LPG conversion
 

Hi there,
Just had an LPG conversion done to my 2002 4.4 , Gas tank (95litre) put in spare wheel cavern, tyres filled with foam stuff.
So far very impresed , no loss of performance and with lpg @ 45p a litre ,its lovely putting 75 litres in for about £32.
Only done 300 miles so far and has to go back in at 1000 miles for a service and checkover.
When everything settles down expect to get about35mpg (with lpg at 45p a litre).
Also I understand that the dreaded London congestion charge will not apply to me !!!!
Needless to say I am really chuffed.
Regards,
Lez Taylor

Interesting. First I've heard of such conversion on a X5. I wonder what BMW service would say if you required engine service.

lpg cONVERSION
 

well all I can say is that the bmw agents where I live are very interested and want to know my impressions of the conversion after a couple of months.Also they are asking who did the job.
So I think they are not too worried

What about air pump and battery? Can U take the photograph at the tank?

They had to reposition the air pump slightly,battery in the original position , I know I or conversion Co will have to take tank out to change battery, but I am an engineer and have already spoken to them about this.
They will remove tank F.O.C. fit new battery and reinstall or I'll DIY.
Small inconvenience for the money saved.
Incidently, I used to run vans on LPG when I had my own Business And Ford Uk actually fitted conversions for me.
The Oil change freqency was halved (instead of changing at 5000 miles you could go to 10000 miles) and plug life doubled.All this is because the engine is burning a gas and not a petrol droplet vapour.
Anyone who is in the Forklift truck trade will tell you that an LPg forklift truck on oil change it comes out golden colour.
Engine life typically will improve by at least 50% and exhaust emissions are greatly reduced.
Regards

There have been some threads here about LPG conversion. I think for those who make lots of miles it´s well worth it, and frrom what I´ve heard there´s almost no lost of power felt while driving with LPG. I think it´s a smart move, congrats :thumbup:
How much did it cost you if you don´t mind my asking.

J.Seven

Hi,
The cost of the conversion was £1600, but the installer admitted it took a lot longer than he expected ( it took 7days he quoted 3days).
I thought he was being optimistic but told him to take as long as required, and not to rush it.
He has made a very good job of it and I will post some photos.
the quotes I had ranged from £1600 to £2750.
I reckon I will pay for the job in 18months.

Living in Europe for the last two years with my X I seriously considered having it done as there were a number of folks in both Germany and the UK who performed this and the performance figures were exactly as you suggested. Having spent a lot of time in OZ it is also a popular mod on cars out there due to gas costs and lower running bills on LPG. Not sure what would have happened when I brought the car back to the US???

lpg conversion
 

Hi,
please tell me where you got this done? do you have a phone number/web address? I would like to do the same to my x5:dunno:

Hi Pete,
Have contacted my Installer.
He tells there is no problem with members contacting him,but because of the extra work involved with the 4.4 (8 Cyl) he will charge £1850 inc VAT
I would still have gone with this price asit is one of the cheapest around.
I don't know how much he would charge for the 3.0 petrol.
His details are:
Andy , Rage motors, WyesideCommercial centre, Hadnock Road ind est,
Monmouth, NP25 3QG.Phone no. 01600 711628
You can view his ad on ebay(thats how I found him) His handle is............ andyt355.
Hope this helps
Lez

Still waiting for the pics ;) :thumbup:

J.Seven

Here we go!!!! photos of lpg conversion
The photo of the fuel filler..the black is to be replaced with colour coded sprayed cap.
The boat in the last picture ....Ah those were the days !!!!!!!!!
Regards,
Lez Taylor

Thank you very much for the pictures. I'm curious about
- where 's the air pump?
- where's the car lifter? (It's instead by yellow foam)
-The battery 's in the original place, right? and when U want to check it, how?
-Do U make a new floor board? and what is the two black cable under the floor board?

That´s what I was thinking!!!! Where did they put the air pump :confused:
It really looks like a professional job.

Here´s an interesting thread about LPG:
http://www.xoutpost.com/x5-e53-forum/...?highlight=lpg

Here´s a company in UK who makes LPG conversions on X5 and use a lift in order to acces to the battery withouth any need to remove the intire LPG tank.
http://www.gascarco.com/gallery/BMW-X5-2004-current

J.Seven

There is a BP LPG approved installer in Inverness. Harbour road just a couple mins from the BMW dealer.:thumbup: :thumbup:

I know a few guys that have had this done to their 4x4 not a X5 though and they all suffered from crap trade in price when it came time to sell.

I reckon you would only do this if you were keeping the motor for a good few years.

Do you get allowance from Goverment for getting this done.?

Hi there,
In reply to your questions
1. Airpump is where the yellow foam is.
2. As I said in my first post, The battery is left in its original position, why would you want to check it, it is a sealed item? any way I did not fancy another lump on the floor and the installer has said he will remove ,fit new battery and reinstall FOC , or I'll do it myself when the need arises (Approximately every 5/6 years).
3. Don't need lifter no spare wheel carried in the well anymore.
4.
The car is fitted with a sliding floor. the cables are an integral part of it.
I am very pleased with the job, it is nice and unobtrusive, the only external give away is the second fuel filler.
I aim to keep the car for a few years ,I have just retired and am personalising the car .
Doesn't worry me about resale values, but in this day and age with all this global warning scares, any changes that we do to help the environment may help the large engine cause and I reckon that PX values will go up .
The co2 emissions are down from 15.2 to 13.1 and the hydrocarbons down from 6 to 4.
No doubt some of our more knowledgable members can explain this better than I can

Lez,

That looks like not only a top conversion job and a great price too. The money savings in the long term are great however can you confirm that you are getting 35mpg on LPG as I was always under the impression that the consuption would go down slightly.

Don

Actually, here in Portugal, there´s a reduction of 40% on tax when buying a car on LPG or any other hibrid system. Yes 40% reduction on tax, which makes the same model on LPG costing far less than the other running on petrol or gas. An X5 4.6 pays something like 31759 euros on tax here, so you would save 19055 euros which is alot of money. You´re right about the resale value but this is only due to lack of knowldge. Few years from now the market will react, and these hibrid solutions will be the future for our cars.

J.Seven

yip I think your right. I will not be hanging about in the 4x4 market if they raise the tax like they say they will here in the UK.:mad:

Hi Don.
The figure are relative.
We pay about 86p a litre (do about22 mpg) for petrol
I pay about 45p a litre and do about 17 - 18 mpg. for lpg
Yes there is a reduction , but the cost of the lpg makes a huge difference, my system is still settling down and is purposely set slightly rich, when i've done 1000miles the installer is having it back to check it over and do the final set up. Might even get better mpg
Included in the price was : a courtesy car, 2 year warrantee, free 1000m gas service, he is a certicated installer,
Lez

How many miles do you get with 75 litre?

Cheers for clearing that up. It looks like you have found a gem of a company, all that at the best price as well. Good luck with the car.

Don

Lez, have you looked in on www.x5drivers.co.uk I'm sure the guys on there would also be interested to hear about your LPG conversion among other things.

Don

Things get even better!!!!!!! (I live in Gloucester)
We have a company called Countrywide who are like a farming community retail outlet open to all.
I noticed that they sell lpg and have just opened an account with them, the price per litre 40.5 p yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I used to have a Grand Cherokee with an LPG conversion and loved it the only downside is the time taken to fill the tank is longer than petrol (not nice on winter days). I probably compounded this issue since I had a smaller than normal tank as I did not want the rear floor raised. This caused me to go to the filling station about every five to six days.

One other thing I did discover was the conversion did not help with re-sale value but the conversion easily paid for itself. I used to get 16-17mpg on petrol and the equiv of 32mpg on LPG!

Now I have the X5 3.0D and yes LPG conversions can be applied to desiel cars but it is a much more expensive install.

I didn't know that, any idea how the economy suffers compared to the diesel? Do you know of anywhere in NI that does the conversion?

Don

These people can do petrol to LPG conversions:

http://www.lpg-vehicles.co.uk/lpg_co..._n_ireland.htm

and you can read about diesel/LPG conversion here:

http://www.ilovesponge.com/spongecar...ltechnical.htm

but I dont know if it is cost effective.

lpg conversion
 

lez,
Do you know if the lpg can be hooked up to the trip computer, giving range etc?
also do you know if it has any effect on the service interval as i thought this was partially influenced by the petrol fuel delivery system?

thanks
:thumbup:

Hi there,
I'm not sure about the hook up to trip computer/range etc but,I am getting an mpg reading off the computer.
Remember though you also have your petrol tank to put petrol in.
The system starts on petrol and at a predetermined engine temp changes over to lpg automatically, if you run out of lpg it automatically switches back to petrol.
Service intervals on the computer ,as far as I know ,are unaffected ,but as a gas is burnt and not a petrol vapour oil service can be doubled mileage wise and spark plug life is also doubled (not sure if I fancy changing plugs every 150,000 miles though) but it does give an idea how efficient it is.
Lez

I sold a Scotsman a big a$$ Dodge Ram 5.9L Petrol and he had his converted there I believe...I was getting 11mpg on a good day...Now he gets like 30.

In Australia, you can have the government pay for this!

http://www.lpgautogas.com.au/index.cfm?Action=MyCar

This is apparently a big deal the Aussie gov't is trying to promote. Not being from there I couldn't verify it, but that seems legitimate. I just wrote a piece on LPG. I would be interested in your real world findings.