Converting to LPG

[Miyazaki]

Hi

Have been giving some serious thought to converting my car to LPG. It would cost me about £1000 to do the job on my 1998 Honda Civic 1.4i I reckon.

What sort of mileage per year would I have to do to make it worthwhile, and is LPG going up in popularity or down? Thing is, don't want to pay all that dosh, only to find in 12 months time there are no garages selling the stuff.

I have had the car 18 months and have done about 20,000 miles in it. I see myself owning the car for another 5 years at least, as the mrs car is the one due for the next upgrade.

Thanks

 

[hornydragon]

a mate has factory LPG astra 1.6 16V costs 7p a mile in fuel 26mpg on gas 50 litre tank does just shy 300 miles LPG costs have gone up over the last 6 months and IMO your mileage isnt high enough a 1.4 Civic should get good MPG there are other ways to reduce running costs i guess this has something to do with the new job mate.......... Which bit of the west country you in? Any where near Thornfalcon?

 

[Miyazaki]

Never heard of thornfalcon. I live near plymouth mate.

My civic does 180 miles on £30 worth of normal unleaded. Is that good or bad?

 

[p9ul]

The father in law has it in his Megane Scenic. he reckons its about the same mpg as normal unleaded but it is far cheaper to buy.

The tank for the stuff renders the boot completely useless though - I mean a people carrier with the boot space of a moped?

 

[mh123]

Quick sums, round numbers.

Assuming LPG at 45p/litre and unleaded at 90p/litre, as it is round our way.

Assuming 35mpg - typical of a 1.4-1.6 medium sized motor.

You'd need to do the best part of 20,000 lpg miles to get your £1000 investment back. After that, you're winning.

Not sure what difference an aftermarket conversion would make to the resale value of the motor... I'd expect that if it was covered by a warranty it should add at least a few hundred back on? Not sure I'd buy a 2nd hand non-factory lpg though...

Just don't plan on taking an lpg-powered motor through the channel tunnel without a shedload of hassle..... you have been warned!

 

[mh123]

My civic does 180 miles on £30 worth of normal unleaded. Is that good or bad?

My rudimentary maths makes that 24mpg???? Blimey! Do you use 3rd/4th/5th gear at all? Or is juice VERY expensive round your way? I'd be mighty upset with 24mpg unless I was driving something very big and very flash!

 

[hornydragon]

My rudimentary maths makes that 24mpg???? Blimey! Do you use 3rd/4th/5th gear at all? Or is juice VERY expensive round your way? I'd be mighty upset with 24mpg unless I was driving something very big and very flash!

I do 350 miles to £30 of diesel LPG wont help if your economy is that poor as you will get less with LPG regardless of how you drive. My mates astra was 4750 3 years old 60k on the clock we get business mileage allowance and 20k miles paid for the car and LPG to do 20k (not including insurance, tax maintenance in that)

 

[Chumpy]

IIRC I read somewhere recently that Fuel economy when running LPG is up to 25% less than your regular petrol or diesel fuel economy, so you need to factor this in too.

 

[klr10]

My Grand Cherokee 4.7V8 cost £2000 to convert 18 months ago. It has a 95 litre tank that will do about 300 miles, so depending on the cost of lpg (currently about 40p/litre) is about half the cost of petrol. I guess you lose about 10% fuel economy and about the same amount of power. It is also a much 'greener' fuel and apparently is better for the engine I'm told (less deposits etc). I am at the 'break-even point' about now, hope this helps, Keith.

 

[Miyazaki]

Thanks for all the help.

My car doesn't seem very efficient at all really!

I don't rag my car at all, it won't let me anyway, the engine is far too small to even begin to act like a boy racer. I can't understand why it does such poor MPG.

 

[paul1967]

get a garage to put the sniffer up the exhaust pipe looks like you've got a problem

 

[mcfarfs]

Sorry to hijack here, but in my Zetec engined 1.25 Fiesta I get about 160 miles to £20. I take it from your reactions to GG's fuel efficiency that its not very good?

I always assumed it to be ok, but my Mums 2.5L turbo Discovery gets about 110 miles to £20, so I did think I should get more.

 

[MartinImber]

My last (written off) car was LPG - fuel bills were halved.

I will be fitting the kit to my new car

 

[mh123]

Sorry to hijack here, but in my Zetec engined 1.25 Fiesta I get about 160 miles to £20. I take it from your reactions to GG's fuel efficiency that its not very good?

I always assumed it to be ok, but my Mums 2.5L turbo Discovery gets about 110 miles to £20, so I did think I should get more.

Well.... quick maths based on 90p per litre suggests you're getting about 32-33mpg.

Parkers suggests 45mpg for the 1.25 Zetec (current model) so on the face of it it does seem like you might need to get it checked out... Mind you there are LOADS of factors that affect fuel efficiency, the biggest being lots of short round-town trips. Certainly worthy of a bit more research...

http://www.parkers.co.uk/choosing/specs/data.aspx?model_id=238&id=30202

 

[shahedz]

My last (written off) car was LPG - fuel bills were halved.

I will be fitting the kit to my new car

HI Martin

are you going to salvage the LPG kit from your old car and put it in your new one? or a brand new kit?

 

[blicky_1]

Hi,

I had my 2002 MB E200 Kompressor converted to LPG (dualfuel) in September last year, fuel costs have halved!! A 67ltr tank has been fitted where the spare wheel used to fit (now have a space saver in the boot) My system is the 'AG' multipoint (4 gas injectors) with ECU system. Performance is the SAME as petrol. Gas kicks in at 60 degrees from cold there fore I still have to put £10 of unleaded in per mth. lol

I used to spend around £500 per mth. on unleaded now spending around £260 on LPG. I do around 30K miles per year. To make the sums add up you need to be doing at least 20K per year.

Unleaded tank = £50-55 to fill up = 290-320mls
LPG tank = £21-24 to fill up = 280-300mls

Conversion cost £1600 in an APPROVED gargage with LPGA cert. (needed for insurance) It took a week to install. Services are due every 12 mths. and cost around £100 in addition to your normal servicing.

LPG garages are everywhere, usually one in every town and most motorway services. Prices in my area range between 37ppl to 44ppl.

Since Sept. I have paid back well over 1k for the conversion, just another month to go and I will be around £250 per mth. better off!! Well I would have been but since I have found this forum I have spent over 2k on a plasma and other bits!!

Any questions regarding this please ask or PM me.

Steve

 

[stealther]

My rudimentary maths makes that 24mpg???? Blimey! Do you use 3rd/4th/5th gear at all? Or is juice VERY expensive round your way? I'd be mighty upset with 24mpg unless I was driving something very big and very flash!

Hes already told you he lives near plymouth so when hes not sat in trafficjams he sat behind some old dear doing 35mph down country lanes.

How do you work out mpg? I do about 380 - 400 miles on a £40 tank of petrol. I think thats pretty good

 

[MartinImber]

HI Martin

are you going to salvage the LPG kit from your old car and put it in your new one? or a brand new kit?

It was removed and is now in my garage.

Autogas Worldwide (the Romano importers) will be able to advise

 

[mh123]

How do you work out mpg? I do about 380 - 400 miles on a £40 tank of petrol. I think thats pretty good

Pence per litre * 4.54 = pence per gallon.

So assuming £0.90 per litre, £40 buys you 40/(0.90*4.54) or 9.79 gallons. So if you're getting 380 miles out of 9.79 gallons thats 38.8mpg.

 

[Miyazaki]

Cheers guys.

I have got a new exhaust recently, both middle and back boxes replaced, so still can't work it out really.

Where would I take my car to get the MPG sussed? Cheers!

Stealther is right, I live near Ivybridge, and commute to the centre of Plymouth every weekday.

 

[ahjaz]

Hello mate, I am thinking about buying ang converting a e200 k to lpg. I wanted some info if you can help. my number is 07779 324277 (evenings). I will call you back. thankyou very much in advance if you are able to help.

jaz

 

[mattlad]

Never heard of thornfalcon. I live near plymouth mate.

My civic does 180 miles on £30 worth of normal unleaded. Is that good or bad?

Very bad.

The only way this method will work is if the price of petrol (& diesel / lpg) is eternally constant (WE WISH!!!!!)

Next time you fill up brim the tank reset the tripmeter, then do your regular drive using your normal driving style.
When you then next need to fill up brim the vehicle again. The divide the number of miles on the tripmeter by (the number of litres /4.454) and this will give your true M.P.G.

 

[Daddy k]

ahhhh circa 500 miles for £30

gota love vag tdi's

 

[Ed Selley]

It seems I'm getting 45mpg from a gently knackered and slightly overdue for a service Fiesta that spends its life on the M1. Not as shabby as I thought .

 

[Daddy k]

result

does a to b without breaking down in the middle, for little fuel, and keeps you warm and dry what else could you want?