Vehicle Air Conditioning.

[runnach]

Runnach - trip to France - wishful thinking. But if I was going anywhere it would be to the best little campsite in the world in St Leon sur Vezere, in the Dordogne. Not this year though.

Well if you are happy with Vienne region, her Ma's shutters require painting as Da is no fit to do it, ye can pitch tent in back garden, shutters painted, we get bladdered hehe.............then head for Sarlat to enjoy usual tourist stuff!!

 

[drivewasher]

Quick fit have an offer on aircon at the moment. £45 for a test jig connected and tested for leaks etc, then re gassed to spec if it don't run col when they've finished then you pay nothing!

 

[snowcat]

Simon really all you need is a set of manifold gauges, to me this thread has kinda got over complex, dropins and the rights and wrongs of puting a butane propane mix in your car is best left to courses......In the UK theres CITBs technicaly needed to handle refrigarants etc etc......but here goes il give you a free rundown on how to test a system......


1) beg borrow steal a set of manifold gauges, place on high and low side, they will be 134a ports so you will not get em wrong,
2) Read gauges, 99% of the time they will read very low pressures... If there normal then there could be other issues, these are the other 1% of the time....
3) If its leaking, find leak, use OFN, Dye, or detector...Fix
4)Vacume(again beg borrow or steal), not removing air will cause black death of the compresser, or freeze the system.
5)recharge, adding correct oil, purge lines, this could be a vapour charge into the low side or liquid into the high. High engine off, Low Engine on...
6)Check system remove Gauges.......

You will need minumn, A set of gauges, a bottle of Nitrogen, some 134a, and a vacume pump, and sutable Pag oil.....

Sorry theres no shortcuts, anyone who tells you differently is a Cowboy anything less will F**k the system iv seen it, leek sealer works reasonable well on minnor leeks, but you MUST pull vacume, dont forget most compressers run on a trans belt, Bang if that freazes or runs short of oil.

 

[RED1]

Quick fit have an offer on aircon at the moment. £45 for a test jig connected and tested for leaks etc, then re gassed to spec if it don't run col when they've finished then you pay nothing!

What he said - got wife's BMW diagnosed and regassed at KF lat week - £45 less 20% - pick up leaflet instore.

 

[snowcat]

Got you a few pictures may help, first couple show the diffrent gauges and the diffrent charge ports, RH side modern 134a, LH Old R12 system,

Next a charge port, then a pic of of the gauges at rest, on a perfect system, intrestingly in the pic you can also see the filter dryer compresser and trinary switch (saftey)...

Final pictures are system running, around 2 bar on the low, and 9 on the high, ambiant around 18C today, add 10C to that and expect 3 on the low and 12 on the high...

Hope that may help..

BTW personaly id avoid kwick fit and such, £45 doesnt find a leak, add oil change the filter dryer, and its fairly pricey for under a KG of gas, as iv said a regas should not be nessary on a Tight system, If it needs new gas it has a leek, Its like going to a tyre shop with a punture, and all them doing is blowing it up with the airline, pointless and actualy not legal..

Use these guys instead to find a local independant, all will be C&G qualified, and be required to refresh every 3 years....

 

[Drains]

Snowy, top stuff. What i'm going to do is start by asking kwikfit exactly what the service is they offer, also take a looksee at what Halfords do etc, and next week have a chat with the lads at work....

The Institute don't have any members up this way unfortunately.

 

[snowcat]

Snowy, top stuff. What i'm going to do is start by asking kwikfit exactly what the service is they offer, also take a looksee at what Halfords do etc, and next week have a chat with the lads at work....

The Institute don't have any members up this way unfortunately.

pitty, yep ask the questions and you shouldnt go far wrong, beware if they say something like "we drop a dye in which gives you a FREE leak test", Its a classic, £45 for first charge, 2 days later gas goes walkies, you go back another £45 for second charge plus parts and labour, to fix the leek that should have been done first time round.......

Christ about 75% of the guys iv seen do this job wear stetsons and ride a horse, Id never know anything attract so much bulls55t and bad pactice, luckly for the last 2 years works been too brisk on the eng/welding front iv only done a few jobs that suit, keep me ticket up tho, most run without

 

[Wozzaaah]

Look at the small print on Kwik Fit's site and they state that "If we cannot improve the coolest vent temperature from your car by more than 10% - then you pay nothing at all."
I think that's a bit of a cop out really, I'd assume even a squirt of gas ought to improve it by 10% unless the system has a major leak?

 

[snowcat]

Look at the small print on Kwik Fit's site and they state that "If we cannot improve the coolest vent temperature from your car by more than 10% - then you pay nothing at all."
I think that's a bit of a cop out really, I'd assume even a squirt of gas ought to improve it by 10% unless the system has a major leak?

cleaning the condenser, will even do that(rad part in the front), christ knows how you prove that the coolings improved, often we would find with the fleet of lorrys there was nothing wrong with em, except the drivers would always tell you that they were sure it was cooler last year, many times me and the yard forman have put gauges on and told the driver "It was all serviced" to stop em wineing, and It always did basicaly some systems will never work well, undersized condensers and evaps, the more gas it holds and the bigger the evaporator the better they work.

 

[Wozzaaah]

It seems that they check the air from the vents before they start, take the coldest reading then test the same vent again after they've finished to see what the diference is. 10% difference is so miniscule, I wouldn't be happy if that's all they could improve it by for £45 .

 

[snowcat]

2.5 degrees, for arguments sake then, hmmm car drives in hot, say with the tempreture around the evaporator at 80C, run car test vents, recharge system, engine tempreture is now say 50C, not hard to get 2.5C cooler like that hey....