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hi all, ive been considering a gas conversion for quiet a while now, and with the rumoured £1.50 a litre of petrol creeping ever closer, i think now would be better than ever. I brought my car back when petrol was at 84p a litre which was about a year and a half ago, back then running the car wasnt a major issue. I do use the car a fair bit, the car was on 16500 miles when i brought it, its now on about 48000! Ive considered a diesel car, but the initial cost of buying a diesel car is a fair bit more expensive then a similiar petrol version. Plus the cost of diesel is now roughly 10p a litre more than petrol!
The difficult bit is deciding whether to keep the car for about 3/4 years in order to make some sort of saving out of gas converting it. i know the easiest option is to get an already gas converted car, and sell up, but love my car to much to do that!

Would be grateful on all your thoughts on the issue, because im sure your all feeling the cost of petrol lately! Would love to hear from anyone that has actually done it to theirs, if you can advise me on it, id be v.thankful. thanks alot

IMO you don't buy a GTi for fuel economy. If it's that much of a factor to you I'd recommend selling up and buying a diesel.

A3 TDI Sport FTW

I agree with Tim. If fuel costs are becoming that big an issue, then a GTi isn't really the car to have.

Plus you can now pick up early GT TDi Golfs for around £3.5k. I'd be much more inclined to go with one of them than mess around with an LPG conversion.

thanks for the response, i do take onboard what your saying, but if petrol prices are going to hit £1.50 then diesel prices would be nearer £1.65! As for buying the GTi for economy, yep your right, but i brought it for economy relative to the performance!! roughly 40mpg for a car that can do 60 in 8.7seconds is pretty good in my eyes!! The main factors that made me buy it, was the performance, looks and decent economy, now the decent economy is crossed off the list due to rising fuel prices, its all good doing 40mpg(motorway) but how much is a gallon!?!! £5ish!!
Running the car is definitely proving a challenge, yes its a GTi, but it is a 1.6!!

I find the GTI pretty good on fuel, considering it is a GTI

Mouse_GTI wrote:I find the GTI pretty good on fuel, considering it is a GTI

Yep, mines pretty crap at the mo though, gunna try a different tyre pressure see if that makes any difference

Hey! Just an update really...Ive actually gone ahead and have gas converted my car!!! ...ive put the BRC kit, which is designed for sports cars, just got my car back today and ive got a smile on my face, as the fuel is only 46.9p a litre!!...I havent noticed a difference in performance/economy as yet, going to see how its like in a few weeks time, when it settles in!!...I really hope its happy days ahead!!...Thanks for your advice though it was appreciated

can you post pictures of where they have installed the filling cap thing please and also where they have put the tank (presume you have lost the spare wheel to make way for the tank)

Put some pics of the engine bay install too, be interested to see whats been done! Also, how much did it cost in total?

I'll try and get some pictures up, but no promises, as ive been extremely busy lately!... It cost me £1375 thats inclusive of a flash lube, which is designed to prevent the valves from burning out!...The kit i put in usually cost about £1600, i got a good deal as far as im aware!! ..To give a rough idea of whats been done, they put the filling cap at the rear, virtually where a tow bar would be! (which i liked as it kinda disguises it!)...They put a doughnut tank in the spare wheel compartment, its a 50 litre tank (though 20% is reduced as the gas expands, so can fill roughly 40litres)...Ive now put my spare alloy wheel on top of the tank...in terms of the engine bay, i doubt you'd be able to see much from a picture as everything is pretty much tucked away...

I was driving it for a while today, and there is a very slight difference in performance, but can always switch to petrol when need be!! ....

Overall, im happy... going to see whether theres a slight dip in mpg, but other than that i cant complain, as gas is less than half the price of petrol!!!!

Would be great if you could get performance and mpgs figures up soon as you've worked them out .

Props for going ahead with it mate, where is the filelr cap located then?

Hey people, sorry for the slow reply, thought id throughly test out the gas system to give the pro's and cons....couldnt take a pic of the tank due to stuff being in the boot!! and lazyness on my behalf, i'll try and get that done in the next few days!! but i did take a picture of the rear of the car to show where the filler cap is, which i think is fairly subtle, (i took the cap off so your able to see it....



Well, ive done about 5500miles on gas so far since July 08:
heres a list of pros and cons in my opinion:, some points fit in both categorys!!
PROS:

My car now does 200miles to £20 on local runs, and 240ish on the motorway...(based on 55p a litre and a fullish tank 36litres)

Price of gas is 47p at certain places where i live, so thats a plus! its about 56p in the garages.

As far as i know my car is exempt from the London congestion charge,(if i pay £10 for the year) thougth its not any use for me to do so.

Performance: there isnt much of a difference on gas, and considering i can put my foot down, whizz pass a few cars and not worry about where the niddle is going i see it as a positive!...id say the car loses about 0-10bhp whilst on gas...but wouldnt switch over to petrol if i needed to put my foot down, it really is a minor difference, would love to line up with another GTi, just to see the difference!

Ive somehow calculated that after 22,000 miles ill recoup my money, which at the rate im going would take me about a year, so about 16500 to go. (Ive said 22,000 to include the costs of servicing the gas system too)

CONS:
Performance, though it is minimal, its still a loss, though i expected it

LPG itself isnt more economical than petrol, its just the fact its half the price which makes it economical to the pocket, which is a major misconception!...If petrol and gas are the same price then id totally ditch it loL! id say you lose 25% economy, 36 litres on local roads gives 200 miles, on petrol it takes about 30litres to do 200miles...

The BRC Kit ive put in, though its known to be one of best, is noisy when stationary with the windows shut, but i think thats down to where they put the gas motor(under the dash! ). It isnt too bad, but is noticable..

LPG systems require servicing, so its an added bill, which costs £80 (i already knew this, but thought id mention it for those who maybe interested!)...Service intervals are every 10k.

Finally, it takes about half a mile for the car to switch over to gas on a cold start, so doing a lot of small runs dont really stretch the economy!..Although the switch is instantaneous once the car is warm... So you do have to put some petrol in, for me its monthly...about 10 litres, all dependant on the sorting driving you do(motorway or local)

I hope this gives some sort of insight into life on gas!

My car is on about 55500 miles so far, im looking to keep it until i hit about 90k then it would be time to move ON!! would love the New Golf GTI edition 30!!!!!!!!!!!! ...Feel free if you have any questions!

Thanks for sharing that mate, there's alot of usual information.

Is the filler down by the tow bar then?

And what's your average mpg?

usual information lol! is that a good or bad thing!! ...I get about 25mpg on local and about 30mpg on the motorway...Yeah the filler, is that golden bit you can just about see on the pic

I think Tim meant to type "useful" information