LPG Conversions in Poland

[CalumMc]

Hi everyone,

I have a petrol Astra H which I'm considering having converted to run on LPG in order to save money as I'm using the car for delivery work. I've found the prices for conversions are much cheaper in Poland, and would be willing to drive to Poland and make a holiday out of it, perhaps getting some bodywork and a few other jobs done on the car in order to take advantage of the low cost of labour. I'd use reputable businesses, nothing cheap and dodgy.

Has anyone done this? How was your experience?

Things that concern me are that it would have to be a system which is serviceable by specialists in the UK, with a UK connector to fill the gas. Also, would some kind of certification of the system be necessary to legally insure the car in the UK, and could a Polish installer provide this?

Edited by CalumMc on Monday 8th April 00:40

[LarsG]

Good luck with that.... and any warranty....

[dave_s13]

Polish folk are much more LPG savvy than we are so I wouldn't hesitate in getting it done over there if I happened to have some polish connection or reason to vist, which I don't.

I had my nissan elgrand done last year in the UK and I do have a certificate off the installer but the insurance didn't want to see it.

Also servicing them is very straightforward so any installer over here should oblige no bother.

You can get it done very cheaply over there so any potential risk is probably outweighed by the saving. Just try and get a recommendation for someone decent and it'll probably be a good move. It's nice paying 59.9p!!

[deltashad]

Most of eastern Europe have lpg. And it's a fun place. Go for it.

[kambites]

LPG conversions are very common in Eastern Europe because petrol is so much less affordable. My father-in-law had an LPG converted Vectra in Bulgaria for about a decade and it seemed to work well enough.

I don't think the LPG system itself ever got any sort of servicing, but I've no idea if that's just Bulgaria being Bulgaria or more generically true of LPG setups.

You can buy convertors between the different connector types (IIRC there's quite a few). I've no idea about insuring the thing in the UK.

Edited by kambites on Monday 25th March 08:21

[dave_s13]

Again, don't worry about insurance it'll be fine.

Servicing only involves changing a vapour stage filter annually then the liquid phase filter every 60k miles or so.
Both are a DIY jobs and cost less than £5 each.

You only really need to get it looked at by a specialist LPG installer if it's not working properly. Much like your normal (petrol/derv) fuel injection system might need a filter now and then, anyone can do that. If it starts running rough, misfiring etc etc then it would need looking at with a more specialist eye.

You can buy the filters here
https://www.lpgshop.co.uk/

To add - most important thing is to make sure you don't live in an LPG black hole. I have a few stations to choose from on my usual routes so it's fine but they are nowhere near as abundant as normal fuel stations, obviously.

Edited by dave_s13 on Monday 25th March 08:42

[CalumMc]

Hi all,

Thanks for the responses and information. I will continue to research it and hopefully find some recommendations in the West of Poland, please let me know if anyone knows of anywhere good. There are quite a few LPG stations in my area, so I won't have a problem there.

If I do go ahead with it I'll definitively report back on how it goes.

[giblet]

I had a Galant VR4 converted to LPG by a Polish chap based in Manchester who I met via the owners club forum.

The car ran fine for the most part, only ever switched from LPG to petrol if I was properly launching it from a standstill. That was after it was mapped so that will have played a part.

I think I paid around £1300 all in for the conversion, made that back in fuel savings in a year.