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air conditioning diagnostics

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Old Jun 12th, 2021, 19:00   #21
stuart bowes
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on the topic of re-gas and may be relevant to others

I rang a place today to get a price and booking. mine is colder with the a/c on, but not exactly like being in a fridge..

the lady was a bit confused and tapped on the keyboard for a while before saying ah ok yours is the older type (2001) so it has a larger a/c gas tank so we need to charge you a bit more. £100 (inc hoovering out / pressure test / refill)

they said big leaks would be detected and then would obviously not fill it. smaller leaks may not be noticed by their equipment ? I figured leave it for now a) because it works so don't mess with it and b) £100 was a bit much tbh just for marginally cooler air

was that just total bull$h1t and should I ask around other places. it was supposedly a specialist, not just some old quicksh!t place
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Old Jun 14th, 2021, 20:20   #22
Kev0607
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stuart bowes View Post
on the topic of re-gas and may be relevant to others

I rang a place today to get a price and booking. mine is colder with the a/c on, but not exactly like being in a fridge..

the lady was a bit confused and tapped on the keyboard for a while before saying ah ok yours is the older type (2001) so it has a larger a/c gas tank so we need to charge you a bit more. £100 (inc hoovering out / pressure test / refill)

they said big leaks would be detected and then would obviously not fill it. smaller leaks may not be noticed by their equipment ? I figured leave it for now a) because it works so don't mess with it and b) £100 was a bit much tbh just for marginally cooler air

was that just total bull$h1t and should I ask around other places. it was supposedly a specialist, not just some old quicksh!t place
Sounds iffy.
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Old Jun 14th, 2021, 20:40   #23
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Don’t try just regarding. You need oil in the system as well. I regassed mine and shortly after the compressor died. Lucky it didn’t take out the belt. Low pressure is probably a leak. Get a UV torch and go looking but be ready to part with some readies.
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Old Jun 14th, 2021, 20:52   #24
Kev0607
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Quote:
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Don’t try just regarding. You need oil in the system as well. I regassed mine and shortly after the compressor died. Lucky it didn’t take out the belt. Low pressure is probably a leak. Get a UV torch and go looking but be ready to part with some readies.
You had a leak before you re-gassed the system possibly, hence why garages pressure test before adding refrigerant (otherwise its pointless). If your compressor died after you re-gassed the system, then the compressor was knackered anyway or too much gas was added.

You don’t need to add PAG oil when adding refrigerant to a system that’s just low. You only need to do this when you fit a new condenser or a new compressor, or fill up a system that was bone dry because of a leak.
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Old Jun 14th, 2021, 20:53   #25
stuart bowes
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I don't suspect a leak, mainly because I've had a it a year so far and it hasn't got any worse in that time, it's just a bit half hearted. I have no evidence of it ever being re-gassed and considering the low mileage it may have only been done once if at all

I was mainly just curious if this whole 'older v70's have larger AC gas tanks' is true or not. I don't mind throwing money at the car but not if they're just mugging me off.

maybe I'll ask around again in October so they don't think I'm desperate to have it done asap (and maybe they will be more eager for the trade)
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Old Jun 14th, 2021, 21:52   #26
winsen
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My reasoning is similar. I bought the car last September with an already broken A/C, and only started looking at fixing the A/C now (enough other stuff to do / learn before that). Given that after being broken for probably more than a year now, the system is still a about 1 bar above atmospheric pressure, I'm thinking that I probably do not have leak. However, because of my (very) limited experience with A/C systems I'm not very confident in this conclusion.

That said, I'll probably drop by an A/C shop on Friday to see if they can fill it up. I have a long drive planned on Saturday and they are prediction 28 degrees C, so some cold air would be nice.
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Old Jun 14th, 2021, 23:07   #27
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As the A/C radiator is right in the firing line in front of the main radiator stone damage is inevitable. Ours had most of the fins rotted away too.
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Old Jun 18th, 2021, 13:56   #28
winsen
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So I visited the A/C place today. The system was able to keep vacuum for 5 minutes, so it was filled up and is now working (at least for the moment). It can now blow at 4 degrees Celsius. So far, so good.

Interestingly, the A/C guy said the system was completely empty, which is different from what VIDA suggested. It could be that the VIDA reading is absolute anyway (so a 100 kPa reading is atmospheric pressure, not 100 kPa above atmospheric pressure). However, pushing in the fill valve gave me a little "hissss", suggesting there was at least some pressure. The hiss was very soft though, so it could be that the pressure in the system was very close to atmospherics.

I will see now if the system keeps pressure. The A/C place added UV dye, so if it is leaking I should at least be able to find where. The A/C guy also claimed that the dryer/receiver is still fine (because otherwise the system would not be able to cool as well, he said), so if pressure is kept, I will leave things as they are.

If I loose the charge over next couple of days / over the summer, I'll look for the leak using the UV dye, and I'll probably replace whatever is leaking + the condenser (because the lower part is rather beat up) and the receiver/dryer.
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Old Jun 23rd, 2021, 19:23   #29
TurboZed
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Mine stopped working earlier this year. My Foxwell says there's 152.3 kpa in the system which is below minimum but shows at least the system is holding pressure. However there was an error code for some electrical fault, but then that code reader is always saying there's electrical faults with the transmission, abs and engine, but it runs absolutely fine so I don't know if they are superfluous or not.
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Old Jun 26th, 2021, 18:45   #30
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Bit of an odd update on this. I bought a regas bottle of ebay and a pipe, when I checked the pressure with the car cold it was 122kpa. On connecting the pipe there was quite a strong hiss and the pressure dropped to 110kpa. I connected the bottle and raised the pressure to 300kpa. Now when I run the AC the pump kicks in and the pressure goes up to about 500kpa but it doesn't cool the air at all. The pressure drops back down to about 310kpa as soon as you turn off the AC. Any ideas whats going on?
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