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Hi,
I'm new to this site and we have only just bought our old Prado two months ago, however I thought I'd share my recent experience with everyone just in case anyone else has similar problems.
We recently change our car from a Tarago to our Prado as the kids have grown up a bit and we all wanted some new experiences such as beach driving etc. The Prado is great and we have already had some good times however one morning I'm at work and the phone goes, my wife with all the kids on the way to school have broken down about 1 km from the house in the middle of a T junction blocking the road. All the normal thoughts run through my head, we have sold a reliable Tarago and bought a bucket of problems, anyway after switching from gas to petrol and trying for 10 mins the car starts again.
My wife is not not happy and I have to drive the car for a few days to see if it happens again, it doesn't, so she starts to drive it again. Two weeks later on a Monday after driving to Clare for the weekend with no issues the car does exactly the same thing again, same time, same place, this time it doesn't start. By good luck someone helps push the car into a bus stop so it isn't blocking the road however it will not restart. The kids have to catch the bus to school and my wife has to have the day off work and again isn't happy. We contact the dealer we bought the car from who says yes he will look at it if we get it there (30 kms away) but how do we get it there without paying the earth. My wife walks home and we discuss it on and off over the next couple of hours. My wife walks back to the car and guess what it starts straight away but there is strong smell of gas in the car. My wife drives it to the dealer who keeps it for a day, driving it around etc but says he can't find any problems. An intermittent major fault, the worse kind, how do you repair something which isn't broke?
Following a bit of research about LPG and some of the problems associated with it I try the car myself this morning and guess what, the same happens to me. Being new to LPG I wasn't aware that our system is now quite old and turns from petrol to gas quickly and that the LPG body is heated via the engine coolant to convert the LPG into gas. So when I broke down this morning guess what, the LPG body is covered in white frost even with an outside temp over 10 degrees. I get the car started on petrol, warm the engine up, change to gas and there has been no further problems.
So in a nut shell anyone new to LPG like me make sure your car is warm before turning over to LPG as the heat from the engine coolant is needed to warm the LPG kit and convert the liquid to a gas. If you don't the change the LPG into gas it freezes your LPG kit and the car will stop. It now bring back memory's of when we tried to empty a small gas cooking canister and when the gas came out the canister got frost all over it!
I realise that most people on the forum probably know all this already but I thought I share this just in case, all the best.
I'm new to this site and we have only just bought our old Prado two months ago, however I thought I'd share my recent experience with everyone just in case anyone else has similar problems.
We recently change our car from a Tarago to our Prado as the kids have grown up a bit and we all wanted some new experiences such as beach driving etc. The Prado is great and we have already had some good times however one morning I'm at work and the phone goes, my wife with all the kids on the way to school have broken down about 1 km from the house in the middle of a T junction blocking the road. All the normal thoughts run through my head, we have sold a reliable Tarago and bought a bucket of problems, anyway after switching from gas to petrol and trying for 10 mins the car starts again.
My wife is not not happy and I have to drive the car for a few days to see if it happens again, it doesn't, so she starts to drive it again. Two weeks later on a Monday after driving to Clare for the weekend with no issues the car does exactly the same thing again, same time, same place, this time it doesn't start. By good luck someone helps push the car into a bus stop so it isn't blocking the road however it will not restart. The kids have to catch the bus to school and my wife has to have the day off work and again isn't happy. We contact the dealer we bought the car from who says yes he will look at it if we get it there (30 kms away) but how do we get it there without paying the earth. My wife walks home and we discuss it on and off over the next couple of hours. My wife walks back to the car and guess what it starts straight away but there is strong smell of gas in the car. My wife drives it to the dealer who keeps it for a day, driving it around etc but says he can't find any problems. An intermittent major fault, the worse kind, how do you repair something which isn't broke?
Following a bit of research about LPG and some of the problems associated with it I try the car myself this morning and guess what, the same happens to me. Being new to LPG I wasn't aware that our system is now quite old and turns from petrol to gas quickly and that the LPG body is heated via the engine coolant to convert the LPG into gas. So when I broke down this morning guess what, the LPG body is covered in white frost even with an outside temp over 10 degrees. I get the car started on petrol, warm the engine up, change to gas and there has been no further problems.
So in a nut shell anyone new to LPG like me make sure your car is warm before turning over to LPG as the heat from the engine coolant is needed to warm the LPG kit and convert the liquid to a gas. If you don't the change the LPG into gas it freezes your LPG kit and the car will stop. It now bring back memory's of when we tried to empty a small gas cooking canister and when the gas came out the canister got frost all over it!
I realise that most people on the forum probably know all this already but I thought I share this just in case, all the best.
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