New member here with an 06 LR3 sitting in the driveway with 209K miles. Bought a few months ago and love it. Need to do a few things to keep it going but so far so good. Anyway, I keep an eye on the local LR3 market for parts cars and such and ran across one today that I went to see because it only had 106k miles, black and black in decent shape, however it does not run.

According to the owner she bought it about 10 months ago from a small dealer she knew and it was doing fine. On the way back from a trip (60 miles) the white smoke/steam came from under the hood. She pulled over and the car stopped running. She had it towed and now is looking to sell. I went to look today and the coolant tank is bone dry but the weird thing is, so is the fuel tank. She said she had a full tank of gas when she went on the trip and did not use close to that much. When I tried to start the car, it would not crank at all (I wanted to see if the motor was locked up). The only sound was a small hum of what I could only assume is the fuel pump. No crank, which I would assume is normal if the fuel system is not pressurized.

Honestly, I don't know if they two conditions are related, if the son drained the gas out to put in his truck or if the tow driver hit something that ruptured the fuel system.

Am trying to decide if I want to take this on as a project if I can get it for the right price since it has so few miles. But not sure about the possible fuel issue.

Anyway, interested in any thoughts or recommendations you guys may have moving forward.

Thanks.

 

If the motor is locked up, a used one from ebay is about $1100 delivered, and the engine is usually one of the most durable parts of the LR3. If it's dry it's probably not worth fooling with unless one is curious. Fuel pump off ebay is $100 to $300.
How much for the Rover? My present DD is a 08 Lr3 I bought for $500, that I drove home. Since then I have put about $2500 into it, deferred maintenence, parts, tires, etc, and it still does LR3 things but for the most part I have it working pretty well.
I doubt the two problems are related. If it's been sitting for any length of time it will probably have drained the battery and it won't crank, might not even with a jump, or the ridiulously designed terminal are not delivering the electrickeries, LR3 things.

 

If you can get the price down it might be worth a gamble but the story seems... implausible. The owner bought it from someone who was both a) a dealer and b) known to the seller, but when the car immediately crapped out within one hour of driving it (e.g., driving 60 miles), the seller didn't push it back onto the dealer? Possible of course.

 

OP said "on the way back from a trip" not while drivng it home from the dealer and that it had been doing fine, you would still expect there to be some pushback at the dealer but the timeline is a bit fuzzy!

Anyway you go, it has to be cheap.

 

Thanks for the input. I am on the fence about it because it is in ok cosmetic condition but not great. She is currently asking $1500 for it and I tried to talk her down to $500 but that did not go well.

Like I mentioned in the original post she bought it 10 months ago and had been fine for her until this trip. Still thinking about it but honestly I have enough I need to do on mine I really don't need another project.

 

No matter what she paid for it, $1500 is too much, unless you needed $1500 worth of parts from it.

By the time you paid $1500 for the LR3, $1100 for the motor, fluids and incidentals, you're now at least $3K into it before you even know what else might be a problem It's too much money for a profitable flip, and if you spent that money on yours you'lllhave one really nice rover and not two mediocre ones.