Hi,

I live in San Diego California and we're having some very rainy weather right now. Major puddles of water everywhere and new pot holes forming as they do every year as the spring rains fall.

I'm driving in the rain this morning to get to work. Less than a half mile from home I reacha low area in the road and a major puddle of water is lying in front of me. No problem, I'm driving the car that conquered Africa, right? My certified pre-owned 2006 LR3 with the mighty V6 will pull me right through that little puddle with no effort at all.

I hit the small body of water doing about 30mph. No pot holes, I'm through it and I see the puddle in my rear view mirror as I leave it behind. I made a fun splash too. Always fun to do that with an off-roader. Now I'm heading uphill and all of a sudden my enginestarts jerking and loses power fastand I smell gasoline, a strong smell. I pull over to the curb using the inertia of the car and stop, put on the parking break, Shift to neutral, get out in the rain and look under the car.

I see gas pouring out of my engine like someone opened the flood gates. A small river of gas runing downhill, under my car, and down the road behind me. I jump in the rover and kill the engine before the gas ignites. Thank God it doesn't.

I call Triple-A and get towed to the dealer. The rover is still under warranty. I get a free car rental and they keep my LR3 for the weekend. Broken fuel line. [>:]

I ran through a puddle of water, not a pile of rocks! WTF!? [:@]

I'm a two-time LR owner. First a 2002 Disco 2 and now a 2006 Disco 3. Is this what Land Rover quality is coming to?
What if I was out in the high desert right now and running over scrub brush and my fuel line busted? Why is the fuel line so vulnerable and out in the open like that? Water hitting it from a puddle can break it? Is this a Land Rover or a Yugo? [:@]

I buy Land Rovers because of their tradition and reputation of being rugged and very off-road worthy. I don't feel safe now driving it off-road and it will be my last Land Rover. Next time it will be a Jeep or a Hummer.

Very disappointed. [:'(]

 

Hmmm, I belong to several Land Rover Forums where I participate regularly giving advice and asking for it. I like to stay on top of any issues that seems to repeat itself so I can be on the look out for it on my own vehicle, and I have to say.., broken fuel lines is not at all common. Actually it's the first I hear of anyone with such issue, even more strange broken by going through a water puddle? We have several LR3s in my club. I have owned mine for over 2 years and we all off road the living daylights out of our rigs. Needless to say, casual water puddles is the least of what we do on a regular basis with ours and fuel lines have never been an issue. Granted, LR3s do have several OTHER issues to look out for. But needless to say, if a little water spray broke your fuel line, it was ready to go anyway, more than likely as a result of something totally unrelated to the puddle incident.

Things you DO need to look out for coming from the off road comunity:

* If you're still using the factory H/P tires, they are USELESS, all the way around.
* The suspension harness runs VERY close to the tire inside the front driver side tire well. With factory tires it is ok, but If you ever get bigger tires (and you should), a sharp left turn with just the right compression will snag it and rip it off. A simple self tapping screw will fix it relocating the harness a little higher.
* The compressor is somewhat exposed under the LR3. If it gets smashed by a hard object during hard off roading, you may find yourself riding back home on the stumps. There are several forms of protection available after market, all very effective.
* The air suspension while making the ride superb on the road, limits how high you can lift the LR3 giving you its worst off road shortcoming: clearance! Dave (a member of our club) has soloved that issue with adjustable height sensors giving you an EXTRA 2 1/2 inch clearance on demand for a very reasonable price. You can read my post on the subject on this forum.

Overall, anyone who off roads their LR3 seriously will tell you that it is a very reliable vehicle. You seem s to have gotten the pick of the littler somehow. No clue what could have caused the fuel line weakening to the point of braking like that. Sorry you had such a bad experience!

 

Very very odd, that has nothing to do with the puddle. The puddle may have finished it off, but I'm almost 100% that a puddle could never rupture a fuel line. With any vehicle, your going to have a few bad ones in the crop. I can assure you that your issue is not typical of Land Rover quality, and its not something that happens on a regular basis. I have two friends that own LR3's and they love the things. BUT they take extra good care of them (they dont have kids, which means their rovers ARE their kids.). I'm not saying you dont take care of yours but, if you do the chance of running into issues goes way down.

I think this problem is bad, but I wouldnt say your never getting a Land Rover again because of it,and then say your next car will be a Hummer or a Jeep because both of those are very low quality, esp the hummer. A Hummer engine will die years before a rover engine. They break all the time and have the "wonderful" GM build quality to back them up. Not to mention they're rubbish off road.You've been spolied by british interior so American plastics in a jeep will be repulsive. But just like ANY other car, jeep has their problems, just like LR. If you really are going to end your Land Rover days, at least downgrade to a jeep.

I will say though, off road your not going to find a better stock vehicle than a Land Rover. I have the adventure stories to prove it.

 

Anyone ever fallen off of water skis at 30 mph? Water becomes concrete very quickly above 25 mph, I wonder if the combination of water height and speed of entry contributed to this and maybe it was not a latent design defect at all. Puddles at that speed should be reserved for rental cars.

After you put this all into perspective and accept partial responsibility you will see things more clearly andstop thinking aboutbuying a Jeep or Hummer. Not being disrespectful, just trying to talk you out of the clock tower so to speak.

Cheers

Bob

 

Agree. Water puddles at speed can cause damage to lesser vehicles. While the LR3 is definitely not perfect, I would claim, somewhat arguably, that it is made to handle stuff like that in stride. My intelligent guess, wihout having been there, would still be that the problem points at something completely unrelated.

 

I would say the water had little to do with it.
Unless you are talking about what the water had floating in it or what
it was covering.