Koolibah

After the conversion of the fuel system on my Citigo I really needed a convenient way of searching for LPG refilling stations around the country. A search around the internet suggested there was no definitive list for the UK and there my search stalled, until I discovered the website www.FillLPG.co.uk. It's free to join and to my mind it is the web at its best helping others to help ourselves. It does exactly what it says on its home page; "The aim of this site it to create an up to date directory of LPG filling stations throughtout the UK This directory is kept up to date by you, the LPG user for other LPG users." When you login, select map and enter a town or postcode this is the screen presented; Superimposed on a Google map are the filling stations with the latest prices. A helpful colour code provides visual information on cheap, medium and expensive fuel price. A satellite picture of the station is displayed on the right if you click on the coloured square together with address and price information. You can also update price details and station information here as well. This is crowd sourcing at its best. Running the pointer over the download satnav files reveals TomTom and Garmin downloads. Download the Garmin FillMe.csv file. So I had a source for up to date filling stations but how to get it into the Move and Fun PID. I discovered that this unit is a Navigon Premium 70 GPS which uses a Windows CE based operating system. It's entirely proprietary which is an anathema to me as I am an opensource advocate. Let me explain. I do not use Windows or Apple Mac. I have always used Linux for my computing which can on occasions make things a little more difficult than they need to be, and this was one of those occasions. Paul Tomlinson is one of those unselfish people who see a need, solve it and share it with everyone. Paul has written a programme called Navigon POI Converter that takes a .csv file converts it to something acceptable for the Navigon, and uploads into the GPS unit as custom POI's using a workaround which he describes best at his website. http://www.paultomlinson.co.uk/Main_Pages/Navigon_POI.htm The software is free and you pay a small charge around £1.50 for the cost of running the download server. Paul's programme is written for Windows and not for Linux, but I solved the issues and now happily run it from within Linux using Wine. For Windows systems just download the zip file extract it and run the setup file. Follow the instructions. You will need a usb to mini usb lead to connect your Navigon to your computer. So how does it work out. Great if you now the town name where you are. Follow some simple steps, enter the town name into the Navigon, up pops a selection of nearby LPG stations, select navigate to and hey presto directions to cheap fuel where ever you are in the UK. Alternatively or as well; At FillLPG.co.uk you can also download an app for your Android phone where you can select a filling station from the map which is centred on your GPS position, and that is even easier. ............... to be continued with a summary of my experiences on this journey with my Citigo and LPG.

Citigo LPG Part3 - Levelling the boot floor For the conversion of the Citigo to LPG I had always planned to use a larger gas tank to match or slightly exceed the capacity of the petrol tank of 35 litres. I used a 600mm x 220mm tolroid tank of 47 litres gross which gave me 37.5 litres useable LPG. The 220mm height meant that the tank slightly protruded above the floorlevel of the boot. I had planned to build my own false floor but information elsewhere on this site led me in the direction of fitting an accessory, made for the VW Up!, to level the floor with the folded rear seats . From my local VW dealer I ordered the following; 1 x 1S0858831F82V Mounting £6.95 1 X 1S0858832F82V Mounting £6.95 1 X 1S0858855E1BS Platform £58.31 6 X N91026802 Zyl. Schrau £3.00 Add VAT and the whole lot came to £90.26. Note you will need to get hold of a star drive T140 bit to screw the mounting bolts into place. The installation was simple as all the mounting points already exist in the Skoda and the molded mounts fall easily into place, a 10 minute job. The whole arrangement is very clever and the platform folds down or can be removed quickly. The VW carpet was an exact match for my Skoda. So here are a series of photos showing the installation; The left hand mounting fitted neatly into place, the attachment points matching exactly. The right hand mounting in place. You are looking at this from inside the car facing the rear. Looking from inside the car to the rear. In this image the new platform is in to folded position. Looking at the original boot floor with the new platform raised up. New platform in place. The finished result a "a level playing field" Note the carpet colour match. In the next posting I will examine how to download UK LPG filling stations into your Skoda Navigator for free,

If your interested in running on gas LPG not CNG then why noy look at my postings Citigo LPG and Citigo LPG Part 2. You might find my experience rather illuminating.

In part 1 I described how my Citigo was at Bewick Mobility in Blaydon being converted to dual fuel having been booked in on the Monday on the understanding that they would have the car for 5 days. But firstly here's a thought. Assume the LPG conversion costs £1200, you have an annual mileage of 10,000 and average fuel consumption of 50 mpg. That means 200 gallons per year or 908 litres of unleaded, which at £1.35 per litre is £1226. On gas, fuel consumption poorer add 10% ie say 1000 litres of gas, which at 66p per litre is £660 a saving of £566 per year. Where on earth can you invest £1200 and get a return of £566 per year or 47%. It's a no brainer get you money out of the bank, invest in a conversion, and be quids in. To continue .... In actual fact the car was completed and ready for collection by lunchtime Friday and as I rounded the corner of the building there it was sitting outside the workshops doors ready to go. Brian gave me a walk around of the installation and talked me through it, we retired to the office to complete the paperwork and payment, Brian had notified the register that the vehicle was duel fuel which would normally give a reduction on Road Tax, and then he suggested we drive to the nearest LPG filling station to show me how to fill the car. The car started instantly, the little indicator light showing red meaning we were running on petrol. Within a few minutes there was a click from the rear, the little light went orange then green and wow we were running on gas. If it hadn't been for the soft click (the multivalve in the tolroid tank switching on) and the light changing to green I would never have know we had switched from petrol to lpg. So before we talk about day to day running ( later installment ) here are some photos of the installation. Overview of the installation; gas injectors lower left, gas filter upper right, vaporiser mounter off the firewall, left above that. Standing at the front of the car left hand side of engine bay showing the LPG solenoid and map sensor. Mounted on the right hand side firewall the BRC Genius MB800 reducer (vaporiser) and the gas filter. View of the 3 BRC normal injectors on a common rail and at far end the P1 gas pressure and temperature sensor. The inlet manifold is drilled and the nozzle is screwed and glued into place. The petrol injector can be seen near the cylinder head mounted on its common rail. The BRC Sequent 24 ECU is slaved to the cars ECU and is shown here mounted in the centre of the car underneath the scuttle in front of the windscreen. The 47 litre 30 degree tolroid tank 600mm x 220 mm fitted in the spare wheel well. It is slightly higher than the level of the boot floor, but that was planned as I am fitting the boot level kit from a VW Up!. As you can only fill to 80% that gives me a usable capacity of 37.5 litres. In the centre of the tank and unseen (covered) is the multivalve, tank solenoid, tank level indicator, filler one way valve and the centre mount. Centre consul showing BRC intelligent switch. 4 green leds indicate amount of gas in tank, red light indicates that engine is running on petrol, goes orange on transition, then green to indicate running on gas. Here showing that I have half a tank of gas left. Manually press the switch and all indicator leds go off, red shows and car runs on petrol, press again and all greens come on showing the car running on gas. Filler mounted right of centre in the bumper bar, reinforced to the chassis behind Happy to recommend them Brian Burns owner of Bewick Autogas and my converted Citigo In Part 3 I will share the experience of installing the UP! boot level floor and explain how to enter LPG filling stations into your cars navigator.

Hello to all those owners considering a conversion to LPG. Well I am having my lovely new Elegance converted as I write this and propose to write up the experience, good and or bad for those contemplating a conversion. I live in Northumberland and bought my demonstrator 13 plate Citigo last week with 2864 miles on the clock, always planning to have it converted to LPG, not for environmental reasons but one of cost. There are a number of garages around Newcastle who sell LPG at 66 - 70p per litre and at this price differential to petrol, it will take me 3.5 years to breakeven, that's doing an annual mileage of 6,000 per year. I normally keep my cars for around 10 years so I should be quids in. However the main reason is one of cashflow, having retired recently I would rather keep the cash in my pocket living modestly than contribute to further petrol company profits. I had made the choice to downsize my car and had decided to buy a Skoda Citigo, after driving my partners amazing VW Up! The Up! is a little too racy in styling for my taste, so I settled on the Skoda instead. I looked at the Mii but SEAT support not as good as Skoda. I located my Skoda via a Skoda dealer on Autotrader, struck a deal and became the happy owner of a near new Citigo. I had discovered that if I was Polish I could get an LPG Citigo from the factory converted by their dealer network, or a CNG Citigo if I was Czech. However no such options for us here in the UK. I contacted UKLPG association and discovered that I had three businesses in the Northeast who could do the conversion, and after checking out all three I chose Bewick Mobiltiy at Blaydon to do the work. I had completed quite a bit of research on the conversion by this time, looked at the videos, read all the commentaries and test reports, (isn't Google translate wonderful), so that I could understand what I was being told by the people who would undertake the conversion. I met the folks at Bewick and after a long discussion with owner, Brian Burns, did a deal, paid a deposit and booked the car in for last Monday on the understanding that it would be with them for 5 days. I pick the car up tomorrow ...... to be continued. Notes: 1. Poland is one of the largest manufaturers of LPG/CNG equipment after the Italians and Dutch. The quality of the equipment is equal to any in Europe, the price is usually much cheaper. 2. There seems to be quite a variation in the quality of the workmanship of the businesses undertaking the conversions. To get the work many LPG businesses quote cheap one day conversions using cheaper equipment, ie Polish. This can and does cause problems of cars not running correctly because to little time is spent on tuning and setup. It's not the equipment at fault it's the conversion workmanship. 3. BRC (American owned, Italian manufacturer) has a huge dealer and spares support network in the UK, providing inspections of approved BRC workshops, continual training, top reliability and brilliantly designed installation tuning software that takes a lot of work and provides time savings out of setup. Naturally dealers go for this as it's a no brainer for them and that is why BRC have such a large part of the UK LPG conversion market. It tends to be at the higher end for cost of conversion. 4. I joined www.filllpg.co.uk a crowed sourced website that provides the latest prices and location of every LPG filling station in the UK. Downloaded their csv file and loaded it into the Navigon seems to work fine.