Aircon....can't find the damn leak anywhere!!

[jarvis]

Hi all
Having big problems locating the leak in my aircon system....It's not been working for a couple of months (typical, just when you need it). I have had a specialist come out to look at the system, who filled it full of the test gas and went around all the potentially failing areas with both a uv lamp and an electronic sniffer. The only area that the sniffer picked up on (the uv didn't see anything) was at the bottom of the reciever dryer, which he was very surprised at as apparently these very rarely fail. This was duely changed and the whole system re-gassed and lubricated. It worked!!.....for about an hour :-( All the gas had escaped.

The obvious question is what the hell is wrong with it!!??? I was with the engineer the whole time (there was a lot of head scratching) and I can assure you we went over every square inch looking for the leak.

Is there a dark place as yet undiscovered... somewhere in the bowels of the car that we were unable to probe??

Thanks as always for any advice.

[GregE240]

Hairline crack in the condensor typically.

[jarvis]

.....sorry, forgot to say.....the car is a '99 model 996 Carrera 4.

[jarvis]

That was quick off the mark, GregE240! Would this not be picked up by the sniffer?

[jeff m]

The sniffer is usually used whilst the car is running.
The UV or black light is usually used after the car has been out on the road for a few hours.
If it is difficult to locate the leak, it's often the evaporator. Let's hope it isn't.
(I'm in the same boat)
Jeff