I have found a nice 2006 H3 for sale and am thinking of buying it. It has 140,000 mile on it. Here is where your thoughts come into play. The salesman says when below a 1/4 tank of gas it idles rough and check engine light blinks. My question is this.. Is it one that may be getting ready to have head problems? And yes the vin number does fall into the ones that had head problems. Or is this just another problem? YOUR THOUGHTS PLEASE.

 

I'm no mechanic and I don't have a lot of experience working on vehicles, so with that caveat in mind, I think it could be a fuel pump issue. It sounds like there's not enough pressure once the fuel drops below a certain amount and the pump is struggling to keep up with the demand. It could just need to be adjusted or it could be going bad or it could have nothing to do with it. lol

With that being said, I shy away from buying vehicles that have known pre-existing problems. I would keep looking if it was me.

 

Thanks H3DONIST I kinda feel same way on shying away from known problems. It seems to me there is alot of H3's out there so I may keep looking. Thanks for the response....

 

A good reputable dealership makes sure all issues are taken care of before ever putting a vehicle out on the lot.

if it were mine I would be checking fuel pressure, replacing the fuel filter, check fuel pump..... But I wouldn't want to be faced with these issues unless the price was very cheap, since it hasn't even been diagnosed yet.

Just bad business to me.

 

I think I would stay away from that one unless it is fixed before you buy it None of those issues are normal. Could be as simple as a dirty throttle body or MAF sensor or as serious as the head issue. That still doesn't explain why it only does it below 1/4 tank. I think the previous posters may be on to something with the low fuel pressure theory. By the way there is no fuel filter to check. I would keep looking. 2007 and newer have the 3.7 engine which is a little peppier but I would not be afraid to buy a 3.5 if it did not fall into the VIN range of the bad heads or the head had been replaced. I owned a 3.5 that did fall into the bad head range but totaled it at 15K without any issues. A large number in the range have never had the head issue. I have also owned the 3.7 and now the 5.3 and have enjoyed each one of them. if you are patient, the right one will come along. Good luck.

 

they still run at 140000!!
thats inspiration for me, who no longer wants to worry about fixin on a regular basis. just approaching 32000!

i am suspicious about the "1/4vtank stuff"

 

There is a fuel filter. It is on the fuel pump. It can get plugged up and inhibit the flow of fuel. Unfortunately if it is plugged up you just have to replace the whole fuel pump because they don't sell the filter separately. On Some vehicles where the filter is attached to the pump they do sell the filter separately, but not on an H3. The pump can actually still be good and the filter be bad, but most likely if the filter is plugged enough to slow the rate of fuel flow it is probably making the pump work harder and the pump usually goes not too long after repllacing the filter on these types of pump/filter set ups. So, you can actually check the filter, just not replace it, but after all the work of getting to it at that point I would replace the pump.

 

Happy Three, ours is almost at 140,000. Drive it everyday, average 24,000 miles a year. Still looks and runs like new. Learned from an old friend who told me a vehicle that "sits" idle most of the time will have a lot more problems than a vehicle that is driven everyday. I believe this to be very true.

 

I knew that but didn't want to confuse the issue. You are correct, as it is an none-serviceable item, if you've gone that far you may a well replace the pump.

 

I was thinking the same thing. I didn't want to confuse, but probably did. Bottom line, I wouldn't purchase the vehicle, not from that kind of a dealership.