Aircon regas only lasted 8 weeks.

[tigershoot]

I had my car regassed in May last year and after a few months it stopped cooling. I went to a different garage this year and got it gassed again. I told them it must be leaking but they reckoned it must be OK and that the earlier garage mustn't have done it properly. It failed its leak test but he said it might be the coupling between the feed pipe and the Smart. Now, about 8 weeks later there is no cooling so I assume the gas has gone again.

Is there some common place that the aircon might leak from?

When I was there they needed to connect the low pressure and the high pressure. I took the whole front of the car off for them (only to then realise that you only need to remove the one fog light ) and then I realised I had scratched the headlight doing it:censor:

[10:45PM]

Re: Aircon regas only lasted 8 weeks.

Any decent place will put a special dye in as part of the fill up (along with the lubrication) , this dye will show precisely where any leaks are in a system.

Otherwise it's like looking for a needle in a haystack

could well be the evaporator (the rad, front of house) though

Get a professional to do a leak test for you with said dye

[andrearayburn]

Re: Aircon regas only lasted 8 weeks.

*Leak-test* (Evidently there is a leak!) Its all good and well that the acclaimed professionals do a leak test with their 'dye'. All this proves is that they have simply applied the dye - then re-gassed. One would need to follow the route of the air-con pipes? Do any of the pipes run within the under-trays, etc? Or in hidden locations. Point being: simply pouring in dye without actually following the entire route - whilst visually checking for leaks. Is fruitless.

Is anyone able to elaborate on this?

Have heard of rubber washer seals within or near the compressor, which perish? Slower-leak? (Replacable.). Can appreciate the aggrivation, wasted time and money, plus inconvenience. My thought is that there is a leak. Over and above need to run the air-con for say ten-minutes per day. Mainly; I would take the car back to the air-con business and challenge them to another, 'leak-test'. Observe if they do/ are able to: follow the entire route?

[heinkeljb]

Re: Aircon regas only lasted 8 weeks.

Do you have the original receipt for the re-gas you had done earlier in the year?

If yes, take the car back to them and say, "your leak testing wasn't very thorough as my Air con does not work any more."


Failing that: You need to take the car to someone who does car air con for a living, has all the right equipment and who doesn't say "come back in a couple of hours and it will be all done!"

When I needed to get my air con done the company had hte car for 2 days whilst they traced a leak, (actually, 2 leaks, the major one in the condensor caused by a stone - replaced and then the joint which they took apart hd a slow leak)

They had to take the front cowl off, the undertays and the boot lid in order to be able to check all the pipe work / joints / seals.

They can do an extended pressure test on your system using the dye and CO2 and then an extended test under vacum if needed.

My local company will do all that for ~£80

John

[andrearayburn]

Re: Aircon regas only lasted 8 weeks.

Excellent post/ feedback, John. After a job like that it will have a: (serviceable-duration) to the future. Eighty-pounds is good value. Considering the 'labour' plus final gassing. Agree; air-con specialists are geared for this lengthy: leak-finding. What is the name of your air-con company used?

[10:45PM]

Re: Aircon regas only lasted 8 weeks.

If they've put the dye in originally the leak points will already be visible.

I said take it to a professional because this original re-gasser or the second regasser do not sound like they are

If there was no dye put in on either occasion , then it will need doing , ie regassing WITH the dye, and then OF COURSE the whole system looked over for signs of the dye.

Like I said a professional puts the dye in so you can tell, when it does depressurise over time, where the leaks are. Dye costs money so a fixitandscarper will just regas it.
Although they use UV to highlight the dye/leak, it'll show up without the UV if the leak is bad enough.

[heinkeljb]

Re: Aircon regas only lasted 8 weeks.

It is of course possible that they did a good job and that you have "sprung" a leak since they did the work!
The condensor is nicely placed in front of the water cooling radiator reay to recieve the first stone thrown its way by a passing vehicle....!!!

I have put some mesh over the holes in my cowl which should slow any stone down to a speed that will not cause damage if it manages to reak through the mesh.

The company I use is just one which operates in Brighton. I have also used a local mobile Air con guy but that was just a re-gas. Wouldn't trust him to be able to do the extended testing as he does his work at the side of the road and there are too many variables which might get in the way of an extended test.

John