VY V6 factory LPG removal

[Paul13pp]

Hi,
Have a 2003 wagon that had factory LPG & Petrol.
The gas tank & associated filler pipe bits have been removed as has everything under the bonnet.
The car starts & runs fine but the LPG/GAS switch is still in place which I can remove & hard wire to petrol only.
There is a message on the dash saying fuel guage error since removing the gas tank.
The error message was not there after just removing all gas bit under the bonnet, ut is now after removing the tank.
Is there an easy fix?
Someone suggested it'll need a standard ECU but the ECU has the same numbers as all others advertised on ebay for an auto V6.
Cheers for any advice.
I want to register the car in QLD but they want a gas certificate even though the gas system has been removed.

 

[Immortality]

I believe the dash or BCM will need to be updated. Contact Tazzi @ Envyous Customs (site sponsor) as he has software that can update the dash or maybe someone/workshop with a Tech2 can do it.

 

[Skylarking]

Alternatively you can find the wires that went to the LPG fuel tank sender and then connect an appropriately sized resistor (with appropriate wattage) so the LPG control system thinks the LPG tank is actually full I‘d guess the workshop manual would have info on what resistance range the lpg fuel level sensor would provide when empty and full

Why people remove factory LPG systems from their vehicles with todays petrol prices, I don’t understand… Tank test once every 10 years and some extra filter changes each year will still result in lots of fuel cost savings…

 

[Paul13pp]

Cheers.
I was thinking along those lines with a resistor.
I still have the tank & I believe the resistance should vary between 30 to several hundred ohms.
I'll have a play with an ohm meter & the tank tomorrow to see if I can identify which wires they are.
There may also be a wiring diagram floating around on the net I can refer to.
My son owns the car & didn't want the gas as the 10 year tank ran out 3 years ago.
The vehicle has been sitting for 4 years unused & ran perfectly on gas or petrol...

 

[Skylarking]

The tank is easy to get checked and recertified for another 10 years.
Some JC members have commented on other threads that all up its $300 odd to get such recertification done.

Petrol will soon jump another 25C when the excise discount is removed in another two months and we are thrown back into "screw the public" mode. Oil com[panies wont rest as petrol will also go up becasue of "international issues" (not an impending war but their greed which causes inflation which makes thenm feel they aren't charging enough for their elixer, etc, etc.

As is, in Morayfield, petrol today is 160C/L while LPG is as low as 86.9C/L. Supposedly consumption L/100kms on factory LPG systems isn't that far off petrol consumption especially in more modern systyems. Ultimately it depends on how many kms you are doing as to how long it will take to recoup the $500 odd for getting the LPG system working at its best.

Just keep in mind people were paying thousands to install LPG when petrol was less than 80C/L, back when thousands had real value (which is partly why is seems counter intuative to remove a system that just nees the tank certified and the filters changed).

 

[EYY]

See here for info. May not be exactly the same, but should be enough to get you sorted.

http://www.apexus.com.au/document/kits/qk103.pdf

 

[Paul13pp]

I'm happy to report back that the dash message "Fuel guage error, Contact retailer" is now resolved.
Within the donut tank was some wiring with a small module & an electrical wire connector.
Two of those wires went to the tank guage which read 280 ohms.
I just took that small wiring module & plugged it back in where it was at the rear of the wagon & soldered a 220 ohm resistor across those two wires with some heat shrink.
No more dash warning & the LPG console switch now does nothing as well.
Lets hope the ECU remembers it is in petrol mode....

 

[mirrabucca]

Nice outcome. I do like it when people investigate logically, sus out a solution and do it.
BTW I went down the LPG route ages ago, Cost was "ok", but what turned me off was the tank in the boot took up way too much space, and the fitter needed to fit a non-return valve to the inlet hosing that was WAY too small compared ot the standard inlet hosing.
Gave it a miss.

 

[J_D 2.0]

Some JC members have commented on other threads that all up its $300 odd to get such recertification done.

I just got my tank recertification done and it cost $400. And they came to me instead of having to drop the car off at a workshop.

 

[J_D 2.0]

I just got my tank recertification done and it cost $400. And they came to me instead of having to drop the car off at a workshop.

The part I found interesting is that they can check the cylinder even if there’s still “gas” in it. The LPG boils off slowly so even if the tank is half full they can open the tank (remove the fittings and gauges) and inspect the inside of the tank.

Once the initial vapour is released the remaining “gas” just sits in the bottom of the open tank as a liquid and slowly boils off. I ran my tank down to nearly empty but the gas fitter said even if it’s half full of gas it’s not a problem to check it as it’s really only the pressurised vapour in the air space of the tank that gets released.

Also here in Australia we have to have a max fIll capacity of 80% of the tank volume by law to allow for heat expansion but in NZ the max fill capacity is 90% as the max temperatures experienced by the tank are lower.