Has anyone looked into it or gone through with it even?
I looked into it. I don't want to lose bootspace or my spare wheel (which my honda didn't come with... had to buy a second set of original alloys to get one). There's issues with leaks, certification, valve seat wear, etc. Unless you're going to do it to a fairly new Range Rover or some other big powerful petrol vehicle that's currently otherwise worthless, it's not really worth the trouble. I was looking at getting a 3 litre Subaru Legacy and LPGing it, but in the end bought the accord instead.
Say your petrol car averages 28 mpg. On LPG you'll get 25.5 mpg. At current prices (96p for unleaded, 53p for LPG): For every 1000 miles, you'll pay for £105 for LPG and £155 for petrol. A saving of £50. The cost of having the conversion done is ~£1500 (if you haggle) so to repay the cost of the conversion, you have to do 30000 miles or so. I haven't included any increases to insurance premiums in this calculation although they should be minor with a sympathetic insurer.
Also as Isaac said there are long term engine problems too. Isn't there also safety issues with having an aditional bomb in the back of the car other than the petrol tank?
Valve seat recession (VSR) is a problem but the differences between what would happen in a modern (ie suitable to run unleaded) engine using LPG and Unleaded is pretty minor. VSR will happen in both. If you're bothered by the issue, you can always use a lubricating additive with the LPG system. As for driving around with a bomb in the back. Well most LPG tanks have significantly better structural strength than a petrol tank so the additional risk of having an LPG tank fitted is pretty small. Yes, there was a case recently of the bloke who blew himself up by sparking up in his car which had a leak in the LPG line but that is the first time I've ever heard of a specifically LPG related accident. IMHO, the biggest pains of converting are: - Losing some of your boot space to a tank or losing somewhere to put the spare. - Having to go w/out a car for 3/4 days while it's being fitted. A good source of info is here: http://www.go-lpg.co.uk/ (Esp the FAQs). And before anyone asks, I don't have an LPG conversion (I run a diesel).
It depends on the car... Subarus are very popular as LPG conversions, but they do suffer valveseat problems and MUST have flashlube systems installed. I'm sure there are many cars it works great on, and factory bi-fuels are probably fine. It's just not a totally risk or problem free setup. A friend of mine bought a new car with a dealer-fitted system. A couple of years later the system developed a leak. The dealer had gone bust, as had the company that made the LPG system. That was a bit of a problem...
True, very true but lets face it, owning a car is not a totally risk or problem free experience and you don't need an LPG conversion to 'enjoy' that experience. If you are going to have a car,things will go wrong and it will cost you money. My advice? Mo! has the right idea - ask around and balance the risks with the savings. Personally, when I buy a car I assess the total estimated cost of ownership: current fuel costs and if fuel costs were to rise 50%, repairs (estimate, natch), servicing, insurance, VED and monthly repayments. What I don't do is splash out on an expensive car and then try and cut costs later - it's a false economy (breaks down more etc etc). And if circumstances change, reassess. I do get a bit anal about car ownership but it's worked for me so far
Unless he has upgraded I think Mo has a 12 year old SEAT Ibiza, so if he plans to upgrade this car it won't be worth bothering as the car can't be worth a lot more than £500.
:lol: Indeed. Just curious after seeing a report about it. With my cheap car, and relatively low mileage it wouldn't be worth it for me.
Indeed, it wouldn't be worth it on an ibiza. I'd say worth doing if you were spending 10-20k on a used legacy 3.0, range rover, Jaguar, etc that you intended to keep for 5 years or more. I came to the conclusion that it wasn't for me. My honda is so far proving to have lower running costs than expected so I'm happy enough.
Also if you want to save money adjusting driving style makes a huge difference. When I first got my car I was rough, I was over reving, leaving it late to change gears, speeding to 30mph only to have to then suddenly stop. I am now anticapting these more so slowly down earlier, changing gear a lot quicker and driving a lot smoother. I put £10 of fuel in when it was 96p, my tank was so empty it was below red, have done 77 all city miles and the needle is slightly above red. When driving rough it was empty by 60.
