LPG conversion

General Discussion Forums MX-5 Chat
2

I thought it might be of some interest to folk to report on my first year of travel in my MX5 now it has been converted to run on LPG.

Without doubt it is the best thing I have done and I should now begin to recover the cost of the conversion, about £1000.

200 miles cost me £20 so 10p a mile.  The car varies very little no matter how I drive it.

I am very pleased with the car and can’t imagine being without it.

I had the conversion done in February 2013 by http://www.gascarsuk.com/ who are based in Galgate near Lancaster.  They offer a lifetime guarantee on the work.

They seem to specialize in sporty cars. I have found them to be very helpful. 

Gas Cars UK
Main Road Garage
34A Main Road
Galgate
LA2 0JH

Telephone: 01524 751333

Mobile: 07815 726 530

3

interesting, half price motoring. does the gas tank weigh much?
presumably you keep the petrol tank near empty to save weight.
i suppose you have to have a boot rack to sling a case on when away?

4

I’ve had my MK1 running on LPG for about 2 years.

Use a bootbag when going away as the boot is rather full with the tank. Can get smaller items in, but not much.

What MK have you had done?

5

Interesting for us using these as our dailies.
Thinking about stripping out the air conditioning and spare wheel, should free up some weight to make the change less noticeable.
Any photos of the boot?

6

This is mine

Takes about 32 ltrs, but is a 45ltr tank, can only hold 85% of tank size due to expansion of the gas.

7

not as bit as i thought it would be

8

You can get a doughnut type tank, i have seen a MK2 with that, but i wanted to keep the spare wheel and this was the only it could be done.

 

The tank sits in the bootwell so if the floor was flat i would have to have a smaller tank.

 

I’ve also seen one along the back of the boot, but it was a smaller tank

9

Hi I will take some snaps of the tank but mine is a round wheel shaped one that goes in the spare wheel spot. It takes about 32 litres which is as much as I can get in it. I would love a larger tank.
Gas costs 66p a litre on Anglesey but prices vary from 99p to 56p a litre throughout the country. If I am going further than 100 miles I look at an ap which tells me where the cheap gas is on sale. Sometimes it is in the back of farmyards or on industrial estates. Asda tends to sell it at a fair price. See http://www.filllpg.co.uk/ Users upgrade the current prices as they go so promoting low costs.
I find that when we go on holiday or shopping we have to squeeze in bags behind the seats however the savings of running on gas far outweigh this inconvenience.
As I said it is very cheap to run about in, like going back ten years. Still need to buy petrol to start the engine but it is a rare event and always fills me with fear when I do a proper fill up!
We are retired so drive out every day through Snowdonia it is our only car.
We sometimes hear that three MX5 yellow California’s drive around North Wales in a convoy. We must join them sometime and make it a foursome. Anyone know who they are?
Ged & Veronica Haresnape

10

Hi Ged,

I think we spoke on the phone about the gas conversion.

 

My MK1 is up for sale now as i have bought a MK3.

 

Looking into getting it converted, but not made the leap yet…