My Beast: The Toyota Corolla 1.8 CNG


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Well friends I am not much of a writer but on one of my best friend and a diehard car enthusiast’s request I am trying to write this review of my Beast the Toyota corolla H1 (CNG).

I have always been a petrol head person ever since I started driving even though the diesel cars these days have really good punch, technology and power all this power is generated through the turbo charger but petrol has always been more fun and lively to drive.

I had started working and had to travel around 50 km in a day. I had ruled out the option of travelling on train as I would have to change two trains and take a rik to reach my office. So I had decided on travelling on bus as it would be convenient for me as the bus would drop me directly near my office. But things changed, my family has been keeping two cars from the time before I was born so when I started working my father insisted me on using one of the rides as only one will be used by him and the other will just be standing idle. Now for me a petrol car would be pretty expensive for running 50 kms a day and the diesel car was pretty big for city use. So after a lot of discussions and advices we finally decided on CNG. Now as we were not completely aware and not 100 percent sure we did not want to try it out on our Honda City I-Vtec so we planned selling it and rather buying a used vehicle for a cheap price and trying it out. After departing with the Honda and after lot of stressful discussions we finally decide on a 2004 Toyota Corolla H1.

About The Car
The car was in excellent condition with clean interiors had clocked around 61k kms the car was really fun to drive on petrol great power and great torque even much better than my Honda City I-Vtec. After driving the car really did not want to experiment it with CNG. But kept a stone on my heart and sent it for the CNG Conversion.

CNG Conversion

Now for all those who don’t know about CNG Conversion, there are two types of kits available for conversion

1. Ordinary Kit

2. Sequential Kit

These are the types of kit not the brands; there are many brands available you have to choose the best among them.

The ordinary kit cost 30000/- Rs including The RTO passing and the Sequential Kit Costs 55,000/-Rs including RTO Passing.

My father decided on the Sequential Kit as it would enhance the average of the car and would not affect the Power and the Life of the Engine.
The sequential Kit fitting takes about 2 days. So we sent the car for conversion and after two days she arrived back from the workshop. Now I was pretty much excited as I wanted to see how the car was performing now.

FIRST DRIVE ON CNG
I start the car and the car idles silently on petrol now being a Sequential CNG kit the car will idle for 2-3 minutes on petrol and then switchover to Gas if the kit was an ordinary kit it would switch over to petrol in 2-3 seconds.(Note: the car will idle on petrol for 2-3 minutes only if it is the first start of the day or if the car has not been started for more than 2 hours. In short interval starting it switches to Gas within 10 seconds.)

The switchover from petrol to cng is very smooth u can hardly feel the switchover. I take the car for a drive and to my surprise the car is performing exactly in the same manner as it does on petrol the same amount of power and great torque. Yes but there is slight drop of power with the AC on but it is very negligible.

Verdict
I have driven the car for 5000kms and touchwood I have not had a single problem with the vehicle nor is there even a slight vibration in the idling of the car let it be on petrol or CNG. If not for the LED switch which displays the amount of gas nobody can even tell that the car is running on CNG. The following are the averages that I have obtained during the 5000km run and believe me I have tested the car to all the extents and boy she has never disappointed me.

1) Normal City driving normal city Traffic 19km/kg (Without AC) & 17-18km/kg (With AC)

2) Normal City Driving Very Heavy Traffic 16-17km/kg (without AC) & 14-15km/kg (With AC)

3) Highway Driving (Pune) – 26km/kg (Without AC) & 23km/kg (With AC)

4) High Revving Drive and complete Rough Driving: 16 km/kg

After driving the car on CNG I find this alternative so cheap that I find the diesel much more Costly. Now I am running around 1000 kms a month at around 1800-2200rRs if the same was a Diesel hatch I would have been running at around 3500-4000Rs and if the same was Petrol not less than 8000-10000Rs a month. Till date I have saved approximately 36000/- on petrol.

Car Specifications (On CNG)
Model: Toyota Corolla H1 1.8J
Engine Specification & Power: 1794 CC 125HP @ 6000 RPM 158 NM @ 4200 rpm
Average: 17-18 km/kg (City) 23-25 km/kg (Highway)
Top Speed: 197 km/hr (Achieved)

Advantages of CNG

-Very very cheap compared to other all the other fuel alternatives i.e. Petrol, Diesel & LPG.

-Environment Friendly

-Using CNG makes the engine cleaner and more efficient. Unlike gasoline, CNG does not produce harmful carbon deposits when combusted. This results to a cleaner and more efficient engine as well as longer lasting spark plugs and catalytic converters. Oil changes are also minimized because of carbon deposits that contaminate the oil is eliminated.

Disadvantages of CNG

-The CNG tank occupies the complete boot in a Hatchback and half a boot in a sedan.

-Slight Loss in Pickup of vehicle i.e. mostly a hatchback not in a sedan.

-Due to short Capacity of the tank and availability only in major cities it can only be used for short runs.
 

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Re: My Beast the Toyota Corolla 1.8 CNG

Sandy,
Great writing coupled with great pics. [clap]
Your beast undoubtedly looks amazingly neat.
Have you done any long drives in it yet? If so please post a TL for the same. Would be really interesting to read it.
 
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Sequential Kits are technically much more superior to retro-fit type. Added benefit is the prolonged engine oil life, hence lesser maintenance.

There was a general myth that CNG converted vehicles have lesser engine life, they overheat prematurely. Its true that CNG's ignition temperate is around 700 deg C as compared to Petrol's 350 deg C as a result engine does operate at bit higher temperature but that does not mean engine will overheat provided you keep cooling system of your car at its best.
 
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@ FYZY09- thanks for the compliments i have not done long drives on it as we have a muv for long journeys but yest have done two short trips to lonavala will surely be posting about that .
@ Theferrarifan: Yes Bro its an aftermarket exhaust kit but not the complete freeflow exhaust its just the tail end change but believe me it roars really wild even with the end tip change and the converter being present. If i do get the time will surely Put up a small video about the cars roaring sound.
@ ashutosh1208: i truly agree with you that the sequential kits are more superior to the retro fit.
But really sorry i dont have so much detailed information on the ignition temperature of the vehicle but can surely say dont have any problems on heating of the vehicle till now atleast even with long stretch drives and high rev drivings.
 
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) Normal City driving normal city Traffic 19km/kg (Without AC) & 17-18km/kg (With AC)

2) Normal City Driving Very Heavy Traffic 16-17km/kg (without AC) & 14-15km/kg (With AC)

3) Highway Driving (Pune) – 26km/kg (Without AC) & 23km/kg (With AC)

4) High Revving Drive and complete Rough Driving: 16 km/kg
That's really good mileage your are getting.
 
Thread Starter #7
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Hi friends this is one of my reviews on a short trip which I had done on my beast on CNG.

Usually whenever we want to travel outstation by road we usually take our Innova diesel because my corolla might be the beast here in the city but on the highway there is only one king and that has to be the Toyota innova (again no offenses it is just my personal choice). This being one of the reasons and the major being the availability of CNG in just few cities never took out the corolla out.

But one day one of my friends invited me to a thread ceremony of his cousin in Karla, lonavala. This was a great opportunity for me to check the performance of the car on long runs and also know the average that the car gives on highway runs.

The function was on a Sunday and a perfect day for me as I work from Mon-Sat. I had three other friends travelling with me. The total distance to be covered on a total i.e. from my home to Karla and back to my place was about 240 kms. The car had never done more than 170 in the city on a full tank in the most decent driving so I was not pretty sure that I would not make it in one tank but said I will drive as much on gas and once gas is over will cover the rest of the distance on petrol.

Me and my friends leave from our society at around 6 30 in the morning. I had filled up CNG the previous night. Now I had decided to drive at the normal speed of 80-90 km/hr as I wanted to get the optimum average from the car. Being a Sunday morning the roads were pretty empty so I was able to cruise at around 80 km/hr easily without any disturbance or obstacles in between. The climate was chilled in the morning hence there was no need for the AC. I drove decently until the start of the Mumbai-Pune express way. But once I started driving on the expressway the 80 km/hr speed looked pretty slow so I increased my speed from 80 and started cruising at speed of 100-110 km/hr. the car was rock steady at that speed actually even this speed felt slow but did not want to cross it as I was in no mood to screw up the average of the vehicle. The car was cruising at 110 km hr @ 3000 rpm. My friends were asleep. Now I enter the first tunnel of the expressway it is a small tunnel but while driving through the tunnel I am able to listen to my car roar through the tunnel due to the exhaust system. I am very much tempted to hit the throttle to unleash the beast but I somehow manage to control my eagerness. Now I enter the second tunnel and this is a pretty long tunnel and now it was impossible for me to control my eagerness I just press the throttle fully and just unleash the beast and believe me the car cruising at 110 km/hr just pounces upon and the sound of the exhaust is just worth listening too. The car pounces with full pace within fraction of seconds she has reached 165 km/ hr and the exhaust roaring wild in the echo due to the tunnel and the car rock steady, my friends get up due to the noise of the exhaust . Now I come out of the tunnel and I have a straight stretch of road completely empty so I say just screw the average and let’s see what my beast has got so I keep the throttle pressed and the car hit a 197 km/hr and redlines at 6500 rpm and rock steady even at this speed. I am completely happy with the performance of the vehicle so return back to my speed of 110 km/hr. With that performance I must say complete ‘Paisa Vasool’ for the car. I reach my destination around 7 40 and have covered around 120 km. Now even with all my experiments the Gauge shows that just half tank has been used. Yes it just took me 1hr 10 mins for my journey because of empty roads and no stopover for breakfast.

Now this was just my half a journey completed. I had just half a tank of gas left and another 120 kms to cover. I and my friends leave the venue at around 3 in the afternoon. Now it’s pretty hot in the afternoon so I switch on the AC. We reach the express highway in 15 mins and are cruising at 110km/hr with the AC on now I did not want to try anything with the speed as I wanted to reach home in this tank only and did not want to run the car on petrol. But no matter how hard I tried it was difficult to control the beast so managed around 150 km/hr on the return as there was traffic and did not want to try a greater speed. After the express highway stretch was over we reached the city limit it was pretty crowded with traffic yet somehow was managing to keep the car in 4th and 5th only but the moment I reached sion I had a big problem ahead the junction was completely blocked with the traffic moving bumper to bumper a dead speeds now I knew that I would not be able to make it on CNG but I continued, it took me half an hour to cross the junction at dead slow speed just on 1st and 2nd gear. But to my luck the car covered all the distance up to home in that single tank of CNG with some amount of CNG left.

I was pretty happy with the performance of the car and wanted to know the average so I go to fill up CNG at my regular pump where I usually get the best pressure for CNG. To my shock the car if filled up with 9.1 kgs of CNG i.e. just 310 Rs and the distance covered was 231 km yes you heard it right the car gave me an average of little over 25km/kg.

Now isn’t she one hell of a beast who impresses me with mind blowing speed of almost 200 km/hr and smoothly carries me through bottle neck traffic in chilled AC and yet returns me an average of 25 km/kg. Yes one more thing I did the whole lonavala trip up and down with all the toll charges for just Rs 550/- .

YES SHE COMPLETELY LIVES TO THE TITLE OF THE BEAST.
 
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Hello Sandy,

Thanks a bunch for the review. It is great to know that the corolla is doing great and you are extremely satisfied with it.

I am planning to buy a used corolla myself, in the next 1 month or so. But I would be opting for the automatic version for ease of driving in the hectic city conditions here in Mumbai. I have almost made up my mind seeing the review but just wanted a few clarifications.

1) Which CNG fitting station did you get your kit fitted from?
2) Which CNG kit brand did you opt for?
3) Is there any kind of warranty on this kit in-case it malfunctions?
4) Have you seen any CNG fitted automatic corolla (as in is it possible to convert an automatic corolla to CNG)?
5) Are the spare parts still available for the Corolla 04 and 05 models because those are the ones that fit in my budget as of now?

I am sorry for asking so many questions, but just wanted some clarity so that the decision making process is smoother.

Thanks in Advance.
 
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Excellent writeup Sandy , i dont know how i missed this thread!
What the largest size of tank one gets with CNG - am asking as I need to understand if we can elongate range using a bigger size tank.
 
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Hey frens sorry for the late reply was a bit preoccupied with work

@ Vits555:- Planning to go for a corolla its a good choice i am sure u wont be disappointed with the decision.
I got the CNG kit fitted from the guys who do the fitting for the Sai Service maruthi people so he is pretty experienced in that field. I did not opt for any brand but just gave him the car directly for conversion as they do the fittings for sai service so surely they will be using the best but incase you want the name it is a Longas Italy kit. it is a sequential kit. The kit comes with a one year warranty and break down assistance. The people come to your place pick up the vehicle, fit the kit and drop the vehicle back to your place and they them self do the registration of CNG on your RC book. As of seeing a CNG fitted corolla i have seen almost each and every petrol car at the CNG Pump in the Last 8 mnths of my use from small cars like santros and Wagon R to luxury sedans like Mercedes C Class also. It doesnt matter if the car is automatic or Manual it works fine for all but just found out that they do not match for Turbo Petrols so a big no for the Laura RS and The VW Tsi and the fiat TJets. Its just that on the Automatics the car would give a bit less average.
Now i have not diven the car much but till date in my 8 mnths of usage i have used the car for around 8k kms and touchwood it runs like a dream. about spares atleast here in mumbai all the spares are available and they are pretty cheap compared to the other cars in the segment. I had done the brakes work when i had just baught the car for my safety and the new original toyota brake pads both for front and rear and the disk polish with lobour cost me around 4k and recently after the usage of arund 7.5 k kms i got the front suspension completly changed from the front shocks to the mountings,thyroids and a lot of other work with labour for around 15k which is dam cheap if you compare it to a civic or say even a honda cit i -Vtec. Now i dont know about the gear box because u will be choosing an automatic so anything related to that i have no idea but it shud be pretty expensive.
But yes rest all the spares a pretty cheap compared to the price range of the car.
I can say one thing now u might have a lot of questions but once u start deiving it u wont have any.Its a dream to drive till date i have met people who have always told me negative things about CNG that no pickup, Screws the engine and all but i have not experienced any of that. Its got power,milage, smoothness, comfort everything wat else does someone want. The more i drive it the more i fall in love with it.

@Iron Rock-The largest size of a CNG tank for a sedan or SUV/MUV is 14kgs and that too it will just fill up to say max of 10kgs of gas so say if you car gives an average of 20 it will run a max of 200kms on full tank. Thats the biggest drawback of CNG it has a small capacity believe me if it had a bigger capacity each and every car on india wud hav been running on CNG.
Now just waiting for CNG pumps to be set in every part and every city of the Country then we might be able to use it for a longer journey.

Hope this helps you'll , do feel free to ask any more queries will surely try to help if within my reach.[:D]
 
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@ sandy :
I am thinking of buying corolla h1 2004 model which already has cng kit.i am getting it for 2.3 lakhs .It has done 98k running.Is it good deal ? And main Question I want to ask is Front suspensions need to be replaced .so Can you tell me how much this will cost ?I am thinking of aftermarket suspensions like Gabriel,which suspensions you have fitted?you done that from toyota or from private garage ?
 
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@ nvrmndryo:

i am not aware of the price if its correct or not but the main things you will have to check is which kit has been fitted in the car is it an ordinary kit or an sequential kit if its an ordinary kit you will surely have to check how the car runs on petrol because in ordinary kit the car switches directly to cng once you start it but in a sequential it will run for petrol for some time.
the car should idle and run smoothly as it does on petrol or on cng there should be no difference. If there is misfiring or unstability in the car on petrol or cng get it checked else you might be spending more time in the garage than on the road.
My car is almost about to do 10 k kms on cng and it runs in the same smooth manner on both the fuels.
Even i did work for the front suspension work and did it completely replacing all the parts except the ball socket joint and the steering. All the parts were genuine toyota parts the cost with the labour was around 14k.
I did it from local garage as i am sure the toyota people will surely charge a minimum of 1.5 times more than outside for the same work.
 
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I bought it for 2.2 lakhs last week. Its ordinary lovato kit , car runs smooth . it gave me 16kmpl last week , I've done servicing this week so I think mileage will increase .I will change shockers soon . Since your also using H1 , Do you know where can I get Dash wooden kit ? I tried everywhere ..
thanks for your help !!
 
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Congrats on the purchase the average varies on the pressure of the gas i had just been to pune last weekend where i drove the car completely on AC at an average speed of 100-110km/hr i got an average of around 23 kmpl the average would have been more but due to traffic in pune city and traffic on expressway food mall. The wooden kit is impossible to find tried it everywhere but not found that is because the H1 comes with Manual AC and the rest with Climate control AC and the main piece is the centre dash piece hence you will not find it.You will find the auto graphics stickers but frankly they look a bit dirty hence i have kept it stock.
 
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23 Average ,,wow ,,awesome. i havent drove on highways yet .Its really disappointing about wooden kit, I really wanted that.can you suggest me good tyres ?
Thanks for reply .
 

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