LPG CONVERSIONS - REWIEW 5

Advantages: Save LOADS of money . Clean fuel . Grant assisted .

Disadvantages: See opinion

Recommendable Yes:

~ ~ With the unbelievably high cost of both petrol and diesel in Britain today, it is surprising that more people are not opting for the option of converting their cars to run on Liquid Petroleum Gas. This has been a popular alternative here in the Republic of Ireland for many years, and I personally have had four vehicles of mine converted in this way.

~ ~ There are major advantages to running your car on LPG. The first is fairly obvious, as it is only about £1.80 a gallon, compared to the cost of petrol at around the £3 per gallon mark. (Did I get that price right? Remember I don’t live in the UK anymore.) So if you convert to LPG your yearly running costs will be reduced considerably. I remember reading an article in one of the newspapers here that pointed out that it only takes the average motorist covering around 12,000 miles a year about nine months or so to recoup the initial cost of the conversion, and to start making big savings on their motoring costs from then in.

~ ~ The second major benefit is that LPG is a far cleaner fuel than petrol or diesel, and there is hardly any damage to the environment caused by the emissions. So if you value your lungs and the air you have to breath day in and day out, it makes sense to do your bit to stop pollution by having this conversion fitted.

~ ~ The Irish Government have been giving grants since the early 1980’s to any motorist having their vehicle converted. I can’t speak for the cost in the UK, but here it ranges from about £200 to £600, depending on the car you drive and the complexity of the job. My first conversion was on a 2 Litre Renault 25, and my last on a 3 Litre Nissan Maxima, that I used as my taxi. The Renault only cost me the basic £200, as it had a straightforward caburretor engine, and was easy to convert. The Maxima was far more complex as it had a fuel injected engine, and cost me £550. Here in Ireland, most cars can be converted in a day, with only the more complicated jobs taking a bit longer.

~ ~ The old type conversions used to have a switch that you flicked to change over from petrol to gas, but the newer model kits now do this automatically. The car starts up on petrol from cold, and once the engine temperature reaches a certain level, it changes over to the gas. You still have the option to override this if you prefer however.

~ ~ There are other advantages as well. Because it is a far cleaner running fuel, it lengthens the time period between services. Say you normally change your oil and have a service every 10,000 miles or so. Running on gas, you can safely leave this until you have covered 15,000 miles, which saves you even more money. The modern kits don’t even leave an unseemly filling gauge stuck onto the rear of your car, and have a screw off attachment that you only need put on when you are filling up.

~ ~ I believe that the UK Government are now also giving grants to encourage people to convert, but only on cars that are under a year old. This seems a bit shortsighted, to be honest, if they genuinely want to promote the use of this cheap and clean alternative fuel. There is a website called www.est-powershift.org.uk that will give you details of the grants available if you are interested in looking into this further.

~ ~ There are a few disadvantages as well, that are worth mentioning. The first is the size of the additional fuel tank that has to be fitted. It’s not so bad in an estate car, but in an ordinary saloon type vehicle with a boot, it can take up an inordinate amount of space, and restrict the amount of luggage you can carry in a fairly dramatic fashion. But this drawback is surmountable unless you happen to have a requirement for lots of boot space. eg. A large family. It depends on the size of the boot in the first place. In the Renault 25, it took up a lot of space, as the boot wasn’t that capricious to start with. But in the Maxima, that had a boot that you could have a party in, you would hardly notice it at all.

~ ~ You also have to be a bit careful that you don’t burn out the valves on your engine. Gas doesn’t have the same lubricating effect as petrol or diesel, and if you run the car non stop on LPG then you run the very real risk of doing some serious damage to your engine. This is easily avoided by the very simple remedy of running your car for about ten miles a day or so on petrol.

~ ~ Running on LPG also adversely affects both your mpg and performance. You will get about 15% less miles per gallon on gas when compared to petrol, but this is more than compensated for by the lower cost of the fuel. As an example, (and this is extremely accurate as I keep strict records) with the Nissan Maxima I was getting about 60 miles to £10 worth on petrol, compared to 110 miles per £10 worth of gas. That’s close to double!!!

~ ~ As for the performance. You will lose about 10% on your acceleration. In a big car with a powerful engine you wouldn’t even notice this tiny loss, but it can be more pronounced in a smaller car. If you really want to let it rip though, you always have the option of flicking the switch and going back to running on petrol.

~ ~ One last point. I remember in the 1980’s travelling home to Edinburgh, and the only place in the city that I could fill up with LPG was in a caravan centre somewhere in Corstorphine. Bit I believe that the situation is vastly improved now, and that there are more and more garages starting to sell this fuel.

~ ~ Give it a bit of thought, folks. If you run a car with an engine that’s bigger than 1.6 litres then it’s definitely well worth your while.

PS. An afterthought. If you are really interested, and wanted to know if LPG is available in a garage in your local area, then visit the following website.