New cam Belt- Now Air Con Does Not Work?

foreveramum

Hi everyone,

Could anyone offer any help with my question please? I have just taken our Renault Clio to a local garage to have a new cam belt fitted. Prior to taking the car to the garage we had the air con re-gassed and everything appeared to be working fine.

The problem now is that since we have had the cam belt fitted the air con does not work and so we are wondering if having a new cam belt fitted would in anyway cause the air con to cease working?

We had the air con re-gassed at a different garage from where the cam belt was fitted.

Thanks for any help to at least put our minds at rest on this one as we would hate to blame anyone.

bigjl

Not sure what model of car you have, diesel or petrol. But some cars have to have the A/C emptied when the cambelt is done, due to space issues, not something I have looked into much.

Go back to the garage and ask why it now no longer works, though I have read that the A/C system on newer Clios can be prone to problems, not sure what these problems are, but when I ran agarage and the car needed the A/C syatem to be emptied to allow the job to be done I would advise the customer and refill it at cost, the garage should have told you what was involved, but these days they are just trying to quote the cheapest price, to get the work.

There is also the possibility that the mechanic has damaged something, such as a pipe when the cambelt was changed.

forgotmyname

Did it work before you had it regassed? What reason for the regas?

mark5

Have the auxiliary belt been put back on correctly?

foreveramum

Thanks for the replies everyone. In answer to your questions:

1. The car is petrol and is 7 years old.
2. The car was re-gassed as it had ran out. There was a local garage who re-gassed it for £35 and it has been fine ever since prior to this work which was with a different garage as the one that re-gassed could not do this work.
3. Not sure about auxiliary belt as I know nothing about cars.

The crazy thing is that the car is now also making a horrendous noise from the back axle area which goes off when you turn right!! It is like a humming noise and it makes the seat belts vibrate? Crazy dont you think!!

The car has been brilliant and never had a problem then we have these issues? If it is just coincidence then fair enough but when this happens after work done you do start to wonder- which is not our nature and something we feel uncomfortable about.

The cost of the new cam belt cost us £360- good or bad?

skiddlydiddly

The noise from the back could be a wheel bearing, nothing to do with anything in the engine compartment but you should still get it checked asap.A collapsed wheel bearing isn't nice.

kaya

air con systems don't "run out" of gas
they get a leak and the gas escapes

thescouselander

skiddlydiddly wrote: »

The noise from the back could be a wheel bearing, nothing to do with anything in the engine compartment but you should still get it checked asap.A collapsed wheel bearing isn't nice.

+1 for the humming being the wheel bearing. Not sure about the air con though.

oldagetraveller

You state that the a.c. system had "ran out" and it was re-charged. Could it have "run out" again and this has coincided with the belt change? Are you 100% sure it was working properly just before the belt change?
Possibly there's a leak in the system.

foreveramum

Thank you again everyone for the info,

I will get the wheel looked at asap. I think I will also get the air con re-gassed again as at £35 it is not going to break us!! If it then "escapes" we know we have a problem- hope not!!!

Thank you.

foreveramum

Hi oldagetraveller,

Yes we had the air con re-gassed due to the hot weather we had for a day or two as we had not used it for a while. It was working ok before the cam belt was fitted and I have to be honest and tell you it may just be a coincidence which is why I did not want to go back to the garage and look a fool- although that may still happen!! I will go back and trust them that it is just a coincidence- we must keep our faith in our fellow humans after all.