Andrew
Member
Registered: 5th May 04
Location: Skoda Octavia Estate, Ford Puma
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Who has had one of these fitted?
How reliable will my car be once one of these kits are fitted and what are the gains? Was looking at doing this years ago but took the company car option.
Looking at 40% savings from the figures stated online. Decent money to be saved on the 130k i plan on doing over the next 4 years.
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taylorboosh
Member
Registered: 3rd Apr 07
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What car?
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Andrew
Member
Registered: 5th May 04
Location: Skoda Octavia Estate, Ford Puma
User status: Offline
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1.6 308 Sport
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Corsa_Sport21
Member
Registered: 13th Apr 08
Location: Leven, Fife. Drives : 205 GTi
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Will it not make more sense to buy something more economical, or do it to a car more worthwhile.
I can't imagine a Peugeot of all cars, doing a smooth trouble free 130k+ miles.
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Andrew
Member
Registered: 5th May 04
Location: Skoda Octavia Estate, Ford Puma
User status: Offline
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Just kit 20k, i'd like 150k on the clock without any major issues 
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taylorboosh
Member
Registered: 3rd Apr 07
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not a small petrol engine anyway.
Id buy a hdi one instead, probs be faster
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BluKoo
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Registered: 8th Apr 02
Location: Stonehaven (Scotland)
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I have LPG on my 2.8 Passat.
It uses about half a tank of petrol to a full tank of gas as it runs on both at the same time.
Being a 2.8 and 4WD I average about 17-19mpg, so I really need lpg 
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Andrew
Member
Registered: 5th May 04
Location: Skoda Octavia Estate, Ford Puma
User status: Offline
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Reliable?
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taylorboosh
Member
Registered: 3rd Apr 07
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Headgasket issues on a lot of converted cars iir
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BluKoo
Member
Registered: 8th Apr 02
Location: Stonehaven (Scotland)
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Andrew
Reliable?
On really cold days it takes longer than normal to switch over to the lpg, and once or twice it's been so cold it just won't run on lpg at all. The gas never gets up to the required temperature, but that's very rare.
It's a little less powerful when running on lpg, but hardly noticeable.
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Andrew
Member
Registered: 5th May 04
Location: Skoda Octavia Estate, Ford Puma
User status: Offline
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What i'm reading is going over my head! I don't know anything about engines
The installers are going sell me any old system becasue they want a sale...
What Taylor is saying about Head Gaskets going sounds about right.
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BluKoo
Member
Registered: 8th Apr 02
Location: Stonehaven (Scotland)
User status: Offline
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Well i've done about 15k miles in the Passat since I got it. It's now on just under 60k miles and it's never had a problem as far as i'm aware.
I think the system has been fitted since new too.
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tom_simes
Show Staff
Organiser: South Wales
Premium Member
Registered: 12th Jan 05
Location: Undy, Newport Drives: Skoda Octavia vRS estate
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People normally fit LPG to thirsty cars to make them more reasonable, like the Passat mentioned about and Jambo's old Jeep.
If you're going to be doing 130k don't bother fitting LPG to your 1.6, as it'll be even more underpowered. Just chop it in for a diesel that'll do the mileage comfortably.
Also be aware that there will be next to no residual value on a 150k mile 308 with LPG, whereas a standard diesel model with the same miles would be much more appealing I'm sure.
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Ste
Premium Member
Registered: 5th Mar 03
Location: Taif, Saudi Arabia
User status: Offline
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i do around 500 miles a week so fitted a kit to my vectra (1.8 petrol) in March this year. Did it myself with a complete kit off auto gas lpg
this kit infact
http://autogas-lpg.co.uk/full-cunversion-kit/374-autogas-conversion-kit-lpg-full-kit-tanks-includes-0157.html
Took a full day to fit then had a few teething troubles from rushing it like a plug not fitted right and forgetting to put a vacuum feed to the reducer.
Once it was done though it just took a drive round the block with the laptop on it and it auto senses what settings it should use and then is always fine tuning itself.
Kit cost £488 delivered and included a new tank that went in the spare wheel well.
In 14 weeks it had paid for itself.
Vectra costs £76 to fill the petrol tank which averages 433 miles
£28 to fill the gas tank which averages 280 miles
Petrol costs me 17.5p a mile, gas costs 10p a mile. I also need to put a tenners worth of petrol in a month as it runs on petrol alone till it is up to 30 degrees then gas alone after that.
Ive had no noticeable performance change and even use gas towing. the oil comes out cleaner now it's on gas
only issue is every so often i get an engine light which is a fuel trim fault. basically, the vectra ecu trying to alter the mixture but it can't as the injectors are disabled by the gas ecu. this clears after a day or if i plug in the fault code reader.
other than that it's perfect for me
I would rather lose by a mile because i built my own car, than win by an inch because someone else built it for me.
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Andrew
Member
Registered: 5th May 04
Location: Skoda Octavia Estate, Ford Puma
User status: Offline
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Simlar sort of figures Ste.
I phoned this place today: http://www.leedslpg.co.uk/
Guy didn't get back to me. Way i see it, the kit fitted will pay for itself after 6 months or less. One of the better cars i've owned and if i got diesel would have to get something a bit smaller and lower spec.
Does anyone know if my car is direct injection? Guy i spoke with did say if it was DI the conversion could not be done.
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Corsa_Sport21
Member
Registered: 13th Apr 08
Location: Leven, Fife. Drives : 205 GTi
User status: Offline
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It most likely won't be DI.
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BluKoo
Member
Registered: 8th Apr 02
Location: Stonehaven (Scotland)
User status: Offline
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I wish my system ran on lpg alone. That would make things a whole load cheaper!
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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Can't you get the car mapped to run on LPG alone?
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Ian
Site Administrator
Registered: 28th Aug 99
Location: Liverpool
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They normally need starting on petrol until everything is warm enough.
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taylorboosh
Member
Registered: 3rd Apr 07
User status: Offline
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Log is higher octane so can actually run higher power than petrol too
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taylorboosh
Member
Registered: 3rd Apr 07
User status: Offline
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Should've said car would need a map for it though
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BluKoo
Member
Registered: 8th Apr 02
Location: Stonehaven (Scotland)
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by pow
Can't you get the car mapped to run on LPG alone?
I don't know. I don't think the system I have is designed for that.
When we first got the car we thought it would run on LPG alone, but it seemed to be using fuel too, so as an experiment me pulled the fuse for the fuel pump when the engine was running. There was a slight change in the ide and it was severely underpowered.
I think it's designed to use it's a 70% LPG - 30% petrol.
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Ste
Premium Member
Registered: 5th Mar 03
Location: Taif, Saudi Arabia
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Ian
They normally need starting on petrol until everything is warm enough.
Water temp needs to be above 30 degrees C to keep the regulator from freezing up. In the summer, the engine can be off for a few hours and start on gas alone
I would rather lose by a mile because i built my own car, than win by an inch because someone else built it for me.
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Bonney
Member
Registered: 14th Nov 04
Location: St Helens
User status: Offline
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Only thing that runs on gas that I have had experience with was a truck that run on lng (liquid natural gas) which was pretty strange! Used a small amount of diesel and the gas mixed
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Sam
Moderator
Premium Member
Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
User status: Offline
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I could probably do with LPG for the V6, although I'm not so keen on changing two head gaskets if it causes problems with both heads
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