bi-fuels and main stealers

[MrP]

if i remember correctly, the person who mentioed it had a 3rd party conversion, so i doubt that the same method would work on a bi-fuel

i had error codes read a while ago and it flagged up that the coil pack on cyl 5 was duff, so that was replaced, the situation improved slightly, but nothing really noticeable.

the can (and does sometimes) run ok, it will accelerate and cruise, its these flat spots and times when there is nothing that bother me.

i did wonder about ETM problems, but for some reason the pressures is the one that makes most sense to me, however, i'm sure that volvo will charge me a kings ransom to correct it

[Bigcheese1]

You have my sympathies Mr P, having been fleeced by Volvo myself. If you do have to resort to the main stealers try to negotiate a reasonable fixed price before they start (ever the optimist).

Of course you might have more duff coil packs, though at £60 a pop this is no cheap fix. Might be worth whipping them out for a quick visual inspection.

Relieved to say my bi-fuels behaving itself at the moment, just remains to be seen how long this lasts for. Maybe you could start my survey off for me MrP – What brand of petrol did you fill up with last?

[MrP]

generally its sainsburys super unleaded (as its only 20l at the max i always put super unleaded in) althought it sometimes shell/bp petrol.

the gas vary's, todays its been the shell up the road from where i work in newcastle, alot of the time its a independant garage on my way into work. when were in france its only filled at motorway service stations as a rule.

the reason i think the problem is pressure releated is that all the flat spots tend to be worse when the tank is half full or less, when its full they are still there, but not as bad.

[Bigcheese1]

I know what you mean about the fuel pressure Mr P. There was a time when my problems seemed to get worse as the tank emptied and had me thinking along similar lines. However I've had many occasions since with no connection, so in my case at least, I think it was just coincidence.

How’s your car running at the moment – have you had a chance to investigate the fuel pressure?

Thanks for the petrol info by the way.

[MrP]

no, unfortunatly i had to cancel the slot with volvo due to my wife breaking her ankle!

i've filled the gas side from a shell garage recently, which has made no difference to the running of the car.
sometimes its fine, others its an absolute pain in the arse, so i think i can rule out fuel quality.

the petrol side needs its service now, so i'll see if anything there makes an improvement (plugs etc) however as it gets done by an independant they cant cant do anything on the gas side

[hoddo]

What a super thread to have found. My wife and I are looking out for a V70, 04 to 55 plate, and have only been looking at the diesel option. Earlier in the thread it mentions a chap at Autogas in Thirsk, I'm reasonably close, but knowing so very little about engines etc. and the cost of petrol, we haven't bothered to look at petrol cars. ( Long sentence, take a breath)

With this thread I'm now moving back to petrol engines with the view that perhaps a LPG conversion could actually be a good choice.

So, would you manage to get a petrol V70 to start reaching the mpg you'd find on a diesel say on motorway runs? And is there any performance hits by the conversion?

Must be honest, getting mildly excited at the prospect!!

[MrP]

right,

performance :- no, you "shouldnt" lose any, however there maybe a slight loss, and i find that gas tends to be a little torquier than petrol.

economy :- because of the way gas works you actually use more (about a third more), however as its alot cheaper its ends up working out cheaper. if you managed 25mpg on petrol, i'd say you would be looking at about 20mpg on gas.

so you get swings and roundabouts. most people however then double whatever figure there getting to to give a sort of "if i was paying petrol prices this is the economy i'd be getting" which personally i ignore.

other stuff :- you do need to plan jouneys so you go past or near LPG stations as they are noteverywhere, this is especially trus if your going on holiday in the car or something. and you need to make sure that you have your 3 adaptors with you if your on the continent. you also need to price in getting the system serviced every 12 months. if its a thrid party system its normally a quick check, if its a factory system you need to leave it for a couple of hours as they are a bit more complicated.

[capt jack]

4 years ago, I wanted a diesel V70 auto - but could not find anything decent, with reasonable miles at a reasonable price.

Answer: Buy a petrol car and have the gas conversion at Autogas 2000 Thirsk. Petrol cars cost less than the diesel equivalents, specs are higher, and miles generally lower as they are more likely to be privately-owned from new, rather than being ex-company hacks.

120,000 gas miles later (170,000 in total) I still have a brilliant fully-specced car (auto box, leather, ecc, alloys, etc etc etc) that I would not swap for all the tea in China.

I get 25-27mpg on gas, which even at today's higher gas prices, equates to a cost of just 9p per mile.

The conversion cost was recouped in less than 25,000 miles, and I reckon I've also by now recovered the full purchase price of the car.

Autogas 2000 are a BRILLIANT company. Last week, and for the first time in 120k miles, I had a problem with the LPG kit - a pressure valve had failed. Autogas 2000 fitted a new valve in less than ten minutes - at absolutely no charge. (By the way, HM QE2 also runs on LPG - her Roller was converted by Autogas 2000).

If you plan to keep a car for a good length of time - and as it's a Volvo why would you ever want anything else - then LPG makes a lot of sense.

Downsides? There is a marginal loss of performance, but not really significant. You lose the spare wheel well - but hell, a V70 has a huge boot anyway! I still keep a full size spare in a black nylon zip-up case and have never been stuck for boot capacity. You get the LPG filler cap - but that can be sprayed up to match the car.

I've never had any problem in finding LPG filling stations, and anyway, if you did run out of gas the car still runs on petrol! Range with mine is between 250 and 280 miles on LPG, plus the 450 or so on petrol, depending on how it's driven.

I've owned and driven many cars over the years, including 10 other Volvos, a Merc, Hondas, Fords, Vauxhalls and a Peugeot. This combination of a V70 and LPG is without doubt the best automotive decision I ever made.

Join the elite - go Volvo, go LPG!

Cheers

Jack

[capt jack]

A further thought.

If an LPG-powered V70 does 25 mpg (and mine does) at 49p/litre, that works out at a fuel cost of less than 9p per mile.

In petrol terms the same car would need to return 46 mpg at 90p per litre, or a diesel car 53 mpg at £1.05 per litre to return the same pence per mile figure.

There is no way in the real world that any petrol or diesel V70 could come close to those mpg numbers.

According to our local dealer web site, a 2.4 litre petrol V70 returns on average 30mpg, an equivalent spec diesel around 36mpg. This is equal to 14p per mile on petrol, 13p per mile on diesel at current fuel prices.

Best of all, see if you can find a car that's already converted. The purchase price will be about the same as the petrol-only car - if you can find one!

Jack

[davew]

Just to pop back to the issue about stuttering on LPG.

When I first got mine converted it used to stutter when I floored it, and every now and then would cut back to petrol. This was always when the gas was under half left.

I took it back to the garage that did it and it was down to the amount of pressure the vaporiser allowed. He connected the car to his laptop and increased the pressure (just turn the alen screw on the vapouriser) and its been fine since.

I dont think you can just adjust the screw at home, maybe its a bit more scientific than that, but it was only a 10 minute job at the garage and we had a quick road test after. All was done under warrenty but if you were to pay it would probably be about 30mins labour (£20)

As for the equivalent milage comparison I have done lots of tests with mine.

I can tell you at the minute the comparison for 300 miles (my weekly commute distance) =

16.5 mpg on LPG @ 46ppp for 300 miles = £38.05
21mpg on Petrol @ 90ppp for 300 miles = £58.50

Meaning I save £20.45 per week just going to work and back.

I can say also that my s80 T6 can get from lancashire to Bournemouth cheaper than the better halfs 1.2 ltr Micra MY08

Power wise, my car has been on the dyno before and after LPG and also before and after the RICA 320 tune. I had the petrol power runs done and just before he took it off the rolling road we flicked to LPG and did a quick run. ...... It was down 2 BHP. It does run fine on LPG with the tune BTW..