Hi everyone

I am the happy owner of a '53 L322 Vogue with the BMW 4.4l V8. I have had it for 5 years, since 49k and it has now done 120k, mostly without incident. Over the last 6 months an unusual starting issue has emerged. Starting first thing, regardless of the weather, it will crank for perhaps 6-7 seconds, splutter a couple of times and then fire up, thereafter behaving perfectly. It has done this for several weeks at a time, then worked normally for a few weeks, then started this behaviour again. Until very recently, it would only do this once a day; the rest of the day's start-ups are perfectly normal - in fact you can turn off the ignition immediately after the first start up of the day and it will then start up perfectly normally, straight away. A few days ago, the problem re-appeared when I started it up at the end of the day, after the car had been left unused during the day, so it looks like something is getting worse. The starting behaviour however, has not changed over the time since I first experienced it - i.e. 6-7 seconds of cranking, a couple of splutters and then away she goes. It's not the battery (the cranking is fine).

If an engine with a high pressure fuel injection system is going to fire as soon as you turn the key, I would have thought that there must be some pressure in the fuel delivery system already. To me the symptoms look like a gradual loss of this pressure overnight and the initial cranking period is then require for the pump to restore it. It's not a fuel leak, but could there be a non-return valve somewhere, taking that isn't perhaps working as well as it should?

Any suggestions very welcome, as my LR mechanic has not idea and it suggesting a "replace bits of the fuel system until we find it" approach, which looks like it could get £££ pretty quickly to me.

Many thanks

 

What year is your Range Rover?

 

Sorry- it's a UK 53 plate which makes it a 2003-4 model