Hi everyone,
Thanks for the input and support. I just wanted to update you all as to the progress of how things have gone.
The issue with the injectors not opening was resolved. Mint came to my house to perform the work, Edward himself came out, and he discovered that the vaporiser had failed. The screw attaching the diaphragm had failed and the vaporiser was allowing full pressure down to the injectors, which of course could not open against the pressure. Doh! The unit was changed and off I went. Edward also gave me his direct number for me incase anything went wrong.
Unfortunately, the next day the system began cutting over to petrol after about 50 miles of driving, irrespective of the tank contents (half full, full, etc). The problem would resolve if the engine cooled down and then it would run again for about 40 to 50 miles on LPG, then start giving off the same symptoms. I rang Edward who was literally dismayed at the latest development. We had a long chat on the phone and he agreed the experience I had was sub par, that I had been very flexible with getting things put right and he asked for one more chance to be able to resolve the issues. He said that if after this latest round of fixes things still did not work or something went wrong, he would have the kit
fully removed and a full refund given. I agreed, so Edward came down on friday, took my car away for the weekend and left a coutesy car (same type - ml500) for me to use while mine was being worked on. The courtesy car had exactly the same components and kit as my car and frankly, I could not fault it at all it worked great. Same car, same kit, but completely different experience.
Edward personally returned my car on sunday to me and went through what was found. He and his team have taken a hard look at the vaporisers used and have found that the latest batch appears to be below par. He has taken this up with the manufacturer and geniunely seemed disapponted with his supliers and potential damage to his companies reputation because of those.
Im my case, Edward upgraded the vaporiser, filter etc to the Romano system, free of charge. By way of apology, Edward also returned the car to me with a full tank of LPG and a full tank of petrol (which is about £150 'all in' on the ML) - and there was also the free 60 litres of LPG on my last visit to their premises. Ive driven it today up to london and I cant fault it so far. No misfiring when booting it. Petrol trims and fuel economy all dead on accurate. Cuts over when the tank is empty, and takes the full tank capacity when filling up. of course, this is just my first trip out on the new system and I will update this thread if anything begins to go wrong, however fingers are crossed that, as I said to edward, "hopefully you dont see me again until the 10k service"
All in all, ive been back (or mint have come to me) to get things resolved more than I would have liked to. Mint have given great customer service at every step and I really cant fault them on that regard. when things were becoming a bit of a mickey take for having to go back there, they recognised this and began coming to me to resolve the issues (while im 'local' in the grand scheme of things, im still an hours drive from mint HQ). They have also have given me the free upgrade in components as well as about £200 worth of fuel by way of an apology for the inconvinience.
Its a huge shame that you have had such a bad time with this. But the good thing about Mint is that they haven't tried to swerve the issues that you have had. And as you say the customer service has been very good. Personally i believe that it would have been the same if the UKLPGA had not been involved
I fully agree, Edward really seemed to care that this car wasnt going right, even after the UKLPG issues were resolved. He never once has asked me to write anything about my positive experinces online, nor to remove or modify anything in this thread. His focus was purely on getting the car running right. I saw a bit of me in him as he was working, in so far that I need to find out the reason for problems and it will bug the hell out of me until they are fixed. The engineers spirit.
however as you have found out, the ML500 is a fairly high demanding engine. It is an easy engine to convert and takes well to LPG and it is also very easy to make it look neat and tidy with very little showing. It does however need a kit that is up to the job.
As you have mentioned, mint's cutomer service has been very good, but as a first LPG experience it would have been better had you not had to use it.
I believe that the kit they originally installed is up to the job, were it not for the problem with the batch of vaporisers. The courtesy ML had the same engine size, exact same kit and components and worked flawlessly. I agree it would have been better not to need the customer service, but Mint have certainly done well in this area. I just hope that now there are no more problems and I get many thousands of miles of happy, cheap, green motoring out of the old boat now, and that Mint resolve the problem with the manufacturer to their satisfaction. I would be trully pissed off with my supplier if something I warrantied and supplied to my customers turned out to have problems and was causing reputational damage to my business.
Gilbertd wrote:I may be a cynic but don't you think the customer service you are receiving isn't the norm, more a case that UKLPG are looking over their shoulder and they don't want to lose their approval? I have a suspicion that were you just a punter complaining you may have been fobbed off or ignored by now..
A valid point, however by that point mint had already resolved the issues that UKLPG had pointed out, so as far as that was concerned the issues were already fixed. There was therefore, at that point, no incentive for Mint to perform any remidal work in order to appease the UKLPG. Everything they then did was for customer service, possibly with this thread in mind, but more likely just their normal customer service levels. If Edward had been overly worried about this thread, I think there would have been some incentive for him or his staff to encourage me to write positive things, or perhaps even a statement from mint themselves on here. there was none of that, just almost a tunnel vision with getting the car right and making sure I was happy. Even with the problems, Edward knew there was a solution to them and things could be ironed out - a good engineering mind IMHO.
Overall experience so far; really disapponted so many things went wrong. Happy that Mint did the right things to put things right and really chuffed that they want to ensure their work is done right. I have never asked for any kind of compensation or apology, but they have done that anyway. As im not an installer and I dont have that much experience with LPG, Im not sure how many of the problems were down to '1 day install' pressures, but a bad batch of components certainly wouldnt fit into that category in my view. Perhaps some of the initial problems that the UKLPG found (such as a badly routed line, some fouling etc) could be put down to '1 day install' timeframes (and possibly the initial tune too), but they seem relatively minor. Edward did say that he has worked with his staff to ensure those issues are not repeated in future.
Anyway, hopefully this thread will not be updated with any more problems I have experienced. As I said, if something else crops up, Mint have offered a full kit removal so Im really hoping things dont go wrong any further.
