I purchased a 97 Range Rover 4.0 today, the good: good body, paint and interior the bad: after owning for less than 2 hours, wont start. I have fuel at the rail, it attempts to start and dies. I have a Disco 1 as well. I am so furious and at a loss of words. Paid $2100 previous owner, he replied earlier and now nothing. I was told its a fuel pump, is this an easy fix if its the issue? I have spray at the fuel rail, unable to check codes, luckily this happened at a Walmart.

 

You may have fuel at the rail but no pressure. Who told you it needs a fuel pump?
Do you have spark at the plugs?
It could be as simple as an inertia sw, fuse, bad main relay or fuel pump relay.
With no diagnostic tools I would check these first. Fuse 37 10amp, and 39 30amp and Relays are in the engine compartment fuse box. When you flip the cover over you'll see a graphic of a gas pump, that is the fuel pump relay. the ignition relay RL19 may have an engine graphic or may not. It should have RL19 written on the cover (center yellow relay next to the maxi fuses). inertia sw is in the r/s kick panel.

 

You need to get a gauge on the fuel rail and see what pressure it is at. Even when mine had sat for a few days I still got spray when I went to depressurize the system for a filter change. I wouldn't consider a fuel pump "easy". I would try to rule out the possibility by checking everything else before I would replace it. $2100 sounds like a pretty good deal, even with the fault. Don't know if you signed the bill of sale with an "as-is no warranty" statement in there. If you did, the previous owner doesn't really have an obligation to do anything.

 

I just walked to where she was parked, she cranked over just fine, now I'm even more confused.

 

OK, so if you have a Rover that won't crank after being warmed up, and when it cools off it will crank again and idle normally? Could be a sensor, and one that comes to mind is the crankshaft position sensor. It could also be fuel pump/filter/regulator related, and there is a schrader test valve on the fuel rail you can reach and put a gauge on. You'll need to borrow that from a big auto parts store, if you don't have one.

Have you downloaded the RAVE tech manual that covers your vehicle? Free below. Please be detailed in posts, what may seem like nothing to you may be a pointer at what is going on.

 

Are you referring to cranking or firing up? That kind of confused me because in the first post you said it would try to start and die, now your are saying it cranks fine... Also, have you checked the fuses or fuel pressure yet, as was suggested? You need to give us some info if you want us to start narrowing down the cause of the problem.

 

I'm hoping to take her in tomorrow, I don't have the tools needed for to do this myself. Thanks for all the help this far.

 

You don't have a tire pressure gauge? That is all that is required to see the fuel pressure when the vehicle is running. All you need to do is pull the fuses out and see if they are burned out or have cracks in them, as for the relays just swap them for known good ones... All that is required to do that is maybe a screw driver and needle nose pliers, otherwise you can usually use your fingers.

 

switching from DIY mode to "maintain by open checkbook".....