You may remember that I bored you all with problems with my LPG (more or less sorted) and also odd performance problems (no acceleration on hills and under load) but did I mention that this was intermittent and sometimes seemed ok - I was in the process of changing sensors but have not done the crankshaft one yet. Anyway, a couple of things - perhaps not strictly right for the forum (not good at finding my way to the right one). Here in Spain they are slowly increasing the number of LPG garages - they used to be spaced out about 80 to 200 miles and my nearest was at Malaga 40 miles away from home. (I used to be able to just about make the UK journey through Spain on LPG). Recently a new one (Repsol) appeared only 12 miles away but the price has risen slowly to 70 euro cents a liter. These are not new stations - just old stations fitted with LPG tanks. I was not able to register the P38 on the Spain system because their MOT/ITV does not recognise any LPG install not done as a recent 'factory fit' - their own) even though mine was done by a proper installer in UK. An increasing number of Taxis and Ambulances here are on LPG. I have finally bought Storey Wilson's EAS v4 software and lead for my Windows laptop and P38. It cost about £150 and is a download of software and he sends a special OBD/USB lead. Finally got it set up and working yesterday. I know you guys have better gadgets but I didn't have the extra money for the Nanocoms etc. Anyway, It seems to work quite well and reads out the faults and the code numbers and allows you to reset them. It does not allow one to reset the idle speed which was one of the things I messed up when I put the wrong TPS on. Although strangely, it must be adaptive somewhere otherwise when I put the old one back on which had been ok the idle did not return to normal. Well, apart from a million HEVAC faults the one significant one on GEMS was P1179 AMFR correction at its maximum negative value (Driving Cycle C) and I see comments on the web that this may be linked with the MAF. I have cleaned it and reset - keen to see what happens now. Any help much appreciated !
The EAS v4 can be seen at http://www.rswsolutions.com - I can tell more about it when I've had more use of it.
super4 wrote:
Recently a new one (Repsol) appeared only 12 miles away but the price has risen slowly to 70 euro cents a liter.
Cheaper than France then where it's around 78.5 Euro cents at the hypermarkets but between 93 and 98 on the Autoroutes. My mate was wondering about replacing the system on his P38 for something a bit better but as he said it hardly seems worth it. Petrol on the Autoroutes is 1.65 Euro a litre but at the hypermarkets it's down to 1.30 so the price differential isn't that great. Long runs are when it would be most beneficial but that would involve filling on the Autoroute rather than using a tank full of hypermarket petrol at only 35 cents or so more expensive. He's driving to Portugal and back this weekend so we'll see what he thinks once he's done that trip.
LPG price is rising everywhere, a year ago it was only 31 Euro cents in Belgium, 4 weeks ago it was up to 50, still cheap though.
Sloth wrote:
Thinking about it, we used to have buses that ran on LPG in Southampton, but they seemed to disappear not long after introduction.
Not entirely sure why... and now we have the supposedly worst-thing-on-the-road diesels, with older models having DEF and DPF kit retrofitted etc currently. I'd love to know why LPG stopped being a viable option.
DAF (and I imagine other manufacturers) had a go at LPG (or some other gas) powered trucks but gave it up. Our systems still refer to them for specific parts or service procedures etc.
When I asked about it my boss said it had too many drawbacks compared to diesel. The lower power output meant they couldn't pull as much weight and the fuel tank required to give a decent range (for long range haulage) was too big.
They've also experimented with electric/hybrid but found that batteries with enough power/capacity were too heavy. They put the weight of the vehicle itself up too high to maintain an acceptable carrying capacity for the loads people need to carry.
Hi GilbertD - sorry if on wrong topic but not sure how to work the system-just want to ask if you have any ideas about what throws up the P1179 AMFR correction at its maximum negative value (Driving Cycle C) fault and where to look. I reset the fault - went for a drive - tested again and it is not showing any GEMS faults - perhaps a slight improvement in performance. There is a place in the prog to reset the values of the GEMS settings stored in the ECU - presumably so it can set up all its parameters again - do you think I should do this - Chris
Yes, that will reset the adaptive values. Definitely worth doing every so often when running on LPG as they can drift off.
Hi Gilbert - sorry to bore you with this again - you have all been so helpful but do you remember I put the wrong TPS on in case the original had a fault (even though idle was perfect) but it was completely wrong and it threw the idle out to 1500+ . So I put back the original which then carried on the high idle problem which I cured with your help/advice about elongating the holes.
Now that I can reset the adaptive values with my new toy do you think I should reposition the TPS to its normal original position before resetting adaptives ? Might it pick up the right settings and go back to normal ? Value your advice - chris
Put the TPS back in the original position. If the RSW software shows you a voltage for the TPS it should be around 0.6-0.8V but is likely to be higher, the stored value will be lower than this which is why you had high idle (it thinks the throttle is slightly open). Resetting the adaptive values should set the stored value the same as the actual value. It should self adjust over a period but I've found that it self adjusts upwards but not downwards
Thanks gilbert - your experience I know comes from dealing with these problems over the years and no doubt you learn from other peoples problems so it might help to tell you that after the rats demolished my harness I drove 50-60 miles not realising anything was wrong until I noticed that the LPG was all off. I repaired/resoldered the harness and thought everything was ok. Perhaps during that time of driving it changed other adaptives which led to my current problem of poor acceleration and lack of power (it fails to change gear down under load and engine slows) This is common to LPG and Petrol. There are moments where it accelerates and goes ok so it seems an intermittent fault. Popping out to reset adaptives now - just started to rain after 3 months !!
Great stuff - reposioned TPS to normal - reset adaptives (not able to see voltages etc) Started engine - immediately idled as normal (bit low perhaps) so made some progress after nearly a year ! Now I remember you saying that it should be run on petrol for a good period to reset adaptives and now the rain has stopped am looking forward to a test drive - just got to get the dogs in first ...........thanks
Did my test drive - definitely a slight improvement but the basic problem that I have had for a year is still there - (on both LPG and petrol) best described by this description I found on another forum - USA owner - > Our rover started sputtering/falters but only under certain conditions. Motor will idle fine and when gas peddle is pressed will rev up fine too. The problem comes when engine is under a load. It is very hard to get moving due to sputtering and stalling, but once it is moving it seems to do ok at a steady speed. but upon accelerating it sputters/falters again, and does the same thing up small hills as well. (But sometimes 'breaks free' and for a short period 200 m performs ok)
I changed the TPS and reset everything again - another test drive and still the same problem - did a diagnostic and got P0171 System too lean Bank A
Now the advice most given is problem with MAF or 'input air system leak' but it then extends into almost every sensor you can name - O2 sensors etc etc. I cleaned the idle air control valve - tried cleaning the MAF recently (last year was full of air filter paper bits that the rats had mad e a home in - wondering if there is still some in there round the bend) and have a crankshaft speed sensor waiting to replace when I'm brave enough to struggle under the car on my hillside track. I will try pulling leads/plugs (both new) to see if there is a coil problem. I have an old coil set so can substitute one of the four if necessary. I have a new engine coolant sensor to put on but my temp gauge on dash appears correct and is this also fed to the ECU ? or is there another eng coolant temp sensor for the ECU If anyone has a spare GEMS 4.0 MAF to sell I would be grateful. I can't be sure that mine is faulty so don't want to spend a fortune on it. I know that it is almost impossible to sort this unless one has ones hands on it but any wise words gratefully received ...........chris
By the way - no doubt the 'old timers' will know this but I found the GEMS by Poole pdf. really good for GEMS Range Rovers even though it is aimed at Morgans - good pictures to find parts and good descriptions - it might help those with GEMs Range Rovers - http://www.gomog.com/allmorgan/GEMS/GEMSbyPoole.pdf