Air Con check during service.

[Megaflow]

The car has just been in for a service this morning and they have flagged up the AC as being below par, and would like to regas it.

This was a little odd as I thought it seemed to work ok. On the drive back from the dealer I played with it and it appears fine, almost too cold to keep your hand over the vents, and the compressor is not dropping out to protect itself, admittedly I didn't check this for long as it is snowing. Ordinarily I'd tell them to stick it, but the car has a full Ford warranty until next month I am considering letting them do it, because they check it for leaks first and if there is one I can claim off the warranty.

Or, should I tell them to stick it?

Edited by Megaflow on Monday 14th January 13:02

[rigga]

Money making deal for the garage .... its also good as whilst its sitting there going through the motions they can get on with ripping someone else off.

[Denis O]

Many cars A/c won't work below a certain ambient temp so if it's one of them, how can they test.

Certainly Golf and Audi won't run the compressor below 5C.

[Megaflow]

When I had a look the compressor was running, and wasn't cutting out to protect itself, but like I said I didn't hang around long because of the weather. I'm going to find a thermometer from somewhere and measure the vent temp.

I suspect this is a stunt to recover the money for the free 1 years breakdown cover that came free with the service.

Edited by Megaflow on Monday 14th January 19:09

[rigga]

When I was in the trade we had a board up on the wall stating how many upsell jobs we could add to the work sheets, brake fluid changes air con service and the like, used to say that every two years the system needed regassing to maintain optimum efficiency, all bks as it's a nice earner for the garage sticking it on the machine, just sold my impreza that was 13 years old never had a regass and worked perfectly.trade was so indemic regarding money generating it was a right piss take, keep the guys on cheap wages with a bonus system which encourages dishonesty.

[Willy Nilly]

When was the last time you changed the refrigerant in your freezer?

[AJB]

Willy Nilly said:

When was the last time you changed the refrigerant in your freezer?

Yes, but to be fair the freezer has an electrically powered compressor (so the motor is inside the sealed system), and no flexible hoses.

Cars do leak refrigerant past the compressor's seals and from the rubber to metal joints (rubber hoses needed to allow the compressor to move with the engine whilst the condensor and evaporator stay put). I've wondered in the past how much less efficient a fully electric, body-mounted air con system would be in a car.

In my very limited experience (of 1 car!) after 6 years it wasn't blowing as cold as it used to, and when they regassed it a lot less gas came out that should have been in there. Certainly wouldn't expect it to need doing every 2 years, though, and personally wouldn't do it unless it's not blowing as cold any more.

[Zoobeef]

Willy Nilly said:

When was the last time you changed the refrigerant in your freezer?

Completely different.

A single condenser vehicle system has to loose no more than 40g a year of refrigerant from new. So a brand new car will be losing some let alone an old one that hasn't been used.

Depending on tolerances when made and if its been used or has enough oil in will make it lose different amounts. a fully working car could lose half its refigerant in 5 years. It may still work but no to its full potential

[Willy Nilly]

Zoobeef said:

Willy Nilly said:

When was the last time you changed the refrigerant in your freezer?

Completely different.

A single condenser vehicle system has to loose no more than 40g a year of refrigerant from new. So a brand new car will be losing some let alone an old one that hasn't been used.

Depending on tolerances when made and if its been used or has enough oil in will make it lose different amounts. a fully working car could lose half its refigerant in 5 years. It may still work but no to its full potential

It's just job creation. It either works or it doesn't. All they need to do is put the gauges on it. We have a 1995 machine at work, the AC has never been touched and it cools just as well as it ever did. My car only had the system topped up last year at 13 years of age.