Car Air Conditioning

mazza245

I don't know if this is the right place for this question. My car's air conditioning just didn't work this year and I didn't have a clue why until somebody told me that some fluid needed topping up but you couldn't buy this fluid, the garage has to do it. I wanted to book the car in for a service anyway this morning, so I rang the place where I bought the car and mentioned the air conditioning as well. The man said I will need the air conditioning service which checks all the pipes and other bits as there is obviously a problem if the fluid has drained away, so there must be a leak somewhere. This would cost me £85!!!! On top of nearly £200 just for the service on the car!!! I rang another garage who was cheaper for the car service but doesn't touch air conditioning, he said you could find someone in Yellow Pages who would come out and service your air conditioning. The only air conditioning services in our area seem to be for house air conditioning. Can anyone help with this? Can we just buy the fluid somewhere and do it ourselves?

alanobrien

mazza245 wrote:

I don't know if this is the right place for this question. My car's air conditioning just didn't work this year and I didn't have a clue why until somebody told me that some fluid needed topping up but you couldn't buy this fluid, the garage has to do it. I wanted to book the car in for a service anyway this morning, so I rang the place where I bought the car and mentioned the air conditioning as well. The man said I will need the air conditioning service which checks all the pipes and other bits as there is obviously a problem if the fluid has drained away, so there must be a leak somewhere. This would cost me £85!!!! On top of nearly £200 just for the service on the car!!! I rang another garage who was cheaper for the car service but doesn't touch air conditioning, he said you could find someone in Yellow Pages who would come out and service your air conditioning. The only air conditioning services in our area seem to be for house air conditioning. Can anyone help with this? Can we just buy the fluid somewhere and do it ourselves?

9 times out of 10 if the car is around 3 yrs old or so the air con will need re-gassing.

If it has a leak they will put in a tracer dye , re gas the system, locate the leak and fix it.

A system re gas can cost anything upwards of £30 but
can be a lot more, the answer as ever is to shop around.

Look in you local paper for local garages that do it, lots do these days and some fairly cheaply.

Ted_Hutchinson

Prepare yourself for the possibility that the reason that the system needs regassing is that the radiator is damaged.

Generally it will be the seals have dried out and the gas has simply leaked out but in my case when the garage tried testing it for pressure the air was blowing out as fast as it was pumped in and you could hear it coming from the front of the Air Conditioning Radiator.

A new air conditioning radiator was well over £200 for my Peugeot and the cost of fixing and gassing was going to bring it over £300.

For the number of times a year it's really desirable I didn't think it was worth replacing. As a proportion of the resale value of a six year old car I don't think I would have got my money back.

Worth asking the garage what they will charge for testing the system before regassing. The local main agents were going to charge £80 to investigate the problem, but the small garage I went to tested it and gave me the bad news for free.

chrisw

You can buy aerosol recharge kits, but there seems to be some doubt about their effectiveness. See here:

http://www.carmechanicsmag.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=liquids;action=display;num=1124048768

geo555

Its not fluid thats needed, its regassing. Look in the car repair section to see what garages do air conditioning regassing. £85 is about average for regassing, but you might find it cheaper.
Check out https://www.ukmotoringdirectory.co.uk/motoring.php?id=4848

Pink.

Hi mazza,

You may get more replies on the motoring board, so I hope that you don't mind if I move your thread over there.

Pink

wizzer

on a slightly different note, I've seen 'stuff' for ensuring that airconditioning systems don't end up circulating bacteria etc. Anyone know if this is a real problem and whether 'cleaning' is necessary or just another money-spinning scam?

wazza

for the reason of exessive fuel usage majority of the peolpe i know do not use the air condition in their car. when summer arrives they wonder why if sometimes does not work. if they had bothered to read the instruction book it states to use the air condition at least once a week. this helps to circulate the gasses/fluid in the system and prevents the seals from drying up.

they cannot grasp the fact that the fuel consumption will go up if they drive with the windows open.

Spikey_2

nice reading... def agree to shop around.......... try the main dealerships...they have offers on at times........

Spikey

samedan_2

The best thing to do, after it is fixed, is to leave your air conditioning running ALL the time. If it is not producing cold air it is not affecting your fuel consumption but it is keeping the pump turning and exercising the pump seals. If you don't use your a/c in the winter months it will not work for you on the first day of Spring! If you don't want to run it all the time, do it for at least 10 minutes every two weeks right thru the winter