Air Con

[weldingwizard]

Hi All, looking for some advice. The air con on my car has stopped working. Am I likely to be wasting money by re-gassing it? The cars about 7 years old and the aircon has never been serviced. The wife uses it all year round so it's never off. Could re-gassing it fix this type of fault?

[WonkeyDonkey]

Yeah it could have just seeped away over the years. We had a man come and do ours for ~£100 and he checked for leaks with a little wand thing also.

Ours was the newer gas which is more expensive, older cars with the old gas should be cheaper

[UTH]

Agree, first stop is a re-gas. Sadly mine clearly has a leak but they can't seem to find it, so I'm without aircon until I want to spend loads of money chasing the issue.

[dontlookdown]

Yes it can just seep out over the years. I had mine leak tested and regassed just before lockdown, because it had stopped working. No probs so far, the car is 12 yrs old so no reason why yours shouldn't be doable at 7.

Cost a modest 90 quid as it uses the cheaper old style refrigerant r134a - money well spent now it's 30 degrees. Of course the proviso is that nothing else is wrong - hole in the condenser, duff compressor etc. That's when it can start getting expensive. A good place will test for other faults before regassing, so you can decide if it's worth it. Good luck!

[weldingwizard]

Ok so if I am in with a chance it's worth paying for a re-gas. Just didn't want to bother if it doesn't often fix the issue. Will get a price, I am sure I have seen it cheaper than £100

[Leeam3]

You may be able to re-gass it yourself - check for guides I remember a good friend telling me he done it for around 30

[fred bloggs]

weldingwizard said:

The cars about 7 years old and the aircon has never been serviced.

Oh, now you want it working eh ? Perhaps service it regularly,then when it gets hot it may work.

[brillomaster]

Literally just got back from an aircon regas. 2006 bmw, always have the aircon on, but just wasnt very cold recently.

Garage pressure tested it, refilled with gas and changed the pollen filter, for £80 all in. Air con is now frosty cool again, best £80 ive spent on my car i think!

I think so many people knacker their air con by not using it, but if you have a modern car and use it all the time a simple regas should be all you need.

[Fady]

dontlookdown said:

Yes it can just seep out over the years. I had mine leak tested and regassed just before lockdown, because it had stopped working. No probs so far, the car is 12 yrs old so no reason why yours shouldn't be doable at 7.

Cost a modest 90 quid as it uses the cheaper old style refrigerant r134a - money well spent now it's 30 degrees. Of course the proviso is that nothing else is wrong - hole in the condenser, duff compressor etc. That's when it can start getting expensive. A good place will test for other faults before regassing, so you can decide if it's worth it. Good luck!

As says here - they will check for issues first. If there are any, they can't re-gas unless these are sorted out.

[pills]

What car is it?

[weldingwizard]

Ford focus, just entered the reg into quick fit and it quotes £60. But looking into buying a DIY kit, it doesn't look that difficult and if the gas is the same on my other car I could top that up too. I presume I just need the right gas and a pressure gauge.

[valiant]

Do Kwikfit still do their recharge promise in that if they can’t fix it by recharging it, they don’t charge?

Might be worth a punt if they still do, at least you’ll then know if it’s something more serious.

[weldingwizard]

Yes just noticed that. If they cannot improve it by 10% you don't need to pay. So I guess if the gas just pisses out it's free

[A1VDY]

The gas doesn't just dissipate, it goes somewhere and if it's out of gas it's gone into the atmosphere ie its got a leak.
Just regassing is unlikely to cure the problem for very long.

[Cold]

fred bloggs said:

weldingwizard said:

The cars about 7 years old and the aircon has never been serviced.

Oh, now you want it working eh ? Perhaps service it regularly,then when it gets hot it may work.

What servicing do you do on your a/c? Mine gets the occasional anti-mould/bug/nasties treatment but that's just for the exterior of the evaporator. Everything is sealed.

Do people really dismantle a working a/c system just to service it?

[nipsips]

I’d use Kwik Fit again. They’ve done the air con on two of my cars, the last one they did for free as the air con didn’t work after they’d regassed it, except for they’d turned the recirc on and therefore the air con wouldn’t blow as cool as it should.

I did own up, and got told it was there error so it was on the house!

[R12many]

Did mine last night with a kit bought off eBay for £60 which included the refill pipe/gauge, stop-leak can and refrigerant can. Mine's not worked for over a year.
First step is to fit the refill pipe to the low side connection and check to see if there's any residual pressure with the aircon on. Mine had 10psi so the signs were good. Next step is to fill the system with the stop-leak and let it run for 10 minutes then check the pressure again. Pressure was holding at 20psi so after that I had to add the refrigerant and that got the system up to 35psi. Result is ice-cold air

[Evercross]

A1VDY said:

The gas doesn't just dissipate, it goes somewhere and if it's out of gas it's gone into the atmosphere ie its got a leak.
Just regassing is unlikely to cure the problem for very long.

Not necessarily. The materials used in the seals and o-rings of A/C systems are not 100% gas-tight because they are composed of stuff that is intended not to react with the gas. Generally the lubrication oil in the system provides the last of the seal, but as small amounts seep out and the pressure drops you get a vicious cycle of more gas escaping. It isn't noticeable as the deterioration is slow and the system will keep operating until the pressure drops below a certain level when it is designed to shut off.

Some systems will go for years before this happens because of the sheer amount of gas in them, plus the effect is less with the older types of gas that operate under lower pressures to begin with.

OH's Suzuki Swift Sport had this exact problem early last year. Pressure test showed there was gas in the system but not enough for the pressure sensor to kick the system on. Used it as an excuse for a full leak test, flush and regass and it has been a-ok since.

There's also stuff you can add to the lubricating oil to rejuvenate the seals on older systems and slow down a repeat of the loss.

[Evercross]

Cold said:

Do people really dismantle a working a/c system just to service it?

Servicing usually means extracting the gas and measuring what came out to calculate any loss, then either vacuum testing or pressure testing the system with nitrogen to check for leaks (the vacuum also removes any moisture that may have built up in the system), then repressuring the system with a mix of fresh gas and new lubricant for the compressor.

A bit like an oil change!

Edited by Evercross on Wednesday 24th June 18:56

[TVR1]

weldingwizard said:

Hi All, looking for some advice. The air con on my car has stopped working. Am I likely to be wasting money by re-gassing it? The cars about 7 years old and the aircon has never been serviced. The wife uses it all year round so it's never off. Could re-gassing it fix this type of fault?

Using all year is the best way to keep it snelling nice (no bacterial buildup and snelling like piss)

Other than that, petrol, diesel or hybrid?

I run a few hybrids and it’s a pain as in hybrid mode, aircon goes into ‘eco’.

Read. st.

If I switch off EV mode and just run petrol engine, all good and (very) cool.