lpg tank concerns
 

hi all i'm just a little concerned about my lpg tank/fuel gauge my v70 is a factory bi fuel (50ltr tank) i ran out pf lpg last weekend on my way to a job so pulled in at a garage to fill up with lpg,connected up as normal and started to fill up, not really watching the pump i looked round and it had put 53ltrs in the tank with no sign of slowing so i stopped at just over 53 ltrs, this is where my concerns started usually 5ltrs of gas is roughly 25 miles on my guage, 50 miles later gauge was still on full and was nearly 75 miles before it started to drop normally, so last night i filled up with lpg again (225 miles later) but gauge was showing i still had 10ltrs of gas in the tank it then took another 42 litres of gas(again had not cut off at this stage but i decided to stop it at that point) and fuel gauge is right over on the full again with no sign of movement after 30 miles, is it possible the first gas fill up of 53ltrs may of damaged my tank sender or the tank? probably nothing to worry about but new to lpg

Ive overfilled my tanks quite a few times and its never affected the gauge sender unit. I think that the real risk with overfilling is damage to the regulator causing it to stick.

Other that that overfilling past the pump auto shut off doenst really cause problems though in hot weather some gas may be vented - more a waste of money than anything else.

LPG fuel gauges are only ever approximately right. The tolerance seems to be +/- about 50% in the case of my car, so I wouldn't worry about that!

In very cold weather you will get more gas in the tank than you do in in warm weather as the lpg is more dense at lower temperatures.

Over 120,000 miles of LPG motoring I've found that my V70 will usually take 48 litres per fill, and return 26mpg. On odd occasions the fill has been less than 48 litres, but thenit's been it's been more, whilst the mpg has been as poor as 21mpg and as good as 29mpg, even though my style of driving and the state of maintenance of the car is pretty constant.

I've never really figured out why these abberations occur with LPG - but the car runs as well as ever, so why worry?!

Jack

It can also be affected by the pressure of the filling pump, aand the angle of the car, i.e facing up hill or down.

i'm in portsmouth and we only have one lpg station here and i cna never get more then 20 notes worth in at any one fill from empty, hot or cold, but filling at BP i get at least 25 in there or so, seems to be vast differences in shutoff's for the pumps dependant on the manufacturer\outlet.

in general i find that the ones with the handle you do a quarter turn with then pull up fill better than the ones with the more traditional style petrol hand control

I have been made aware of it that the quality of the lpg might/can differ hence the difference in mpg

Or BP charge more for their LPG (lol)!

good point, well made, just filled at a shell witht he more traditonal handle and seemed to sqush more in, think my local jet garages' pump is a bit poo.

will have to try it when i need to again cos lately they have sped it up, but haven't been able to run on gas lately due to a problem which now has been rectified (see thread s40 ony idles on LPG).

Hi Kev,
It's a little off topic but still about LPG, have you thought about opening an account with Countrywide Fuels to buy LPG it's cheaper than filling stations and they have tanks near you. You won't see them at filling stations, it's like a club, I've been using them for around 12 months now. Sorry everyone if you're not in the South West or South West Midlands but that's where they have most of their distribution sites.

chris, i've been using country wide since just after i bought the car, the above post started because of one of their pumps