Thinking of buying a car with LPG
06 March 2012, 08:43 PM
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Thinking of buying a car with LPG
Hello,
Been looking for a while to get another economical family car and have never considered a Scooby. But by accident the other day I selected all cars on Autotrader with my post code and this came up as it's a mile from my house.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/used-car...9964?logcode=p
Test drove it last night, lovely car to drive and it seemed solid enough with no rattles and while the switchgear did surprise me as it seemed like it was something from the 80's, it all worked and I have a 1991 MX5 so it was no big deal. It has full service history, LPG certificate and my 4 year old son loves it.
But I thought I'd ask the experts here for their opinion first before I buy it.
Cheers,
Jonathan
Been looking for a while to get another economical family car and have never considered a Scooby. But by accident the other day I selected all cars on Autotrader with my post code and this came up as it's a mile from my house.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/used-car...9964?logcode=p
Test drove it last night, lovely car to drive and it seemed solid enough with no rattles and while the switchgear did surprise me as it seemed like it was something from the 80's, it all worked and I have a 1991 MX5 so it was no big deal. It has full service history, LPG certificate and my 4 year old son loves it.
But I thought I'd ask the experts here for their opinion first before I buy it.
Cheers,
Jonathan
Last edited by Maluch; 06 March 2012 at 08:45 PM.
06 March 2012, 11:50 PM
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hello jonathan and welcome. Firstly i am not an 'expert' in LPG but I do have a little experience converting and running an lpg car myself.
I had a 3.0l V8 bmw 5 series and loved the grunt but loathed the fuel consumption. It was getting toward the end of its life, over 200000 miles to be exact, and had served its time and I am of an engineering background so I thought I would convert it.
The conversion costs were about £2000 professionally but I did my research and bought a 2nd hand (previously professionally fitted) kit from a similar model car and got the whole thing fitted in 3 weekends for about £300! The kit was fitted to LPGA regulations and I was lucky to have the company Tinley Tech local to me who are a big uk supplier/installer of LPG stuff who supplied new parts where needed and free advice!
As for running the car performed virtually identically to when it ran on petrol. My kit was an old indirect system but I guess most are now sequential kits that offer safer operation and better tuning/mpg. I used to start it on petrol and switch over manually with a switch in the car after about 10 yards of driving. Some systems allow starting on gas but mine wasnt advised but would in emergency. I used to switch onto petrol for the last 50 yards before stopping to prime the system for the next startup.
It went from doing about 25mpg to an equivalent of 39mpg. I say equivalant because it actually does less mpg on gas than petrol but because its cheaper to buy per litre you make a saving. At the time autogas was 50p a litre but petrol was cheaper too. I dont know what the figures are like now.
Some people worry about valve lubrication & valve seat overheating issues because. This is a bit random from what I can tell, some cars/systems suffer more than others but its a known issue. There are products to prevent this but I found they are expensive and may be 'snake oil' as some users still suffered problems. 'Flashlube' brand springs to mind. I never used it and did 25k without issue on an already very leggy engine but maybe I was lucky.
negatives...
-loss of either spare wheel or boot space for the tank,
-Takes longer to fill up with gas on older single hole tanks than petrol, later multi fill tanks are quicker. It used to take 6 mins to fill my single hole tank, and sometimes the pump would randomly stop before it was full but maybe that was just my car/install/garage.
-Filling squirts you with gas when you disconnect the filler. Never bothered me but my gf said it was scary and made her hands clothes smell so didnt like it!
-Some people are nervous about having a pressurised tank onboard. I knew a plastic tank of petrol was probably more dangerous however I still worried from time to time.
-if you have a problem of any kind and take it to a local (non lpg
experienced) garage they may be sceptical about the LPG causing the problem and not have the software to diagnose. Some mechanics plain dont like it because they either dont understand the technology, or it just makes their job harder because you basically have 2 fuel systems to contend with. Some are fine mind.
Benefits are
-cheaper fuel costs
-dual tanks for longer range (you gotta be really stoopid to ever run out of fuel!)
-If the kit is registered with congestion charge people I think central London is free if thats your area.
-If you have access to a bulk storage tank you will be a happy bunny!
In conclusion my experience was great fun but I have had a diesel since and given the choice I would pick the diesel over another lpg/petrol because there are some really sporty turbo oil burners out there now that dont frighten girlfriends or mechanics.
Subaru ownership is great and the folk on this forum are excellent so if you do go down this route you wont go wrong in that respect. Hope this helps.
I had a 3.0l V8 bmw 5 series and loved the grunt but loathed the fuel consumption. It was getting toward the end of its life, over 200000 miles to be exact, and had served its time and I am of an engineering background so I thought I would convert it.
The conversion costs were about £2000 professionally but I did my research and bought a 2nd hand (previously professionally fitted) kit from a similar model car and got the whole thing fitted in 3 weekends for about £300! The kit was fitted to LPGA regulations and I was lucky to have the company Tinley Tech local to me who are a big uk supplier/installer of LPG stuff who supplied new parts where needed and free advice!
As for running the car performed virtually identically to when it ran on petrol. My kit was an old indirect system but I guess most are now sequential kits that offer safer operation and better tuning/mpg. I used to start it on petrol and switch over manually with a switch in the car after about 10 yards of driving. Some systems allow starting on gas but mine wasnt advised but would in emergency. I used to switch onto petrol for the last 50 yards before stopping to prime the system for the next startup.
It went from doing about 25mpg to an equivalent of 39mpg. I say equivalant because it actually does less mpg on gas than petrol but because its cheaper to buy per litre you make a saving. At the time autogas was 50p a litre but petrol was cheaper too. I dont know what the figures are like now.
Some people worry about valve lubrication & valve seat overheating issues because. This is a bit random from what I can tell, some cars/systems suffer more than others but its a known issue. There are products to prevent this but I found they are expensive and may be 'snake oil' as some users still suffered problems. 'Flashlube' brand springs to mind. I never used it and did 25k without issue on an already very leggy engine but maybe I was lucky.
negatives...
-loss of either spare wheel or boot space for the tank,
-Takes longer to fill up with gas on older single hole tanks than petrol, later multi fill tanks are quicker. It used to take 6 mins to fill my single hole tank, and sometimes the pump would randomly stop before it was full but maybe that was just my car/install/garage.
-Filling squirts you with gas when you disconnect the filler. Never bothered me but my gf said it was scary and made her hands clothes smell so didnt like it!
-Some people are nervous about having a pressurised tank onboard. I knew a plastic tank of petrol was probably more dangerous however I still worried from time to time.
-if you have a problem of any kind and take it to a local (non lpg
experienced) garage they may be sceptical about the LPG causing the problem and not have the software to diagnose. Some mechanics plain dont like it because they either dont understand the technology, or it just makes their job harder because you basically have 2 fuel systems to contend with. Some are fine mind.
Benefits are
-cheaper fuel costs
-dual tanks for longer range (you gotta be really stoopid to ever run out of fuel!)
-If the kit is registered with congestion charge people I think central London is free if thats your area.
-If you have access to a bulk storage tank you will be a happy bunny!
In conclusion my experience was great fun but I have had a diesel since and given the choice I would pick the diesel over another lpg/petrol because there are some really sporty turbo oil burners out there now that dont frighten girlfriends or mechanics.
Subaru ownership is great and the folk on this forum are excellent so if you do go down this route you wont go wrong in that respect. Hope this helps.
07 March 2012, 12:14 AM
#3
Hi there we are run few months LPG on our Impreza,but after few problems i wouldn't run again,simply its not worth hassle,rather buy cheap 2nd hand car and enjoy Impreza when you are want.
Price for fitting LPG AC-300 Stag cost around from £800-£1500(£2k is too much for conversion),no free congestion charge,you must still pay £10 if you want enter to the congestion charge zone,lower tax maybe(on our one we are paid £10 less).
If you want go route of LPG install too Flash Lube kit,or ask for installation.
We are done on our LPG kit 10k miles and if its worth,yes if you want save some money on fuel,but on longer run subaru engine are not build for run the LPG...
Jura
Price for fitting LPG AC-300 Stag cost around from £800-£1500(£2k is too much for conversion),no free congestion charge,you must still pay £10 if you want enter to the congestion charge zone,lower tax maybe(on our one we are paid £10 less).
If you want go route of LPG install too Flash Lube kit,or ask for installation.
We are done on our LPG kit 10k miles and if its worth,yes if you want save some money on fuel,but on longer run subaru engine are not build for run the LPG...
Jura
19 March 2012, 10:56 AM
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Is this the death of LPG conversions on ej20 and ej25's ?
Have others come to the same conclusions?
Or is this just relevant to the AC-300 Stag conversion?
Questions questions...
Have others come to the same conclusions?
Or is this just relevant to the AC-300 Stag conversion?
Questions questions...
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