V70 Air Conditioning - How Often Does It Need Rechargin...

Last year my V70's air conditioning stopped working. I bought the car 18 months old, about 4 years ago.

Dealer said it needed to be recharged, which cost £54. About a month ago it stopped working again. Dealer said once again it had to be recharged, which I found surprising, but he said this was the manufacturer's recommendation. It also cost me £80 this time as dealer's equipment wasn't working and he had to bring in someone else to do it.

I also have a SAAB 9000 which in 5 years has never needed the air conditioning recharged. We lived in California for 4 years and both our cars had the air conditioning on almost constantly, but never required recharging during that time.

Now we live in Perthshire and don't exactly have the air conditioning on all that often!

Is this a well known V70 fault? Was the dealer feeding me a line? This is getting to be very expensive.

The only reason it would need recharging is because you have a leak albiet possibly a tiny one.One of the main reasons for air con developing leaks in our climate is because its not used enough.Always give it a good run at least once a week right through the winter to keep seals lubricated.
When you had yours regassed did they leak test at the same time?They should do it as a matter of course but it seems a lot dont!
Colin
Big green flying machine (95 855 t5)

How dare a dealer, how dare they, recharge your air conditioning without doing a pressure test and then, when an obvious leak has caused the system to be low on refrigerant, then have the odassity to not only say that this is manufacturers recommendation to recharge within a month but to also charge you more because their own equipement was not working. Write to Volvo Cars UK and complain.

George

[link:www.ttsservices.co.uk/my%20volvos.htm|http://www.ttsservices.co.uk/My%20car.JPG]

'87 745 GLE Turbo Diesel Intercooler (D24TIC/ZF22; 200K)
'88 745 Turbo Intercooler (B230ET/M46; 290K)
'92 944 Turbo Intercooler (B200FT/M46; 143K)

I'll second that George.I had mine done at an independent they suck out all the old gas hold the vacuum for 30 min to check for leaks recharge and then use a sniffer to check for leaks again.You get a print out of how much gas/oil was in the system and how much they topped it up with.All for £40 !!!
Colin
Big green flying machine (95 855 t5)

[tonyflynn1]

If what the dealer says is correct then we would have to top up our fridges and freezers periodically. The gas will remain in the system until or unless it leaks out, the dealer is either dishonest or incompetent, possibly both.

Colin, where did you have yours done? sounds like a good service.

[Chris_Rogers]

He did not say it leaked after a month, he said it stopped working a month ago.
Volvo do recommend vac and recharge yearly.
I think his problem is lack off use.
All cars leak gas via the rubber hoses and seals, the domestic fridge does not have these.

the problem may be your not using the system on a regular enough basis (understandable enough living in scotland) however try and run system at min temp every week or if its climate control just leave it on in auto as matter of course, the integrity of the seals and compressor bearings are maintained by the lubricant in the refrigerant ,(most automotive air con systems normally suffer a loss of refrigerant over a couple of years this is deemed normal) take it back and insist he does a px test using nitrogen and introduces dye into system to aid future trouble shooting, the v70 system is at best "marginal" and at worst junk!, and needs all the help it can get, as i said the best preventive maintenance is use it as often as possible

As a relative novice to this message board, can someone advise who and where I complain to at Volvo UK? I sent an email to Customer
Relations at Volvo UK but only received a fairly nebulous response.

Basically, they are not interested and have referred me back to the dealer who caused the problem in the first place. So much for Volvo approved and authorised dealers.

Can anyone help with the direct email address to complain to at Volvo UK?

[tonyflynn1]

I stand corrected but did sound convincing...... alright maybe not .

I had mine done at Rochford Tyres Rochford Essex who happen to be just down the road from me.I only found that they do a/c by chance .I'm glad I did.They have a website which is www.rochfordtyres.co.uk but I think it deals mainly with their range of wheels and tyres which of course is their speciality.ps they are Toyo dealers quoted me £80 per corner
Colin
Big green flying machine (95 855 t5)