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Converting Is300 Sportcross To Lpg


Dave.W
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I wondered if any of you have considered converting or have actually converted an IS300 to run on LPG?

There seems to be a wide variation in the quoted cost of doing this and so I wanted to seek some advice.

I have been quoted £2268 by GreenFuel, £2145 by AMS Autogas, £1650 by PT Autogas and £1400 by OZON LPG Installations.

Bearing in mind the you can save 40% by using LPG (50% of price of petrol, 20% reduction in MPG) the initial outlay is important

to calculate when you start saving.

Thanks, Dave.

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I'm not sure there is an IS300 on LPG on here yet, but there are converted IS200s and at least one GS300 so between them you should get a rough idea on cost.

I've got to say the conversions sound cheaper than I was expecting..........

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I have my IS200 LPG'd and I'm so happy, especially at 48.5p per litre in Preston.

I paid £2000 for mine. Got many different quotes and several cheaper ones but i decided on a chap in Blackpool because he is LPGA approved and he put me in touch with another IS200 owner he recently converted. For me, speaking to one of his previous customers gave me the confidence and i suggest you try and find a company that has done work on an is300 or even a 200.

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I've got my IS200 converted a couple of months ago, and its running well so far.

I got mine done by a LPGA approved installer. He installed a BRC Sequent system and it cost me £1850.

From doing a bit of research before I had mine done, I found that a lot of people recommended BRC or Prins as they are meant to be two of the best systems. Expect to pay anywhere between £1800 to £2500 for one of these.

Also, make sure you get flash lube installed as this helps protect your valves.

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I wondered if any of you have considered converting or have actually converted an IS300 to run on LPG?

There seems to be a wide variation in the quoted cost of doing this and so I wanted to seek some advice.

I have been quoted £2268 by GreenFuel, £2145 by AMS Autogas, £1650 by PT Autogas and £1400 by OZON LPG Installations.

Bearing in mind the you can save 40% by using LPG (50% of price of petrol, 20% reduction in MPG) the initial outlay is important

to calculate when you start saving.

Thanks, Dave.

Dave

See this link for the install on mine...

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/ind...showtopic=49175

How many of the companies stated that you would need a flash lube kit (upper cylinder and valve lubrication) as the 300 engine is known to suffer from valve seat recession, if they didn't then don't use them, they should have known and they should have told you the consequences.

The flash lube kits are good but you do have to remember to fill them up, let them run out and you will get an expensive bill....

Stay away from GreenFuel they use local installers and bung their bit on top....

I would only ever fit Prins to my cars, it is a great kit, others have had good results with other kits though.... Prins are just bringing out a built in valve lube kit that injects the lubricant along with the LPG, this is a much better idea as the amount is controlled more accurately. With a flash lube you can over do it and coke up the engine....

Anyway this should not put you off, just make sure the installer is LPGA registered and get some references.

If you want a saving calculator then try this one

http://autogasyorkshire.com/savings-calculator.php

Good Luck

Pete

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I wondered if any of you have considered converting or have actually converted an IS300 to run on LPG?

There seems to be a wide variation in the quoted cost of doing this and so I wanted to seek some advice.

I have been quoted £2268 by GreenFuel, £2145 by AMS Autogas, £1650 by PT Autogas and £1400 by OZON LPG Installations.

Bearing in mind the you can save 40% by using LPG (50% of price of petrol, 20% reduction in MPG) the initial outlay is important

to calculate when you start saving.

Thanks, Dave.

Dave

See this link for the install on mine...

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/ind...showtopic=49175

How many of the companies stated that you would need a flash lube kit (upper cylinder and valve lubrication) as the 300 engine is known to suffer from valve seat recession, if they didn't then don't use them, they should have known and they should have told you the consequences.

The flash lube kits are good but you do have to remember to fill them up, let them run out and you will get an expensive bill....

Stay away from GreenFuel they use local installers and bung their bit on top....

I would only ever fit Prins to my cars, it is a great kit, others have had good results with other kits though.... Prins are just bringing out a built in valve lube kit that injects the lubricant along with the LPG, this is a much better idea as the amount is controlled more accurately. With a flash lube you can over do it and coke up the engine....

Anyway this should not put you off, just make sure the installer is LPGA registered and get some references.

If you want a saving calculator then try this one

http://autogasyorkshire.com/savings-calculator.php

Good Luck

Pete

Pete, interesting..thanks.

AMS are LPGA approved and did suggest a flash lube kit (not included in the quoted £2145) although I don't know which brand of conversion kit they were quoting for.

To be honest I have been disappointed with the lack of response from the LPGA-approved installers in my area, only AMS of the 5 I called/emailed have bothered to respond.

Both of the non-LPGA-approved installers responded by return (PT Autogas & OZON).

OZON quoted £1400 (special offer down from £2000 for June) for a LANDIRENZO OMEGAS multipoint sequential injection system.

PT Autogas quoted £1650 for an Aldesa system.

Any views on either of those?

Dave.

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Dave

Like most things in life you get what you pay for

LANDIRENZO OMEGAS is a basic system of medium quality

I have never heard of the Aldesa system, you will have to do a bit more research.

Its easy to get a car to run OK on LPG, the trick is keeping it going OK and not damaging the engine by poor mixture, the cheaper kits are very basic and setting them up is a compromise....

If you are going to keep the car for a while buy the best you can afford.

Most of the good LPG converters are up to their ears in work at the moment as the price increase in petrol has taken effect.... Don't use a converter who can "do it tomorrow".... the question to ask is "why?"......

Pete

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Mmmm....I'm amazed to see someone who lives in rip-off Britain still saying "you get what you pay for" 'cos it patently ain't the case.

When I bought my IS300 I could have paid £16K if I'd just assumed that and gone to the local Lexus Hedge End dealer. Instead I shopped around and found a car in better condition with lower mileage for £13,500 in Lexus Bristol.

Try telling diesel drivers you get what you pay for now diesel is 16-20p/litre more than petrol when the differential was only 4-6p a few months ago....another profiteering rip-off.

Unfortunately most businesses in the UK work on a "what the market can bear" price rather than cost + profit and it seems to me the LPGA-approved installers try to profit out of the so-called status of approval. The level of service I've received from my local LPGA-approved installers has been dreadful so far. Only one out of five has even bothered to reply to me.

It does concern me that I can't get a competitive price from an installer closer to home (OZON are in Plymouth & I'm in Southampton) & unfortunately if I'm going to have to pay £2K+ for the conversion then I'm not prepared to risk it as I can't guarantee I'll get the money back let alone start saving as I can't say how long I'll keep the car.

Thanks for all the comments/advice.

Dave W.

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was looking into a conversion myself a while back and ,dont quote me but i seem to remember that a company would ship the whole kit for approx £600.a local garage could fit it and i think it just needs to have a set up and a certificate that alls ok.the supplier was based in italy.

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was looking into a conversion myself a while back and ,dont quote me but i seem to remember that a company would ship the whole kit for approx £600.a local garage could fit it and i think it just needs to have a set up and a certificate that alls ok.the supplier was based in italy.

Yes, I think you're right..I have seen similar comments elsewhere and it does beg the question if the hardware's £600, what's the other £1600 for? Most installers quote 2 days to do the work so £800/day does seem excessive doesn't it?

Another consideration that I've been warned about is whether the installer removes the inlet manifold to drill it for the gas injectors. Apparently if they don't then the aluminium swarf can get into the valves causing valve/seat damage and the aluminium itself can poison the cat resulting in an emissions failure in a future MOT plus an expensive new cat.

There is a company in Petersfield, P I Fuel Systems, who have a device called CrossFlow which obviates the need for the manifold being drilled but I don't yet know if that will fit my Lexus.

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you could if your mechanicaly minded install a lot of the components yourself which would save lots of pennies.it seems there is a lot of pipe work to route which would take sometime.fortunatley i am a spanner juggler so shouldnt be to much of a problem.i shall have a serious look at a conversion in september .good look.let us know your outcome if you go ahead.

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Mmmm....I'm amazed to see someone who lives in rip-off Britain still saying "you get what you pay for" 'cos it patently ain't the case.

When I bought my IS300 I could have paid £16K if I'd just assumed that and gone to the local Lexus Hedge End dealer. Instead I shopped around and found a car in better condition with lower mileage for £13,500 in Lexus Bristol.

Try telling diesel drivers you get what you pay for now diesel is 16-20p/litre more than petrol when the differential was only 4-6p a few months ago....another profiteering rip-off.

Unfortunately most businesses in the UK work on a "what the market can bear" price rather than cost + profit and it seems to me the LPGA-approved installers try to profit out of the so-called status of approval. The level of service I've received from my local LPGA-approved installers has been dreadful so far. Only one out of five has even bothered to reply to me.

It does concern me that I can't get a competitive price from an installer closer to home (OZON are in Plymouth & I'm in Southampton) & unfortunately if I'm going to have to pay £2K+ for the conversion then I'm not prepared to risk it as I can't guarantee I'll get the money back let alone start saving as I can't say how long I'll keep the car.

Thanks for all the comments/advice.

Dave W.

Dave

My point was that there are lots of cheap kits around, you can buy a front end kit for a few hundred pounds but the quality of it is terrible, it just won't work well on your pride and joy.... I intend to keep mine a while so opted for the best kit you can buy, the Prins, the front end kits are now about £800 trade, you then have to add tank, filler, fill hose etc etc and you can get to £1200 very easily if you speck the best, then add 2 1/2 - 3 days labour and you can see why it costs £2000...

I have nothing against non LPGA installers, I just wonder why they don't join???? It doesn't cost much and 99% of insurance companies want to see a LPGA certificate. Would you let any old tradesman service your gas boiler.... Unfortunately there are no rules and regs regarding LPG installs and anyone can do it with no training or knowledge... if you go the non LPGA route just make sure they know what they are doing and check with your insurance company first. It also goes without saying that just because they are LPGA registered does not mean they are any good either, it’s just that you have some comeback....

To answer the other comments above about cheap bits.... would you fix your Lexus or service it with any old bit made in some backstreet in Eastern Europe???? If so then go ahead and use the cheapest bits you can find.... better start saving for new engine parts as well though....

Oh and I totally agree about "what the market can bear" which is why you have to do research on the kit offered to see if you are getting value for money.

Good luck with whatever decision you make.

Pete

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I hate too put a dampener on proceeding(s) but does anyone realize that just over a year ago LPG was at around 30p a ltr and is now at nearly 50p a ltr all due to tax and demand...... the more people convert to lpg the more gvmnt will slap the tax on...... LPG is a dying trade in its short existence :blush::blush::blush:

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Mates,

I'm running my IS300 Sportcross on LPG since January 2006 and I really love it :wub: No bugs, no problems and much more affordable than running on unleaded fuel :D I got a Prins VSI LPG kit build in and it's running like a charme. I've done about 26000 km with it so far. The kit was ajusted via Laptop right after building in and it's running since that time really smooth. I payed around 3000 Euro for the whole package.

Since that time it's REALLY fun to test on the german AUTOBAHN how fast the car can go :lol: and enjoy in town from time to time a little traffic light racing B) without beeing afraid of loosing to much money

I'm running the car about 98% on LPG. Due to the rason that the Prins VSI is starting on regular fuel you need to add 20 Liters every three or four month. After starting on fuel it's switching to LPG automatically when the cooling fluid has a tempature around 35 ° C which is reached after 6 - 10 Minutes.

Cheers

Sonnet

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I hate too put a dampener on proceeding(s) but does anyone realize that just over a year ago LPG was at around 30p a ltr and is now at nearly 50p a ltr all due to tax and demand...... the more people convert to lpg the more gvmnt will slap the tax on...... LPG is a dying trade in its short existence :blush::blush::blush:

The reason for the price increase is that LPG is tied to the price of a barrel of oil (as that's where it comes from) and it's raw cost goes up the same as petrol. The duty is a lot less as is the amount of VAT (remember there's a tax on the tax on fuel!).

The price differential is expected to remain.

Remember that in the same period petrol has gone up from around 93p/litre to 115p/litre. LPG wins again I think.

It's diesel users who are really being hammered as it's now around 20p MORE than petrol whjereas it was only 4p a few months ago.

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I hate too put a dampener on proceeding(s) but does anyone realize that just over a year ago LPG was at around 30p a ltr and is now at nearly 50p a ltr all due to tax and demand...... the more people convert to lpg the more gvmnt will slap the tax on...... LPG is a dying trade in its short existence :blush::blush::blush:

The government have a rolling three year promise to not put up tax on LPG any more than the same % as tax on petrol so the difference will be the same for at least the next three years....

It was much more than 30p a year ago, it hasn't been 30p for at least 3 years.... and I wish I could get it for nearly 50p, its 53p round here

The cost difference for my car is still around £1000 for 10000 miles

Pete

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Well, I've taken the plunge and booked my 300 sportcross into a certified installer.

It'll cost about £2k.

Re valve seat regression, the installer says there's no stopping it, all you can do help slow it down - he recommends redex in the petrol and uses a Dutch kit that you can run the car on petrol and lpg at the same time so will map in somewhere between 5 and 10% petrol. As the cars auto and quickly gets to 5th gear and runs at low revs then regression (which is greater at high revs) might not cause me problems for a long while - also, most of my mileage is local ie I dion't spend all day on a motorway (which is also good - so I'm told).

Cars in late July - you were right about the converters being busy.

I'll let you know how I get on - and Pete, thanks for the advice.

Cheers

jack

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Mmmm....I'm amazed to see someone who lives in rip-off Britain still saying "you get what you pay for" 'cos it patently ain't the case.

When I bought my IS300 I could have paid £16K if I'd just assumed that and gone to the local Lexus Hedge End dealer. Instead I shopped around and found a car in better condition with lower mileage for £13,500 in Lexus Bristol.

Try telling diesel drivers you get what you pay for now diesel is 16-20p/litre more than petrol when the differential was only 4-6p a few months ago....another profiteering rip-off.

Unfortunately most businesses in the UK work on a "what the market can bear" price rather than cost + profit and it seems to me the LPGA-approved installers try to profit out of the so-called status of approval. The level of service I've received from my local LPGA-approved installers has been dreadful so far. Only one out of five has even bothered to reply to me.

It does concern me that I can't get a competitive price from an installer closer to home (OZON are in Plymouth & I'm in Southampton) & unfortunately if I'm going to have to pay £2K+ for the conversion then I'm not prepared to risk it as I can't guarantee I'll get the money back let alone start saving as I can't say how long I'll keep the car.

Thanks for all the comments/advice.

Dave W.

Dave

My point was that there are lots of cheap kits around, you can buy a front end kit for a few hundred pounds but the quality of it is terrible, it just won't work well on your pride and joy.... I intend to keep mine a while so opted for the best kit you can buy, the Prins, the front end kits are now about £800 trade, you then have to add tank, filler, fill hose etc etc and you can get to £1200 very easily if you speck the best, then add 2 1/2 - 3 days labour and you can see why it costs £2000...

I have nothing against non LPGA installers, I just wonder why they don't join???? It doesn't cost much and 99% of insurance companies want to see a LPGA certificate. Would you let any old tradesman service your gas boiler.... Unfortunately there are no rules and regs regarding LPG installs and anyone can do it with no training or knowledge... if you go the non LPGA route just make sure they know what they are doing and check with your insurance company first. It also goes without saying that just because they are LPGA registered does not mean they are any good either, it’s just that you have some comeback....

To answer the other comments above about cheap bits.... would you fix your Lexus or service it with any old bit made in some backstreet in Eastern Europe???? If so then go ahead and use the cheapest bits you can find.... better start saving for new engine parts as well though....

Oh and I totally agree about "what the market can bear" which is why you have to do research on the kit offered to see if you are getting value for money.

Good luck with whatever decision you make.

Pete

Thanks, I decided against it on the grounds that at a cost of £2K it will take me 3 years to break even at my mpg and annual mileage by which time the car will be 7 years old. Also the government's promise about duty on LPG runs out then so it becomes even more of a lottery as I don't trust them further than I can throw them!

I'm due to retire in a couple of years so I may have to downgrade to a less opulent car than a Lexus then anyway!

I don't think I mentioned the word "cheap" in my post. My concern is "value for money".

Cheers, Dave W.

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Dave

I decided to do it because the cost of fuel will keep rising. It always has and always will. At it's current level it's relatively painful, and that's at my level of income and spending power ie 57 years old, looking to retire in 3 years (fingers crossed) and the mortgage is paid off...

But, the miles I do - which is not much more than 12k per year, the £2k conversion will take about 2 years to pay off, by which time, on current cost of petrol figures, I'll be driving a car that does something less than 50 miles to the gallon.

Moving forward, if I do manage to retire at 60, it'll be logical to reduce the fleet to one car and the motorhome, and the choices currently are... keep the wifes Almera which is built down to a price (for that read awful) and is currently returning 31.4mpg or, keep the Lex, which in comparison is doing about 50mpg.

Apart from the cost of parts, I'll glady fix the Lex but I'm not interested in the Nissan - so, the scheme is to keep the Lex as it's in effect more economical from a fuel perspective, and as I'll be tasked with keeping it on the road, a love affair with it helps a lot. ...I'm not scare of cars either, I havent used a garage for about 10 years, and my previous 2 cars (over 8 years) have been marginally obscure Jap imports.

I'm also thinking that as the IS300 gets older there will be more scrapped, the value of them will come down, and in turn the parts situation for the likes of DIYers like me will ease...

Anyway, the cars booked in mid July.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Good luck

jack

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