Died under load. Slowly climbing a moderate trail at altitude and in 85-90* weather. Yeah...I had the aircon on too. At first it thought the throttle had stopped responding as it just dropped to idle and wouldn't rev but that only lasted a second or two. It did that a couple times over perhaps 5 minutes before just dieing all together. I popped the hood, checked the connectors to the MAF and throttle body, pulled codes (none) and in a few minutes it restarted and was fine. Seems to be 'one of those things' for LR3s at high altitude. Maybe the ECUs don't compensate quick enough when climbing or ??? Anyway, spent the rest of the weekend between 9-11,000' with no issues.

 

I guess we'd have to take a few LR3s up there and see if it's one of those things for all LR3s or not. I don't know how high I've had mine....maybe 8,0000'.

 

We had a couple other LR3s along on that run who did not have the same problem, however they had been with people who had at other times. The SoCal guys seem to have seen this a fair bit.

 

Could it be gasoline quality? It mentions in the manual that poor quality gasoline can cause similar issues, and it is strange that it seems localized to SoCal. I know you guys can only get 91 octane out there. Could be protection against knocking in high heat, high altitude, high load situations.

 

Not really sure. That's the only time it's ever happened to me though I don't often get up to those altitudes. I've never heard of it happening on the road, only on the trail so I suspect it has to do with being under a heavier load, climbing rapidly, and being hot. All the reports I've heard of work out when the you give it a little time so it's not the end of the world.

Anyway, that's not really what this thread is about. I'm actually trying to figure out why my fan seems to be running more often/harder/at cold start up more than it used to. The altitude thing was just something that got me paying more attention to engine temps, not really something I'm worried about.

 

Coincidentally, mine seems to be doing the same, but I chalked it up to the new engine and maybe adaptation.

It does cycle and will match engine RPMs, so it could be a coincidence that right when you gave it some gas the fan was engaged, which makes it roar. Or, for some reason your cold start idle is higher than normal. In other words, the ECM doesn't seem to manage fan speed itself (or only does so in a rudimentary fashion), so the fan will go much faster if RPMs climb.

 

Driving back home from a club BoD meeting today and I stop to pick up some groceries. While loading stuff in the back I notice my little battery monitor says 10.6v. Yikes! I tell the wife we might be in trouble if it's really 10.6 volts as we're still about 40 miles from home!

It starts, though it cranks a bit slower than normal. It throws an amber suspension code but it goes out when the engine gains some revs. With it running I see about 11.2v on the GAP tool when the engine is turning over ~1800 rpm. Turning on the A/C drops it by about .5v...and of course it's 102* outside.

I run w/o the AC for about 15 miles and it only drops slightly to about 11v. I run the AC intermittently after that and it the voltage drops to about 10.5v with it on and 10.9v with it off by the time I get home. I did finally get another amber suspension light as I pulled into the driveway but had no other issues during the drive other than a small breathing problem due to holding my breath most of the way.

The take-away? Perhaps that noise I was hearing was the alternator more than the fan clutch.

Luckily I've been suspicious of the alternator for a few months now and have a new one on the shelf ready to go on. I'll probably wait and do it and the belts/tensioner at the same time next weekend as fan tools I ordered have not arrived yet.

 

I recently had what some called a roaring fan sound at start up and then it would die down some. It would also match RPMs. I thought it sounded more like when you put you hand over the end of a vacuum cleaner and the motor whirs at a higher pitch. Funny thing is that it would do it for a 2-3 days then stop, then do it again several days later, etc.

Everytime I ran by the indy shop it would not do it for me. Then one night my battery light came on. It would go off when accelerating or higher RPMs, but come back on when idling or in slow traffic.

Took it to indy shop and he could not get the light to come on for him at all! Go figure. We ended up replacing the alternator and all issues have gone away. The shop had another LR3 in at the same time with an alternator with faulty diode that was causing that persons fan to run full blast at random times for no reason. A failing alternator in these vehicles can do a wide variety of funky things!

 

Stoopid Landy electrics... Lucas, the prince of darkness lives again! Must be a legacy thing...

 

...but I just had "roaring fan" and hold to the 'don't sweat it' philosophy but making a few observations, wonder if a block heater could be to blame. It's been cold up here (27F - 37F) but not too cold. I sometimes plug it in on a timer just because I can. Tonight it was 37 and the heater had been on for maybe 30 minutes but my real question is: could this trick the ECU or coolant sensors? I drove around and it heated up some but my temp gauge was still in the lower 1/3 of the range. (The CC was blowing warm air on my feet). So I pulled over and shut it off. After a minute or so fired it up again. The temp gauge went to normal range right away. The fan gave me one more road then it all went normal. Idle was a little high in N until I rebooted too.

Any thoughts?