Steve001

iTrader: (7)

Having Just Registered, my first post to this site may get a bit of flack! petrol heads etc etc.....

I followed the ECOTEK post and the subject of warranty was not resolved, anyone got an answer to this? Anyway back to my subject, the ECOTEK whatsit gives better fuel figures, thats good, but has anyone considered an L.P.G. conversion to a Scooby? Thrash around at half the cost!

Robertio

iTrader: (1)

Steve, I think quiet a few people have considered it, however, there appears to be soem debate as to how advisable it is to run a turbo car on LPG, some installers say fine, others do not agree. To the best of my knowledge there is no setup that has been approved for the Impreza yet, which means you would have to pay to get the conversion doe out of your own pocket, the better part of £2k.
Regarding running costs, it is almost 50% cheaper, but you should expect to see a 20-30% reduction in your mpg running on lpg (based on a few articles I have read on lpg in other cars). Unless you do an astronomical number of miles you would have to keep the car for years just to break even.
But if you visit

robski

Also, as advised on Driven last night, you will invalidate your manufacturers warranty (should you have one), and I would certainly expect an aftermarket "warranty" to use it as a get out clause

robski

church_monster

20 to 30% reduction in mpg, s**t man that would make my car do about ........bbzzzz...zzzappp..bbzz
....12mpg you'd be off yer head, on trip from london to scotland would involve filling up about 4 or 5 times...and I bet you could'nt find 5 garages on the same route that had LPG....back to the drawing board or tow a trailer with an huge LPG tank (this will probably then make your mpg about 4 or 5 LOL).....

Steve001

iTrader: (7)

Thanks for your quick reply Robertio.

I must admit at this time I am a 'Wan-a-be' Scooby owner, I am considering a Jap import STI in a years time and keep the car for 3 - 5 years (if I dont kill my self first ) It will be the ULTIMATE company car! I do about 20K miles a year so if it can be done I should get me money back (I think there may be some tax breaks for company users of LPG) also there is a 50% Gov grant for new cars (I will see if I can get the site address for you and post on my next visit).

On the subject of the debate, I was speaking to a owner of a very tasty Evo IV the other day and he said the Mitsy would handle it no probs and you could ever tweak the boost as LPG burns at a lower temp (allegedly) Any Tech friend out there?

See ya Steve

Robertio

iTrader: (1)

Just a quick note, but that 50% Gov grant, is up to 50% on cars which are on the approved list, which is a Scooby free zone

Steve001

iTrader: (7)

20 - 30% reduction on mpg? if this was the case no one would use it! I think its more like 10%

No Scooby on the list for grants - May be if enough of us ask that might change (yeh alright)

London to Scotland? Easy just tow ya caravan with extra tanks and if you got some left for the cooker make a nice cup of tea.

Robertio

iTrader: (1)

The 20-30% applies to normal driving, the 10% everyone goes on about is the amount they achieve just after they switch over from petrol, and are driving a little more carefully than normal. I have only seen a couple of write-ups by people who have used lpg over a long duration, and both have commented that that the difference was larger than expected. This may or may not be the norm, but I would hate to change over then find out later, better to have a plesant surprise than a nasty one

A car cannot appear on the grant list until a conversion has been carried out on that type of car and tested to find out the efficiency of the conversion, it is after this that the percentage awarded is decided, so unfortunately there is not much use in a lot of people asking about it
(from memory, so may not be entitely correct)

A final point to recognise if you ever head in to Europe is that the tunnel is an lpg free zone, with such a car you have to take the ferry

Gary Foster

Even if you run the tank out and switch back to SUL ? (Thought all these conversions were dual fuel)

Gary

Robertio

iTrader: (1)

Gary, don't know what the exact wording was, but I think it was along the lines that if you had a tank fitted you were taking the ferry

Paul Wilson

It would actually be impossible to run the yank "dry" as even when empty the tank would contain gas at one atmosphere, and thats not allowing for the fact that you can't even get all the lpg out.