14 month old car needs aircon regassing
grumpyoldwoman
Posts: 212 Forumite
in Motoring
Looking for some opinions.
In October our much loved Citroen Xsara 2001 plate was smashed into outside our home and written off. We had little time to find a new car but saw one, a Mazda 2 registered in January 2016, at The Car People. It had done less than 9,000 miles and we loved it. It had been an Enterprise hire car previous to The Car People acquiring it but that wasn't a problem as the Xsara had been a hire car too before we bought it at 10 months old and we never ever had a problem with it.
Anyway, getting to the point, we had only had the car for a matter of days when we found the CD player wasn't working. That was dealt with under the warranty so no complaints. The Xsara had climate control and we left the air con on all the time. We'd had it about 10 years before it needed it's first regassing so we expected the air con in the new Mazda to last a few years before it needed regassing. Because the winter was coming on when we bought it we never really had the chance to test it, although we had it switched on all the time. Last week was the first time it was warm enough to turn the temperature dial down to cold but the air was no colder than with the air con switched off, and actually slightly warmer than the outside temperature.
As the car is still under manufacturer's warranty we took it to our local Mazda repair shop to be looked at and told it was completely out of refrigerant. They said it should be regassed every two years to keep it in tip top condition but the car is only just over a year old. They checked it for leaks and said the system was fine.
What I want to know is should a new car run out of refrigerant in less than 14 months or is it possible it never had any refrigerant in it to begin with? It uses the new hfo1234yf refrigerant so is that likely to affect how long it will go between regassing? We had to pay for it to be regassed because they couldn't find a fault with the system, £67.20.
With two things up to now not working and having to be replaced/repaired we're beginning to think we bought a lemon.
In October our much loved Citroen Xsara 2001 plate was smashed into outside our home and written off. We had little time to find a new car but saw one, a Mazda 2 registered in January 2016, at The Car People. It had done less than 9,000 miles and we loved it. It had been an Enterprise hire car previous to The Car People acquiring it but that wasn't a problem as the Xsara had been a hire car too before we bought it at 10 months old and we never ever had a problem with it.
Anyway, getting to the point, we had only had the car for a matter of days when we found the CD player wasn't working. That was dealt with under the warranty so no complaints. The Xsara had climate control and we left the air con on all the time. We'd had it about 10 years before it needed it's first regassing so we expected the air con in the new Mazda to last a few years before it needed regassing. Because the winter was coming on when we bought it we never really had the chance to test it, although we had it switched on all the time. Last week was the first time it was warm enough to turn the temperature dial down to cold but the air was no colder than with the air con switched off, and actually slightly warmer than the outside temperature.
As the car is still under manufacturer's warranty we took it to our local Mazda repair shop to be looked at and told it was completely out of refrigerant. They said it should be regassed every two years to keep it in tip top condition but the car is only just over a year old. They checked it for leaks and said the system was fine.
What I want to know is should a new car run out of refrigerant in less than 14 months or is it possible it never had any refrigerant in it to begin with? It uses the new hfo1234yf refrigerant so is that likely to affect how long it will go between regassing? We had to pay for it to be regassed because they couldn't find a fault with the system, £67.20.
With two things up to now not working and having to be replaced/repaired we're beginning to think we bought a lemon.
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Comments
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Neither of these would really bother me personally. Both can easily be rectified however I would have not paid for the re-gas myself. I would have stamped my feet in the dealership.'Just because its on the internet don't believe it 100%'. Abraham Lincoln.
I have opinions, you have opinions. All of our opinions are valid whether they are based on fact or feeling. Respect other peoples opinions, stop forcing your opinions on other people and the world will be a happier place.0 -
My money's on the aircon not having been consistently used when it was a hire car, so the seals have dried out and it's gradually lost gas over time. I suspect it will be fine now, especially because you're using it in the right way.
I wouldn't class the car as a lemon for two relatively minor problems, both of which have been easily resolved.
ETA: I agree with Exemplar, I would have pushed the dealer for a free re-gas.0 -
Why should the Mazda dealer who didn't supply the car supply a free regas when Mazda warranty won't pay them for it?
If anyone should feel obligated to regas it for free, it should be the supplying dealer.0 -
That's what I meant (and I assumed Exemplar meant) - the dealer that sold OP the car.Why should the Mazda dealer who didn't supply the car supply a free regas when Mazda warranty won't pay them for it?
If anyone should feel obligated to regas it for free, it should be the supplying dealer.0 -
I have heard that the 1234yf can leak out much faster than the older gases.grumpyoldwoman wrote: »...It uses the new hfo1234yf refrigerant so is that likely to affect how long it will go between regassing? We had to pay for it to be regassed because they couldn't find a fault with the system, £67.20...
£67.20 is a bargain for a regas with 1234yf. Some places charge up to £250. eg. http://www.saltmarine.com/aftersales-offers/air-con/0 -
grumpyoldwoman wrote: »Last week was the first time it was warm enough to turn the temperature dial down to cold but the air was no colder than with the air con switched off, and actually slightly warmer than the outside temperature.
You don't turn it down or up, the whole point of A/C is that it self regulates the temperature to a set value. Turning it up or down does NOT make it heat or cool any faster.
Do you turn your house thermostat up/down all the time?
Wait.... Don't answer that!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/10/nation-buffoons-thermostats-central-heating“I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an a** of yourself.”
<><><><><><><><><<><><><><><><><><><><><><> Don't forget to like and subscribe \/ \/ \/0 -
I took this to mean that as the temperature was warmer there was now a chance to put the car temp setting on cold to see how well the A/C was working. If the A/C is working the air coming should be nice and cold. If the temperature is low enough the A/C will be switched off automatically.Strider590 wrote: »You don't turn it down or up, the whole point of A/C is that it self regulates the temperature to a set value. Turning it up or down does NOT make it heat or cool any faster.
Do you turn your house thermostat up/down all the time?
A/C doesn't regulate the temperature either. The thermostat does that. The A/C just dries the air and as a consequence cools it as well.0 -
Strider590 wrote: »You don't turn it down or up, the whole point of A/C is that it self regulates the temperature to a set value. Turning it up or down does NOT make it heat or cool any faster.
On my Nissan-Renault the "climate control" :rotfl:winds the fans down as the microscopic bit of the car it actually senses gets nearer to the set point. So if I feel* warm, twiddling down to minimum gets a lovely blast of cold air out of the thing. Wouldn't swear to it, but I think the temperature of the air coming out is supposed to bear some relation to the set temperature as well.
*Whether I feel too hot or cold has little to do with the temperature of the microscopic part of the car that is sensed by the air-con.I want to go back to The Olden Days, when every single thing that I can think of was better.....
(except air quality and Medical Science
)0 -
I took this to mean that as the temperature was warmer there was now a chance to put the car temp setting on cold to see how well the A/C was working. If the A/C is working the air coming should be nice and cold. If the temperature is low enough the A/C will be switched off automatically.
A/C doesn't regulate the temperature either. The thermostat does that. The A/C just dries the air and as a consequence cools it as well.
You underestimate how many people see a bit of sunshine and immediately flip the heating from maximum heat, to what on most cars is the "lo" setting.
I've seen the same thing at work, people turning the A/C to max then min, then max, then min, all day long, that is until the MD comes along, tells them they're all idiots and locks out the control panel at 21 degrees.“I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an a** of yourself.”
<><><><><><><><><<><><><><><><><><><><><><> Don't forget to like and subscribe \/ \/ \/0 -
Wow, thanks for all your comments, I didn't expect such a good response. :j
First to answer a couple of things. I don't have central heating at home so don't have a thermostat to turn up or down. I do have air conditioning at home though so I know all about how it works. I can set that to a particular temperature, say 18 degrees, and leave it to sort itself out. Our last car with the climate control had a similar thing, we could set the temperature to between 16 and 28 degrees, have the fan on Auto, and leave it to control the temperature. This car, however, doesn't have that. The fan has to be set manually and the temperature dial is just from very hot to very cold. We'd had it on heating for most of the time we've had the car so couldn't tell if the air con was working or not. It was only when I turned the temperature dial down to the coldest setting that I realised the air wasn't getting any colder.
The Mazda dealer, who put a new CD player in the car for us under the warranty, said they would check the system and if there was a fault they would contact Mazda to get it done under warranty but if it was just out of gas we'd have to pay for it. I do think that The Car People, who we bought it off, should have checked it was working before they sold it, so we are going back there to confront them about it. We went to them first about the CD player and they said they couldn't replace it themselves but if the Mazda dealer charged us they would refund us. So they do seem to accept that everything on the car should be working. It's harder to prove that the aircon wasn't working when they sold it though, we'll just have to argue the case that it shouldn't have run out of gas so soon.
Keep the comments coming, I'm still very interested to know what you all think. I'll update if I get any joy from TCP. :beer:0
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