Range Rover P38 4.6 - problem popped up.

[E36Rob]

Good evening,

I have owned my P38 for around about 3/4 years and it has treated me well, never skipped a beat apart from little niggles. Always serviced and only does low number of miles per year 2/3K max.

I took the car out before xmas due to the snow and everything was working fine until yesterday. I started her up and it sounded like only 4 fired and the car wobbled quite violently. I left it for a few seconds to see if the rest would fire but they didnt and i noticed a fair ammount of black smoke exiting the exhaust so i turned her off.

Due to being in a rush yesterday i did not further investigate so i went out this evening to take a look and try again. She fired up but again not fully then within a couple of seconds died. I then tried to turn her on again but now there is no firing at all.

There is no warning lights or error messages on the dash, the petrol light is on but not empty. Had only just come on when i returned from my trip before christmas. The car has water/antifreeze in so no chance of being frozen.

Does any of this sound like a common fault or does it sound worse? I plan to go and buy new plugs tomo and quite possibly replace the oil but am a little worried then engine has just given up on me and im not quite sure why!

Any pointers or help would be great so i can start looking.

Kindest Regards

Rob

[Dozey Ranger]

I wouldn't believe the fuel gauge! Put some more petrol in with the new plugs, i reckon you have picked up some debris or perhaps water/ice, then try again!

[slideways]

check the crank sensor and housing they have a tendency to move and cause erratic firing, also check all the leads and coil packs

[David W.]

and when you get if fixed check it's not getting water in the boot spare wheel well as mine did. It gets in on the left somewhere and does for all the sound stuff behind the LH boot panel. Be warned it can be expensive to put right.

[ChrisRS]

A few years ago i left a 6 cyl BMW parked up for about 4 weeks, when i left it the fuel light had only just come on, When i tried to start it i got nothing, I messed about with loads of stuff including fitting new plugs, in the end i put £5 of petrol in it and away it went, worth a try!

[Turbodiesel1690]

Just wondering if you got this problem sorted?

[E36Rob]

Well, sorry for the slow update.

I ended up sticking more fuel in and it did fire up, thank god! But it still seems to be smoking a little. I havent had a chance to change plugs and filters yet but i will get around to it hopefully soon.

Main thing for me was that it wasnt a total failure.