Dear All,
Has anyone had any "bad experiences" after having an LPG conversion. I'm thinking of having my car "done" (Ford Escort). I've heard of the valve seat recession problem with Zetec engines, but, what about poorer running, over-heating etc. etc.
Any views, opinions graetly appreciated,
John
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On a small economic car like the escort you could never get your money back,unless you intented on doing 100000mls in the next two years.
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The only scare stories I've heard are from people who had the conversion done by an unauthorised dealer. In most cases, the cost to put the thing right was almost the same as the original conversion.
Andy
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Was covered by recent TV program. Only go to authorised dealers. Still reckon you would be better buying a diesel....
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Yep, take it from me, you'd be better off with an oil-burner....unless a generous, helpful person can fit the kit for nowt (ring any bells Guy?)
The conversion cost, £1000+ is a major hurdle IMO
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dunno but isnt the beauty of an lpg conversion that you can have any spec of car adapted ?
diesel cars tend to be restricted to one trim level in most car ranges
if you want the sports trim or whatever you have to get a petrol
also auto diesels are still hard to come by, and presumably would be no probs having an lpg conversion to any spec of auto ?
i know some of the rally training schools use lpg conveted cars that go like stink, dont think youd ever get that performance out of an oil burner
but yea if you want a bog standard trim level, and do enough miles to justify it, probably diesel is the option to go for
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OK - at the risk of sounding like a scratched record - here goes;
I can't understand why people think that small engines aren't worthy of LPG conversion. I run a 10 year old car converted to LPG and the kit is such that I could remove it and re-install in another car should I so wish. My car is a 1800cc Golf GTI and returns between 30-40mpg on both fuels - about 10% less on gas. Performance no different. If I wanted performance I wouldn't be driving a 10yr old 115bhp Golf would I?!!
I buy my LPG for 31p/L at Sainsburys 2 miles away (using my voucher for 4p off after my weekly shop) - there are 5 LPG refuelling stations within 10 miles of my house. At today's prices with unleaded at 76p/L it doesn't take a genius to work out the savings - regardless of engine size.
Let's assume I get 35mpg from petrol and 30mpg for gas -
Petrol - 35mpg @£3.50/gall = 10p/mile
LPG - 30mpg @£1.40/gall = 5p/mile (or 5.5p/mile @35p/L)
Installation cost of £1000 (I paid for parts only @£600) = 12,000 mile payback - or 20,000 miles at full cost.
I drive in excess of 20,000 private miles a year - i.e. it's all paid for now!
...........and the arguements against converting small engined older cars are???
It's not the size of the engine but your annual mileage that should govern the decision - larger cc vehicles simply reap the savings over fewer miles and enable you to drive that BMW 750 at 15mpg whereas on petrol the costs would be unsustainable.
Diesel - I owned a Peugeot 306 D Turbo and never managed over 50mpg and with diesel at a premium cost versus petrol never managed to justify the change from my 150bhp 16V Golf returning 38mpg to a diesel pushing out 90bhp and returning 45mpg at best - both were costing circa 10p/mile in fuel - this was when diesel was close to 90p/L. The performance was dire and the build quality appalling. The fitting of LPG to my current Golf has given me back the car I enthuse about so much with petrol performance without the costs.
I wouldn't convert a new or nearly new car as I have heard horror stories regarding fuel consumption and ECU failures - especially with vehicles such as Disco's and Range Rovers with the intelligent ECU's. My car has extremely crude EFI (Digifant) and, as such, does not suffer from switching from injection to gas fed into a venturi in the air intake. No cat, no lambda sensor. A new cylinder head would set me back beer money so there's nothing to lose - is there?
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