[HimuraKenshin]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

I am with Suraj Gas.

I Know. We had spoken at length last year. You can get the coils checked with a multimeter yourself. Also, i know a few good CNG garages around Vashi, Navi Mumbai.

[saurabhkum]

Originally Posted by HimuraKenshin

I Know. We had spoken at length last year. You can get the coils checked with a multimeter yourself. Also, i know a few good CNG garages around Vashi, Navi Mumbai.

Any place you know where it can be checked ?

[sumeethaldankar]

So after driving more than 40k kms in almost 3 years in my Civic I would like to summarize my experience related to adding CNG. This might help others in deciding whether CNG is worth the trouble or not.

There are some direct and in-direct affects of adding CNG to a vehicle.

Some direct consequences are.

First and most obvious is the cost saving. If i had driven the car for 40k kms on petrol mode it would have cost me at a (optimistic) average of 12 kmpl and average rate of petrol at 75 Rs Per liter (40000/12 =3333 litres of fuel * 75) = 250000 Rs. Divide that by 3 (years) to get a annual figure of 83K. Due to CNG my fuel cost has remained around less than 60k a year as per my fuel app. So that is a savings of min 20k atleast a year.

Second direct effect adding the CNG on the car is since the CNG runs hotter there is more wear and tear on the engine seals and packing. This result in one of the seals going bust and the engine developed a minor leak. Since i am quite regular at checking the engine etc almost every week i spotted the issue and got it fixed from Honda. The seals are not expensive and cost 200 to 300 Rs and are not a big ticket item. However neglecting to check the engine now and then would have definitely cost me. So if you have a regular car converted to CNG do make sure that you check the engine now and then. For cars fitted with a CNG kit from factory this is not a issue as they have hardened seals to withstand the higher temperature of the CNG.

The CNG is very sensitive to poor quality of air so it warrants a new air filter every 5 to 6 k kms. Also contrary to what is believed that CNG may not warrant regular oil changes i believe since CNG runs hotter the oil degrades more than at regular petrol temperature so i make sure the oil is changed every 7 to 8 k kms or max 6 months.

Again due to higher temperatures of the CNG the cooling system comes under load so make sure the coolant level is good. I have noticed the coolant level had gone down many times in the reservoir and had to top up. This was mainly because the reservoir cap developed a crack mostly due to the higher temperature of the CNG. So make sure you check the coolant levels almost every week.

Some in-direct consequences of CNG.

Your cars running will jump many fold. In my close to 6 years of ownership of the Civic i did just 10k in the first 3 years of driving while i did 40k+ after adding CNG in the next 3. As a result of this wear and tear of parts increased and i found that i had to spend more on service and general wear and tear items like fuel filter/air filter/suspension parts/tires etc. My overall cost of maintenance went up simply because i started using the car more. You are not going to install a CNG kit to drive 10 kms daily are you ?

You will spend more time at the Petrol/Gas filling station as CNG has lower tank capacity and lower range. I now know most of my petrol pump attendants by face and they all know me as a regular customer so much that they don't even bother checking my CNG plate.

You won't think twice about driving somewhere since cost of transport will be low when on CNG within the city. On the other you will think twice before taking the car on a long trip since the CNG has robbed you of boot space.


These are my experiences of adding CNG. All in all i use both CNG and petrol mode judiciously while driving. I use the CNG in traffic areas and at places where i hit the highway i kill the CNG mode and switch to petrol mode. This lowers wear and tear of the engine and also increases range of a tankful of gas and keeps petrol costs to a min since the car gives best fuel mileage on a highway. This way i have best of the both worlds.

[saurabhkum]

Since Sumeet has added few pointers, i also thought of adding few or clarifying few. As far as cost of running goes, in petrol i used to get around 9 kmpl which translates into almost 8.5-9.0 Rs per km. While in CNG i always got around 13 km per kg which translates into around 3.25-3.5 rs per km. Hence a saving of more than 5 Rs per km. To be honest i never encounter or experienced​ any increase in maintenance cost, engine oil changed at around 10k , no change in cooling system or anything similar. Considering the 50k Kms done on CNG, i can happily say that i almost saved anything between 2.25-2.5 lakhs on running cost for my civic. So an extremely satisfied CNG customer of Civic.

[nik0502]

Originally Posted by saurabhkum

Since Sumeet has added few pointers, i also thought of adding few or clarifying few. As far as cost of running goes, in petrol i used to get around 9 kmpl which translates into almost 8.5-9.0 Rs per km. While in CNG i always got around 13 km per kg which translates into around 3.25-3.5 rs per km. Hence a saving of more than 5 Rs per km. To be honest i never encounter or experienced​ any increase in maintenance cost, engine oil changed at around 10k , no change in cooling system or anything similar. Considering the 50k Kms done on CNG, i can happily say that i almost saved anything between 2.25-2.5 lakhs on running cost for my civic. So an extremely satisfied CNG customer of Civic.

I have a similar experience. No problem on the maintenance front. Though as stated by Sumeet the engine does run hotter as compared to petrol but i don't think it makes much difference. I have been driving different cars on cng since 2009.

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

So after driving more than 40k kms in almost 3 years in my Civic I would like to summarize my experience related to adding CNG. ....

This way i have best of the both worlds.

Originally Posted by saurabhkum

Since Sumeet has added few pointers, ... So an extremely satisfied CNG customer of Civic.

Which type of CNG kit is installed in your car ? Reason I am asking :
I have a K10 Wagon R factory fitted CNG and I am still getting 20+ km per kg. Wagon R is going to turn 7 years this September. Planning to get CNG in my 2015 Swift VXi once Wagon R is sold (its up for sale).

My previous experience :
1) 1992 Maruti 800 Carb. Surprisingly, lot of tuning could be done by the garage which installed it. Could cruise at expressay at 100 kmph. Car was sold in 2012. Don't know if it was closed loop or open loop. Ran a lot on CNG before we sold it off.

2) Baleno 1.6 sedan. Closed loop system. Pathetic experience. Till the day I sold the car, 80% of the time it never could run properly on CNG. Later on, the car was converted to Open Loop with little help.

I am confused among Open Loop, Closed Loop and Sequential kit. At Surat Auto Expo a few months ago, there was a participant installing CNG with dedicated ECU for CNG. Closed loop has 3 devices like Emulator, timing advancer and another that I cant remember. I think that a dedicated ECU should be good. But I wonder who can get a kit with ECU for just about Rs. 40,000. So it could be all 3 devices packed into one with better weather proofing.

Originally Posted by nik0502

Though as stated by Sumeet the engine does run hotter as compared to petrol but i don't think it makes much difference.

The factory fitted CNG cars from Maruti have hardened seals. And CNG filters in factory fitted Maruti CNG vehicles have to be replaced too. Thats additional maintenance, but I agree with you that any significant maintenance concerns are not observed, not in my experience.

[sumeethaldankar]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

Which type of CNG kit is installed in your car ? Reason I am asking :

I have a sequential type Lovato kit which has it's own ECU. There is no check engine light and requires little tuning once everything is set.

[nik0502]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

Which type of CNG kit is installed in your car ? Reason I am asking :

I also have a sequential kit in my car. It's been 1.5 years with the current set up and it never required a tuning.

[sumeethaldankar]

I have this peculiar problem with my car. Drive it hard beyond 3k rpm in petrol or cng mode and after some time while in idle at traffic signal the car starts to stall and die. In fact it drives poortly in cng at lower rpms after high rpm driving. This happens exactly after revving beyond 3k rpm and I have replicated the problem many times. To work around this problem I drive more in petrol for 1 to 2 days and the problem gradually subsides till I hit post 3k rpm. I have to restrict myself to 3k revvs all the time to avoid this issue.

A few points.
Spark plugs and coils have been changed to brand new recently.
Spark plug gap was adjusted to 0.8mm.
Throttle body was cleaned just 2.5k kms ago from Honda.
Car just got a new air filter.

Any pointers to why high revving causes stalling problem. The only thing i can think of is that Honda does not do a good job on cleaning the throttle body.

[sumeethaldankar]

Originally Posted by ptaneja

A drop in RPM when it's switching over is normal - dont worry about it.

And don't go by the so called best practice of running the car on petrol - not required at all, just make sure that you start the car on Petrol, and that's more than enough.
Throttle Body + Air Filter are the major reason car "misses". Next would be injector cleaning and tapet adjustment when you see RPM fluctuating in an idle car. Other than that normal servicing - though would recommend doing it at 8K kms rather than normal 10K.

I have this same issue where my car (Civic) comes to stall in idle. I have recently installed new plugs and coils and also have got the throttle body cleaned along with a new air filter. Also plug gap was set at 0.8 mm by Honda. This tappet setting and injector cleaning are we talking about cng injectors should be done by the cng guy or at Honda? My cng kit is sequential and i am using Oe Honda plugs with irdium tips for the last 25k kms atleast. Any help on the stalling issue will be nice. The car switches over fine to cng but after driving for some time at signals it at times tend to come to a stall.

Thanks.

[ptaneja]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

Any help on the stalling issue will be nice.

Thanks.

I have moved away from CNG vehicles since a long time, just got fedup with the queues at pump.
Anyways, tappet adjustment would be done by service centre
But that will come into picture if it stalls on petrol as well. If not, then CNG guy would be your best bet...he will analyse voa laptop connected to sequential kit and fix it.
I would have recommended someone had you been in Delhi/NCR.

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

This tappet setting and injector cleaning are we talking about cng injectors should be done by the cng guy or at Honda? My cng kit is sequential and i am using Oe Honda plugs with irdium tips for the last 25k kms atleast. Any help on the stalling issue will be nice. The car switches over fine to cng but after driving for some time at signals it at times tend to come to a stall.

Its the same problem I faced in Baleno 1.6 sedan. Does your kit have any CNG filters ? If yes, would suggest you to replace them.
In my case, changing the plugs helped for some amount of time. The guy who installed CNG told me that CNG will need different plugs. Eventually, the problem was traced to moisture in some sensor. And the problem was more prominent once engine was warm. As suggested by Ptaneja, get the injectors cleaned.

For tuning, if your car is going to run more on CNG, the CNG guy should do it. But once any tuning of spark plug is done, ensure that you have a reasonably long drive on both fuels to ensure no problems come up. As your system has ECU, the stalling problem should not raise its ugly head. Ask your installer to plug in another ECU and check.

[TheSandman]

Hi Guys

What do you'll think of the Swift Dzire (2nd gen) LXI converted to CNG by the dealer?

It’s either this, or a Wagon R CNG with the factory fitted kit.

Anyone knows how reliable Sai Service Mumbai is at this? I tried looking through the forum, but couldn't find anything pointing exactly to the quality of their work/after sales. They do provide a warranty, but I am not sure how reliable they are in their service because I haven’t dealt with them ever before when it comes to service.

By and large, is it wise to trust a dealer installation? Or just to stick with the Company fitted kits? The quality is paramount because the running will be high and I can’t afford issues that may crop up later.

[dearindia]

Thanks Sumeet for sharing detailed feedback your CNG Civic,

I have similar and positive feedback on running my 2008 Sx4 on CNG for past approximately 5 years

I got sequential Kit installed from an expert and BRC distributor ( at that time - 2012). I have never in last 5 years faced a single issue with the CNG installation, apart from CNG injectors getting replaced after 25k kms. Running a CNG Sx4 gives me a mileage of 17 - 18 km/l in city and 20- 21 km/l o highways. It cheaper that riding my bullet 500

On CNG vehicle has done 50000+ kms without any nagging issue. My advice is If you are getting CNG kit installed on your vehicle you should get is installed from the best fitter.

I am now thinking of buying Honda Accord 2.4 MT 2010 which has done 45000 kms and installing sequential CNG from the same fitter who installed it on my Sx4. I have been told honda's and toyota's have good compatibility with cng.

I would request fellow bhpians to share there experience if anybody has been using Accord with CNG.

Cheers.
Dearindia

[TB16]

Originally Posted by dearindia

Thanks Sumeet for sharing detailed feedback your CNG Civic,

I have similar and positive feedback on running my 2008 Sx4 on CNG for past approximately 5 years

I got sequential Kit installed from an expert and BRC distributor ( at that time - 2012). I have never in last 5 years faced a single issue with the CNG installation, apart from CNG injectors getting replaced after 25k kms. Running a CNG Sx4 gives me a mileage of 17 - 18 km/l in city and 20- 21 km/l o highways. It cheaper that riding my bullet 500

On CNG vehicle has done 50000+ kms without any nagging issue. My advice is If you are getting CNG kit installed on your vehicle you should get is installed from the best fitter.

I am now thinking of buying Honda Accord 2.4 MT 2010 which has done 45000 kms and installing sequential CNG from the same fitter who installed it on my Sx4. I have been told honda's and toyota's have good compatibility with cng.

I would request fellow bhpians to share there experience if anybody has been using Accord with CNG.

Cheers.
Dearindia

I have seen many Honda Accords/CRVs and Toyota Corollas running on CNG here in Delhi. I think you should go ahead with your decision. IMO there wont be any problem as such. But as you said, get the conversion done from a reputed installer. That makes or breaks the car.