So given how cheap it was and how little resistance the seller put up to extra discounting I knew it would have some problems 😊
Boy was I right.
There was some low hanging fruit.
Re fitting the front bumper which was barely attached was easy as was cleaning the grot off the interior.
Dealing with the deathly smell inside the car was a little harder… There were mixed elements to the aroma and at first I thought it was the brand new Chinese cheapie spare tire in the boot. There was some improvement after I left it out for a couple of days. Not much though.
Cleaned all the leaves and possum poo out of the windscreen base and engine bay and was left with the faint aroma of LPG.
The source proved hard to find.
I had my usual LPG guy look at the car to check the mixtures as it was running rough and had the check engine light on. It would disappear when you ran it on petrol for a couple of trips. The mixtures were spot on and it appeared the engine light was due to low fuel pressure on the petrol side when switched to LPG. He couldn’t determine the LPG leak site. A bit frustrating!
In the meantime I had noticed that the top radiator hose was collapsing when cold. The overflow tank dipstick said it was full so suspecting the recovery system was clogged I cleaned out the lines and put a new radiator cap on. This turned out not to be the solution….
Eventually I had a proper look over the gas system and there was some brown wax around one of the vapour hoses to the fuel rail so I tightened the clamp and at last the smell was gone! Tightened all the others for good measure.
By now I thought I was getting forward progress and we know what happens then dont we - a suprise new problem! So it tried to overheat one day and there was much missing coolant on inspection. I couldn’t see any external leaks and was starting to get a very bad feeling.
Added some stop leak and hoped for the best. Sadly every time I drove it it would seem to lose coolant and not refill itself from the recovery system. Thinking I must have an air leak I want over the water connections to the LPG converter and they were leaking a little. Poor assembly seemed the issue.
Still air continued to appear in the coolant.
I was starting to think the converter might be the problem as its the only connection to the cooling system I haven’t checked and maybe that’s part of the rough running problem? Coolant leaking out and into the vapour side of the system? It really drove like an old carby car with dirty fuel when on LPG.
Bit the bullet and jacked up the car, pulled the drivers front wheel and inner guard off and inspected the converter. Well bugger me, the hose clamp to one of the water lines was completely loose and looked like it had never been tightened. So I tightened the inlet and outlet hoses, convinced I had found the last possible problem.
Nope. Still losing coolant.
Convinced I had a stitch up with a leaking head gasket by now. Bought a radiator fill funnel and watched bubbles steadily appear in the coolant without end.
Frock Frock Frock
Rang my LPG guy to see if he could do some head gaskets for me. We both agreed this was an unlucky problem given the MLS gaskets in the LS3 engines and he suggested running it on petrol only for a while to eliminate the very rare event of LPG leaking from the converter into the coolant.
He was right!
After a week on petrol there was no more air appearing in the coolant and a retest with the fill funnel showed no bubbles. Turned it over to gas and within a minute bubbles were appearing.
Converter replaced and good to go.
Nope.
Still drove like a dog and getting worse. Really starting to get annoyed by now. Had a look inside the LPG fuel rails and they looked clean, no coolant. LPG present in the supply line from the tank when disconnected. Now beyond my simple checks. So dropped it back to my LPG guy. I had never mentioned the increasingly rough performance on LPG as I had assumed the missing coolant/air in the radiator and poor running were linked.
Connected the BRC diagnostic tool and all reads normal…. So he grabs the multimeter and starts searching. Finds a minor voltage drop and on further inspection…
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Its the old rotten fuse.
Very unexpected given the LPG system was compliance in 2021 according to the engine bay plate.
30 cent fuse replaced and its a car transformed. No longer relying on rust to pass the electrons means it can run the converter and injectors at the same time no worries!
What a freaking saga.
Mind you its cost less than $1000 to fix its woes so alls well that ends well.
Except that the engine light still comes on when you run it on LPG.
This is the code
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Given the rubbish quality of the rest of the LPG system install I can only surmise that something is screwed up with the install wiring.
The only other issue I have spent money on was wheels. The former owner obviously let his guide dog do the parking and all four wheels were very knocked about.
Found a good set of factory wheels with near new Bridgestones on them for less than a gorilla.
After fitting to the car I discovered they didnt have the tyre pressure sensors - either absent or broken.
I enquired at Holden and was told it was $196 per sensor and $200 for “programming” A thousand dollars all up. Thank goodness you tube told me there were alternatives. So I bought a set of sensors off eBay which came with the programming device.
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My usual tyre place did 4 strip and fits for the sensors and everything is spot on for $154
Now all that’s left is finding the strange tinny rattle from behind the back seat 😊
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