Hello, I have a 1.2 Fiat 500 Lounge which has had an LPG conversion prior to me purchasing it.

Since day one it has had stalling issues. It always happens as soon as I start the car for the first time and then will usually loose power about 4 mins after this and stall again. Sometimes it stalls intermittently if the weather is cold also.

Once these two stalls have happened though, the car usually runs perfectly and I have no other issues. I took the car to the garage and had new spark plugs etc but nothing has changed and the car is still stalling.

Anyone else had this issue?

Thanks,

Bevs

Does the problem occur running on LPG, petrol, or both?

UFI said:

Does the problem occur running on LPG, petrol, or both?

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I was going to ask that, also is it auto switching to petrol when starting the engine from cold and switching over to LPG at the correct time, ie not too early?
My sis-in-law used to have a (brand new at the time) Astra 1.8 coupe with the "factory" LPG conversion on it, it kept having issues with either not switching to petrol at all when the engine was cold or it would switch over to LPG too soon.

TBH, my brother gave up on LPG after the issues with the Astra and two other vehicals they had which ran on it (a 4.0 V8 Discovery and a Rav4), he said for the money he saved in fuel wasn't worth the bother of the systems always playing up (he went to a diesel only fleet!).
I had a 1.2 pop 500 for a week while my A500 was in for warrenty work and found it to be very frugal, even with me driving everywhere with my foot in the carpet, I would have though an LPG converstion to be more bother than it's worth in one!

griff74 said:

I would have though an LPG converstion to be more bother than it's worth in one!

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+1 I would start by ditching the LPG conversion. They add weight which costs economy especially in a car as light as a 1.2 500. LPG then changes the volumetric efficiency of the engine and has less BTU's than petrol. I don't know what LPG cost over there buy all those factors conspire to make LPG conversions pretty iffy. On 4+ litre engines, maybe, even then, it's going to be the least reliable part of the car in my experience.

Why would someone lpg a 1.2 500?

306maxi said:

Why would someone lpg a 1.2 500?

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To avoid paying London congestion chargers. The price of the conversion was cheaper and more economical than paying the congestion charge for a year as the conversion made the car exempt.

Every car in the family is converted - so running on LPG is not a new thing and there have never been any problems, hence why I didn't think it was an issue getting a converted car and if I'm honest my running costs have been brought down - even for a 1.2 conversion.

The problem occurs when running on petrol and LPG and not when its converting over. I've tried running it only on petrol and switching off the LPG and the problem still occurs. It can even happen when I've been driving it perfectly all evening and then I drop a gear and it looses power and all the lights on the dash flick on.

A pipe which allows air into the engine (clearly not technical terms!) has lots of thick gunk in it too...I've changed the pipe and it seemed to work for a day or two. Now the pipe is blocked again and its jittery.

The second thing - I'm wondering if the battery could have anything to do with it as the car just seems to lose power? Worth having checked out?

Thanks

(Sorry for the late reply - my sister got married this week and its been a bit mental!)

Fair enough, most of us don't drive into London so these sort of things don't occur to us!

Where is this London place people speak of?

I'm no expert, but are all LPG conversions the same? what I mean is, are these conversions carried out to an exacting standard method, or do different conversion companies do different things to achieve the same aim?

Do you know where the conversion was carried out (any paperwork with the car saying where the conversion was done) and if you do, is it worth taking it back to where it was done and having it checked out?

UFI said:

+1 I would start by ditching the LPG conversion. They add weight which costs economy especially in a car as light as a 1.2 500.

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Nope, still worthwhile having on ANY car in the UK, had one myself and would happily have another

OP what is the manufacture of the LPG system (should be on the LPG ECU) and when was the LPG system last serviced?

I've just been reading through the following Accord forum link, makes some interesting reading. I'm just wondering if it will throw up any pointers to your own problems:

http://typeaccord.co.uk/forum/topic/14812-idle-problem-engine-cutting-out/

bevers said:

A pipe which allows air into the engine (clearly not technical terms!) has lots of thick gunk in it too...I've changed the pipe and it seemed to work for a day or two. Now the pipe is blocked again and its jittery

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Crankcase breather? Guessing if it goes into london all the time it never gets a good run or properly up to temperature?

Most Easterly Pandas said:

Nope, still worthwhile having on ANY car in the UK, had one myself and would happily have another

OP what is the manufacture of the LPG system (should be on the LPG ECU) and when was the LPG system last serviced?

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Hello - LIMA is the system and it was last serviced a year ago. According to the invoice they checked out the miss fire, supplied and fitted new spark plugs, removed lpg injectors and cleaned, removed lpg filter and cleaned, cleaned out the vaporizer, refitted lpg injectors and filter and resetted petrol ecu and recalibrated the log system.

If only that would have made a difference! I'm going to take it back to the garage - maybe the place where is was originally fitted although that is a good few hours drive away. Thanks for the assistance everyone.