Team-BHP - NHC - Should I go for the gas kit or not?

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Guys,
I own a Honda city 2004 model. My dialy run is around 40-50km. I am contempating LPG fitment for my car to reduce the fuel costs. Can someone advice me whether I should go for it or not? Will there be any long term problems? I intend to keep the car for another 5 years as of now. How much would a reputed brand cost me and what would be the fuel cost advantage?

For a daily run of only around 40-50km i.e around 1200-1500kms per month, I would not suggest to go in for LPG fitment especially when you comment that you want to keep the car for another five years. First and foremost, you will lose out on boot space and the savings that you make by running on LPG instead of petrol for the 1200-1500kms you do per month IMHO is not worth it.

+1
Neither would i recommend a gas kit. The car loses steam after a year or so. And by then your friendly neighborhood retro fitter would have moved on. These Gas kits needs constant turning after a year or so, and lot of niggling problems, the gas gauge going kaput every now and then, problems with the fuel guage (gas), starting trouble.

This is from my personal experience, though it did save up a bit of cash, it isn’t worth if you are planning to keep the car around with you for more than a couple of years.

And certainly not recommended if you don’t have a retro fitter in the first 5-6 kms of office or home.

I had an LPG fitted car 2 years ago, and every time I get the car serviced and if I go back to the authorized service center saying, car not starting up in the first crank / not satisfied with the petrol performance, the Service advisor says “Why sir, why did you have to go for LPG?” But yeah he was still helpful, after a couple of tune ups, that is, after a couple of visits, some trial and error, he used to get the car back in its old form, or may be its my mind that says, cheer up, lets assume that you got your car in the old form.

I would say it is BEST if you drive around with a light foot, judge your braking, keep the tyre pressure 1 PSI more than the recommended level, learn all those other fuel saving techniques. At least that way you will have a car that is in top condition and you can unleash it once in a while, when you hit the highway or you want to enjoy a fast drive around the corner.

I had a Lovato kit fitted from the Koramangala dealer, but after little over a year he shut shop and moved on.

Check around, there may be others who are doing well even after a couple of years. Find out what the secret is. But for me it is NO. :) 'I love my car'

I've tried long time back to "live" with an LPG kit in my Zen.
And literally thrown away the kit after 8k kms.
The cost savings does not justify the "pain" you have to take to get the car running.

Having said that I know people who are happy to go around in an LPG car and are not at all bothered by its "quirks".

Simple answer, don't go for the LPG kit.

+1 to that,

I have a Stargas LPG kit on my Carb Zen and its been almost 2 years now..Performance and FE in petrol has dropped drastically..There is a lag in petrol mode and starting problems in LPG mode also the service is expensive. I feel stupid: that I went for it..Planning to remove the kit soon.

My advise - Please stay away from LPG

Like others mentioned, I would also suggest to stay away from going the LPG route. It might save you some money, but it sure is a pain - have experienced it myself and that decision to do LPG on our M800 is one that I regret till date.

@battada, what is the FE you get from your NHC in Blore traffic ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spinnerr

I would say it is BEST if you drive around with a light foot, judge your braking, keep the tyre pressure 1 PSI more than the recommended level, learn all those other fuel saving techniques.

Very true. Make changes to the way you drive and the results will be phenomenal, like I found out. From a usual 12kmpl FE that I was used to since the time I bought the car, I have experienced a 16% increase in FE to 14kmpl by just changing the way I was driving.

Certainly a big NO-NO from my side as it will be aftermarket. what ive heard is that aftermarket kits do not have enough valves from the tank to engine. OEM gas kits has valves almost on every line of gas. this help in preventing the gas to leak on some mis-happening.

I am also in the side on "No-NO" sayers. Just keep in it the OEM form, might fetch you a better price while you sell. OEMs have spent lot of money on designing, calibrating, testing and manufacturing eco-firendly ECUs and thats where all the money you had paid for car goes. As many have already said, you lose the peace of mind once the kit starts troubling you, which usually happens after 10 or 2 years of running. Hope you got a nice trouble-free car. Just run it with a clean fuel from a good pump as long as you want.

I would also not recommend you to go for LPG.You have all the reasons above.
Moreover your daily running is not enough for the investment and the pain.

I really dont know about LPG, but the cng kit is awesome, i travel at Rs 1.5 per Km and the power drop is noticeable but with a press of a button it returns to petrol and burn the tracks. The boot space is lost and there is increase in weight, but 1.5 km isnt bad, the kit would cost around 30k but repays soon enough. My daily drive is around 100 kms so this is extremely practical.

i would suggest you NOT !
my friend had a lpg fitted to his NHC and there were many problems, it includes low fuel efficiency,the engine smoothness has gone.later he removed the kit,but the hole made in the rear bumper for lpg fueling still remains.

Thanks for all the advice guys. I was fancying it for some time, but it appears that none had a good experience even with the best of kits available. Just wondering, did anyone have a good experience at all? Would CNG be an option or does it have similar implications as well?

@SupremeBaleno I get about 12KMPL in Bangalore traffic and I use 185/60 R14 tyres, so there was a marginal drop compared to stock tyres. 14 seems imprerssive. I will try changing my driving style as you guys recommended.

LPG fitments will spoil your car for sure!
You cars performance will really go down, above that smoothness and maintenance also will be a problem!
One of my friend had it on his Corsa, he drove it just under 5k kms, he then removed it and sold it for half the price. If you save on Fuel definitely you`ll be spending it on the maintenance.

Get the sequential injection kit with the ECU, injectors, etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by battada (Post 1338883)

Wise decision I would say ! BTW, I have driven my Esteem with LPG for about 3 years during 2002 to 2004 but those were the days of fitting a cylinder in the boot. Did have the Lovato kit (still do but is not being used) and mileage used to be really terrific, more than double compared to the cost of petrol. Engine would run very smooth but there was a substancial loss in acceleration. During long distance runs, the LPG in the cylinder would freeze up after about 100kms in spite of having a heating pad around it. Would then have to run on petrol for the next hour at least for the LPG to thaw out. I also remember that I needed to remove a waxy substance from the kit once after every 2K of running and this was a garage job.

LPG technology has come a long way since then I guess but have not had too many satisfactory reports from people who I know who are currently using LPG.