Aircon fails in four year old car days after purchase

LarryLancaster

A month ago I bought a new(ish - four year old) car from a second hand car dealer. Everything seemed to work at first, but within a few days the aircon unit stopped blowing cold air. Thinking the pressure was low I took the car to get regassed at an aircon specialist, and had UV dye added on their advice.

Three weeks later the problem has recurred and they say a leaking pipe somewhere under the car is causing the problem. Apparently it's a known fault of this type of car and a very expensive fix. Naturally the "platinum plated" Warrantywise cover that came with the car includes all aircon faults except leaking pipes. The car is outside the manufacturer's three warranty too.

I'm otherwise happy with the car and it wasn't easy to find so I don't particularly want to return it even if that's an option. But it's immensely frustrating to have been sold a car that had just enough gas in the aircon to convince me it was working at the time of purchase, and I've wasted £150 on a regas that lasted barely three weeks. Any suggestions?

Grumpy_chap

How expensive is the "very expensive fix"?

[Deleted User]

I thought a regas was about 50 quid?
ive been lucky enough over the years not to need one. 

daveyjp

Your first port of call was the selling dealer for them to rectify the fault.

However as you decided to take it elsewhere this opportunity may now be lost.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/buying-or-repairing-a-car/problems-with-a-used-car/

Aircon systems now use more expensive gas which is why its £150 and not £50.

Biggus_Dickus

daveyjp said:

Your first port of call was the selling dealer for them to rectify the fault.

However as you decided to take it elsewhere this opportunity may now be lost.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/buying-or-repairing-a-car/problems-with-a-used-car/

Aircon systems now use more expensive gas which is why its £150 and not £50.

Indeed;...according to the  owner’s manual my car is rated to lose less than 3% of its refrigerant gas per year and, like all cars manufactured since 2017, it’s mandated to use the very much more expensive HFO-1234yf gas. Three times the price but much better for the environment, apparently.

I assume (perhaps wrongly!) that most modern car a/c systems would be similarly spec’d  i.e. less than 3% refrigerant loss per year.

By that measure @LarryLancaster your a/c system should not need re-gassing after 4 years unless it’s developed a serious fault/leak.

However, the £150 you’ve spent on a re-gas probably hasn’t been completely wasted;... a/c systems can go faulty in several ways but thanks to the detection dye that was added at least you know what the problem actually is, and where it lies. That’s probably cold comfort at the moment though (no pun intended).

As for your ‘consumer rights’ and any possible redress against the car dealer I’m not qualified to comment. Good luck anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

oh_really

Go and speak with mechanic or refrigeration engineers, it may be perfectly possible to cut out the damage and insert a repair sect cheaper than the the aforementioned repair.

LarryLancaster

Thank you for the comments above. When I took the car back to the aircon guy who previously regassed it for me, he said that he had been thinking about the car because he realised he shouldn't really have topped it up in the first place as it had only recently been regassed. My initial visit had reminded him that a few weeks earlier the dealer who he actually knew had taken the car to him for a regas. That was before I bought it but the aircon garage was just up the road from the garage I bought it from so by coincidence the dealer had taken it to the same aircon guy as me. So surely he knew it was faulty before he sold it to me (or at least, very low on gas so should have warranted further investigation)?

There's one other thing I noticed today. I looked up the website of the dealer as I was going to call them, and although I bought the car several weeks ago, it's still being advertised on their website - and at a significantly lower price than what I paid for it! When I bought it there wasn't a price on the windscreen but the garage told me a price which seemed fair and I negotiated a reasonable part exchange on the old car. So what I paid as the outstanding balance was significantly less than the asking price. But turns out they had been advertising it externally at a much lower price. Ouch!

facade

LarryLancaster said:

When I took the car back to the aircon guy who previously regassed it for me, he said that he had been thinking about the car because he realised he shouldn't really have topped it up in the first place as it had only recently been regassed. My initial visit had reminded him that a few weeks earlier the dealer who he actually knew had taken the car to him for a regas. That was before I bought it but the aircon garage was just up the road from the garage I bought it from so by coincidence the dealer had taken it to the same aircon guy as me. So surely he knew it was faulty before he sold it to me (or at least, very low on gas so should have warranted further investigation)?

I was thinking that it was likely it had just been re-gassed, which would mean the fault was pre-existing, but I couldn't think of a way to prove it, now you have proof that it was faulty before purchase, and they had tried to fix it, take it back and see what they say. Bit of a pain the air-con man didn't refuse to fill it because he had just done it.

There's one other thing I noticed today. I looked up the website of the dealer as I was going to call them, and although I bought the car several weeks ago, it's still being advertised on their website - and at a significantly lower price than what I paid for it! When I bought it there wasn't a price on the windscreen but the garage told me a price which seemed fair and I negotiated a reasonable part exchange on the old car. So what I paid as the outstanding balance was significantly less than the asking price. But turns out they had been advertising it externally at a much lower price. Ouch!

Possibly they have reduced the price on the advert to attract people, then they can say "sorry it has just sold, how about a nice xxx that has just come in...."

You were happy with the price you agreed, the advert could be a mistake, I don't think you will get anywhere expecting a refund of the difference, I suppose you could argue that as you paid more they should fix the fault, but they should fix the fault anyway.

m0bov

Take it back and claim under CRA, not the worthless warranty. Although since another garage has messed with it, they might wash their hands of it.

maxmycardagain

m0bov said:

Take it back and claim under CRA, not the worthless warranty. Although since another garage has messed with it, they might wash their hands of it.

if he tells them..

Carrot007

With aircon in cars only two things can go wrong.

1. It is turned off by some idiot that thinks this is a good thing. Realy never turn it off ever. you could agrue the manufactufers are at fauklt here for letting it be allowed but hey...

2. Something damaged a pipe. Now this is what happed to me. One day working fine. Then nothing. A regas will not help. (do they even do the no improvement no cost ones anymore, anyway...) Such happens. The car is old enough for it to not be worth it. (Still better than whatever oddness was in my old car where it would not provide heat obn front blowers, just on footwell after 30 mins! *yes I got it looked at, twice, they asked for no money and said go elsewhere! (again not worth it!))