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[STMO123]

I don't think that this necessarily saying don't get LPG...

Let's think for a minute, if you car was smelling very heavily of petrol, would you just ignore it and light-up...?

If you did, the results would have been similar....

Both LPG and petrol are highly flammable, and a leak is a leak, which means that poor design or poor workmanship are dangerous with both LPG and petrol systems....

Depends whether I fancied the insurance money.

[Kevin Wood]

This must have been caused by a crap installation, or a fundamental breakdown in the LPG feed system, and a driver with no sense at all. Whether he should be in charge of a car is another question .

Could this have been caused by a badly supported gas feed pipe and speed bumps ?. I have had an exhaust knocked off by them, is this another casualty ?.

Ken

Relevant parts highlighted.

If installed to the LPGA COP, gas pipes would have to be installed where "a fixed part of the vehicle comes into contact with the road surface before that of the fuel tank, its fittings and adjacent pipes." and "should follow the safest route and be protected from impact, preferably below the body shell where it may be shielded by structural members of the vehicle."

So, if the installers followed the LPGA COP...

In addition, a ruptured feed pipe would spill gas (more likely liquid at that stage) under the vehicle, the vapour pressure would drop and, in response, the LPG system would switch back to petrol and close the tank valve, stopping the leak. Propane vapour is heavier than air so it would sink to ground level and not build up in a confined space where it could cause a risk of explosion.

I believe this unfortunate incident can only have been caused by a leak from a fitting inside the vehicle that wasn't adequately shrouded and vented to the underside of the vehicle.

On top of that, the driver decided to light up despite the smell of gas.

When mixed with air, LPG can form a flammable mixture: the flammable range at ambient temperature and pressure extends between approx. 2% of the vapour in air at its lower limit and approx. 10% of the vapour in air at its upper limit: within this range there is a risk of explosion. Outside this range any mixture is either too weak or too rich to propagate flame, but over rich mixtures can become hazardous when diluted with air. It should be noted that at pressures greater than atmospheric, the upper limit of flammability is increased but the increase with pressure is notlinear.


LPG is normally odorised before distribution by the addition of an odorant such as ethyl mercaptan or dimethyl sulphide, enabling detection of smell of the gas as concentrations down to one-fifth of the lower limit of flammability (ie,approximately 0.4%of the gas in air).

Kevin

[Markjay]

On another note, the poor chap just bought the car, and it was the first time he filled-up with LPG...  

I hope his insurers were made aware that the car had an LPG conversion though...  :-?