Bought a mondeo st220 recently with a BRC system fitted 3.0 v6, It was working fine but its always had the 4 leds flashing on the lpg switch?

It had a problem of the coolant being black, so I flushed the coolant on the car and since it wont run properly on lpg, misfiring and cutting power/stalling. we put it down to being empty as I only recently bought it. Next day the car was in the garage for the brakes to be done and he spotted a coolant leak. Turns out the 2 lpg coolant pipes going to the vaporizer I think? were hard and brittle (explains the black coolant).

Got the lpg coolant pipes replaced, brakes etc, left the garage and filled the gas up, after this the car would still run badly on gas, kangooring, spluttering, not running at all on gas. So I let the car sit and idle for a good 20-30mins on petrol, fully heating it up today and took it for a drive on lpg and it was fine, full power no problems at all. Could this be something to do with the coolant as its only since its been flushed?

Mark

Could have had a partial airlock in the reducer following the coolant drain.

Flashing lights on switch probably due to a problem with the level sender on the tank or the wiring to it. BRC systems can flash the LEDs if level signal (voltage) is out of the range expected, I've already mentioned the usual causes of this.

Simon

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will do a search and try to find your posts regarding the causes thanks, yesterday after posting this i went for a 15mile trip with no problems and a bit of heavy foot too, it also stopped flashing and sat with 3 sold leds, haven't drove it today to see how it is but hopefully it was just the coolant flush causing the problems, problem is id like to flush it again as the coolant is still a nasty brown now, but a lot better than it was.

Mark

Wasn't expecting you to search my old threads mate, by 'already mentioned' I meant on this thread... Usual cause is broken level sender or associated wiring.

Although in your case could have been error reporting - coolant temp taking too long to warm up, etc.

Simon

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It may be down to vaporiser location if its got airlocked? where is it in the engine bay? Hopefully its low down which should reduce the chance of issues like this, though does seem a bit odd that your finding so much rubbish in the coolant?

Yeh, hopefully no oil, exhaust fumes or LPG in the coolant. Which would respectively point to blown HG, cracked head or block, broken seals in LPG reducer. But if some old water pipe was brittle and breaking up, hopefully the black coolant is just due to bits from the pipe.

Simon

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I'd be inclined to run it on petrol for a short time (day or so or 50 miles) if decided to flush again and then reinspect the coolant to see what state its in as this would rule out the first 3 causes. Then run on lpg and see if it stays ok after that. The failed reducer i had ended up with a rusty brown coloured coolant, though i wasn't too sure how much of said coolant was water, red coolant and blue coolant, bits of failing heater matrix and radiator so hard to say for sure which one was causing the problem.

It was much better after a thorough flushing with the hosepipe though.

Hi guys sorry for the delayed reply, car was mint for around 80 miles over 4days on lpg, now suddenly back to rough running and chucking it again on lpg, deffo the coolant pipes causing the black coolant as when we removed the pipe the insides were falling to bits, definitely needs another flush but it's a brown colour now rather than black so much better. The vaporizer is at the very bottom of the nearside wing. Only just got the filter yesterday so need to try that one.


Quick edit: Just thought it's only started running @!## again since I added some valve saver fluid? Could there be a problem here? Too much valve saver going in maybe?

Mark

Could be due to lube fluid blocking/gumming LPG injectors if the lube system is the effected type. Where does lube enter the engine?

Simon

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Looks like it goes in to the inlet manifold.

How much is it using? it should work out 1ml to 1 litre of fuel, so you'd probabbly need to top it to a known level, drive it and see if it changes. Though excess valve saver shouldn't effect performance, it may cause smoke?

What fluid are you using as well? if its not the same as it was setup on it may need adjustment to get the rate right.

It might be easiest to check the temp of the reducer when its acting up - if its anything less than hot to the touch then its probabbly not getting enough coolant, given that you know that its brown flushing it would seem the next sensible step anyway, as you may have just freed up all the @!## already in the system anyway.

Yeah brian your probably right could need a good flush especially since the 2 pipes that were causing the problem were going to the reducer aswell. Took it out tonight, changed to gas quite quickly less than a mile up the road, ran ok then I floored it started kangarooing and completely cut off power. Came back on again though after restarting and was totally fine even with a good thrashing, I'm doing a run of around 300miles on Saturday I'l see how it goes I've filled the petrol tank incase lol.

I'd Give the reducer a flush from both ends if your able to so just incase theres a blockage in there.

Done 700mile on the gas this weekend, only problem I'm having now with it is the first time you try to run on gas it just loses power and chucks it, then when you switch back its fine, doesn't matter how many miles you've done before switching either.

Could be a sticking solenoid post, would suggest best course of action would be to run it to empty and clean both of them, if its a single hole tank then you should be able to shutoff the rear feed in which case you won't need to run it to empty first, 4 hole would need to be emptied as far as possible.
You can clean the front one either way though.

Could also be sticky injectors - there are cleaners available that you put into the feed to the injectors (ic-12 being the main one) which I've used and found to help with that sort of problem. If its been sat for a while it may be worth considering that first.

If not a solenoid, could be any combination of spark plugs (fussy on ST220 engine), LPG system calibration, type of BRC system (e.g. Plug n drive, sequent56), LPG injector channels matching petrol injector channels.

Simon

_________________
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Servicing / Diagnostics / Repairs to all systems / DIY conversion kits supplied with thorough tech support
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07816237240

Gonna do the filter this weekend, seems to run like @!## then if you give it a proper thrash it's then fine until the next time you start it up. Hate lpg but it's so cheap cost me £70 to do them 700 miles and I still have qtr of a tank.

Filters are unlikely to be the problem.


What kind of statement is that?

I like your figures.. £70 to do 700 miles is 10p per mile, which is the equivalent in terms of running costs to getting 55mpg on petrol or diesel. The only way to get 55mpg running costs with petrol or diesel are to have a smaller car / a smaller much less powerful noisy stinky diesel engine, I wouldn't want a car like that. I do like the Mondeo ST220's though, they are a decent size car with a quiet smooth and powerful V6 engine... but the only way to get equivalent of 55mpg running costs in a car like this is by running on LPG.

I used to smoke proper fags but for around 14 months I've smoked roll ups. I'd prefer not to have to put the extra effort in that is involved with roll ups, but on balance, all things considered, I now prefer smoking roll ups to proper fags, not least because it is far cheaper. I would never claim to hate roll ups just because of the extra effort, but if I did make such claim I expect people would rightfully point out that I couldn't really hate roll ups, because, after all, I choose to smoke them.. if I hated them I would just buy my old favourite brand fags.

Simon

_________________
Full time LPG installer
Servicing / Diagnostics / Repairs to all systems / DIY conversion kits supplied with thorough tech support
Mid Yorkshire
2 miles A1, 8 miles M62,
http://www.Lpgc.co.uk
Twitter https://twitter.com/AutogasSimon
07816237240

Trouble is you've picked up something which you don't know worked right in the first place - it could be faulty, or could as Simon's pointed out be an installation issue. Though either should be fixable. Look at it this way though, its far cheaper to run it past someone and fix it than a similar fault on a diesel could be for the parts alone. As well as far nicer to drive. Its just a case of finding someone who knows what they are doing that can be the problem.

As Simon has said filters unlikely to be the problem, but if your intending doing them chucking some ic12 down the injector pipe at the same time wouldn't be the worst of ideas. > this stuff http://www.lpgshop.co.uk/ic12-injector-cleaner-and-lubricant-100ml/

I do wonder how big a tank you have though to do 700 miles off it.

Sorry it wasn't in one go, tank must be around 50ltrs, it cost £26 to fill at 53p a litre, I had done 156mile on £15.20 refilled as we were doing 330mile total. I've had several lpg cars and reason I mean I hate it is its never really right in any of the cars I've had always been a fault but all have been systems I haven't fitted myself.