Aircon pump

[Alpine]

I've had my car with the local mechanic today, passed its MOT with no advisories so very pleased !

The air con does not work, so I had him look at it and he says the pump is not working.

I think what he means by this is that the clutch on the pump(?) does not engage.

Is there a fix to this, other than a new pump and re-gas?

I've looked at Robert on YouTube and he talks about putting cable ties somewhere to bring two plates closer together. I understand they are magnetic but if the gap gets too big the magnet won't be strong enough to bring the two plates together. Is this one way for an easy fix?

ps. my green light still comes on the air con button when on.

[byootox]

Has he checked it for enough gas ?
If he has the vida the a/c pump can be actuated through the computer to test it.
Has he checked to see if there is power getting to the a/c pump ?
You can remove a shim from the clutch to bring the plates closer together but worth checking the other things first.

[Alpine]

thanks.

I don't think he's checked for gas or vida.

When the air con button is pressed nothing runs, so I think he assumes it is the pump.

I guess if it was low or out of gas it would still run, but not blow cold?

[byootox]

No, the pump will not run if too low on gas.
First check to do is see if there is plenty gas in the system.
If not much/any gas present when checked and it works after it's been refilled then it needs to be checked for a leak.
Supposed to be filled with nitrogen for testing if the system is found to be empty but most don't seem to bother.
It needs to be done on a proper A/C machine that weighs the gas rather than just guessing the pressure.
Although Vida will tell you if there is any pressure in the system.

[Luxobarge]

Originally Posted by Alpine

thanks.

I don't think he's checked for gas or vida.

When the air con button is pressed nothing runs, so I think he assumes it is the pump.

I guess if it was low or out of gas it would still run, but not blow cold?

If your mech has diagnosed a pump failure because the system doesn't run but hasn't checked the gas in there first, I would run away fast from him and never go back - this is schoolboy stuff, page one of the idiot's guide to Aircon says that the most common cause of the system not running is low gas. There's a pressure switch that will stop it running if low on gas, this is to stop damage to the pump as the gas also contains the oil that lubricates the compressor pump.

If your mechanic doesn't know this stuff then he clearly knows squat about cars, and personally I wouldn't trust him to sit the right way round on a lavatory seat, let alone work on my car.

Go to a reputable aircon specialist and get it re-gassed. Part of this process is to recover any existing gas in there, so that will tell you if that is the problem, it also involves a vacuum test which is a basic check for leaks, and also ask them to put some UV dye in the gas so that if you have a leak it can be spotted by using a UV light and glasses later on. If - and only if - the system proves to have been full of gas all the time should you bother trying to diagnose the problem any further.