Land Rover LR3: Fender Vent Minutiae

Land Rover LR3: Fender Vent Minutiae

The Land Rover LR3 is a wonderful SUV. It’s also cheap to run, provided you’re comparing it to a fleet of midsized warships, or possibly Denmark. But for all its flaws – and there are many – the LR3 has one interesting bit of minutiae that may slightly brighten your day when you see one on the road: its fender vent.

Note that I didn’t say “vents.” That’s because the LR3 has only one fender vent, located on its passenger side. Interestingly, the vent is actually functional: when you’re fording a stream of up to some ungodly amount of inches known only to the person who wrote the press guide, it allows the engine to breathe. In fact, this is where LR3 off-roaders (both of them) stick their snorkels.

It actually gets slightly more interesting: the LR4 – which replaced the LR3 in the same way the 2012 Civic replaced the 2011 model – has vents on both sides. Presumably, these are also functional, though no one knows because the LR4 hasn’t depreciated to the point where people are off-roading them. Give it another 30 days.

I’m not precisely sure what purpose this knowledge serves, except possibly that – if you were ever confused – you can now ascertain precisely which side of a Land Rover LR3 you’re looking at. Also, if you’re on the driver’s side, you can distinguish between an LR3 and an LR4.

And how else can you tell apart an LR4? Well, that’s probably a subject for a later minutiae column.

7 Responses to “ “Land Rover LR3: Fender Vent Minutiae”

  1. Mike Livshiz says:

    The LR3 is definitely a sweet SUV. My parents had one when I was a teenager and my brother and I would sneak it out and take it to construction sites and tear shit up. The interior was awesome, it drove well, it looked great. Everything about it was awesome, except… It broke down at least once a month. On several occasions, the doors locked inexplicably and stayed that way until the dealership had to cut into the interior panels to open them. The air suspension had to be completely replaced. Twice. There was more. Enough, in fact, that after the two year lease came to an end, my old man filed for the lemon law and got all his lease payments returned to him in one lump sum. So you could say that the LR3 was so good that it even was kind enough to return your money to you.

  2. Martin says:

    Engine and transmission were great on those things, but something went wrong with my dad’s once a year, the hydraulic suspension control, the control arms, the stereo, the blah blah blah blah. He still has the same one and it has over 150k miles on it, and he loves it. It costs him a minimum of 3k in upkeep every year though. I always thought the thing drove great, and in the flash floods in Texas, the variable ride height was awesome, but after a while I’d always get exhausted driving around something so big.

  3. Kyle says:

    I love asymmetrical design elements on cars. Veloster doors, eclipse/talon hood bump, the entirety of the Plymouth XNR concept. There’s a built in article for ya Doug. Asymmetrical Auto Design Greatest Hits. Or: Hot or Not; asymmetrically designed cars. Or: Did you know?; Asymmetry you might have missed on the road. They practically write themselves.

    • JMII says:

      As an ex Eclipse owner I agree with the hood bump. Before I bought the car I thought that’s where the turbo housing might be… but no, its just an exaggeration of the dual cam below. I honestly don’t think its needed or functional.

  4. michael adams says:

    The vent on the one side is fully functional. When fording a stream and in deep water you create a bow wave. As long as your speed does not cause the water to flow over the top of the hood, the side vent will receive no water. However, if water does enter the side vent it will drain away with little chance of it entering the engine.
    If I remember correctly the Mercedes W124 diesel also had the side vent. Tho I doubt it was for fording deep waters.

    • Doug DeMuro says:

      Hah! Actually, even littler-known-fact, the W210 had a vent as well! Obviously also not intended for fording water.

  5. Hank says:

    I’ve had my 2005 LR3 since new for 90,000 miles with zero problems. Never a breakdown or major repair. I just follow the maintenance schedule and have a dealer do the work. It looks and rides like new. I had more problems with my Mercedes.

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