Fitting air conditioning

[e42]

Hi, I’m thinking of trading my Griff for a Tuscan. I appreciate that there are many considerations, but I wondered whether if air con had not been optioned on a car which otherwise ticked most of the boxes, could this be fitted retrospectively? Thanks

[rev-erend]

Pretty sure this has been asked on here before and to me knowledge no one has ever retro fitted a.c..

It's just too expensive.

Probable cost I would guess at 3k.

I've always thought of it as a nice to have option on a convertible. If it's not fitted I would knock off 1-1.5k off market price.

[ollyh1988]

Hi, I looked into it briefly and I think the answer is, yes, if you really want to retrofit it you can, but it was very very expensive!
My second Tuscan has aircon and I think it is worth having.

[e42]

Thanks for the feedback, I’ll look for a car with air con!

[porterpainter]

I've had my tuscan for 6 months now and it does have air con. If it's a warm enough day to need the air con, then the roof comes off and the air con isn't on.

As the others have said, it's a nice to have, but not a deal-breaker imo if the rest of the car is right. That being said if you're planning on doing lots of motorway driving in the summer where the roof is on, then it may be more important to you...

It may be worth understanding if the car in question has been de-catted, as that can add a lot of heat to the interior.

[e42]

Hi, thanks for the reply - I hadn't thought about de-catting adding to cabin temps - useful to know

[astonman]

De catting reduces cabin heat, significantly, not the other way round.

[NCE 61]

astonman said:

De catting reduces cabin heat, significantly, not the other way round.

It certainly does

[porterpainter]

Yeah, sorry if my post was confusing. I did mean the cat could add heat…

[Sagi Badger]

Have retro fitted AC. Not for the faint hearted and you need to find all the parts, the pipes and hoses proved the hardest to source as most are now made to patterns so you need one to copy. Found them all eventually but that was a few years ago so less chance now. Then there is the gas and oil, found someone local who used to fit AC into limos etc and had a brain, without his help reckon I would have been lost as most places who re-gas simply do that and not a first fill. Works a treat.

J

[so called]

Never really used the AC in mine.
After 5 annual trips to Spain 2009 to 2014) with just the windows down my wife mentioned the AC so I had it recharged for trip 6.
Charged it up the day before departure and by day 3 it had all leaked away. Windows down, carry on.
For trip 7 AC leaks repaired and set off. Worked fine but we decided we preferred having the windows down so AC switched off.
Trip 8 (2017) windows down.

The only time I use it is if I'm sat in the car while having it hand washed.