Best place for an air con regas?

[Fastdruid]

My daily (98/S-reg) hasn't had a re-gas since I got it in 2007 and it's still chilly.

The MPS we got re-gassed at KF, worked for the drive home, went to use it a week later and it was warm. Now need to get someone out (or go somewhere) to diagnose it (probably either condenser or a known fault is a pipe that wears/breaks on the Mazda 6).

For the price of the pipe I may just replace it anyway but if I do that will just a 're-gas' sort it or do I *need* to go to an air-con specialist?

[varsas]

Mr-B said:

varsas said:

That does sound reasonable however my mum massively abuses her air-con system. It's never been serviced/re gassed in the 7 years she's had the car, she never uses it during the winter (so it goes months without being used) and yet it works incredibly well, much better then the air-con in my E36, which had a new compressor/regass when I bought it and is regularly exercised.

I would be surprised if air-con systems are allowed to be leaky by design, given that the refrigerant is quite polluting.

Indeed that's what I thought. I think the info came from a firm that did regassing/servicing of A/C systems so not exactly impartial in their advice I do think that the systems lose their effectiveness through whatever reason though, my A/C is definitely not as cold as it could be so a regas maybe on the cards.

Anyone tried those DIY canisters from Halfrauds? Heard they were a pile of...

My understanding is that air-con systems have to have the correct amount of gas in them, so you need to suck out all the old gas, and then put in the correct quantity...just adding moaaarrrr isn't the best idea. Only what I have heard. Also that obviously won't help if you have a leak or whatever, for the price difference I'd take it somewhere and get the system checked/refilled/tested properly.

[sim16v]

S50B32 said:

Do you know if there are superior machines / gasses, or if it's much of a muchness? I had suspected I had a leak somewhere late in the system as my car tests okay on their machine and stays cold for a while, but seems to need attention every summer. I was gearing up to have the system properly checked, when a friend said he'd had a re-gas there with similar results.

Much of a muchness, no matter where it is, they need the proper gas.

I had a friend of a friend, an industrial aircon specialist check a couple of my cars.

All they need to do is:

1. Check that the system works - switches on and off.
2. Check the system for pressure- its "pumped up" if it holds the pressure, it doesn't have any leaks.
3. Fill with the coolant.

Everything else is the usual garage BS to get a bit more money out of you!
1 hour on the "machine" is justifying their £50-100 bill!

One thing he did say, the condenser radiator can clog up with rubbish - dead insects/leaves etc so it loses its optimum working range.

Give it a jet wash/clean and then try it.

He gassed my Jeep and C36 up for £20, Jeep didn't have aircon for the previous 3 years and it will now blow ice cold air out at about 4deg C!

C46 wasn't quite as good at about 8deg, but he said to give the rad a clean and it should improve.

[Fastdruid]

sim16v said:

Everything else is the usual garage BS to get a bit more money out of you!
1 hour on the "machine" is justifying their £50-100 bill!

Having watched them do it the machine actually runs through a fixed cycle, empty the gas, vacuum for a period to remove all traces, then hold and monitor the pressure for 10 minutes to check for leaks. Then refill. IMO it's not BS and does take up a bay for the time it takes to do it (although only about 2 minutes work).