converting car to lpg?

davidm_3

Hi,
we have a 2.3L 1999 Ford Galaxy automatic which is very expensive to run @ about 20 mpg. With petrol forecast to rise to £1.50 a litre I have considered converting to lpg as its greener and cheaper. The cost seems to be all in @ about £1600 - £2000. It would seem a smart move even as the car is in excellent condition we do about 6000 miles a year and plan to have the car for at least another five years (only 67000 on the clock)

Does anyone know any downside to converting e.g. lower engine performance or less capacity in the boot etc?

Also if anyone can recommend someone able to do the conversion in the Bristol area,

many thanks

David.

Purple_Peril

David

I don't know much about LPG conversions, but my car runs on LPG (manufactured that way).

Possible disadvantages:

- You will possibly have a smaller boot capacity as you need to have the LPG tank somewhere. My car (Ford Focus) has the LPG tank in the spare wheel well (so I don't have a spare wheel, but have to carry a can of the foam 'stuff' that you can use if you have a puncture) - this tank has a capacity of about 30 litres.

- You still need to run the vehicle on petrol occasionally to keep the engine clean, and running properly.

- Lack of availability of LPG, but as the engine is still capable of running on petrol this is not too much of a downside. Also, in the six months since I've had this car LPG has gone up at my local filling station from approx 48p/litre to 59p/litre (over 20% increase, which is more than petrol has gone up).

- Fuel consumption is not as good on LPG as on petrol, but it's still cheaper as the cost saving outweighs this.

flutterbyuk25

Hey,

No idea about the LPG side of it but just to let you know that it wouldn't qualify for the reduction in road tax as it is a pre-2001 vehicle so would be taxed on engine size not fuel type.

Good luck with it

x

freddykruggar

Purple_Peril wrote: »

- You still need to run the vehicle on petrol occasionally to keep the engine clean, and running properly.

Not true, you can run a car 100% of the time on LPG and there would be no problem, in fact LPG burns ALOT cleaner.
You only need petrol to start the engine when cold, and this is only for a few seconds.
I've had 3 cars on LPG, one converted and 2 factory, all excellent cars, the only problem I had was the tank wasn't big enough, because when you finally start using LPG you really dont want to use liquid gold fuel (petrol) it defeats the object and you just hate every mile on it!
currently on diesel, but that is only because the manufacturers are stopping making them from new.

Purple_Peril

freddykruggar wrote: »

Not true, you can run a car 100% of the time on LPG and there would be no problem, in fact LPG burns ALOT cleaner.
You only need petrol to start the engine when cold, and this is only for a few seconds.

I was only saying what it says in the handbook - being a 'mere' woman I tend to take notice of what it says in the instruction manual.

Fruitcake

davidm wrote: »

Also if anyone can recommend someone able to do the conversion in the Bristol area,

Bristol Autogas in Bedminster.

LLoyd Ash near Bridgewater on the A38

I have not had a conversion done so I can't comment on their workmanship, but I did make enquiries about a conversion. The price you were quoted seems about right.

I didn't get the conversion done in the end as my local specialist garage advised me not too because it can cause problems with certain older cars, in my case a 1973 Rolls-Royce.

One thing to note. LPG is cheaper than petrol but you need more of it per mile than petrol, so you will save about 1/3 on current fuel costs. The other thing you should do is work out how long it will take you to break even. If it is longer than the 5 years you intend to keep the car then there is no point in doing it.

At 20mpg and current fuel price of about ₤1.10 per litre, your talking very roughly ₤5 to do 20 miles. That's ₤25 per 100 miles, ₤250 per 1000 miles, which makes ₤1500 per 6000 miles, your average yearly mileage

If you saved 1/3 on fuel costs by converting to LPG it would be roughly be a saving of ₤500 per year to do the same mileage, so you are looking at a break even point of between 3 and 4 years at current prices. Obviously if petrol prices continue to rise then you will reach the break even point much quicker. This means that it will cost you more to run your car until you reach the break even point, but you will then save after that. Please don't rely on my figures as I could be wildly out with my sums and assumptions (in other words just dead wrong.)

LPG is cheaper than petrol, but diesel used to be a lot cheaper as well. Once diesel cars became more popular the price went up and it is now dearer than petrol. You cannot guarantee that it will always be as cheap, but it still produces less pollution per mile than petrol or diesel.

JuniperBerry_3

A few FACTS about LPG in cars.

Tax is locked at current levels for at least the next 3 years. It is a popular fuel in Europe so although it will go up at same rate as petrol it won't jump because of a tax hike.

It is a much greener fuel by any measure.

Although about 57p on forecourt there are places you can fill up where it is still around 50p a litre.

It makes no difference to fuel consumpton on a modern car.

It makes no difference to performance on a modern car.

The process of changing from petrol (which it uses for the first mile) to LPG is and back if you run out of LPG is fully automatic.

As it is a much cleaner fuel the engine will normally last longer - for instance when you do a 12000 mile oil change the oil looks like new instead of black as in a petrol or diesel car.

Cars built since 2001 are classed as alternative fuel and get a reduction in road tax of £15 a year (as less co2 out)

Currently exempt from London Congestion Charge (although like all the exemptions if Ken wins Thursday that will vanish later this year).


Downsides.
You normally loose the spare wheel space (that is where the tank goes) so have to carry a squirty puncture repair kit like you have with a lot of brand new cars.

Only about 1 in 20 garages sell LPG so may need to adjust your route but all locations can be downloaded to SatNav.

When in Europe (where LPG is common and cheap) you need to use an adapter for the nozzle, a lot of garages have them behind counter or you can buy them for about £10.

You are not supposed to take an LPG car through the channel tunnel but no problem with ferrys.

I've got no connection with the LPG business, just a very happy moneysaver who bought an LPG car almost by accident a few years ago and now wouldn't drive anything else.