So the stereotype in my country is ridiculous about LPG they say it will ruin your engine, it will ruin your electric wires and so and so on
In terms of economy it will ALLOW me to drive the car, right now i cant really afford to use the car for satisfaction (down the road i might cant afford it at all with petrol prices rising up)
I have a Volkswagen Polo Mk4 (9N) 2005 year, 1.2 L 3 cylinder petrol engine with 55 PS (40 kW; 54 hp) standard transmission - European from Germany
I have saved up for a LONG time for this car and its in exquisite shape with 100.000KM and i plan on using it for years and years, it is also my first car and i take really good care of it aswell
don't do it
Why though? I also agree he probably shouldn't if it's not a common thing to do in his area, but I'm just curious as to the reasoning...
@dan because it's never done properly.
Not even OEM's seem to get it right. When I browse technical service bulletins, they're full of LPG issues.
It's just not worth the headache.
@mmj Well, the thing is that as he said “it will ALLOW him to drive the car” and that’s just the case in many parts of Europe from what friends living there told me,
Their gas is like $8 a gallon (similar to what it costs where I live but,) and their average yearly pay in counties like Romania (I’m assuming OP is from somewhere around those parts) is around $9k.
So in those parts of the world - if it’s not diesel or an LPG conversion (under half the price at only slightly worse efficiency), you literally can’t afford to drive it - especially if you’re a teen and it’s your first car.
I’ve seen plenty of well done conversions 10-15 years ago where I live - it’s just that for many Europeans, switching to LPG is the only way to get around…
I understand. In that case it would be better to buy a diesel vehicle. I don't think cars that were designed specifically for LPG are very common.
Talk to people who actually install LPG kits - they might know better.
I've never seen such a kit installed on a VW, But I've seen it a lot on Citroen and Kias - especially Kia Ceed 1.4L.
The question IMO really is not if you can, the question I'd ask is if you should.
And after you do the conversion, do you even have good access to liquefied petroleum gas?
Calculate possible savings over 25k km, considering that a conversion is not cheap.
Where I live regular petrol is almost $8 a gallon - and yet from my investigation, for me, getting a conversion still would not make any sense. Might be different in your area, but generally -
If you want to save fuel, maybe just get a diesel.
LPG here is 0.83$ per liter and Petrol is 1.51$ where diesel is 1.40$, and the transition from petrol to diesel is 250 euros with co-financing of the country
Also i have asked tons of people whether i should or shouldnt make the transition and i have a 50-50 ratio, i have people saying they been using LPG years, and some people say iffy stuff
Because your car is ~17 years old, I would assume you plan to drive it around 25,00km in the next couple of years.
I'm also going to assume 6.0L/100LM (VW claims 5.9 combined), and I'll assume LPG is 20% less efficient.
From the internet: "A typical, straightforward LPG conversion can cost from $1,500 to $4,500" - am going to assume this is also true, and that it is also true for your VW.
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Let's calculate if it is worth to bother with a conversion:
25,000 [KM] *(6.0 [L/100KM] / 100) [L/KM] --> 1500 [L] * 1.51 [$/L] = ~$2,300
25,000 [KM] * (6.0 * 1.2 [L/100KM] / 100) [L/KM] --> 1,800 [L] * 0.83 [$/L] = ~$1,500
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Possible savings: ~$700, much LESS than the cost of a conversion.
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Conversions should be done on cars that are meant for it, Citroen C5 and Kia CEED 1.4L are the popular ones - I would not attempt it on a VW. especially when it does NOT make any financial sense.
conversion here is 500 USD, with cofinancing is 250 in half, in terms of km i plan to use it till the car literally dies, dont really have intentions to change the car or look for a new one especially where people here are liars when they sell their cars, found this one working perfectly (wanted to puke when i was browsing a car for half a year), i would assume 350.000 km is the death of the car
That explains why people are having issues with it - the cheapest I saw it done properly is $1,000.
Maybe they're not doing it right (as it's just too cheap) and that's what causes issues.
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I honestly do not think an old Polo can last that long because of age... everything starts to leak, very expensive electronics breakdown, so as far as calculations I'd calculate for how much you plan on driving in the next 3-5 years and not more than that (by then it's going to be 20-22 years old...)
LPG will actually ruin your engine. The gas combustion process is so much different from petrol combustion, that very few petroleum engines can survive it long-term. I would need to write a multi-page paper for explaining the reasons properly, but using gas instead of normal petrol is like using an extremely high-octane fuel (like 105+ octane): if your engine is not designed for it (and it is not), your engine - and first of all the engine head - will become an expendable spare part. LPG kit designers and installers know it (talked to them personally), but hate telling it to their customers. And the octane is not the only thing about LPG which can be lethal for an engine, unfortunately.
If you really want a car that can use LPG and last, buy one from the Netherlands, which had been converted to LPG at the factory.
P.S. The funny thing is that petroleum engines which survive LPG best are the ones their owners would almost never think about converting to LPG. They are high-power turbocharged engines of all sorts of "sporty" cars like Audi S-line etc. Those are designed to consume "racing-grade" high-octane gas and take beatings, but their owners bought them for their power and would hardly want to live with the power output reduction any gas conversion inevitably brings. And - again - it is not that those engines would not suffer from LPG usage - it is that those would suffer less than other engines.
And the petroleum engines that are least suitable for running on LPG are the ones converted to LPG most often - those are high-volume atmospheric engines like all sorts of 4-5-6l V8 etc. Those are known gas hogs, and I can understand their owners´ willingness to do anything to save money on fuel. And upon LPG conversion their fuel economy often - and soon - reaches its theoretical maximum - since ruined engines do not consume fuel at all, ha-ha.
Damn this scares me to be honest, thanks for the detailed answer brother, might have to get rid of the car in the near future if i dont get a decent job then :/
@dontknowler this is a very weird take, to be honest. LPG burns cleaner than gasoline, is higher octane, 2 times (or more) cheaper etc The combustion process is really not any different as well, not sure where you got that from?
LPG systems have the ability to adjust their fuel ratio etc to avoid any potential issues, same as the computer on your gasoline engine constantly makes changes. Probably every second car in my country has LPG and rarely does anyone have issues unless they went to some guy who learned to install kits yesterday and has no idea what he's doing.
Your whole comment comes off as "yeah well I decided they're bad". Got any realistic arguments such as studies or first-hand experience testing these cars? The heads being an expendable part is also wild. Never heard of anyone swapping heads due to LPG.
You will still need petrol to start the car. An article about pros and cons:
https://www.mecholic.com/2018/12/lpg-advantages-disadvantages.html
oh thats fine, but i dont wanna ruin the engine or shorthern the lifespan of the car by converting
An engine designed for petrol assumes that the liquid fuel will act like a lubricant aiding the engine oil on the top of the piston. The totally dry LPG tends to cause more wear of the cylinder walls as a result. The city of New York converted all their buses to LPG a couple of years back and they have been holding up pretty well. That being said if the car was factory setup for LPG/Petrol then I would say you have nothing to worry about. If the conversion is after market I would be weary.
Good Luck with it.
