LPG conversion on an E39 M5?

an M5 is an OK car  on e bay right now is an Aston Martin with LPG did'nt bother the owner there .

I have had  a maserati converetd   & it went very well indeed .

I have also had a Twin turbo special Chasseur Jaguar converted & a guy came from Zurich just to buy it,did'nt put him off.

I then Had a nice 540 Manual converted & to be honest that went far better on Lpg it was so smooth , the BMW V8's go very well on LPG.

I now have a M3 .......NO I am not having that converted ,why because I beleive that the time of LPG savings has passed.

nothing to with it being an "M" car oh whoopee doo, no not at all.....

From this year on there will be an increase of 1 p per litre over & above that of petrol. Also, & this is the main reason,there is a dirty little secret of LPG that NONE of the LPG installers want you to know.

Dirty gas...after a while there is a build up of Gummy residue that gums the LPG injectors ,these are hard to clean the car runs like a pig & you lose your savings as you are on petrol & a trip back to the installer who tries to clean at cost £30 usually. ALL the injectors are affected on ALL of the kits , the gas sent here from Europe is of inferior quality & is more propane than over there ,ALL the LPG kits are designed for the europe LPG gas , there is one Kit called PIRO that has been designed specifically for UK  but thats got its problems too including the sticking injectors.

This has only recently been the case, 3 years ago everything was Rosy but Now LPG is well...The Pitts .excuse the pun old Bean.

 

hopalong wrote: About £2500 for the conversion...

for which you could get a nice (diesel) daily run-about, lay-up the M5 and only bring it out in the summer.

The best of both worlds

No one has yet asked, but how much is a LPG conversion on a M5?

.......and why are manufacturers not going down the LPG route, because it's is also a finite resource?

sorry I was offline over the weekend.

But the point I was trying to make was that having an LPG conversion is purely a money saving exersise.  From a car buyers perspective, it's not the conversion that is the issue, it's the logic/mindset of the person who fitted it.

Some old vehicles probably are worth more with a good LPG conversion.  When you buy a car lke an M5, your ideal car is one that has had no expense spared in its upkeep/serviceing etc.  A car that has had an LPG conversion may well have had every penny required spent on it... but it does look like the owner is trying to cut costs.

You can see that lots of people don't like LPG.  While that doesn't matter in the slightest, in terms of what you should do to your car.  It's the same peopel who are your market for when you come to sell.  Value will be affected accordingly.

 

Also you will need a completely independant fuel delevery system that is going to be ching ching to fit, unless your doing 50k miles a year its not going to be worth it, you can do the cheepo 'A Grand job' on Carb cars and older Injection systems Ke Jetronic Montronic ect but an M5? Think about it, 8 new gas frendly injectors, new brain, mapping and instillation and you only get a vat rebate on it if its less than 6 months old(If that even still applies)

Edited by 73touring

hopalong wrote: Seems to me .... on balance that the general opinion is that technically and performance wise there is no reason NOT to do a conversion. But .... for whatever reason - which no one has been able to quantify, there appears to be a prejudice against LPG. Maybe it's just not 'cool'. Probably wont stop me though...

I think you probably got that dead right.

However, I don't think I would worry about the prejudice too much if I was happy that I had made the right decision.

Perhaps, from my point of view, the biggest issue would be the whole cost/saving of the exercise with the biggest unknown being what somebody would give for the car when it comes time to move on.

Would the car be saleable and how much below a standard car would it be worth. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe, with fuel prices going the way they are, you would have people queueing up to buy it.

thepits wrote: bmw1066 wrote: SNOB I'm glad you put the  otherwise I might think you meant it! .

 Whats the first thing I'm going to do to my M car ahh yes

bmw1066 wrote: SNOB

I'm glad you put the  otherwise I might think you meant it!

.

 

hopalong wrote: Seems to me .... on balance that the general opinion is that technically and performance wise there is no reason NOT to do a conversion.

.....on cars in general

hopalong wrote: But .... for whatever reason - which no one has been able to quantify, there appears to be a prejudice against LPG. Maybe it's just not 'cool'.

I don't think there is a prejudice per say - just on an M car

hopalong wrote: Probably wont stop me though...

Oh please let it

Sell it / declare it SORN & buy a diesel, but don't LPG an M

Edited by thepits

bmw1066 wrote: No is the simple answer.

No you won't have a problem doing it - but NO Don't do it

UweM3 wrote: But I have to agree with previous posters, buy something else. (driving an m5 and can't afford the petrol....blablabla)

Exactly!

 

I can't afford the petrol for my E36 325i, but I'm not going to convert that - and certainly not my E30 M3