Does anybody have trouble with there engines running on LPG

[the crowman]

Hi all thinking of getting a motor LPG as i do 1200 miles a week to work what's the pro's the easy one is cheaper fuel but what about the con's.

Cheers Mark

Edited September 13, 2012 by the crowman

[webber]

LPG is my business, my son converts vehicles.

Ignition systems do need to be in good order, and some engines are certainly better than others.

My company fleet runs on LPG, some of the vehicles have close to 300K miles on the clock, most with a 2nd. engine due to wear. My Rangie has just clocked 200K, 150K of those miles were done on LPG, I had a new injector rail fitted yesterday, its the first replacement part on the LPG kit since it was fitted 6 or 7 years ago if you don't count an annual gas filter which costs less than a tenner.

 

If you do the milage and intend to keep the car go for it, but don't go for the cheapest conversion that you can find. There are massive differences in the quality of equipment, tanks and conversion technicians.

 

Feel free to PM me with what you have in mind and I'll try to ensure that you don't get cought out.

 

webber

[HDAV]

A mate had a factory converted LPG astra it was cheap to fill and twin tank range was 750 miles LPG he got 350 ish to a tank (depends on temp as they fill by pressure not volume) IT was auto switch over and started on unleaded he had it a few years and put plenty of miles on it. Downside reduced boot space, less power, LPG filling stations bit limited. Morrison's and Countrywide were the best places to fill up (or the local calor/LPG depot). Having known a few other people with them they can throw issues with ECU's and sensors as the burn is different to unleaded. What sort of car are thinking? New/used? NOt sure what conversions are being done these days but Vauxhall and Volvo (Cmbo,Astra,Zafira, S60/S80) came with LPG options.

 

SOme info here: http://www.nextgreencar.com/lpg-cng.php

[al4x]

fortunately our last astravan got written off earlier this year, the only reason we had them was for the congestion charge exemption, from experience heads needed re building after about 80K running on gas. Then gas injectors went about 100k and most other sensors seem to last far less time on gas at £600 a set we then just ran them on petrol and made the most of the congestion charge benefit. As said power is noticeably down and the engine does need to be in good nick to start with, personally I wouldn't touch it again and you can see by no mainstream manufacturer offering a factory conversion anymore that it has been too much agro for them to continue with and it hasn't taken off as predicted. With the offerings reducing we are seeing filling stations packing up offering it and thats round London where the congestion charge makes it more viable than anywhere, with that exemption being removed I can see not many people bothering. With the efficiency of diesel and the new smaller petrol engined cars if you are doing mega miles it isn't an option any more. However if you want to run something with a large petrol engine and you don't do mega miles it may be worth thinking about.

[houlsby]

I loved my old berlingo when I first got it, 40k later it used to just **** me off.

 

It's no cheaper than a good derv, I now have a combo van that's more fuel efficient.

 

It was a single point system, so inlet used to randomly explode from time to time..

 

Engine will overheat in traffic as its connected to your cooling system

 

Ran like a dog and eventually blew up during heavy rain. (developed a misfire and then went kaboom and **** oil allover the a19)

 

Filling stations are far apart down south (nearest one to Brighton were I was working, was Woking lol)