Air Con

[RussBird82]

It seems my air con is just blowing air instead of cool air. As I've not had reason to use it since last summer how do I know if it just needs a service and re-fill or whether the pump is knackered ?£?£?£?£?£

[elnevio]

It will almost certainly have degassed.

Refrigerant used in the air con also contains a few grams of oil. This oil keep the system lubricated, and also keeps the various seals in good order. The seals dry out if the system is not used, and the speed at which the refrigerant escapes increases. This is why the advice is to regularly run the air con system, usually for 15mins every couple of weeks.

The seals will probably be okay, but you need to get it regassed and run, so that the oil can get round the system as intended. A decent aircon place will charge about £45 for a full leak test and recharge. You can also buy your own refrigerant kit, attach it to the two air con points, and away you go. But it might all leak away if there is a leak in the system.

[jayp]

you can no longer legally do air con yourself after the licensing changed in July last year, plus without the weighing the amount of refrigerant either in the system or whats going in you run the risk of over filling it. meaning that the low pressure side has the possibility of containing liquid refrigerant as a posed to vapour, liquid cannot be compressed therefore you run the risk of destroying your compressor. Its best to go to specialist to get it done, there are usually mobile guys in the yellow pages that will charge far less than a garage will!! I wouldn't pay or charge any mor than £40 for a simple leak test and regas.

Julian

[HPRULZ]

assuming your car is a VR4 (doesnt say) front lefthand side of the engine bay (viewed standing in front) is a silver cannister approx 2 inches diameter in the top face of it is a sight glass (usually obscured by road dirt) you should be able to see bubbles in this. Also Halfords regas and guarantee cooler temperature or they dont charge you (think kwik fit do too) they regassed my old mondeo and it all leaked away due to a dodgy seal so they didnt charge for it.

Kev