Slow V40 bi-fuel?

Today I had a testdrive in a Volvo V40 1.8 bi-fuel. Fine car to drive, very
well equipped and a better straight line stability compared to my current
Saab. The only big disappointment was the engine torque. Currently I'm
driving a 280Nm at 1500 rpm diesel, while the VOlvo only has 167Nm at
4000rpm. I had expected a different feel, but this was awfull.

Also the engine obviously didn't want to rev. Over 5000rpm there was a lot
of noise and no power. Crudely measured the car needed around 9 seconds to
get from 80 km/h (=50 mph) to 100 km/h (=62mph) in 4th gear. This would mean
80 to 120 km/h (=75 mph) in around 19 seconds. That slow? That can't be
right? The feeling hardly changed when I switched from LPG back to petrol.
Officially both the Volvo and my Saab are supposed to go 0 to 100 km/h in
around 11 seconds. It completely didn't feel like that.

Could it be that the previous owner had an extremly slow driving style
causing this lethargic engine? Does anyone have experience with this effect?
Will driving it a bit more agressive for a while make the engine feel better
at higher rpm's? Or is it better to start looking for another car?

 

Hi Mark,

It is possible that the engine management computer has addapted
somewhat to the previous driver. My Buddy has a Nissan with a computer
that actually manages the engine as well as the clutch mechanism (much
to his detriment I'm afraid). You might try to disconnect the battery
for several minutes, or reset the computer manually (OBD system
perhaps? Im not sure on this model). Multi fuel models are not notably
powerful though (nor all that efficient unfortunately) maybe thats just
the nature of the beast. I certainly hope that you get it straitened
out though.

Lots of luck.
Ezekiel

 

That is something for the next owner of the car to do. I just test drove it,
with the intention to buy the car if all went well. The bad engine
performance combined with the airbag indicator light on, has left me with a
bad feeling. I've already decided to go look for something different.
In this case though: it didn't make any difference for the car driving on
either petrol or lpg, it was equally slow. My previous car also ran on lpg,
no performance problems whatsoever. Especially with the latest generation of
evaporatorless LPG injection systems, there need not be any performance loss
compared to petrol.