DIY air con recharge worked :)

[Kayos]

With the unseasonably warm weather I decided my Freelander needed the air con recharging.
Went to a garage offering it for £30, they took one look at the car, didn't even lift the bonnet and told me "it will need more than a recharge, it will be £100 to hook it to the machine" so I left, and went to Halfords

Gauge and a bottle was £60, however my mate had his trade card so only cost £45, went home, followed the instructions and I now have icy cold air con

Reconnected the gauge after a few miles and it's all good, also get £10 back for the bottle next time I'm in the area

 

[sparkysy]

Nice one!! Thanks @Kayos
My other halfs needs doing got a similar response at a place offering to do it. I didn't know halfrauds did a kit!

 

[Kayos]

Instructions said below 5psi wasn't good, I had 6 in mine.....
Make sure the bottle is upside down so you get liquid going in, I've never had working air con for 2 years in this car

 

[gordon stephenson]

I'm sure the garages around here charge around £27-£30 pounds, And thats for the full job, Vac out all the old filling,Pressure test the system and refill,

Even saw a "red neck" refill in the tube using propane, NOT to be recommended,

 

[wookie]

Is the kit just to refill the air-con or does it test the system as well ?

If it's leaked out once I'd expect it to do so again. Normally you both vacuum test and pressure test the system before filling.

 

[gordon stephenson]

When garages test the system with the new machines, they pressure up the system with some sort of gas and look for leaks with ultra violet light,

 

[Kayos]

Is the kit just to refill the air-con or does it test the system as well ?

If it's leaked out once I'd expect it to do so again. Normally you both vacuum test and pressure test the system before filling.

Has a pressure gauge, 65 miles later it's got the same pressure in.

My car didn't move for 11 months before I bought it and the air con didn't work then. £35 with the cashback and the gauge ready for another job, I'm happy

 

[Kayos]

When garages test the system with the new machines, they pressure up the system with some sort of gas and look for leaks with ultra violet light,

After 2 years I had 6psi, yes it's going somewhere but not leaking at a rate that I could monitor, had it in the gauge for 30 minutes and it didn't drop

 

[daedalusminos]

I found the STP refill cylinder sold by Halfords pretty good. When I bought my second hand Audi the air-conditioning was working fine, 2 months later however it had started to lose efficiency. I guessed the seller had just regarded to sell, but I purchased one of the STP kits from Halfords and used the entire contents to fill.

Fine it was working again, wind the clock forward 9 months to now and I thought I'd buy another bottle and top up for summer. I was surprised to find no top up was needed so if there was a small leak the STP additives appear to have sealed it.

 

[Justme]

Halfords will do a refill using the DIY kit for £30

ATS has a groupon if you need the full recon £28.95

https://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/ats...te=ETA_DKI_1&gclid=CIzgoebvktQCFYk_Gwodv-QBSA

 

[Johnseat]

We'd charge circa £40 for a full once over.
That would include a 1hr vacuum for every kilo of gas held in the system. Vacuum test for 30 mins and then a pressure test using nitrogen for an hour at least, depends if the vehicle is left with us or waiting.
Then a fill and test.
Any oil extracted under the recovery cycle would be replaced for the correct oil with dye.

 

[Bill Edwards]

Round here it's a good £50 to get aircon gassed. A practical DIY solution would be nice - and it's not a common thing for Halfrauds to work out cheap for anything!

Sounds like the garage Kayos first visited is using some selling technique/scam I can't remember the name of, where they offer a basic service at a bargain price but when you get there they'll try to sell you a much more expensive option instead. You're already there so usually go along with it.

 

[Bill Edwards]

@Bill Edwards Bait and Switch

That's the one.

I reckon that's pretty much what's been done here when the OP has been told it needs something different doing when they don't even go through the motions of actually looking at the job before saying this.

 

[Toleman]

Isn't it up selling?

 

[Toleman]

Grabs his coat