S80 bifuel - now refuses to run on LPG

[mrbreak3r]

How succesful were you..? ive spent £500.. so far on this problem.. i wish i knew something about cars!

I just keep paying people to 'fix' it and everyone makes it run for a few miles then bang.. it stops and cuts through..

Is there anyone in that people can recommend in London or Surrey that would be able to understand all of this information and be able to fix the potential problem.. wheather and expert in the field/ in the trade/ or a recommended mechanic.. i will happily pay to get this problem resolved!

Many Thanks.
Alex

[Clan]

Originally Posted by mrbreak3r

How succesful were you..? ive spent £500.. so far on this problem.. i wish i knew something about cars!

I just keep paying people to 'fix' it and everyone makes it run for a few miles then bang.. it stops and cuts through..

Is there anyone in that people can recommend in London or Surrey that would be able to understand all of this information and be able to fix the potential problem.. wheather and expert in the field/ in the trade/ or a recommended mechanic.. i will happily pay to get this problem resolved!

Many Thanks.
Alex

get someone to look at the LPG inlet valve on the evaporator .. it is on the inside of the L shaped union which is screwed into the main alloy body where the LPG goes in after the solenoid valve , there is a sliding valve on the end which can stick , hence not opening and alowing gas in , the valve can be cleaned with scotchbrite or similar so that it slides freely . This valve is over looked by just about everybody , a simple and cheap fix if it is this ..

[cjr]

Hi Duncan

Sorry have not been notified of postings to this forum. Still have same LPG problems. Iam just learning to drive with it. Have recently moved, and can drive 15 miles on LPG,I switch to petrol then 25 miles later and a restarted engine and I can do another 30. Not best way I know, but reckon I could spend hundreds on LPG system, and still have an inherent problem.

Keep me updated and I will stay in touch if your still encountering problems.

[cjr]

Clan

Will look into your diagnosis. Thanks

[Bigcheese1]

Originally Posted by mrbreak3r

How succesful were you..? ive spent £500.. so far on this problem.. i wish i knew something about cars!

I just keep paying people to 'fix' it and everyone makes it run for a few miles then bang.. it stops and cuts through..

Is there anyone in that people can recommend in London or Surrey that would be able to understand all of this information and be able to fix the potential problem.. wheather and expert in the field/ in the trade/ or a recommended mechanic.. i will happily pay to get this problem resolved!

Many Thanks.
Alex

Is your car a factory fit bi-fuel model or does it have a third party lpg conversion?

What repair work have you had done so far?

[humphrey999]

I'm still having problems that I posted about in a separate thread. Car (MY04 S60 BiFuel, 90k) runs fine for about 20 mins then gas pressure fades and car cuts out. I run it on petrol for a bit then cycle the ignition and the car runs fine on gas. The garage replaced two (front and back) cracked solenoids and cleaned out the distributor. The car runs much better but i still have the cutting out problem.

No one seems to have mentioned trying to swap about the relay that controls the rear solenoid on the Rear Eletronic Module. Has anyone tried it? These symptoms seems to be typical of a solenoid coil overheating and the circuit opening. Could be the solenoids on the valves or could be the coil in the relay? Anyhow, I am going to try swapping the relays about to see if it makes any difference.
Cheers,
H

[humphrey999]

It was nothing to do with the relays - a new stepper mtor sorted my car.

for Gas4cars in Milton Keynes. Great job!

[humphrey999]

Mmmm, cut out again this evening. Grrrr.

[bendavies]

Sorry you're still having problems, humphrey999 (and others) - I really hoped the stepper motor had fixed it for you...

I sold on my 53 reg factory fit LPG S80 bifuel last year after a catalogue of problems with the gas system, and many many visits to independent specialists. It was all too much for me in the end.

My s80 would stall on braking, after running fine for many miles - it would do this at critical moments, sometimes leaving me without power steering and brakes at roundabouts or in corners. It would be fine for 200 or so miles on the motorway, then cut out coming into a service station. Mis-fires were common towards the end of a year leading up to an LPG service. Cleaning the system as described in other threads used to keep the problems at bay for a year or so, but towards the end, this wouldn't help any more.

I pretty much ran through every option suggested on these and other forums, without actually replacing the LPG distributor/ and or stepper motor - these would have been the next options. I'd opened and serviced the distributor a couple of times (a complete pig to get out), lubricated lightly with PTFE spray, checked smooth operation, replaced front and back (again cracked) solenoids, replaced filters, replaced lambda sensors, cleaned the evaporator inlet valve, cleaned/ checked ETM, changed MAF sensor, paid Volvo garage to update software, tried on a number of occasions to clean the system with carb/ injector cleaner (this had the most effect for the first couple of years worth of problems).

It does seem to come down to poor concept/ design of the distributor - the constant operating parts and motor seem to wear in a lot of cases. Volvo seem to only attempt to replace this entire part, at great cost, although the fact that this seems to solve the problems for those who have gone down that route (well, for a couple of years), tends to suggest that most people's problems are indeed within the distributor/ stepper motor assembly.

I suspected that the DFCO valve on the side of the distributor might be faulty in my case, although I never followed this up in the end. I gathered earlier in this thread that this valve operates during gas drive engine braking. Not sure if you can get this part separately. I never tried replacing the relay you describe, but have never read of that fixing any other car's problems.

I had an old ebay copy of VADIS, which listed the various fault finding procedures, and also showed how to adjust the pressure - this seemed a complicated process, involving a custom double Volvo pressure gauge, measuring pressure differentials? (from memory - I'm an electrician, not a mechanic!!) - this was certainly a more involved process than the various specialists I took the car to ever attempted (one tweaked the top of the vaporiser, whilst looking at live data displays, and listening to the engine tone - whilst others were reluctant to touch it at all). I suspected that precise adjustment in the correct manner might help the problem. I can possibly find the Vadis documents if you're interested.

Autogas 2000 Ltd up in Thirsk sell complete distributors, for a good price (£185) - in my case the stepper motor would have had to be swapped from this replacement for a custom design Volvo one (very expensive, surprise surprise). Chris Wise at Autogas 2000 was very helpful by email and phone, and had I been travelling up north, I would certainly have taken the car in to them to look at. I certainly recommend giving them a call for some advice!

I got sick and tired of other LPG specialists telling me that they didn't touch Volvo systems, or that they could only advise stripping out the "big end" and putting in a new system... that wouldn't work with the volvo fuel gauges for a start, and would void the car's congestion charge exemption. Autogas 2000 at least sounded like they knew the beast, and were willing to try and tame it...

I do miss the s80 - such a comfortable car - it got us to Tuscany and back a few years ago for my brother's wedding, without any LPG shenanigans. It purred along on the emptier autobahns south of Munich at 130mph, hugging the road beautifully. I chickened out of going any faster, but felt that it had more to spare. Circumstances changed, and I now own a Renault Grand Scenic, with a BRC LPG conversion. No problems yet, and a great car, but sadly not quite in the same class! I've been meaning to post my s80 problems in this board for a while, and never getting round to it. I'd love to know what actual percentage of Volvo Bifuel customers have NOT had any problems...

I sincerely hope that you fix the problem, humphrey999, without too much more stress and expense, and good luck to anyone else finding these threads with similar problems.

[humphrey999]

Thanks BenDavies, I appreciate your sentiments. Gas4cars have pretty much replaced everything on the system apart from the stepper motor and the DFCO valve and Stuart highlighted that these were the only two parts left to change that might cause the symptoms my car was showing.
In fact, we suspect that the new stepper motor maybe faulty because the car now cuts out about 10s after changeover - before I used to get at least 20 mintues - and now it does seem to run fine after the gas has started flowing again.

I'm willing to persevere beccasue I have had 60k of relatively easy motoring and I perceive it's having a crack, having said that I'm starting to think it's good money after bad and my wife is losing patience fast - even her Discovery 3 is a perfect example of reliability (...I've done it now). Shame, the car has never been running better...