Took the car back to Warrington Autogas for it's service a couple of months ago.
It turns out that the service is less of a service and more of a "safety inspection" with a gas filter change.
As an amateurish mechanic I could have done this myself, possibly not conduct a thorough and professional gas inspection, but certainly change the gas filter, which I found here http://lpg-kits.org.uk/shop/lpg-filters-service-kits/cat_38.html for £14, so I don't think I'll bother with the services in future.
However, one positive thing that came out of the service was that Andy, flashed my ecu with the latest map. From what I could see happening, it appeared that the new map for the lpg ecu allows it to communicate with the car's ecu more effectively.
Anyway after this new map, there was no stalling, no kangarooing, no loss of power anywhere. The car runs perfectly on gas now, just as if it was on petrol. In fact, sometimes after i've filled up and am still running on petrol, I forget becuase it runs so well on gas now.
In short it's good news, but it should really have run like this from the beginning, given the price. I suppose the main thing is that its fixed now and running perfectly! Now all I need to do is sort out the water leak!
View the whole blog here http://lpgdreams.blogspot.com/
Monday, 3 August 2009
Monday, 23 March 2009
As a little update, having lived with the LPG conversion for about 9 months I can safely say the following
1) I would NOT recommend warrington autogas for a conversion. My slightly unusual car was enough to completely fox them and require many trips back to get it running right. Possibly they have no trouble with standard 1.6 focuses and normal astras, but one slightly different (and my engine isnt even that unusual) car like mine and there was no end of problems.
2) If Warrington Autogas are the best of a bad bunch, I hate to think what the worst of the bunch are like.
After repeated trips to Warrington Autogas I still have the following:
A) Lumpy idling. This does not happen on petrol.
B) Intermittent stalling. Every now and then you'll just coast up to a junction and find you have to restart your engine, again, doesnt happen on petrol.
C) A gauge which is neither use nor ornament. All indications of remaining LPG are to be done through the trip counter. Repeated attempts to have this fixed bore no fruit whatsoever. Not only that, the gauge wasnt glued down, so comes loose, that will be another job for me to fix in time.D) The car is still dropping water somewhere. It wasnt doing this before the conversion, so again this is another job i will have to fix.
3) In all honesty, bearing in mind Warrington Autogas were given repeated attempts at fixing my car, they really should have been taken to court for their poor workmanship. All I had in way of compensation was one lousy free tank of gas, which they tried to charge me for anyway before i argued with them.
Andy and the guys at Warrington Autogas are lovely blokes, but there are lots of lovely blokes around, few of whom I would trust to perform extensive and complicated work on the fuel system of my car. Andy and his colleagues are now firmly in that group.
Look at the engine bay after the install.
Note the gas distribution block not secured in any way and free to roam the engine bay.
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
Other problems
Oh yeah, forgot to say the other problems that occurred with the kit.
Firstly, the hoses connecting up to the coolant system werent even tightened! So it took me a couple of weeks to figure out why the car was losing all it's coolant. Not only that, one nasty occasion coming through preston in traffic caused the car to overheat, almost getting over 100 degrees (due to the lack of coolant).
Now fortunately I am technically minded enough to pressurise the coolant system to see where the leak was coming from, and i wasnt overly surprised to see that it was coming from the lpg system's additional parts. Had I been an unsuspecting customer I could have had an engine seizure, engine fire, or worse???
What is so frustrating is that I chose warrington autogas because of their long list of satisfied customers. Unfortunately, it seems that paying them £1275 plus credit card fee isnt enough for them to turn out a decent job :-( at least in my case anyway.
Firstly, the hoses connecting up to the coolant system werent even tightened! So it took me a couple of weeks to figure out why the car was losing all it's coolant. Not only that, one nasty occasion coming through preston in traffic caused the car to overheat, almost getting over 100 degrees (due to the lack of coolant).
Now fortunately I am technically minded enough to pressurise the coolant system to see where the leak was coming from, and i wasnt overly surprised to see that it was coming from the lpg system's additional parts. Had I been an unsuspecting customer I could have had an engine seizure, engine fire, or worse???
What is so frustrating is that I chose warrington autogas because of their long list of satisfied customers. Unfortunately, it seems that paying them £1275 plus credit card fee isnt enough for them to turn out a decent job :-( at least in my case anyway.
The battery died, due to the excessive amount of times the car needed to be restarted on a journey. By this time, i had completely stopped using LPG for over two weeks, switching over occasionally only to see if the problem was still present.
I bought a new battery, and it turned out that although the previous battery had held out perfectly acceptably for the past year of ownership (and through a winter period), it was the incorrect battery for the car, being 43ah instead of 60ah. So a bit of split culpability there, whilst i am confident the battery would still have worked without the additional strain of the LPG kit's failings, it could always be argued that the battery wasnt up to the job.
Anyway, I bought a new battery and went to fit it. Joy of joys, where the gas exchange unit had been bolted to the battery tray, it precluded access to the battery clamp. In fact it was screwed to the battery clamp itself, with a smaller than two inch gap to get access to the securing bolts (pictures to follow).
Had I known the lpg kit would have prevented the easy maintenance of user serviceable parts (such as the battery) I never would have had it fitted, and was never informed of this at any time during the installation.
After much swearing, the gas exchange unit was unbolted and the old battery was removed. When I went to fit the new (correctly sized battery), I was prevented from doing so AGAIN!
Turns out the mechanics at warrington autogas had seen the large space in the battery tray (which should have been filled by a correctly sized battery) and instead of thinking "that battery looks a bit small, maybe we should tell him to check it" they thought "thats a perfect place to fit our lpg ecu box!!!", thus preventing me fitting a new battery. I had to pull this out, and rest it in an unideal place to the right of the battery.
I phoned Andy at WA again, obviously unimpressed, and again, I received a load of "well that's strange, it shouldnt be doing that" and "you should be able to get to the battery". To his credit, he did advise me to get it straight in to him and he would try and sort it out so I will report back once I have!
I bought a new battery, and it turned out that although the previous battery had held out perfectly acceptably for the past year of ownership (and through a winter period), it was the incorrect battery for the car, being 43ah instead of 60ah. So a bit of split culpability there, whilst i am confident the battery would still have worked without the additional strain of the LPG kit's failings, it could always be argued that the battery wasnt up to the job.
Anyway, I bought a new battery and went to fit it. Joy of joys, where the gas exchange unit had been bolted to the battery tray, it precluded access to the battery clamp. In fact it was screwed to the battery clamp itself, with a smaller than two inch gap to get access to the securing bolts (pictures to follow).
Had I known the lpg kit would have prevented the easy maintenance of user serviceable parts (such as the battery) I never would have had it fitted, and was never informed of this at any time during the installation.
After much swearing, the gas exchange unit was unbolted and the old battery was removed. When I went to fit the new (correctly sized battery), I was prevented from doing so AGAIN!
Turns out the mechanics at warrington autogas had seen the large space in the battery tray (which should have been filled by a correctly sized battery) and instead of thinking "that battery looks a bit small, maybe we should tell him to check it" they thought "thats a perfect place to fit our lpg ecu box!!!", thus preventing me fitting a new battery. I had to pull this out, and rest it in an unideal place to the right of the battery.
I phoned Andy at WA again, obviously unimpressed, and again, I received a load of "well that's strange, it shouldnt be doing that" and "you should be able to get to the battery". To his credit, he did advise me to get it straight in to him and he would try and sort it out so I will report back once I have!
PROBLEMS
Have been having no end of problems with the kit.
Tried to get the cold stalling problem sorted at the 1000 mile service, all that happened was that the temperature change over was set higher, however, this was not the problem. The car was stalling at junctions in cold weather.
The gauge was also not sorted. Instead of reading empty when the tank was half empty, it was now reading half full when the tank was empty.
Also, I did not get any apologies, only "oh god thats not very good" and "yeah thats about standard for those gauges", but as it was the 1000 mile service, and this is when the creases should be ironed out I wasnt overly concerned.
Needless to say, I had to take the car back. This time, Andy (the owner) worked on the car instead of one of his colleagues. He sorted out the problem that I had of the fuel pipes rubbing on the bonnet (surely should never have been installed like that, as he admitted) and of the gas distribution box actually wearing its way all the way through the bonnet carpet (again should never have been installed like that).
Unfortunately, whilst the cold stalling problem was temporarily fixed (i.e. when the temperature was over 10 degrees C the car ran fine, under and it would stall at EVERY junction), as the temperature decreased (as it is winter) it became problem again. So much so that my battery gave up the ghost.
Tried to get the cold stalling problem sorted at the 1000 mile service, all that happened was that the temperature change over was set higher, however, this was not the problem. The car was stalling at junctions in cold weather.
The gauge was also not sorted. Instead of reading empty when the tank was half empty, it was now reading half full when the tank was empty.
Also, I did not get any apologies, only "oh god thats not very good" and "yeah thats about standard for those gauges", but as it was the 1000 mile service, and this is when the creases should be ironed out I wasnt overly concerned.
Needless to say, I had to take the car back. This time, Andy (the owner) worked on the car instead of one of his colleagues. He sorted out the problem that I had of the fuel pipes rubbing on the bonnet (surely should never have been installed like that, as he admitted) and of the gas distribution box actually wearing its way all the way through the bonnet carpet (again should never have been installed like that).
Unfortunately, whilst the cold stalling problem was temporarily fixed (i.e. when the temperature was over 10 degrees C the car ran fine, under and it would stall at EVERY junction), as the temperature decreased (as it is winter) it became problem again. So much so that my battery gave up the ghost.
Friday, 8 August 2008
The conversion is due its 1000 mile service tomorrow. I will be sure to bring up the only two bad points about the conversion so far.
1. The problem with the gauge. It reads empty when the tank is only half empty. Not so much of a problem to me, as I know how to read it now, but it would be nice if it was actually accurate.
2. The car cuts out at junctions when it's cold and the lpgs only just switched over.
I emailed andy at WA to arrange the service, and got a reply back after a few days, so will phone today to arrange a definite time.
Another thing on the to do list is to sort out the boot. Having the 60 litre tank means there is a large lump in the boot floor and I would prefer it to be flat. I think im going to make a false floor out of mdf.
1. The problem with the gauge. It reads empty when the tank is only half empty. Not so much of a problem to me, as I know how to read it now, but it would be nice if it was actually accurate.
2. The car cuts out at junctions when it's cold and the lpgs only just switched over.
I emailed andy at WA to arrange the service, and got a reply back after a few days, so will phone today to arrange a definite time.
Another thing on the to do list is to sort out the boot. Having the 60 litre tank means there is a large lump in the boot floor and I would prefer it to be flat. I think im going to make a false floor out of mdf.
Sunday, 27 July 2008
Results
Was slightly worried that my gauge read empty at 120 miles, however, the tank carried on to the 240 mile point without cutting out, so all was fine.
I have the following results with regards to mileage:
1st Tank £22.75 - 240 Miles - Price per mile - 9.5p
2nd Tank* £22.00 - 225 Miles - Price per mile - 9.8p
3rd Tank £25.60 - 273 Miles - Price per mile - 9.4p
4th Tank £26.18 - Not finished yet.
This is compared with a price of 17p per mile on petrol.
The reading for the second tankful was a bit funny because the station I filled up at (suthers star garage at longton), seemed to have a broken pump and after about 35 litres started going really slowly and it took about 7 minutes for the next 5 litres so I gave up at 40 litres. When I asked the girl behind the check out if everything was ok with the gas pump she said "Yeah I think so, noone else has complained; I'll make sure I tell some one about it".
I decided not to bother risking not being able to fill my tank up, so wont go back there!
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