What is your experience of LPG Fuel

[Brian23]

Hi. I have seen a smart car that I like and it also runs on LPG. Is LPG a good thing or not? Do they switch fuels automatically or do you have to switch? Also is there any safety problems in an accident? Or is it the same as petrol?

 

[harrye500]

Hi Brian23, my partner had a Land Rover Freelander 2 with 3.2L petrol (I think a Volvo engine), some years ago. It was LPG converted and was excellent. Yes, it changed over automatically if set to auto. You could also manually change between petrol and gas. It always started on petrol from cold and if set to auto from start up, would switch to gas on its own when the engine was warm. When I think about it, it was rather good although the Landrover itself was terrible as bits kept falling off it! It wasn't a car we kept for long for that reason, but the LPG was excellent as was the volvo engine fitted in it!

 

[Brian23]

Hi Brian23, my partner had a Land Rover Freelander 2 with 3.2L petrol (I think a Volvo engine), some years ago. It was LPG converted and was excellent. Yes, it changed over automatically if set to auto. You could also manually change between petrol and gas. It always started on petrol from cold and if set to auto from start up, would switch to gas on its own when the engine was warm. When I think about it, it was rather good although the Landrover itself was terrible as bits kept falling off it! It wasn't a car we kept for long for that reason, but the LPG was excellent as was the volvo engine fitted in it!

Hi and thank you for the information. I will take a look at this car.

 

[Ron240]

Is it not rather unusual for such a small and economical car to have an LPG conversion?
The way I understand it LPG conversions are done to decrease running costs due to it being cheaper than petrol or diesel, so tends to be more common on (but not confined to) gas guzzlers.
The LPG tank is placed in the boot on most vehicles so luggage space is decreased, and space is at a premium on a Smart car.
A Smart car would be the last one I would expect to have an LPG conversion.

 

[Brian23]

Is it not rather unusual for such a small and economical car to have an LPG conversion?
The way I understand it LPG conversions are done to decrease running costs due to it being cheaper than petrol or diesel, so tends to be more common on (but not confined to) gas guzzlers.
The LPG tank is placed in the boot on most vehicles so luggage space is decreased, and space is at a premium on a Smart car.
A Smart car would be the last one I would expect to have an LPG conversion.

Thank you. I hadn't thought about space.

 

[harrye500]

Yes that's a good point on space. The gas tank we had was a circular doughnut shaped tank and was in the spare wheel well so it sacrificed carrying the actual spare wheel!

 

[s500colin]

I have a 4.7L Amazon Landcruiser that is duel fuel petrol/LPG, having just had an expensive engine rebuild I would suggest you check the car LPG system has been well maintained and the engine runs perfectly if it runs lumpy on tick over walk away as it probably has valve issues.
Garages that now stock LPG are very scarce and hard to find. To be honest I can't see there being any reason why you would install it on a smart car normally it is fitted to large gas guzzlers that do very low MPG

 

[LostKiwi]

I had a 3.4V6 Land Cruiser Colorado that was on LPG. The system worked well but as noted needs to be correctly set up.
Significantly reduced fuel costs but as noted above after moving to Northamptonshire my nearest LPG stockist was 25 minutes away making it impractical to run on LPG.
In the end it was sold because of that.

The LPG tank in that vehicle was under the boot floor where the fuel tank used to be and the normal fuel tank had been replaced with a much smaller one.

Also had a 3.9 V8 Range Rover with it. The tank in that one was behind the rear seats so took up a lot of boot space.

In both cars they did circa 18mpg on petrol and around 16 on gas but given the cost difference it made them effectively cheaper to run than a diesel.

I can't think of any reason to put LPG into a Smart.

 

[rorywquin]

I had a SAAB 95 on LPG. Tank was behind the rear seat in the boot. Seamless to use. It used petrol to start the car and then switched to gas. I got the equivalant cost/mpg of about 45mpg. I seem to recall that there are some long term disadvantages of LPG but ....I needed a car for a few months during a short stint in the UK. I purchased the car with 115,000 miles on the clock (had been a rep's car) drove it for 10 months without any problems.

 

[DREAMER NO2]

You would best sort out the local to you - LPG outlet . Most have stopped doing it by me ..It never catched on .

 

[noonboots]

I fitted dozens of Lpg conversions in the '80s and '90s. There is very little danger associated with a correctly fitted LPG system. A leaking pipe would be a problem just as it would be in a house. In the event of an accident the petrol being carried in a plastic or thin metal fuel tank is far more dangerous than gas in a thick walled pressure vessel. Any explosion of the gas tank after an accident would most likely be caused by a petrol fire around it, even then the lpg tank would have to have a faulty pressure relief valve to cause the explosion. In my opinion it's a safer system than a petrol.

 

[DREAMER NO2]

But you do need a sticker on the car to say you have LPG on board .

 

[pgh13]

If it's an issue, LPG isn't allowed through the Channel tunnel

 

[Brian23]

Thank you for all your replies.