My aircon regas lasted 3 days!!

[Timbotambo]

Took my '02 S60 in for a service at Squire Automotive (Volvo specialist) and asked them to check the air-con. They said it seemed fine and could find no leak, so £45 re-charge and it's all gone after 3 days.

This car is an absolute cash cow and I can't afford anymore remedial work. Searching the threads it seems to vary and noone reports a sucessful long term fix. Any ideas? The fault code reading came up blank on aircon issues!

[gildersol]

Did they do a dye test? I had a wrong diagnosis by the Volvo dealer then took it to an air con specialist who found a leak on the condenser in about 5 mins

[R59]

You have a leak my man!

Common place for leaks are the condenser (the ally radiator bit in laymans terms), also the hose from the compressor to the condenser is allegedly prone to suffering failures on the fitting that goes into the condenser.

Take it to a Air-Con specialist, not your local Volvo dealer - while they may have technicians who are capable, they are not people who "do aircon" every day of the week. And the independants also tend to be a lot cheaper than the dealers.

My V70 T5 has a leaky hose with a leaky fitting as it goes into the condenser.... Hopefully will have it fixed soon - my brother is an aircon engineer, and will do it as soon as he has space in his schedule, and as soon as I have a chance to stand still for a while too.

[Bill_56]

Are you certain it has lost it's gas? If the only symptonm is lack of cold air, the problem may lie elsewhere.

For example, if your aircon has become intermittent in the last few (warmer weather) days, a likely reason would be a knacked compressor clutch. These tend to play up when the weather (or engine) is warm, because the resistance of the electromagnet winding increases, reducing the flow of current, and hence reducing the magnetic pull. In that example, re-gassing won't make the slightest bit of difference, thought it might create such an illusion if the weather cools down for a day or two afterwards.

In my experience, aircon 'specialists' will ALWAYS tell you the system needs re-gassed, as it's easy money for them. They will ALWAYs lose interest if re-gassing doesn't fix it because, actually, the vast majority haven't the slightest idea how it all works.

Just my experience, and I'm sure R59's brother would be an exception.

[Bawheid]

Originally Posted by Timbotambo

Took my '02 S60 in for a service at Squire Automotive (Volvo specialist) and asked them to check the air-con. They said it seemed fine and could find no leak, so £45 re-charge and it's all gone after 3 days.

This car is an absolute cash cow and I can't afford anymore remedial work. Searching the threads it seems to vary and noone reports a sucessful long term fix. Any ideas? The fault code reading came up blank on aircon issues!

in my opinion, if you asked them to check it and they said no leaks and charged you £45 to re-gas it, I would be straight back to them with it

[R59]

You're quite right there Bill. The clutch is another cause, however, that usually jacks in after it's been running for a while. The compressor kicks in when everything is cool, but drops out when the coil overheats.

To check that it's not the clutch, get someone to operate the AC button while you look at the compressor's clutch. If it kicks in when the button's pressed, and works for a while it *could* be the coil on the clutch. It could also be low pressure too.....

There are many "could-be's" including low or high pressure switches malfunctioning. Without digging out my "Ladybird Book of Volvo V70 Electrics", I can't recall whether the low pressure switch is "valid" when it's open circuit, or closed circuit. If it's stuck in "low", then the compressor won't come in. Same effect if the high pressure switch is stuck in "high".

A common dealer ripoff is on the compressors that are clutchless. Needs a new compressor sir, that's £425 + fitting + VAT sir.

The cause of the failure is often a thermal fuse inside the compressor that costs less than £30. They can be a beeeeatch to change when the pump is a pig to get off, but even then, the job can be done for a lot less than the best part of a grand that the dealer would want. They don't do it because they are fitters. Not mechanics/engineers anymore because time is money!

I agree, some Air Conditioning "Engineers" are more Air CON than Engineers.

Bruv's policy is keep the customer satisfied, they come back for servicing, and bring their friends too!! He only has a small customer base, but also does work for a couple of franchised car dealers when the job is beyond their "plug 'n' play" technicians.

So, there's a few ideas for you.

You can check the pressure switches with a multi-meter.

Thinking out loud again - are the cooling fans for the condenser running all of the time - even when the a/c is off - that's another tell-tale of no, or low pressure - or a low pressure sensor failure.

Rob.

Originally Posted by Bill_56

Are you certain it has lost it's gas? If the only symptonm is lack of cold air, the problem may lie elsewhere.

For example, if your aircon has become intermittent in the last few (warmer weather) days, a likely reason would be a knacked compressor clutch. These tend to play up when the weather (or engine) is warm, because the resistance of the electromagnet winding increases, reducing the flow of current, and hence reducing the magnetic pull. In that example, re-gassing won't make the slightest bit of difference, thought it might create such an illusion if the weather cools down for a day or two afterwards.

In my experience, aircon 'specialists' will ALWAYS tell you the system needs re-gassed, as it's easy money for them. They will ALWAYs lose interest if re-gassing doesn't fix it because, actually, the vast majority haven't the slightest idea how it all works.

Just my experience, and I'm sure R59's brother would be an exception.

[Timbotambo]

I'll never fail to be amazed how helpful people on this forum can be. Thank you very much, I'm taking the car back to the garage with a print-out of the replies here. No other symptons suggested above are occuring so hopefully it's a simple job. Fingers crossed the car doesnt cost me yet MORE money!

[Georgey dee]

I had exactly the same problem. It was a leak at the bottom right hand corner of the aircon rad. Showed up after a good leak test with die. It was only tiny which is why it help pressure long enough to last a couple of days but they changed it fo free so I was happy

[Bill_56]

Originally Posted by R59

To check that it's not the clutch, get someone to operate the AC button while you look at the compressor's clutch. If it kicks in when the button's pressed, and works for a while it *could* be the coil on the clutch. It could also be low pressure too.....

Just to clarify that, in most cars a properly working aircon compressor will continuously cycle on & off , maybe a few times a minute, so you'll see it will kick on when the button's pressed, then let go a few moments later, then kick in again after a few more moments, and so on.

The issue I was referring to was not a clutch coil fault, it is the air gap, which widens over the years, thanks to the friction surfaces wearling down. Eventually the air gap widens to the point where the electromagnet isn't strong enough to close the gap. If that's the problem, you may find the aircon works sometimes but not others. In some cases, it will work on cold days but not on hot days.

EDIT: To clarify, the above is based on research after the problem afflicted my Saab ('2000 9-3). It's well-documented online, and I'm pretty sure it applies to current Volvos too though somebody may wish to correct me on that...?

[gavin d5]

Originally Posted by Bill_56

Just to clarify that, in most cars a properly working aircon compressor will continuously cycle on & off , maybe a few times a minute, so you'll see it will kick on when the button's pressed, then let go a few moments later, then kick in again after a few more moments, and so on.

The issue I was referring to was not a clutch coil fault, it is the air gap, which widens over the years, thanks to the friction surfaces wearling down. Eventually the air gap widens to the point where the electromagnet isn't strong enough to close the gap. If that's the problem, you may find the aircon works sometimes but not others. In some cases, it will work on cold days but not on hot days.

EDIT: To clarify, the above is based on research after the problem afflicted my Saab ('2000 9-3). It's well-documented online, and I'm pretty sure it applies to current Volvos too though somebody may wish to correct me on that...?

if it is a air gap issue which is very common theres a very quick fix that can be done with the compressor on the car i did it on my old v70 and it worked a treat, do a search on google or on here symptoms of a excesive gap are system works fine for a while then fails as the compressor warms up and the resistance in the coil rises, its very easy to measure the air gap takes about two minutes