LPG'd it - first impressions

[B19GRR]

Well with a whopping 30 miles under the belt now, after driving (escaping?) home from Corby, all I can say is blinder! I've not noticed any difference in performance so now I just need to drive lots to recoup the outlay. Had a BRC system with 70l doughnut tank fitted by Autogas Solutions in Corby for £1599. 70l is the biggest that will fit in the E39 wheel well, actually it's a tiny bit too big so the cover panel doesn't sit totally flush but I'm not at all bothered by that. The whole install is very neat with everything tucked away nicely. It'll go back after around 1000miles for a check over. I went with Simon (proprietor) to get the tank filled for the first time. Squeezed 59.9l in to the tank for a whopping £27, alas that was a dirt cheap 46p/l which is unfortunately less than I can get on my commute route, cheapest I've seen is 56.9p/l so I'll be force to pay maybe £34 a tank instead of £60

Cheers,
Rob

[Dino D]

Good to hear. In my 330 they could only fit the 45l tank....
I hope you have started a spreadhseet to detail all the fill ups and exact MPG per tank and give us nerdy updates. I will never admit to making such a sheet but If I do find it I will put up the figures for comparison.

[Dino D]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Nope and the OBC is a bit of liar anyway.
Interesting question though and wonder if it can be done. The LPG system has it's own ECU so they would have to be linked to talk to each other which will probably make it complicated...

[OctaneV8]

Nice one, is the filler cap concealed or showing? Enjoy it

[B19GRR]

I've already got a nerd-o-matic spreadsheet for the petrol side, so will be very interesting to see the average price drop on that sucker

On the OBC front, it still seems to be working, to be honest I wasn't expecting it to, or at least for it to go mental as I drive around without any drop in petrol. Currently showing a measily 22.2 but then I've only done 30odd miles across very windy back roads so far and had to test the performance when I could

The filler cap is showing, it's on the off side return of the lower bumper, doesn't look bad at all as it's colour coded, I can certainly live with it.

Cheers,
Rob

[B19GRR]

Here's some pics - I know, you can't contain your excitement






OBC has crept up to 22.9!

Forgot to mention Simon is a BMW enthusiast. Lucky bugger picked up an 850i over the summer in rare as hens teeth manual form for £3.5k, not mint but won't take much to get there, he just needs to get it LPG'd as it's doing 18mpg!! They also had in a '71 Rolls Royce, lovely looking old beast with a whopping pair of SUs feeding the engine. Nice to nose around that.

Cheers,
Rob

[Buzzkill]

So around 60 full tanks later you will have re-couped your money?

[B19GRR]

Buzzkill said:

So around 60 full tanks later you will have re-couped your money?

45 Tanks if I fill 60l at 56.9p, I think if my sums are right. According to my records I've filled up about 20 times in the last 3 months so maybe 8 to 9 months max to recoup. Actually that's probably all a bit off as it's not taking in to account the increased fuel consumption but it will be under a year. I've committed to keeping the car now, with just over 100k on the clock, FSH, running sweet as a nut and worth £2.5k if I got lucky I might as well stick another 100k on it.

Cheers,
Rob

[Dino D]

Nice job on the filler cap - very discreet. I had them put mine up on the wing of the car as I didn't mind it showing and I really didn't want to bending over that far at night at some dodgy Shell garage!!!
I quite liked it showing actually - it showed I knew something the others didn't. I nearly went as far as putting 'green' type stickers proclaiming my greeness but never got round to it.

Have you noticed that now you suddenly you have the ability to spot an LPG filler cap on other cars from a mile away and you seem to notice them on cars whereas before you wouldn't see it if someone showed you?

[4nonymous]

Dino D said:

Have you noticed that now you suddenly you have the ability to spot an LPG filler cap on other cars from a mile away and you seem to notice them on cars whereas before you wouldn't see it if someone showed you?

THis is exactly the same thought process when buying or looking to buy a car.

Got a mazda6 and all of a sudden all these mazdas were cropping up from nowehere, oh wait I was merely notcing them more actually!

[christer]

Dino D said:

I really didn't want to bending over that far at night at some dodgy Shell garage!!!

lol

[steve-p]

How did you only get 59.9 litres in a 70 litre tank? It will be interesting to hear what the drop in economy is. There's a good free iPhone app for recording nerdy fuel bills and mileage etc (VehiCal)

[D5SPM]

Prices vary widely as I'm paying 43p per litre.

[emicen]

steve-p said:

How did you only get 59.9 litres in a 70 litre tank? It will be interesting to hear what the drop in economy is. There's a good free iPhone app for recording nerdy fuel bills and mileage etc (VehiCal)

You cant get 70 litres in a 70 litre tank due to the mixture being liquid and gas and a small amount of airspace in the tank.

[dunc_sx]

OBC works fine with my LPG too

Dunc.

[B19GRR]

Hi all,

Had the first full run to work and back today and it seems to be running very nicely. The OBC is now showing 29.1, on petrol it was 33.6 with an actual measured average of 32.85 so fairly accurate. Worryingly though I'm down to the last green dot, happened at about 130 miles, trip is show about 170 now. I know these guages are supposed to be a bit useless but I hope I can get a damn sight more than 200miles out of a tank! Hopefully something will just need adjusting at the 1k check up.

Quinny, it had a full Inspection II service a couple of days before it went in for the conversion so I could be sure it was in tip top condition.

I haven't found any back street places selling gas dirt cheap unfortunately, aren't you far ooop north Quinny? You'd've thought as I live in ooo-arrr rural parts there would be more LPG places. Cheapest I've seen is 54 but that's east bound on the A14 so I'd have to have a grim diversion in the morning just to fill up there and save a quid.

Cheers,
Rob

[markbmw]

Quinny said:

Now if I see anyone at those 2 garages filling up I always tell em about the new fella just up the road

So as you approach you scan their forecourts for an active LPG pump. If any are spied, you indicate and pull in, park to one side, climb out of your car and walk over to the person filling up to inform them of where they can buy their LPG much cheaper? Or have I missed something?

[B19GRR]

Well just done my first fill. Was showing 300.6 miles when it started beeping at me and switched to petrol. Typically I was 10 miles from a station. Filled up 55.45l for £32.13, 57.9p/l. I'd hoped for a little further on the range front, mpg worked out at 24.6, OBC is saying 30 - curses! Hopefully though now I'm back into the commuting stride I'll see a slight improvement on mpg and range. It'd also be nicer to find a cheaper supplier naturally, of course everyone wants that for fuel!

Cheers,
Rob

[B19GRR]

Hope so. I'm sure I've also read that over time you get more fuel into the tank but that just doesn't make any sense. What I really want is to put less fuel in to the tank and go further

BTW where is your cheapo fuel stop Quinny just in case I'm ever lost.

Cheers,
Rob

[B19GRR]

Rats, wrong side of Cheshire! I'll be ooop Macclesfield way in a couple of weeks visiting the old folks.

Cheers,
Rob