My aircon has died

[Doggy]

It's been working fine, but wouldn't play on the way home yesterday. I haz no gas.
Now I'm guessing the condenser's shot as I don't see anything amiss with the compressor or pipework, but I'm scratching my head to think of a way of proving it without taking it out to check - I'd very much like to be sure it's the problem before buying another one.

Any ideas, people?

(I'm sure I saw a condenser change howto somewhere in the dim and distant past)

[Doggy]

So far I've found:

Valeo 817667 / Pug 6455CQ, (which I reckon is what I got last time), for £103.99 delivered from http://www.autodoc.co.uk, (anybody used them)?

Or, (bizarely), later part code E163236 from Pug for £94.36 (Service Box shows a more typical £235.58 for the original version).

CP4L have a Hella, (produced by BEHR), version for £78.12

ECP have 2 options: EIS, (who)? £89.99 or the same 'Hella' as above for £99.99

Might just see if anyone in town has one on the shelf, then strip it down and see.......

[steve_earwig]

They all leak you know, they need topping up every few years or all the gas escapes. My D8 did this, I just had it blown up again and it was fine for the next couple of years until I sold it.

[Doggy]

Thanks Steve, I guess that's worth a punt - I'll see if anyone's doing the recharge or no-charge thang........

[Doggy]

Against my better judgement, I tried calling Kwik Fit and was almost relieved that they wouldn't answer the phone despite several attempts.
The voice of reason however persuaded me to drive the 200 yards to their premises at lunchtime to see if that would work.
After 10 minutes of being ignored as I stood in their reception, I left feeling convinced I had avoided a serious mistake.

I then called the independent up the road who does my MOTs and sure enough he has the necessary machine and in all likelihood rather more idea of how to use it than the other shower - it's booked in for tomorrow morning. I figure I will need to pay someone to re-gas it, whether it needs a condenser or not.

Hopefully I can negotiate a reasonable charge for either proving it leaks tomorrow and re-gassing it next week, or just refilling it in the morning.

[steve_earwig]

I thought Thickfit were doing better these days, ah well, probably best off voting with your feet.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow!

[dirtydirtydiesel]

Fear not Doggy,
All should be well with your local independent mot / service centre.
Mine recharges my air-conditioning every 3 years for £30.00
Always ice cold

[Doggy]

Dropped it off this morning.....
Looks like your condenser's leaking sir, about £350 to fix.

Now shopping for a condenser and an umbrella to work under.

[Doggy]

Had to settle for a Nissens @ £66.33 + VAT

fingers crossed.

At least the garage didn't charge for the diagnosis.

[Welly]

I've had far too much experience with car a/c and if you loose gas then it's leaking somewhere, simple. The super-tiny 'weepage' through seals and compressor shaft is too small to make much difference overall really and any sudden stoppages are 'big leaks' normally a knackered condensor by a stone hitting it or rotting through at the bottom edge.

On my 406 the second condenser went again at the bracket positions so check there's no chance of anything rubbing against the aluminium cores of the thing, there's some weird cleat-type fixings which I think don't really do much at the bottom. Or something. But can be 'eased' a bit so not too close to the condenser. Or something. Helpful aren't I?

Here, found it, the bracket bit at the bottom wore through the fins/tubing, the green shiz is the refrigerant oil.

[steve_earwig]

I'm serious about the D8, all aircon systems slowly leak. Anyway, it was worth a shot

[Doggy]

It gets worse.

Bad News: I snapped the end off the lower refrigerant pipe while separating it from the old condenser.

Good News: The condenser wasn't leaking.

So now I've got to get a 6460 R2 "air conditioned freon tube" from the scrappy and figure out how to join it on, then rebuild the front of the car to get back to square one.
Then find / sort out the real problem.

If anyone's had experience of joining the lower refrigerant pipe onto the twin pipe assy with the fill valves, or has a bottom pipe, please let me know.

[Welly]

Oh bugger!!

I remember poor old puggy had a problem with the thread of the drier/sensor at the top of the condenser. Very difficult to spot until you remove the thing. Other than the condenser it can only really be a pipe problem, have you checked the pipework at the bracket positions? this is where they let go first normally.

[steve_earwig]

If anyone's had experience of joining the lower refrigerant pipe onto the twin pipe assy with the fill valves

I'm not seeing a seal or anything, maybe just an olive? Christ, 77 quid At least it's common to EW/DW (rather than engine-specific like a PS hose...)

Needs filling up with the stuff with UV dye in it?

[Doggy]

I got distracted from this part of the quest as the car decided to dump all its power steering fluid. On closer inspection, I reckon it's had a serious front-end clout.
Can't see any obvious collision damage, but the lower grille is detached from the bumper, the power steering cooling loop and lower refrigerant pipe are bent backwards and one of the two support brackets is snapped off. I did wonder why there didn't see to be anything locating the bottom edge of the radiator, suspect whatever did that's been sheared off too.

So I wound up spending most of yesterday cutting out the leaking section of the steering pipework, (where it passes through the bodywork from engine compartment to radiator area) and bodging a hose in its place, so at least its mobile.

Then the dog collapsed with heart failure, so it wasn't the best possible weekend.