LPG Insurance without LPGAssociation Certificate

VWCAXA

Hi, 

There is no statutory requirement or control on installing LPG kits, and there are higher standards possible than offered by commercial installers in Ireland - for example VW CAXA engines can be converted to run without needing petrol for start-up via direction injection of liquid state LPG, using a CAXA specific system. The Irish only seem to know about generic kits.  

If anyone here has obtained insurance on an LPG converted vehicle, but the insurance company did not require a certificate from an LPGAssociation member or for install to have been done by them, please let me know. 

Also, if anyone has had there diy lpg conversion certified by an LPGA member based just on an inspection, please let us know how that went, cost etc. 

Have LPG drivers been asked to produce documentation for the NCT please?

Thanks.

Del2005

You can do feck all with gas in this country unless you are certified so I doubt many certified installers would risk signing off others work.

Do you live close to an LPG station? Otherwise there are so few in this country it's not worth the hassle and the saving aren't that big here to begin with.

VWCAXA

No offense, I don't want to sound ungrateful but I really hoped to keep this thread focused on finding helpful factual answers/experience rather than opinion pieces. However...

Actual Natural Gas work is regulated by law. LPG is not. Also, UK installers will certify systems for a fee, but of course in Ireland we have to get hysterical at that prospect (maybe?)

LPG is a much more benign liquid, that slowly turns to gas. It is so safe that you can buy cylinders of it and connect that cylinder into an appliance yourself, unqualified. Think flogas heaters, gas cookers etc. Car is not much different. You are allowed to make the connection yourself, because at that point it is liquid. Much less leaky/unsafe than gas. 

LPG associations says out of 20 insurers, 16 won't insure without certificate. That means that four insurers will. I am trying to find out from the crowd who they are via this thread. Please help with info/experience if you can!

LPG is half the cost of petrol. The conversion cost (payback period) is low if you can do it yourself. At 64 kph cruising, I average just over 64 mpg. On LPG it will be like getting 120 mpg if I can do a CAXA specific direction injection kit. The **** pre-carburated irish LPG kits forgo the efficiency of stratification and in my engine the intercooler is inside the manifold, so would cool the LPG as well. My own build will be much more efficient, if I can insure it. 

I have both LPG (liquid) and CNG (compressed natural gas) stations near me. CNG cars are only available Left Hand drive, and is a dearer fuel than LPG. But when the new pipeline from russia comes onstream, might get cheaper. 

Miscreant

If the LPG Association says that 4 out of 20 insurance companies will insure without a certificate..... can you not ask them who these companies are?

LPG is such a niche in this country that very few people will have gone to the bother of personally converting a vehicle in the past, never mind recently.

You could perhaps find a company that is offering LPG conversion services in Ireland and ask them who they use to certify installations. I know that Dacia offer a ready converted Sandero; this might be another avenue for you to find out from them how their vehicles are certified for the Irish market.