The V8 Owners Forum -

hello all...

Finally the dreaded tin worm and the rigors of living in the alps killed my beloved '93' 200 tdi disco... but after a suitable time of mourning, i've bought her replacement...

with visions of awesome/endless grunt, a beautiful v8 grumbleing away and enjoying mile after mile of cheap fuel, ive bought a '95' 300 3.9 v8 disco complete with Millenium single point lpg system...

and thats where the problems started!!!


on petrol, she starts, drives and behaves as you'd expect, smooth and powerful, a little high on the tick-over (1000rpm), but perfectly behaved in all aspects. but when i turn her to lpg,(normally with-in minutes, but i drove it the other day for over 3 hours) she will blow either the ignition/coil fuse on the lpg system or no3/engine management fuse with the added bonus of going into 'limp mode' staying that way untill i disconnect the batt to reset the ecu!!! (but i now believe the limp mode to be a unrelated issue and have another post up to that effect)


not being lpg proficient/not knowing a whole lot about lpg, i've done what i can to trace the wiring. looking for earthed out, bad connections and general shoddy wiring to the lpg systems but so far nothing seems to be obvious or have any effect...

so thats me stumped!!!!

can you point me in the right direction of potential faults/problems or does anyone (near the south wales/pontypool area but i don't mind travelling) want to earn some money, respect and eternal gratitude or know where can i take her (lpg specialist in south wales) to get the problem diagnosed...

i live in the french alps (we're here awaiting the birth of our first child) and i can't take her back to the alps like this, so it's cure or sell.... i can't climb up mountains paying v8 petrol prices!!!!

I guess it has a gas ECU? Is there a PC interface to it with diagnostic software?

Chris.

it has a ecu and a connection to plug something in, but i don't know what i need to plug into it...

The software is here:

http://www.fesautogas.co.uk/download.htm

They probably have the interface lead in their webshop as well.

I'm not 100% sure that will help, but it would be my first port of call after inspecting everything for shorts / etc etc.

Chris.

found the problem...

a blue wire from one tank solenoid to the other tank solenoid melted and stuck to my exhaust middle box having a whale of a time shorting out!!!!

i've cut out the bad bit of wire and lengthened it so i could re-route it away from the exhaust/heat.

no more blowing fuses!!!!

now on lpg she has no poke at all and seems to be 'holding back' (on petrol she runs and revs ok)

she has about a quarter/half tank of gas, if i try to give her throttle, she'll pop (not bang, i've had a few of them in the past and this is definately milder popping) thru the airbox. i recently disconnected the battery to reset the engine ecu from 'limp mode' would this have affected the lpg ecu??

any ideas???

The software for my OMVL Dream 21 lets you see LPG delivery pressure. At a stroke, you can see if there's any blockages, blocked filters etc.

It does sound like it's running lean.

Chris.

any way i can adjust the mixture/richen her up a bit???

a little tip i've just been told that, i think could be a help to other new users of lpg, esp with a millenium/leonardo single point lpg system...

if, when driving on lpg, you experience a loss of power, lack of throttle response combined with a mild popping thru the airbox....

YOU'VE RUN OUT OF LPG!!!!!

yep, it was that simple... after finding a melted/shorting wire that links the tanks/fuel cut out solenoid coils, the problem with my gpl system was fixed but i only had enough fumes left in my lpg tanks to get her to tick-over...

i was expecting my lpg/petrol switch thats equipped with 5 l.e.d lights that when i was low/on the last light, it would start flashing or in some way warn me.

but it seems that it's not the case. most lpg systems, esp millenium/leonardo work on the 'keep going untill you splutter to a stop' basis

so after taking her to the garage and putting 30 litres in the tank(s) she roared away as a 3.9 v8 should complete with a welshman with the cheesiest grin on his face