my poorly car
Author
Discussion

nc67

Original Poster:

38 posts

199 months

Monday 20th February 2012
quotequote all
oh bugger, my x300's very poorly, took it into garage last week, its got lpg conversion, and was running pretty poor, down on power, lost all its mojo,expecting it to be pretty simple, like an injector or at worst a new mixer, the guy rang me, told me , down on compression on three cyinders,then said my engine was junk, i am totaly gutted, but on way home from garage, i gave it the full beans, and it just took off, like it used to, the next day, i went out in it, it struggled to start, 3rd time,on the key, again she drove fine, went to go to work today, and she would'nt start, so looks like she mite be terminal after all, not a happy bunny

Steffan

10,362 posts

254 months

Monday 20th February 2012
quotequote all
nc67 said:
oh bugger, my x300's very poorly, took it into garage last week, its got lpg conversion, and was running pretty poor, down on power, lost all its mojo,expecting it to be pretty simple, like an injector or at worst a new mixer, the guy rang me, told me , down on compression on three cyinders,then said my engine was junk, i am totaly gutted, but on way home from garage, i gave it the full beans, and it just took off, like it used to, the next day, i went out in it, it struggled to start, 3rd time,on the key, again she drove fine, went to go to work today, and she would'nt start, so looks like she mite be terminal after all, not a happy bunny
The symptoms you describe are very odd.

If its really down on three cylinders there is no way the car would suddenly burst into life.

Clearly something is awry.

Either test it yourself or take it to another engine man and preferably on a Rolling Road.

Worth a second opinion particularly if it is coming back on power, surely.

nc67

Original Poster:

38 posts

199 months

Monday 20th February 2012
quotequote all
well i did wonder, the reason i thought the gas system was at fault, was because it wouldnt pull under load, flicked it onto petrol , and away it went, its just because now its struggling to start, which its never done before, but yesterday when i came home, floored it, went to treble figures no problem,

Steffan

10,362 posts

254 months

Monday 20th February 2012
quotequote all
nc67 said:
well i did wonder, the reason i thought the gas system was at fault, was because it wouldnt pull under load, flicked it onto petrol , and away it went, its just because now its struggling to start, which its never done before, but yesterday when i came home, floored it, went to treble figures no problem,
Get it checked in your presence by a decent garage.

If the compression is down then there is a serious problem.

If not its a fuel or fuel delivery problem.

Very possible with an LPG conversion.

You need a rolling road check.

smileymikey

1,446 posts

252 months

Monday 20th February 2012
quotequote all
Also check your fuel filters.... a couple of gallons of unleaded sitting in the bottom of a fuel tank for extended periods of time can produce a nasty gunk (sorry don't have a technical term for this). I've heard of it a couple of times on Range Rovers with lpg conversions.

jith

2,752 posts

241 months

Monday 20th February 2012
quotequote all
Steffan said:
nc67 said:
well i did wonder, the reason i thought the gas system was at fault, was because it wouldnt pull under load, flicked it onto petrol , and away it went, its just because now its struggling to start, which its never done before, but yesterday when i came home, floored it, went to treble figures no problem,
Get it checked in your presence by a decent garage.

If the compression is down then there is a serious problem.

If not its a fuel or fuel delivery problem.

Very possible with an LPG conversion.

You need a rolling road check.
No you do not that man! Where do all these misconceptions about rolling roads come from!

He needs a proper diagnosis, that has nothing to do with rolling roads. But I can tell you right now, that if he changed from gas to petrol and the car picked up, it is almost certainly a problem with the gas conversion.

I hate these things. Every Jag, Mercedes, and Range Rover I have had in with a gas conversion gives problems. They are just no worth the expense and constant problems.

J

elbandito1980

134 posts

204 months

Tuesday 21st February 2012
quotequote all
"I hate these things. Every Jag, Mercedes, and Range Rover I have had in with a gas conversion gives problems. They are just no worth the expense and constant problems.

J"

I'm currently driving my Dads old X300 3.2, he converted it to lpg 60k miles ago and it has never missed a beat. It's now got 162k miles on the clock, I'm using it as a daily driver and it's still going strong.


rswift

1,181 posts

201 months

Tuesday 21st February 2012
quotequote all
jith said:
I hate these things. Every Jag, Mercedes, and Range Rover I have had in with a gas conversion gives problems. They are just no worth the expense and constant problems.

J
A bit sweeping, bad or incorrect conversions are a pain, however they are not all like that. My X300 was converted at 80k, and was sold, running a treat with no engine work being done, at 325k....my current x350 has done 40k on LPG, and I would be surprised if you could tell the difference between LPG & petrol. It is however an expensive BRC conversion, fitted by someone who has been doing it for a few years with experience of these cars.

Anyway back to the OP. It does sound like the LPG system is your issue here. Has it ever been serviced ? it should have one, if not two filters which will clog (LPG isn't particularly clean). Should be done every 10/12k miles

Do you know if it is single point or sequential, i.e. has 6 extra injectors/fuel pipes. On my old Jag (Tartarini System, quite common on X300's) it had 2 inline stepper motors for fuel trim, if one of these has failed, or is gunned up it would cause the car to run on 3 Cylinders.

These engines are almost un-burstable, so if it has been looked after and had oils changes, and decent coolant as required I would doubt anything major.

What you need is a reliable/experienced LPG chap to have a look for you. Whereabouts in the world are you ?

Have a look at LPG Forum, more useful stuff, including recommended garages/mechanics on there.

fatboy b

9,665 posts

242 months

Wednesday 22nd February 2012
quotequote all
Steffan said:
If the compression is down then there is a serious problem.
Could be valves? That's not entirely serious. LPG conversions can have a tendancy to make valves slightly sticky. The JLR V8's suffer from this when LPGd.

nc67

Original Poster:

38 posts

199 months

Wednesday 22nd February 2012
quotequote all
what i dont undersstand, its just not starting, its just turning, but yesterday, when i got home from work, it burst into life, as if nothing was wrong, took it for a spin, it drove as normal, gas and petrol, went to it this morning , wouldnt start, {sorry neighbours at 3am} just turning over, just dont understand why one its fine and the next nothing

Steffan

10,362 posts

254 months

Wednesday 22nd February 2012
quotequote all
nc67 said:
what i dont undersstand, its just not starting, its just turning, but yesterday, when i got home from work, it burst into life, as if nothing was wrong, took it for a spin, it drove as normal, gas and petrol, went to it this morning , wouldnt start, {sorry neighbours at 3am} just turning over, just dont understand why one its fine and the next nothing
You need an experienced gas conversion specialist to assess the problem. Clearly it is NOT terminal or the car could not burst into life.

Get the car to a specialist. Modern cars, particularly gas converted modern cars, require specialist attention.

You will not sort this yourself.

Unless you are a skilled trained experienced gas specialist.

Or leave the car where it is. Up to you.

nc67

Original Poster:

38 posts

199 months

Friday 24th February 2012
quotequote all
I been to my mot station, the mot,er is a old friend of mine, described everthing whats been goin on with my car, he seems to think, that its the valves that are the problem, sticking or slightly worn, giving the low compression,intermitently, as he said, if it was pistons it wouldnt start at all, some times it will, some times it wont, so, now im either just gonna scrap it, or sell it as spares /repair, shame really, but just cant afford to have the head reconditioned, its a nice car, just passed mot as well, so any one want it?????

Steffan

10,362 posts

254 months

Friday 24th February 2012
quotequote all
nc67 said:
I been to my mot station, the mot,er is a old friend of mine, described everthing whats been goin on with my car, he seems to think, that its the valves that are the problem, sticking or slightly worn, giving the low compression,intermitently, as he said, if it was pistons it wouldnt start at all, some times it will, some times it wont, so, now im either just gonna scrap it, or sell it as spares /repair, shame really, but just cant afford to have the head reconditioned, its a nice car, just passed mot as well, so any one want it?????
Depends on price. How do you value the car?

nc67

Original Poster:

38 posts

199 months

Friday 24th February 2012
quotequote all
it would be nice to get as much as poss, just been out to it a couple of hours ago, and it started straight away , any hows just passed mot tax to end of april, its black, with cream 'ish leather , not mint but looks nice rear arches are spot on

Steffan

10,362 posts

254 months

Friday 24th February 2012
quotequote all
nc67 said:
it would be nice to get as much as poss, just been out to it a couple of hours ago, and it started straight away , any hows just passed mot tax to end of april, its black, with cream 'ish leather , not mint but looks nice rear arches are spot on
Good luck. I would be very upfront with the buyer. Hope it goes well.

Jaged

3,598 posts

220 months

Saturday 25th February 2012
quotequote all
I'd stick a bottle of redX valve lube into half a tank of petrol and run that until it's used then go back to LPG. 3 tanks of LPG to quarter a tank of petrol from now on.

LPG does not have any lubricating properties like petrol does.
Modern systems now have a lube. Injector to overcome this.

Your problems are becoming more regular and 40,000 miles seems to be the limit. Acording to my MOT chap.