fuel starvation on incline

[jel014]

Wondering if anyone else have had this happen to them?

I was traveling this July 4th weekend to San Francisco. I had about 5 Gallons of gasoline left in my tank (80 miles on Range). I was parked going downward on a 20-30% (estimated) hill waiting for my friend to lead the way to our destination Then after about 2 min of parking the car stuttered and soon stalled. I try multiple times to crank the engine, but of course it wouldn't turnover. I got passengers out of the car then begin to think that the car might be out of fuel (bad fuel gauge or something). Because i was in the middle of the road, i had to roll my way down to the side of the street with handbrake (foot brake doesn't work unless the system was fully on). As soon as i got to a flat surface, I try to crank it up again and the car turned over. I immediately got some more gasoline (Took about 18 Gallons to full), and tried parking the car on the same incline for a good 10min and the problem didn't happen again.

Has anyone ever experience something like this? Our full tank is about 24 gallon right? So I should have around 5-6 gallons of gas left in my tank? Seems kind of weird a SUV built for going up and down mountains would die of fuel starvation with 5 Gallons left. Anyone want to take a stab on what the problem might be? I'm gonna call LR this week, and see if they ever had this problem occurred with other customer.

My wild guess would be that due to the low-fuel, and heading downward at that angle cause fuel starvation. Could it be a design flaw or just some fuel pump of some sort not working properly. Anyway, I just want to share this with you guys to see if anyone had this problem before.

To sum it up (just got the vehicle about 3 weeks now) what a great SUV, smooth ride all the way up and down to S.F. plenty of power for passing and going up hill. Lots of room for my family and my dog. Navigation worked great. Very comfortable interior, I wasn't tired at all after the 6 hour drive. Haven't had any issues at all except for the small 'bug' I just found. Now my wife and I fill up the car whenever we can so we don't get stuck on an incline.

 

[w6000]

I believe the tank is 20 gal. You're bigger problem is why the foot brake did not work with the engine off.

 

[jel014]

I brought my car in for 7.5k mile service, and told them about the stalling issue, nav blanked out twice, and a minor problem of steering wheel squealing while turning from lock to lock.

The dealer scanned the codes nothing was found, and then started testing the fuel sending unit. Rear pump read 993 ohms and front was reading sporadic from 503 and 668 ohms. They remove the gas tank and gas tank flange and check the fuel senders. The front sender had fallen off mounting points. Replaced it and reinstall the gas tank. They also reset the fuel guage so now it should read properly. Previously it was reading incorrectly.

No resolution on the Nav blanking out and minor squealing steering wheel was fixed by lubing the spindle stops.

They were also kind enough to reprogram/update the ECU because I told them that fixed the stalling issue for some of the members on this board.

Just want to add thanks to everyone who helped me out. Taking the car out for some long drives on labor day , hope all the issues will be resolved.

 

[toddjb123]

Just curious, what "hand brake" are you talking about?
That dinky little electronic lever we have for a parking break? That'd be a shame...I liked the old manual ones better where I knew they would function with a dead battery and you could truely ease the break if you were in a situation that needed it. $.02

 

[jel014]

The "hand brake" meaning the little dinky thing that is controlled electronically. The problem with it like you said is you can't really controlled it, so it makes it really difficult to ease it down the slope. I was able to ease the car down the slope by engaging and disengaging it really quickly. The electronic device slowly engage's the emergency brake so you pull it up it slowly engages, then u let it down then it disengages, this way i was able to roll down the hill at a controlled speed. At least thats how I got around the problem.


I think "W6000" is right the bigger problem is why foot brake didn't work at all, maybe I was in a panic and everything went wrong. Maybe i needed to have the key on the start position. I'll test it out again when I get a chance, it just seems weird to me that foot brake wasn't working. It could see situation where this will become real dangerous. Personally I think its my lack of familiarity with all these new electronic controlled systems. Gotta love them manual days.

 

[Freeflytim]

People have reported sensor problems in the tank which could have caused this. Your Service Department can find out real quick with the Testbook by seeing what voltages the sensors are sending.

My EParkingBrake works with the key off everytime I park my Disco3.. I hit it everytime after I pull the key out.

 

[Colt45]

jel014 - - I had a problem with my nav system (no voice guidance and some screen display options not available). It took my local shop and LR Tech Support a month to figure out it was a problem with the cabling. (They replaced controller unit under seat, GPS screen, GPS antenna and finally found the cabling problem. Of course it took a ton of time to order and receive these parts and to change them out - and it turned out not to be the source of the problem.) I don't know if this is whats going on with your vehicle, but its something to check out if they come up with nothing after running their diagnostics. Good luck

 

[fbaer]

There has been a recall issued for fuel tanks on the LR3, I got this info off of the Disco3 website.

http://199.79.180.163/prepos/files/Artemis/Public/Recalls/2005/V/RCAK-05V376-4753.PDF

http://199.79.180.163/prepos/files/Artemis/Public/Recalls/2005/V/RCDNN-05V376-1657.PDF