Forum:
Hi All,
Have been dipping in to this forum for a while now during my hunt for a YRV Turbo.
Finally found a 2003 model in silver with 2 owners and only 22,000 miles so hopefully she'll have plenty of life in her yet.
I do lots of miles each week during my commute (25k per year) and have had my last two cars converted to LPG. I've got the YRV booked in to be converted as well at the end of the month so I'll let people know how it goes if anyone is interested.
She needs at bit of minor cosmetic TLC in places but apart from that I'm really looking forward to driving her and being part of a pretty exclusive minority.
Any comments or pointers of things to keep an eye on would be appreciated.
Welcome new member I'm
Welcome new member
I'm certain youl enjoy the car! Hope you got the service history with it?
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Current- 04 Silver YRV TURBO
Past- 91 Charade GTti, 89 Charade GTti, 98 1.3 Hi-Jet.
A friend in need is a friend indeed, a friend always in need, an Effin nuisance
Welcome!!
Will be interesting to see what it goes like. I didn't think they could be converted, I know that Parent Co Toyota have a lot of engines that cannot run on LPG, my Dad's 2002 RAV 4 is one of them.
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2004 Yellow YRV Turbo
Thanks for the
Thanks for the replies.
According to the Owners Service Book it's had a Daihatsu dealer service every 12 months for the first 7 years and then 2 other annual services at an independent garage. Milage between each was only 2000-2500 miles which the MOT history check also backed up.
Only thing I want to do soon is change the auto trans fluid as I've got no way of proving this has been done because the Daihatsu garage that serviced it no longer exists.
Most cars can be converted to LPG but some do have softer valve seats. Modern Japanese can tend to have softer valve seats (although my last Suzuki had no problems for 100k miles running on LPG) so you tend to run them with an additional "flash lube" kit that injects lubricant on to the seats to replace the natural carbon build up (that acts as a natural lubricant) created when running on petrol.
The Toyota Yaris engine is on the "risk list" for valve seat recession, hence the flash lube will definitely be required and it will have to be an injection system given the engine has a turbo as well. with my 25k per year commute that will add about £25-£30 per year in flashlube.
Toyata actually launched a Yaris model with LPG as standard for a few years in Italy so that gives me a little more confidence that things should be OK.
LPG'd YRV Turbo 130
"Gas It - You Know You Want To"
LPG
ive had a lpg on my old lexus is200, didnt go to well, stalled and made the fuel gauge lie, and as you may know the lpg gauge is not the best,
but other than tha it drrove well on gas,
i know its 100+ octain so you'll have a higher boost so may need a FCD,
i guy by me does lpg in a day, they use map sensor, multipoint injection, and space saver tanks, all for £800
http://www.professautogas.co.uk
he done an evo lancer, so the yrv should be a walk in the park for him
LPG fuel gauges are never the
LPG fuel gauges are never the best but once you've emptied the tank a couple of times and got an idea of the mileage you get on LPG, the gauge is not really essential anyway.
I've heard good and bad things about professautogas. For me, a complete conversion within 12 hours isn't something I'd consider no matter how many people are working on the car. Having had Polish LPG systems fitted to cars in the past (which is what professautogas use), I've decided to go for something that hopefully is a little higher quality with an EMER Italian system.
LPG'd YRV Turbo 130
"Gas It - You Know You Want To"
romano
the best system ive seen is a remano. on a accord type r, it run same as optimax, it did take the mechanic a full 7 days and cost £1500 but it was a much better job than andy's @profess gas, ive seen a honda civic , jag xjr 4.0 and my old lexus is200 done by andy, mine has issues the honda needed parts after 6 months, jag fliked back to petrol when under heavy load, put me off lpg, i bought the software to adjust the lpg systems and done other things, via the 4 pin plug. i could not fix any of them, only found out that the jag needed 2 vaporizers due to the full demand, which should have been done on installation.
good luck with the lpg conversion, keep us updated,
wonder where the vaporizer will live, ????
LPG Completed
Well having handed my YRV Turbo over to Toby at Independent Auto Gas for 4 days, I picked the car up last Friday and so far am really pleased.
Toby was good enough to give me pretty much a daily update and called me whenever he needed to double-check anything with me.
When it stops raining I'll get a photo or two to show you guys the installation in the engine compartment. It's very neat in my opinion and Toby even managed to retain the plastic engine cover and get a 45 litre tank in the spare wheel well whilst retaining a flat loading area.
During the 30 mile drive home the car performed flawlessly. It idled perfectly and showed no signs of performance loss even under hard acceleration.
This week should give me a chance to test how many miles I'll get out of a tank full of LPG (36 litres based on the max fill of 80%).
I'll keep you posted.
LPG'd YRV Turbo 130
"Gas It - You Know You Want To"
Payback?
Thats good news... hope it works out well.
Mind if I ask how much it was in total?
Would be interesting to work out roughly how long it would take to payback in fuel savings...
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Just call me G...
2004 Yellow YRV Turbo
Total cost was £1195
Total cost was £1195 inclusive of the flashlube kit at £120 and to be fair to Toby he also included a full tank of gas in the cost which would have cost at least £23.
Payback is an interesting question and depends on a number of factors including annual mileage, driving style/MPG, what the best price you can buy LPG for compared to unleaded and how long you intend to keep your car.
For me, based on best LPG price of 63p and unleaded at 135p my payback is less than 12 months because I do 25,000 miles per year. This payback has been calculated at 40mpg running on LPG but at present I only seem to getting 33MPG. With LPG you tend to get 10-15% less MPG compared to running on petrol because LPG has a lower calorific (energy) value than petrol.
I'm going to see if I can find out if it's possible to change the engine map so that the turbo kicks in at higher revs. 2750rpm should allow me to cruise on the motorway at 65-70mph in 4th gear without the turbo engaging.
Not sure if this is possible or whether it will have any significant effect on MPG. Anyone have any thoughts or facts on this?
LPG'd YRV Turbo 130
"Gas It - You Know You Want To"