A/C stopped working - Bubbles in sight glass

[Beastlee]

Over the last 6 months I've developed an annoying squeak from the fan belt area, I suspect from the A/C pulley. I had also noticed that there wasn't much happening to demist the screen recently, which I thought may be temperature related, and today I confirmed that naff all happens when I turn on the A/C.
I've checked the sight glass and there's definitely a flow of fluid through it but there's also large bubbles, which I'm led to believe is an indication of low gas. Bearing in mind I've not had it gassed or serviced since I bought it over 3 years ago I'm thinking it's probably just a case of aging and slow losses. I am, however, wondering if I should consider replacing the pump.

This leads me to the following questions:
1. Could the squeak and the recent loss of pressure be related?
2. What sort of price is an A/C compressor?
3. How much does a compressor weigh? (I will need to get one for a Delica too)
4. Does anyone have one available that is known to be servicable?
5. Do I need to do anything more than re-gas? (Germany is very expensive for this)
6. Do I ask too many questions?

Thanks for any help.

Lee

[Mark 4]

6. Do I ask too many questions?

Whadda you think ?

[Beastlee]

Cheeky blighter

[Rambaud]

IIRC, a new compressor is about £350 + VAT from Mitsi - if it's the same as the V6.

There is a repair kit which is much cheaper - about £40 + the gas, which might seal any leaks but is not always guaranteed to do so.

[Beastlee]

Annoyingly it looks like the RVR now has the same issue

[Nube]

Is the mist in the lower middle of the screen?? Not by any means faulting your diagnosis but sounds similar to the first signs I had of the heater matrix dying.

[Beastlee]

It's the whole car that mists up very quickly, I think this is just the damp weather though.

Have just done a small amount of troubleshooting and I can see that turning the A/C on and off causes the clutch to engage but there's no tell-tale 'clunk' as it compresses the gas. More indications of it being low on gas I think. I've doen a sound clip of the annoying squeak I have when it's wet and hopefully someone will recognise it once I post it up.

[Nube]

Has it got progressively worse? Mine started with misting/condensation in the lower middle of the screen and slowly upgraded to a cold sauna! The only telltale I had was a very slow drop in the coolant level in the header tank.

[Beastlee]

It's been fine for ages but only the last couple of days, since the temperatures rose to about 5deg, has it done it. I've no loss of coolant due to it but I did notice today that there's a potential leak on the radiator itself, hard to tell whilst the weather is so wet though.

[Nube]

Mine was definately more of a slow burner/mister. Hope you track it down soon mate.

[Beastlee]

I'm going to remove the aux belts later and start the car back up, hopefully there's no squeaking otherwise it's water-pump/cam squeak!

I'm fairly confident that the condensation is simply due to the damp environment recently, it's very humid here right now. It's on all windows, not just the windscreen and does clear with the blowers on, just slowly. My main concern is wasting money gassing it up again if the pump needs replacing, I guess I better start looking for a local A/C specialist.

[Beastlee]

I'm thinking lower tensioner, the one for the A/C and PS pumps, is at fault for the squeak. Gonna check it out in a minute, fee up the PS,A/C belt and spin the tensioner. If it's noisy I'll pack a bit of grease in and order another, looks a bit expensive though : http://www.camskill.co.uk/products.p...22b0s1402p6028

Anyone got one that's not noisy they want to sell for me to test with?

[Gly]

the squeak will most likely be the lower pulley wheel that you adjust belt tension with on the ac/ps pumps
as they get older they ware and get a bit of play, and the bearings get dry,
last time i checked it was about $250-300nz for a new pulley wheel

[statham234]

re charging air con gas if you know any one that does fridges domestic or commercial might have addapters to suit .. also if you think might be matrix sounds silly but wipe finger across winndsreen when misty then lick it, if it tastes of anti-freeze voila

[elnevio]

Annoyingly it looks like the RVR now has the same issue

Really?

Hope it's not the compressor. I changed the condenser, and the system was regassed, leak tested, and oiled.

[Beastlee]

Managed to get under the car and check for the source of the squeaking, I'm now thinking it's the PS pump, or worse the water pump inside the cam cover. I didn't manage to get the lower inner arch off to get to the pulley fixing bolt so wasn't able to slack it off and let the engine run without the PS & A/C belt so further testing necessary.
On a good note, there was nothing else wrong under there, and the suspected rad leak was just rain dripping down and off it LOL

[Beastlee]

Nev, I'm not 100% sure on the RVR yet, certainly there's no clunk from the compressor whilst it's running and it doesn't seem to demist the car either. I'm going to do the diagnostics on that once I've finished the remaining jobs on the VR4.

[Beastlee]

Good news, managed to get the pulley off and test it. Ran the engine with the belt off and it was silent so checked the pulley itself and found it had consideable play in the bearings. Washed it out with WD40 and packed some lithium grease into it, all back on and still silent! Now I just need the air-con regassing.

[Beastlee]

Well, as I had to stand and sort out my coolant issue for an hour I decided to turn on the A/c and see how it went. Seems the A/C is working but with longer intervals. The temp is higher today too but I'm sure it's just low on gas.