I have a recently aquired 98 range rover and today we got stuck at the grocery store on like a 5-10 degree incline. The car acted like it was out of gas... after about 20 minutes of arguing with my wife about buying the car in the first place I decided to push it out of the parking space and into the main traffic lane to see if facing the car down hill would help.. keep in mind that we have more than 1/2 a tank of fuel in the car. I waited about 30 seconds and the car started right up. I don't have trouble on hills with the car.

I have read these trouble shooting guides around the internet..

1. hole in the fuel line is letting the fuel back into the tank

2. It may have a tow sensor which disables the ignition (doubt this one)

3. I am not letting the pump run long enough before trying to start (This i read was solved back in the 80's)

From a trouble shooting perspective I am going to go park it in the driveway on a hill and see if I can repeat this issue. I would assume if it starts after I let the fuel pump run for a minute that means something is letting all the fuel back in the tank but it can over come it.

depending on the complexity of the issue do i get rid of the wife or the rover... JK

Any thoughts?

 

I tested it out in my yard and let is sit on a 30 degree incline for an hour.. I went out and the car started fine.. with the turn the key to on and wait a couple seconds for the pump to run in the tank before going to start. So I think that somehow air is getting into the fuel system allowing the gas to run back into the engine.

Has anyone ever heard of such a thing or is this something you just know to do as a range rover owner is wait for the fuel pump to run for a couple seconds before starting?

 

This is a common problem for all vehicles, not just Rovers. There is a one-way check valve, usually in the fuel pump that is supposed to keep the fuel in the line and not drain back into the tank. My truck has the problem. For me it has less to do with parking on an incline as it does with the amount of time since I drove it last. If i haven't driven it in a while I turn the key on for 5 sec and then turn it off and back on for a few seconds and then try to start it. Not a huge problem and not worth the time and money to fix it.

 

thanks, It was a pain in the *** when it happened the first time and I did not understand what was going on as we were sitting for not even 5 minutes and it would not start.. once I had move the car to a down hill direction it started right up. Now we have a better idea of whats going on. I guess if I ever have to get in there for another reason I will take care of this as well.

 

One way to check for sure is to use a fuel pressure gauge. If yours is draining back that quickly the pressure will drop to zero almost immediately. It shouldn't matter that much if it is level or on an incline for this test. One other question I had was if your tank was full when you had the problem? If you are on a really steep incline with and small amount of fuel in the tank it is also possible that the fuel pickup wasn't submerged.

 

It was above a half a tank when it happened. Also sometimes on a flat surface it would start and sputter for a a couple seconds. So i think this is related as well. I will look into this as well as the problem has not shown it self again yet as we may now be conscious of this and giving the car a couple second in the one position before starting.