Anyone ever fixed their own aircon ?

[J4CKO]

Chap at work was just talking about his aircon not working, he is pretty hands on with his cars but is sceptical about doing anything with the aircon.

Is it really that difficult to deal with ? it is a Compressor, Evaporator, condensor, drier, an electric clutch and some pipes. In principle it isnt that complex, a glorified fridge, is it just the fact it holds gas under high pressure that is the stumbling block, is it that it needs specific tools and gas to recharge the system (appreciate single use kits now available) ? is it down to regulations ? Is it because its all buried in awkward places ?

Anyone ever done any DIY on it that involved discharging and charging the system and did you get either blown up or frozen like that bit in Terminator 2 ?

Definitely seems to be a general aversion to DIYing it, almost up there with the witchcraft enclosed in any for of automatic gearbox, or changing the headlamp bulbs on a Peugeot 206, a skill that evades 98.9 percent of the owners.

[Dog Star]

A mate of mine is a commercial (ie. offices, factories) air-con specialist.

He came round and gassed up the system in my 406 "commuter hack" with nitrogen. Leak spotted in condenser matrix.

I then went and got a new condenser, fitted it etc then went round his place and he filled it with the correct amount of refrigerant.

Job done, and since I'd used another mates trade discount I managed to do it all for about 90 quid and some beers.

[dddougal]

Iv always assumed that you need magical equipment and dangerous chemicals to fix air conditioning.

[marshalla]

The gases involved are pretty unpleasant/hazardous and becoming more and more tightly controlled/regulated.

You really need to be able to produce a proper vacuum in the system to get the old gas out and test it, as well as pumping gas in.

For something that only needs done occasionally, the cost of the kit isn't worth it for a DIYer.

[devnull]

My old C Classs had faulty aircon, it drove me nuts. What put me off repairing it was the sheer cost of the components and how well tucked away it all was.

If you want an idea of a difficult job, go view the Maserati 3200 episode of wheeler dealers. Even Edd has a ballache fixing what is a reasonably small leak!

[oilslick]

I could be wrong, but my understanding is that it's illegal to discharge any refrigerant into the atmosphere, which could be relatively easily done. Obviously doesn't apply if your system's already emptied itself.

You've then also got the issue with re-filling - I'd assume your average DIY'er doesn't have a recharge machine that would vacuum and then meter out the exact amount of refrigerant & oil to put back so would have to rely on using a manifold gauge with an R134A cylinder attached to it and hope they'd got the pressure right.

[j4ckos mate]

i know your not supposed to discharge the gas to the atmosphere
80 year fine and £20000 prison sentence

kwiktyres type places usually do them for £30

not worth the knuckle damage

[sleep envy]

J4CKO said:

Chap at work was just talking about his aircon not working, he is pretty hands on with his cars but is sceptical about doing anything with the aircon.

Is it really that difficult to deal with ? it is a Compressor, Evaporator, condensor, drier, an electric clutch and some pipes. In principle it isnt that complex, a glorified fridge, is it just the fact it holds gas under high pressure that is the stumbling block, is it that it needs specific tools and gas to recharge the system (appreciate single use kits now available) ? is it down to regulations ? Is it because its all buried in awkward places ?

Anyone ever done any DIY on it that involved discharging and charging the system and did you get either blown up or frozen like that bit in Terminator 2 ?

Definitely seems to be a general aversion to DIYing it, almost up there with the witchcraft enclosed in any for of automatic gearbox, or changing the headlamp bulbs on a Peugeot 206, a skill that evades 98.9 percent of the owners.

I replaced the condensers and drier on my 996, no gas to discharge as the condensers were holed due to a stupid design that accumulates crap and accelerates corrosion. I took it to an AC specialist and they tested the vacuum and supplied the gas once I'd finished.







It's much like any other repair on the car plus there's loads on info on the web about most cars. If you suspect there's still gas in there you can pay to have it checked and removed, you'll still be quids in.

[eddy209]

No - but I did get my Citroen's ac fixed this weekend. Splendid company based in Kent (AirCon Direct) after it hadn't worked for a year.
Quick and very reasonably priced - he replaced my condenser which was leaking.

Salt damage / corrosion apparently. What was interesting was seeing the other condensers he had in the back of the van from other jobs that were all badly corroded.

The quote I got from Citroen was very high but it was quite a quick job in reality, about an hour. But he knew exactly what he was doing......

[J4CKO]

j4ckos mate said:

i know your not supposed to discharge the gas to the atmosphere
80 year fine and £20000 prison sentence

kwiktyres type places usually do them for £30

not worth the knuckle damage

yeah, but £30 is a regas, not fixing it, if there is laws against discarging harmful gases to atmosphere, you my friend should have gone down for a long time, a long time ago

Anyway, whats an 80 year fine and a £200,000 Prison sentence ? surely you cant go down for 80 years for letting some aircon gas out, Rolf Harris only got five and a bit years !

I bet garages do just let it out when nobody is looking.

[blueacid]

J4CKO said:

Chap at work was just talking about his aircon not working, he is pretty hands on with his cars but is sceptical about doing anything with the aircon.

Is it really that difficult to deal with ? it is a Compressor, Evaporator, condensor, drier, an electric clutch and some pipes. In principle it isnt that complex, a glorified fridge, is it just the fact it holds gas under high pressure that is the stumbling block, is it that it needs specific tools and gas to recharge the system (appreciate single use kits now available) ? is it down to regulations ? Is it because its all buried in awkward places ?

Anyone ever done any DIY on it that involved discharging and charging the system and did you get either blown up or frozen like that bit in Terminator 2 ?

Definitely seems to be a general aversion to DIYing it, almost up there with the witchcraft enclosed in any for of automatic gearbox, or changing the headlamp bulbs on a Peugeot 206, a skill that evades 98.9 percent of the owners.

I didn't DIY it but I did discover that all mine needed was indeed the famous regas.

Four months later and it's still blowing cold! (I'm almost certain that it'll pack up again any moment now..)

[buzzer]

Its not rocket science... you just need to understand how it all works, and what the components are there for and what they do. I have recently done some work on my MX5 as the condenser was in poor condition. as it worked I knew there was gas in there so I took it to Kwik Fit and they removed it and charged me a re-charge fee (£45) on the understanding that they would fill it for free when I took it back. They were actually very good.

Unfortunately I could not get a condenser as no one stocked they type I had (Jap import) and I did not want to fit a second hand one as they were all now over 20 years old. In the end I modified a Rover 200 one to fit, which was the same physical size. Its been working fine for quite a while now. I used some flexible pipe that is made specially for R134 gas as the molecules are smaller than the earlier type gas (R12) and some pipe you can buy leaks over time. The pipe was expensive at £25 a meter, but a meter did the job.

While I was on, I also reconditioned the compressor. I stripped it down, and put new seals and gaskets on, the internals were like new actually. I took some pictures but the SD card corrupted... there are a few more pictures on my web site www.jtccc.wordpress.com but you get the idea from the pictures below.

here is the condition of the condenser after I removed it



I had to machine some special clamps as the MX5 and rover fittings were different



I made a frame so I could use the original mounting points



I used these clips, which I had never seen before, supplied by the company I got the hose from.



Here is the dryer bolted to the new frame



and finally, all in place on the car

[anonymous-user]

Living in Asia, with less environmental issues, I know loads of people who do their own air con, so there is no magic to it, but you don't get bother here just venting to atmosphere and then a complete Regas is 8 pounds and I can get it done at a dozen places within a few km of my house, so I think the only real constraint is environmental control no mechanical difficulty, also very easy to buy bits and pieces hoses connectors not sure how easy these are to buy in the uk.

[Quinten]

I've just replaced the condenser and dryer on my Vectra work horse after the garage diagnosed it had split. They wanted £400 for the job, but it 'only' cost me £150 in parts and a free Saturday to do it. An experienced mechanic would have done it in 30 mins I'm sure, which makes the quote all the more insulting.

£340 for 4 refills, 2 valves and 1 condenser+dryer later... full result in 2 weeks time

[Fastdruid]

Yes. Replaced the (very very common fault[1]) leaking pipe on our Mazda 6 MPS. Simple because it was a many hour job (remove entire front end pretty much) but very straight forward.

All the gas had been lost anyway so I wasn't in any fear from a legal POV (I'd just have taken it to kwikfit or similar otherwise) it was then just a case of getting it pressure tested and refilled.


[1] So common that when I phoned up Mazda I didn't even need to tell them which pipe.

Edited by Fastdruid on Wednesday 16th July 16:33

[SuperchargedVR6]

The pressure switch is common on VAGs, so sometimes it's just a case of interrogating the HVAC module before cracking open the fluorescent dye and assuming the worst.