Air con blowing HOT!

ben500

Having trouble with the air con in a Laguna which constantly blows hot, I am wondering if it is just that the heat selector switch on heater has been turned to far and is now not disengaging, any suggestions please as I cannot see how to get the fascia off the front of the switch area to manually put it right

plane_boy2000

More likelyu to be that your air con has packed in. When you turn the air con on and off can you hear the compressor clicking on and off?

suffolkb

I think mine might have gone as well.When I used to turn it on,I could feel a loss of power.Now nothing and it only blows out hot air.Oh well,there`s a recall notice on the car,so I`ve got to go to the Fiat dealer anyway.

ben500

Only had the car a few months so quite likely your right, that's ok is it easy enough to get them recharged? Is it best to go to a main dealer for this?

MarkyMarkD

Ben - we could be twins.

Our Laguna's air con has packed in this week as well. Same symptoms I think - blows out temperature the same temp as if the air con is off.

Last time the same happened (only last year - GRR) we had to have the gas recharged; it's booked in for Monday to see if there's a leak or something worse or whether it can just be recharged again.

A colleague was quoted around £700 by a SEAT dealer to get his sorted out in the same circs because the condensor had gone. I hope ours is nothing as bad as that.

Will let you know what happens on Monday if you don't get yours fixed first.

Suffolk - if your engine note doesn't change when you turn the air con on, it's possibly just a relay or the air con switch which would be a lot cheaper to get fixed. On mine, the engine note DOES change so the compressor is trying to work - it just fails to do so!

Ben - you do NOT have to get a main dealer to recharge the gas - they will charge you more than many other places. But I have heard horror stories of rogue traders filling cars with cheap butane (flammable) instead of safe refrigerant gas (inert) - apparently it's a good refrigerant, until there's a leak and your car explodes.

plane_boy2000

The engine note should not change when the gas is low - most air con systems have low pressure switches in them that makes the compressor stop working when the gas is low - this prevents damage to the compressor.

As regards re gassing then I guess it depends if the car is under warranty - If it is you may want to let your main dealer do it in case the fault is the compressor, condensor etc, otherwise jsut find a air con specialist in the yellow pages.

waster_2

Do not usually like to mention them as they are normally expensive. But, for a check price call Kwik Fit as many of their branches now re-gas Aircon.

loobs40

I used a mobile air con repair service last week. They came to my office car park and regassed it for £65. Good service and fast, and almost certainly a lot cheaper than a main dealer

MarkyMarkD

We have got our Laguna back from the garage today.

The leak was in the condensor which was basically knackered.

To supply and fit a new condensor, and re-gas the system including some dye so that if it leaks again we can see where, we were charged just under £340.

Doesn't seem unreasonable, particularly given what my colleague was charged.

And we have cold air again - hurrah!

ben500

loobs40 wrote:

I used a mobile air con repair service last week. They came to my office car park and regassed it for £65. Good service and fast, and almost certainly a lot cheaper than a main dealer

Wouldn't like to pm me with a number would you, even if they are not local to me they may be able to recommend.

loobs40

his website is http://www.keepcool-mobile.co.uk/index.htm and he basically works in the Northern Home Counties. There may be some links on his web site