Take a gas

TALK WRENCH

A few pointers to converting your car for natural gas

I own a Fiat Palio EL PS, 2002. My car gives me a fuel efficiency of 10-12 kpl under city conditions. I want to know whether I can run my car on gas. If your answer is yes, then please advise me whether this would affect the life of the engine or not and which gas "� LPG or CNG - should be installed.

Vikram Sahi, Jammu

Yes, you can run your Palio on either CNG or LPG "� there won't be any problems with either. The thing is however, that the conversion is not without a loss. Your car's overall performance will go down by about 10 per cent, cold morning starts will not be too easy "� you'll have to switch to petrol for this.

Yes, engine life might come down "� expect a few headaches to crop up at around the 50,000-60,000 km mark "� this is the ballpark we've observed with most converted cars, though we haven't had a CNG/LPG converted Palio in our test fleet.

Also, you might invalidate the manufacturer warranty on your car. And if you still want to go ahead, get it done at only an RTO-authorised centre and with approved equipment. Remember, domestic cooking LPG is not for car use "� illegal, dangerous. And we don't know about Auto LPG's availability in J&K "� check it out.

Car trouble? param@business-standard.com