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Lpg Iq


Adam Evans
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Hi There

I am looking at buying a Toyota IQ but would like it on LPG

I have found some options for fitting the tank. I initially thought I would have to lose the rear seats like this:

Lpg-tank-Toyota-iQ.jpg

But an Italian company have made use of the storage compartment underneath the rear seats and used it to their advantage:

2toyotaiqgplpoggesi.jpg

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I have seen a photograph on this forum of the "spare wheel well" in an IQ, does anyone actually know the dimensions of it as this might be something that we could work with

DSC_9763.jpg

Many thanks

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Hi. isn't the iq economical enough as it is. Is lpg still as popular as it once was?

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I imagine you'd have to do a LOT of miles to make a 60 mpg car pay off the lpg installation costs, unless you just like the idea of lpg. Would it be worth the hassle?

But the photos looked an interesting idea and somebody has to be the first to do it in the UK :)

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On £10 worth of petrol at £1.30p/l at 60mpg this is 100miles per £10

On £10 worth of LPG at £0.65p/l at 50mpg (15% less economy on LPG) this is 170 miles per £10

As I travel 180 miles per week to and from college (I am a student) every little saving would be great

This means per week I would be putting £17.50 of petrol or £10.65 of LPG

£6.85 savings per week

£356 savings per year

And that is just going to and from college, what about my weekend driving :P

What I would like is if someone could please measure the diameter and height of the "spare wheel well" and also the height of the rear bench seat because there is a cracking car re-upholsterers where I live who I am sure he could re-work the rear bench seat with a hollow to allow for extra height providing we have the diameter to put the tank there in the first place.

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£356 per year saving, less the £100 (or so) annual LPG service leaves you maybe £250 better off per year. How many years of saving £250 does it take to offset the install costs?

Also consider:-

You might need to travel extra miles to get gas if you don't routinely pass an lpg retailer

The car would be modified and might increase your insurance premium

The tank probably won't hold much so you'll need to fill up regularly

You'll need to run on petrol sometimes so the petrol in your tank doesn't become stale

You'll be driving around with a gas canister in your boot so if somebody shunts you from behind there's a higher chance of blowing up

The car will be heavier, and you'll lose boot/spare wheel space

There's also a higher chance if engine or cylinder head failure running on lpg. I'm not 100% sure of the reasons but I think it's to do with either hotter burning temperatures, or lack of lubrication, or maybe both. Maybe modern gas kits have progressed somewhat since my outdated knowledge, but if you need to buy a lubricant or something then that'll eat into the savings too. BTW years ago my father had a small fleet running on lpg and he reckoned they ran about 25% less fuel economically than when running them on petrol, but that was in the days of carburettors, again - maybe things have progressed.

For a fiver a week saving I would re-think.

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£356 per year saving, less the £100 (or so) annual LPG service leaves you maybe £250 better off per year. How many years of saving £250 does it take to offset the install costs?

Also consider:-

You might need to travel extra miles to get gas if you don't routinely pass an lpg retailer

The car would be modified and might increase your insurance premium

The tank probably won't hold much so you'll need to fill up regularly

You'll need to run on petrol sometimes so the petrol in your tank doesn't become stale

You'll be driving around with a gas canister in your boot so if somebody shunts you from behind there's a higher chance of blowing up

The car will be heavier, and you'll lose boot/spare wheel space

There's also a higher chance if engine or cylinder head failure running on lpg. I'm not 100% sure of the reasons but I think it's to do with either hotter burning temperatures, or lack of lubrication, or maybe both. Maybe modern gas kits have progressed somewhat since my outdated knowledge, but if you need to buy a lubricant or something then that'll eat into the savings too. BTW years ago my father had a small fleet running on lpg and he reckoned they ran about 25% less fuel economically than when running them on petrol, but that was in the days of carburettors, again - maybe things have progressed.

For a fiver a week saving I would re-think.

I travel to Europe a lot and at nearly 3000 miles per trip when petrol is approx £1.50p/l and LPG is approx£0.55p/l there is my extra saving

Providing it has a certificate my insurance are pretty fine.

Filling up regularly is what I am doing now anyway I put 45l of fuel in my current car and it lasts me 1 week which is more than enough.

All LPG systems these days start on petrol and once up to temperature (approx. 1 mile) they change over automatically to LPG.

The servicing on an LPG system isn't much and are quite reasonable on price.

The gas tank shunt story makes me chuckle (not in a disrespectful way by any means) my current car has LPG and someone has recently gone into the back of it and "squashed" the LPG tank.

When I say squashed I mean that they pushed the boot floor in by 1 inch and it is now touching the LPG tank, the car that shunted me bounced off my tank in the spare wheel well and there is not a scratch on it, no dints, looks like the day it was fitted. I am so glad that it was there otherwise the damage to my car may have been more than it currently is.

The car will be heavier but don't forget, the petrol tank won't be full, so I will kinda meet the weight half way.

As for the space, I am looking at getting a car upholsterers to fabricate a hollow inside the rear seats to accommodate any extra height needed to fit the tank (that is if the diameter is there to fit it in the first place)

There is a lubrication system on the market called flashlube to add in the lubrication that LPG misses, this is about £15 a litre and will last approx 15000miles

I remember years ago I had a MK1 punto with a carburettor LPG system on it and I was lucky to get 20mpg, These days the systems have progressed so much more that you wouldn't know the difference.

Also I would like to have the first LPG IQ in the UK (that's just me being competitive though)

I need to find an IQ at the right price and then, depending on the tank, I will be getting the job done. I just need someone to tell me what the dimensions of that storage space under the seat is, what the height of it is and what the height of the bench seat is too.

A little food for thought:

If a person was doing 20000 miles a year on petrol (60mpg) this is approx. £2000

If a person was doing 20000 miles a year on LPG (50mpg) this is approx. £1150

Taking into account a £50 service and £20 lubrication this means a saving of over £750.

Does it sound any more attractive now ?

Every saving is a saving :P

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Just been searching through the internet for photos and this is what I come up with

281d1332024048-future-iq-owner-iq-rear1.

It looks miles big enough to be fair, even if raising the rear seats by 20-30 mm, I'm sure this wouldn't be a problem

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Not wishing to be negative about it however , I considered LPG for my IQ and the sums did add up to a payback however it was a long payback ! as I only cover about 5000 miles per year so if i remember correctly (it was a year ago I did the calculation) it would take me 3 / 5 years to start saving money on the LPG conversion so I decided it was not worth it.

Plus as no one has done it on a IQ yet, there are a few risks of being first (small risks) however they exist.

I am currently now getting between 60 to 70 MPG from my IQ and I decided that was pretty good. And I might not keep my IQ long enough to see a good payback !

If you go ahead I think you may be the first in the UK at least, so I'm sure a few on this forum will be interested to see your progress !

Good luck !

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The bigger the car, the better the savings, I suppose.

Having said that, I'm in my mid-20s and I've always fancied a small city car running on LPG. The only benefit for me would be financial, rather than the novelty of being the first person to have it installed to a particular car (though I'm also prone to the latter ).

On a tiny iQ, the financial reward would take me too long to recoup, but if the sums add up and if you're near an LPG station, why not? Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Chris

2012 iQ² with red leather upholstery ☆ upgraded interior lighting ☆ white backlit dashboard/switches ☆ auto-folding mirrors ☆ keyless entry ☆ chrome exhaust ☆

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  • 3 weeks later...

Found a better link

http://www.drive2.ru/l/4812360/

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Looks like it is a 15L tank !!!!

550 long by 200 Diameter

12L to fill it so that is £8

About 150 miles per tank

That would just about do me for a week (Better than the current £25 I am putting in now !!)

Although looking at some of the photos it looks like a 520/180-30L or a 520/200-34L would fit

This would take the range to about 300 miles or about 350

I think the rear seats would have to go on spacer blocks. Maybe by about 30-50mm

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There is also a 382mm long LPG tank that takes 10L

Max capacity of 8L so would give a range of about 100 miles

Looks like the "spare wheel well" tapers off towards the front of the car. Quite possibly would fit.

So that would be twin tanks 25L water capacity

20L max fill

4.4 Gallon

264 miles

That'll do !!!

Both tanks total mass weighs 15kg

Plus the gas when they are full is an extra 10kg

25kg extra in the boot, not much really

I am starting to think this can be done

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  • 3 months later...

Just measured my Toyota IQ up for an LPG tank and it is a bit difficult !!!!

The only "efficient" way of converting this and keeping full use of the rear seats looks like to cut out the storage under the rear seats

If it is cut out and made flat then a tank could be fitted externally underneath in the same place, it will need a heat shield fitting to protect it from the exhaust but it does look do-able.

From the looks of it - the maximum size tank that could be fitted would be about a 30L tank which would take 24L so roughly 260 miles per tank at a cost of £13

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From the pics it looks like the Iq was designed to take a spare wheel under the seat. Now this really would make sence. Has anyone done this ??? Colin

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And so it begins .......................

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All back to normal now.

It looks like I can fit a 30ltr tank underneath now

I forgot to take a photo after I painted the inside, I painted it in red hammerite to match the car !!

Just for reference, the bodywork on the car is 1.2mm steel, I replaced it with 2.3mm steel

It looks like I will be getting a 42L LPG tank

Max fill of 33.6L - more than the petrol capacity !

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I look forward to the conversion. As far as I know you are the first person I have seen cut in to their iQ :o

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I know it "shouldn't" really be done

however on such a small car an LPG tank is a big problem, now it will fit no problem.

It looks like the tank will protrude slightly into the rear bumper but this is fine as the bumper "crash barrier" is quite far back (about 130mm)

The diameter of the tank I am having installed is a 520mm with a depth of 225mm. The ground clearance is still above the lowest point of the car too - which is a bonus

Because it is a special order tank (the smallest diameter made) it will take 1-2 weeks to arrive

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Watch out Adam; you've probably invalidated your insurance and adversely affected the structural integrity of the car by cutting all that formed metal out. Have you welded the replacement in place or stuck with sealant?

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I understand what you mean dash. That's why I used a thicker metal to reinstall it

It is seam welded all the way around and then covered with sealant to protect it

I made sure that the chassis legs were not touched at all too

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Once it is all done I will get an engineers report to ensure it was done safely. I don't see there being a problem as it is not a load bearing panel anyway as the seats and seatbelt are bolted down through the chassis legs which were untouched

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Watch out Adam; you've probably invalidated your insurance and adversely affected the structural integrity of the car by cutting all that formed metal out. Have you welded the replacement in place or stuck with sealant?

lol, did you ever see a de-seemed Mini?

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Watch out Adam; you've probably invalidated your insurance and adversely affected the structural integrity of the car by cutting all that formed metal out. Have you welded the replacement in place or stuck with sealant?

lol, did you ever see a de-seemed Mini?

I was talking about my "project" with someone tonight and they said I have definitely affected the structural integrity..................... They said I have probably made it stronger !!!!

Lets just see how it goes

P.S I like the de-seamed minis !!!

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  • 7 months later...

I have seen a photograph on this forum of the "spare wheel well" in an IQ, does anyone actually know the dimensions of it as this might be something that we could work with

DSC_9763.jpg

Many thanks

Does any body have a part # for the spare wheel well ?

Thank you for any help.

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