Used car issue with aircon

[8bit]

We bought a used Jaguar XF from a branch of one of the large, nationwide car dealers in Glasgow in November last year, wasn't a Jaguar franchised dealer and not an approved-used car but it had a three-month warranty (that seems a bit tight, I guess I shouldn't be surprised really but I digress). A day or two after we got the car we reported a few issues to get sorted under warranty, one of these was the aircon not blowing cold air at all. We were advised to book it into a branch local to us in Aberdeen to get these sorted, which we did. The aircon was reported as "just needs a re-gas", they did this on 2nd December and it worked for a while but has since stopped working again.

Clearly there has to be a leak somewhere as it shouldn't last only a few months between refills so we reported this last week and had the car in at the local branch again the other day. They couldn't find any visible leak but refilled the gas and added UV dye and said if it stops working again they'll look at it then. The selling branch refused to pay anything towards the costs of this, stating that it was now more than six months since it was last "fixed". Happily the local branch offered to cover the cost of the time and materials this week in full out of goodwill.

I fully expect that it'll stop working again before long so wondering where we stand with regards to getting the selling branch to cover the costs? We did originally report the issue within a few days of buying the car and well within the warranty period but they are correct in that we reported the recurrence of the issue more than six months after it was originally reported, I have a feeling that we're out of luck there, is that right?

[Hazuki]

Sorry to say, you'll be pissing in the wind with this one.

They could argue that it had happened during your ownership and their fix had worked as intended, especially as it worked for 6 months since being regassed.

[mattyprice4004]

Age and mileage? That’ll have a significant impact on expectations with these sorts of things

[Bemmer]

It's not worth sweating over... because your Air Con isn't going to cool you down or less you pay for it...

[mcpoot]

Have you actually looked at what your rights are under CRA2015 before following the usual PH advice of suck it up?

Here's a couple of websites:

https://www.themotorombudsman.org/knowledge-base/w...

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation...

[Sheepshanks]

I certainly wouldn't be sucking it up - if there's a hole in the condenser it'll be a chunky cost, if it's in the evaporator the cost will be huge. Even if there's a compressor fault that'll be pretty expensive.

[speedking31]

i thought that because of emissions that you can't just re-gas the aircon but must check for a leak to ensure you're not just sending loads of nasty gas straight into the atmosphere (even if it takes a few months to leak out.) Therefore they should have a record of the leak test. That will show 'No leak'. You have very little chance of challenging that.

[fred bloggs]

How many days of the year is it actually hot enough to warrant A/C in scotland ?

[mcpoot]

fred bloggs said:

How many days of the year is it actually hot enough to warrant A/C in scotland ?

Well done. Did you think that up all by yourself?

[stevemcs]

XF usually leaks on the left hand side where the pipes go into the condenser. You would normally pressure test, vac test then regas. It all depends on what gets recovered from the system. 9/10 times its a leak and if you believe there to be a leak you should never regas it.

[cuprabob]

fred bloggs said:

How many days of the year is it actually hot enough to warrant A/C in scotland ?

Here in Scotland A/C is also handy to dry the cabin air to prevent condensation and your windows steaming up.

I too was under the impression that the machine refilling the gas could only do so after being able to hold a vacuum for a period of time to check for leaks.

Edited by cuprabob on Thursday 24th June 18:28

[bearman68]

stevemcs said:

XF usually leaks on the left hand side where the pipes go into the condenser. You would normally pressure test, vac test then regas. It all depends on what gets recovered from the system. 9/10 times its a leak and if you believe there to be a leak you should never regas it.

This.

This is almost certainly the tech reason. I can't advise on the legalities.