff lock. Nice Convinced the guy to stop by a garage and plug it into a fancy Snap-On computer. I thought I detected a misfire. Computer said no. I was very suspicious of the coolant. It was half full in the bottle before turning on. Not at the full mark. Idle temp was around 205. With a few revS it got to about 215. I couldn't check the full running temp. Garage guy wouldn't lend a scanner to a random bloke off the street. Odd.

No evidence of any coolant underneath. Clean looking oil drip from high up somewhere. Highway drive for 20 minutes. Brake judder under heavy braking. Then could feel it under lighter braking. Other than that, a buttery smooth drive.

Back to the lot. Coolant bottle nearly empty. Question, switched off how long before the level rises back in the expansion bottle? It never rose in 15 minutes.

Fairly pronounced ticking from top of engine somewhere. Took a vid. Can post if anyone is that interested.

So without further information I had to suspect HG issue. Remember I have spoken to the LR dealer this morning in PA where it came from. Their pressure test didn't find anything. But they admitted coolant is going somewhere, not onto the floor.

I floated a figure of $6500. Guy said no chance. Offered it at $9400 waiving the conveyance fee of 600.

Walked away.

Oh. Queens. My mother in law lives here. I'm almost getting used to it. Walk with confidence. Got lost in south central one time in a rental car at night. Was not pleasant.

The search continues.....

 

Probably a liner slipping... they bounce up and down and sound like it's coming from the top and the bottom and anywhere you listen.
Coolant dropping is not a good sign, glad he wouldn't come down since you might have been stuck with a problem.

 

Right. It was just as pronounced underneath, the ticking. Makes sense. I thought that as an 03 thing. Good to know.

yeah, one to pass by. As someone said above, they go to auction for a reason.

I might rename this thread. Search for an 03-04, my journey.

 

Liners don't "slip" on the '03 & '04 4.6s...they used tapered liners.


Go to John Robison's website to confirm. This is a common misconception. Mine makes the same noise; had the oil pan off when the lower bearings were done to confirm this fact. Mine comes and goes when it warms up and is at idle. Could be a sticky tappet...coolant loss could be a lower intake gasket leak, but you'd see the coolant drip off the back of the engine; probably a HG. Oil leak is either from the timing cover area or rocker cover gasket.

 

Ha ha!!! NJ is TINY!!! Come to California...800 miles long and 250 miles wide. Woodbridge is close to Staten Island.

 

They do slip! They don't fall as they did in the old days.

If everything had been done correctly they couldn't slip but, when the liners were put in at the factory, some weren't pressed all the way down like they were supposed to be, before they were machined flush at the top.
This left a 1/8" to 1/4" gap at the bottom seat. Now, once the engines gets overheated, the liners loose their grip and move down that distance and then back up to the head at the speed of the piston until the piston is moving too fast for the liner to keep up and the ticking stops. Once this happens it can tick Intermittingly and usually doesn't show itself until the engine is up to operating temps after the metals expand and not at cold start up .

I've personally observed liners sitting high in a block. Not higher than the deck surface but not seated correctly with a 1/8" gap at the bottom so, I know it does happen.

If you have the oil pan off of one and look at the bottoms of all of the sleeves and can see any of the smooth surface where the block was machined for the sleeve then that sleeve was not pressed all of the way home before it was decked at the top.

That's one reason companies make flanged liners, like land rover should have done to start with.

 

Is this clip sound any good?
Knocking noise. Disco '04 on Vimeo