Excellent Priced Car AirCon Recharging £45 or Free

deanos

If its lost that much quickly more than likely a small leak somewhere

kizzykizzywizzy

Mine's given up the ghost after 2 years & I do run it all of the time ( ok not very MSE ) I thought the gas just ran out after a while - could this be a leak then??

bobdauilda

italiastar wrote: »

Can you trust these people - I got them to change two tyres on my car last year, they jacked the car up incorrectly and caused just under £500's worth of damage to the sill.

Most automotive mobile aircon (MACs) units lose on average 50g -100g of refrigerant gas a year. This is because the MACs have semi permeable flexible hoses for compressor suction/ discharge lines and the main shaft seals leak a little but more so if the unit isn't used much causing the seals to dry out. The typical charge in a MAC is about 750 g and the system can cope with a loss of about 25% of the charge without performance being affected too much. In a modern car there should be no need to top up a MAC more regularly than once every 3 to 5 years.Most automotive a/c units can expect to go at least 5years on average between recharges but all seals/pipes should be checked as well as a total evacuation, drying and recharge.
Its shocking really as static systems are allowed zero leakage and proper aircon engineers are up in arms about the fact that the likes of kwik fit etc can just recharge the systems with their tyre monkeys and escape regulation/fine/legal action etc! Basically the automotive industry can't be bovvered to change their designs and are poisoning our environment for the sake of a few quid- same old story:mad:

Duane_Dibley

deanos wrote: »

I don't think the Kwik Fit price is very cheap at all, just had a full Air Con service, including drain system, , refill with gas/dye , check for leaks and full disinfecting the system and vents/car for £45+vat from Suzuki car garage in Lincoln.

You need to disinfect your system every 18 months as bacteria builds up and can cause illness

You can disinfect the a/c system quite easily (and more importantly cheaper) yourself with this trick of the trade courtesy of the Toyota Owners Club forum:


Wiith the air conditioning it will smell if not used every week for at least 10 mins. its a bacteria build up on the condenser.People will sell you (bombs) that supposedly clean it off. these are only a temporary fix like air freshners. I will now let you into a trade secret.
Get an old kettle(you can use a wallpaper stripper, but it takes longer) and put a tray in the front passengers footwell (INTAKE FOR AIRCON) to catch slpahes and drippers fill the kettle with water and rig the switch to keep boiling. TAKE CAR NOT TO BOIL IT DRY, JUST TOP IT UP AS NEEDED. Start the engine and put the aircon on COLD AND RECIRCULATE, and leave boil for at least 1/2 hour.You will see pools of water underneath the car as the condenser is 'washed' . Once 1/2 hour has passed turn off the kettle and put on aircon to normal (outside intake). This will clear any lingering steam/condensation and hey presto one clean smelling aircon system .It also cleans all upholstery and headlining of dog and cigerette smoke smells. I have done this dozens of times to loads of makes and with a very good success rate. Oh nearly forgot, dont forget to blow out the cabin pollen filter and make sure its dry before replacing it. (Its behind the glove box on the new shape avensis, and to the left behind the clutch pedal on pre new shape avensis!)
Hope this helps,

kizzykizzywizzy

Have just taken my car in to "Thickfit" to have this done, I told them the guy who did it last time charged £40, (true ) but can't do it until next week ( white lie have lost his number:doh: ) can you match it & they did:T

shazziere

i took my car to a citroen dealer as i was slightly nervous to take it to kwik fit.They told me i had a leak.......basically ended up getting charged £400 cos they told me they couldnt remove the leaky part without some other parts breaking (which i would have to accept responsibility for cos they told me beforehand that it might happen!)I still feel angry that i was ripped off.


Pehaps kwik fit shouldve been better after all...............

mazza245

I've got a Vauxhall Corsa and I don't know whether to bother with the air con again. I keep paying to have it redone completely but we regularly go away for a month or so and it's all gone again when I come back. I know about using it for a few minutes each week but what can you do when you aren't here? Consequently, I haven't bothered up to now this year - the weather is completely cold and wet and awful in the north up to now and I can't decide whether to throw more money away! As someone said, maybe the whole system has a leak so it probably all needs to be done again but I only paid for that the year before last then topped up last year. Has anyone any suggestions? May be I should try Kwik Fit and see what they say, at least they are cheaper than anywhere else.

Premier_2

mazza245 wrote: »

I've got a Vauxhall Corsa and I don't know whether to bother with the air con again. I keep paying to have it redone completely but we regularly go away for a month or so and it's all gone again when I come back. I know about using it for a few minutes each week but what can you do when you aren't here? Consequently, I haven't bothered up to now this year - the weather is completely cold and wet and awful in the north up to now and I can't decide whether to throw more money away! As someone said, maybe the whole system has a leak so it probably all needs to be done again but I only paid for that the year before last then topped up last year. Has anyone any suggestions? May be I should try Kwik Fit and see what they say, at least they are cheaper than anywhere else.

If you are losing your air-con charge, it's because you have a leak.

People like kwik-fit have little, if any, knowledge of automotive air conditiong systems - they'll just charge you £45 (or whatever) to recharge the system.
(Any training/certification they hold, and they should be trained by law, will only usually apply to the use of the recharging equipment itself.)

This is despite EC Regulation 2037/2000 which prohibits recharging, or more usually, topping up without first thoroughly examining the system, locating and remedying leaks.

Leaks can often occur from pipe joints, ageing rubber hoses, 'O' ring seals, or through the seal on the front of the compressor shaft.

In my experience, most main dealers are not much better either

My advice would be look in your yellow pages under "car air conditioning" for a specialist automotive airconditioning service.

It probably won't be cheap to repair - but it's the only way to fix it properly.

deanos

kizzykizzywizzy wrote: »

Mine's given up the ghost after 2 years & I do run it all of the time ( ok not very MSE ) I thought the gas just ran out after a while - could this be a leak then??

Sounds like a leak, it can loose some over time but not all of it in 2 years, im not sure if KwikFit put dye in with the gas, if they do get them to check in about a weeks time with a ultraviolet light as it will show where the leak is.

bobdauilda

Premier wrote: »

If you are losing your air-con charge, it's because you have a leak.

People like kwik-fit have little, if any, knowledge of automotive air conditiong systems - they'll just charge you £45 (or whatever) to recharge the system.
(Any training/certification they hold, and they should be trained by law, will only usually apply to the use of the recharging equipment itself.)

This is despite EC Regulation 2037/2000 which prohibits recharging, or more usually, topping up without first thoroughly examining the system, locating and remedying leaks.

Leaks can often occur from pipe joints, ageing rubber hoses, 'O' ring seals, or through the seal on the front of the compressor shaft.

In my experience, most main dealers are not much better either

My advice would be look in your yellow pages under "car air conditioning" for a specialist automotive airconditioning service.

It probably won't be cheap to repair - but it's the only way to fix it properly.

Spot on advice.