2005 Subaru Outback 2.5 auto with BRC lpg system

[krs]

Just come across the forum and thought I would join.

I purchased the car from a Skoda dealer in October 2011. The car had 57000 miles on the clock and came already converted by the previous owner. The car was also fitted with a valve saver system.

As soon as I bought the car I had it fully serviced and also had a gas service by Birway, The system installer
The lpg system has given no problems and Im getting 23 to 26 mpg on mixed running.

The car has now covered 69000 miles.

Im very pleased with the car and would convert any future car to lpg.

[Gilbertd]

Im very pleased with the car and would convert any future car to lpg.

That's what we like to hear. Most people only find this forum after doing a search as they have problems with a gas system. This can then give the false impression that everyone has problems because that's all you ever hear about. I detest diesels in all forms so would never buy one of them and I'm on my third (or second and third to be more accurate) LPG cars and intend to run nothing but LPG in the future.

[krs]

Just a update on a fault which started with the lpg system late last week.

The car suddenly would not run properly or tick over on lpg. The car last had a lpg system service in November 2011.

My local garage have lpg experience so they looked at the problem.

It turned out to be a couple of blocked injectors. After cleaning and tuning the system the vehicle is running well again. All filters are clean and I always run on gas. (After starting on petrol) I cover over 2000 miles a month as I use the car for my job.

I`m lucky to have a garage that know their stuff and do a fantastic job. They are also a lot better value than the main dealer.

Due to a valve guide coming loose in a cylinder head I had one side rebuilt in Feb 2012. I was lucky that the only damage was a bent valve. The garage replaced the cylinder head with a new one which I found on Ebay.

The Outback had covered 18000 miles on lpg and the valve seats were like new with no signs of wear on the old head. The car does run a flashlube kit (gravity fed not electronic) I would not have a Subaru converted without one being fitted at the same time.

[rossko]

The Outback had covered 18000 miles on lpg and the valve seats were like new with no signs of wear on the old head.

That's good to hear. As a preventative for something that shouldn't happen anyway, you can never be quite sure Flashlube actually does anything ...

I think Subaru fall into a grey zone, might get away with no lube on some but not others.

[krs]

The Outback had covered 18000 miles on lpg and the valve seats were like new with no signs of wear on the old head.

That's good to hear. As a preventative for something that shouldn't happen anyway, you can never be quite sure Flashlube actually does anything ...

I think Subaru fall into a grey zone, might get away with no lube on some but not others.

The guy who services my car said the same thing about the need for flashlube on a Subaru. If I had the lpg system fittted from new I would have had the electronic flashlube kit fitted. My car does not have a tubo if that makes a difference with valve seat wear.

[Gilbertd]

My car does not have a turbo if that makes a difference with valve seat wear.

Shouldn't make a difference to valve seat wear but will make a difference to a Flashlube install. A normally aspirated engine can use either the standard drip feed or electronic, a turbo must have the electronic system otherwise the positive pressure in the manifold blows the Flashlube back into the reservoir.

[Allan1010]

This is interesting to me as we recently biought a mint '53 plate 2.0 Forester. Not the same, I know but we bought it with the intention of converting it to LPG

That is, until a recall, and minor damage from a drunk falling over in front of the front bumper (in the street, parked!) damaging the hadlamp washer cover as he struggled to stand up.

I got talking to the parts guy over my 3 trips there, to order then collect parts, then drop it off for the recall and a minor service. He told me that once upon a time Subaru offered a factory fitted LPG system. He admitted he knew nothing about it, except that it cost Subaru mega bucks in warranty claims because they replaced mountains of cylinder heads, and they very quickly stopped offering LPG as a factory fit option.

He didn't try to "scare me off" or feed me a line, he was honest telling me he knew nothing about the factory fit option.

Does anyone have any concrete info on this?
Cheers.

[Gilbertd]

That's probably why Subaru fall into the grey area of needing Flashlube. Subaru obviously thought the grade of steel they were using for their valve seats was hard enough, only to find out it wasn't.......

Maybe one of their suppliers substituted something not quite up to the spec they had requested.

[Allan1010]

That makes sense, thanks Gilbert.

[Tubbs]

Yes they did offer a factory fit. And they fell into trouble because they didnt fit a flashlube. And i laughed at the time. See they went and got a few quotes for a system from a few different companies. The company i had at the time was invited to tender. But mine was a system with a flashlube so the unit cost on the prototype was more. Obviously they went with a cheaper quote, without any valve lubrication and got royally shafted, the company went bust as soon as they got swamped with warranty issues and subaru had to pick up the peices. All for a bottle of flashlube. They where only interested in the N/A engines at the time so it wasnt even much.
I also dont think it helped when in the meeting one of the technical bods asked me about measuring vapour pressure, the word manometer came into play and every one with me went 'do, doo, do, do, do'
As in munum munum from the muppet show. I dont think they thought we where taking the project very seriously !
Been waiting years to use that LPG anecdote !

[krs]

I have thought about upgrading the flashlube on my Outback to a electronically controlled as a belt and braces measure.

Is their any East Midland installers on the forum who can give me a quote?

[rossko]

Just to highlight "factory fit" is shorthand for "done for the UK importer by a local contractor before it gets to the showroom"

[Tubbs]

Yeh thats the one, we dont all have factories to fit LPG conversions ! but they are still billed as 'factory' fitted...

[jaafar]

On my Honda, The installer went for the cheaper option of the drip Flashlube rather than the electronic one. I had the option of electronic.
Gravity one is cheaper by one third. They both do the same job ( as long as you get one drop every 6 seconds running to the engine)
Been googling a lot about Flashlube and Japanese cars in general do need it.

Take care all