DIY Aircon regassing kit from ebay (where do i fill?)

[FatLadZ]

hi ive purchased a bottle of aircon gas from ebay (link below)
it says on the tin to "only add it through the low pressure service port"
my car is a 1996 volvo T5
many thanks
fatladz

p.s. if this works well i will post results up here :)



http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...tem=3835473532

[pettaw]

Be very careful with this type of kit, what the americans call a 'death kit' Hopefully the gas is just gas and doesn't have oil or leak sealer in it. The oil can mean you get too much oil in the system which compromises cooling and leak sealer can bung up thin tubes.

Its also dodgy to just top up without monitoring the high side pressure, because it may go sky high without you noticing it and damage your system. The low side gauges on these kits are notoriously unreliable and give funny readings as well.

If the system is just low on refrigerant then you might get away with it. If all the gas has gone and been replaced by air because of a leak then you won't get away with it and the system needs to be leak tested, vacuumed and recharge to factory specs.

To find out more about 'death kits' visit some of the US A/C sites, you should be able to goggle for them.

Andy

Oh, the low side is on the suction side of the compressor, there should be two lines going into the evaporator through the firewall. Follow the thicker one around and there should be a valve somewhere on it.

The can contains:- 11oz of R-134a refrigerant, 2oz power booster oil charge, 1oz of leak stop and detector. also contains a red dye, if your system has a serious leak that leak stop cannot fix, a red stain will pinpoint the leak.

Best of luck.....

[jaytee]

Here's a link to more info on the Castrol 'DIY' kits!

http://www.kingstonchemical.com/engl...oducts-10a.htm

It seems a bit dicey, not knowing how much oil/gas is in the system, it would be safer to recover the system first then start again. The high and low side connector on my 850 Tdi is on the left looking under the bonnet, just behind the headlight, its a black plastic cap which unsrcews revealing a schrader type valve.

Hope you are sucessfull.

Jim

[FatLadZ]

i tried putting approx half a can in
but the aircon is still intermittent
its either feezing cold or warm.
anyone any idea if i have a component failure?
cheers in advance]
fatz

[pettaw]

It could be anything from a simple electrical problem to a blockage or a compressor problem, need to get a gauge set and find out the operating pressures first, both high and low side. Trouble is that because nobody does DIY A/C in this country a manifold gauge set is difficult to come by.

If you end up taking it to a shop than make sure to tell them the can you put in had sealer in it, because otherwise it will contaminate and completely ## up their reclamation and recycling machine.

I've just read up that E-Bay link. This is exactly the kind of 'ezi-fix' magic-in-a-can products that end up costing more in the long run due to failed components.

The trouble spot with all 850/70 models is the evaporator so you might well have a leak there.

[crumpit1]

>I've just read up that E-Bay link. This is exactly the kind
>of 'ezi-fix' magic-in-a-can products that end up costing more
>in the long run due to failed components.
>


Its true, not withstanding hindsight fatladz so apologies but a regas and leak check at my home recently cost me £50 for my son's Focus and the guy checked my 70 out as well which fortunately was full.

Regards Al