Taxi Driver Online

i think diesel is doomed

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

I wont be buying another one.

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IDFIMH

Not now. I did about 10 years ago. In those days, with the price differentials, I was getting cheap petrol maintenance costs with cheap diesel fuel economy. Now that the tables have turned on diesel, it will probably work out similar to a good hybrid.

On petrol, I probably achieved about 28-30mpg. 21-23mpg on LPG, but the equivalent price of the gas was about 46p/litre compared to over £1 for petrol. Mondeo 1.6.

any issues?

i know some engines need valve oiling and the LPG valves can be problematic

its 65p here and i have 2 local garages selling it

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

Been running LPG on my private car since 2001. Covered around 250k on LPG in that time, not had any significant reliability problems until recently when I had water ingress into one of the ECU boxes for the LPG system which caused a major misfire until the box was replaced. Modern LPG systems are better in this respect, but they do require more servicing (LPG fuel filters need replacing at regular intervals, and the reducer and injectors often need to be rebuilt or replaced when the mileage gets high).

As far as using it for a Taxi, the main thing to consider is fuel tank size. You don't want to have to fuel up on a journey with a passenger on board, as the fuel stations are few and far between and will probably require a bit of a diversion. You could fit a huge LPG tank to get round this, but it will eat up your luggage space, and there's no point being able to do a nice long airport run on LPG if you can't fit their suitcases in the boot any more! You can always switch back to petrol if you run out of gas, but you don't want to be doing this on a regular basis.

You'll need to have a good chat with your licencing department and find out what they require for an LPG converted car, and then make sure the convesion company can provide all the right paperwork (or if you're considering a pre-converted car, that all the documentation is in order).

I'd also be a bit wary about whether the licencing department may be intending to make changes to vehicle licensing requirements as if they add any new emissions related conditions you may end up having to prove that the converted vehicle complies to the new conditions.

The other thing to be careful of is the LPG conversion garages. While most of the real cowboys have disappeared from the industry, there are still a few about that will promise everything, and then fail to deliver (be particularly wary if you have a car with direct petrol injection!).

Also if you plan to get a pre-converted car check that your local specialists will service it. As there are a few garages when faced with a system from a different manufacturer than the ones they fit, will often recommend ripping the whole lot out and fitting one of thier 'better' systems instead. I ended up doing a bit of training and buying the right equipment and now do any work on the LPG kit myself, as I couldn't find any specialists who would touch it without having to travel half the country.

My Diesel will last me til retire hopefully and if it don't I'll buy myself a bargain nearly new diesel to take me to retirement.

I like Diesels and I'll keep buying Diesels and it looks like they'll be cheaper to by used as the green tree huggers try to put people off them. I'll not be intimidated by the greens who can't grasp the fact that a modern diesel is no worse than a modern petrol engine with regards Nox and better than a Petrol with Regards Co2.

You cant burn something without making smoke (or emissions) this is the fact some cant grasp

Fuel cells offer an option but only Toyota and Honda produce FC cars, i wonder why............

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

You can burn fuel without producing visible smoke, that's why cars have particulate filters these days, however you cannot burn fuel without some level of emissions but thats why you have Catalyst converters to trap as many emissions as you can. even Hydrogen engines produce emissions it's just they are not harmful emissions.

As for leccy they produce all their emissions at the point of battery production along with them requiring to usea load of dangerous and rare chemical elements as well.

There is no free ride if you convert any fuel into energy....they all have cost to the environment one way or another.

Mine had a reservoir fitted that automatically dripped a lubricant into the top of the engine. It was very strongly recommended that I always kept it topped up.

LPG had more tax advantages at the time but, although that has changed, I still believe it would pay dividends financially. Vauxhall spent time developing it on Astra vans. The overall LPG experience I found very positive. Maybe it's due for a comeback after a few years on the sidelines.

Search 'LPG forum' for access to the experts on the topic.

school

500 miles/week


40mpg on diesel at £1.20/ltr

35mpg on gas at 66p/ltr

working it out

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

Where do you get 35mpg on gas?

It has a lower calorific value than petrol. Therefore you will use more gas than the equivalent petrol.

Don't forget the children who are paid less than a pound a week to mine cobolt which makes the lithium.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcJ8me22NVs

It's not an important issue..those kids live far away and out of sight.

we dont have em down mines or up chimneys now tho

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most