Air-con re-gas turned to woe :(

[DiscoPol]

As the temps are getting up to the mid to late 20's here now on an almost daily basis and are only gonna get hotter as the summer really begins, i decided it was time i took the pug and had the air-con re-gassed so i can enjoy the comforts of climate control proper on my daily commute ,

its only 28 km each way but as its into Warsaw the traffic is awful and the roads are worse than anything you think of it can easily take me anything up to and hour and a half creeping along at less than 15 mph, now add to this im a fairly large chap with what little hair i have remaining being of the blond-ish type, im not built for that sort of car based torture on a daily basis

So off i went to the local Auto Klymatika Serwis place with my dutiful interpretor in tow (Mrs Polska) and 5 mins later the boys had the big bottle of Freon hooked up and ready to fill, the valve was turned and the sound that followed was one we all dread in that situation, you guessed it a leak, and a big on at that now correct me if im wrong but that stuff is bad for the environment and needs to be recovered and refilled with as fewer leaks as possible, but these guys where totally lost as to where it was leaking from so started to spray plusgas or the like all over the pipes to see which was leaking, now at this point i remembered reading here on this "font of all knowledge that is 406 based" its going to be the condenser/rad thingymabob but not wanting to seem like the awkward customer trying to tell these guys their job i kept my English speaking mouth firmly shut and my fingers tightly crossed.

Low and behold 10 minutes later they have found it to be exactly as i thought but not until they had left the gas running for a good 10 minutes at full bore so they could locate the leak

50 Zloty later and they inform me its going to cost 600 zloty for parts and 300 zloty for fitting giving a total of 900 zloty less the 50 they charged for the gas and diagnosis, so this leaves me with the question is this a good price? in english thats about £184, any input on the price from those that have had the job done back in the uk would help me make up my mind whether to go ahead or not, i mean thats a good 14 hours teaching but then again its only gonna get hotter here

cheers for reading today's essay and any input at all would be greatly appreciated

Dan

[lofty]

Dan,

Last time i priced an air con rad up for my last 110 hdi D9, it was about £120 ish, factor in the fact that they will probably remove the entire rad pack (ie radiator/fan/a/c rad/ intercooler) to get it out, it aint a bad shout TBH.

They normally rot out at the bottom, mine did anyway.

[Welly]

This is where they tend to go - at the bottom where all the leaves and dust/crap get stuck in the fan casing at the front of the condenser the green ooze is refrigerant oil.....


Oh, and here's the second condenser failure I had, looking from the front (this one failed at the bracket position)...

Spot the green ooze of death..


If they are going to fit a new condenser and re-gass for £184.00 I'd bite their hands off. Honest.

Over here a new conny is a £300.00 job all day long (fitted).

That there gas-pissy-outy episode; are you sure that wasn't nitrogen? they would use nitro to do the pressure test.

I don't know exactly but if you could find out the quantity (in grammes) of refrigerant the 406 needs you could just check with them that they know the same amount etc. Also they need to add a quantity (again I don't have) of refrigerant oil to the mix.

The refrigerant quantity will be something like 575 grammes that kinda thing. And they should vac-down the system (once the new conny's fitted) for a good 10-15 minutes to remove any moisture in the system. Any over-gassing is a bad thing.

As far as I know you can ease-back the water rad far enough to allow room to remove and fit the conny ok.

[DiscoPol]

Cheers guys, the hand will be well and truly bitten off then

as for the nitrogen thing Welly,

thinking about it,you could well be right there, but on this I will bow to your extensive knowledge of stuff that makes you hot and cold and take your word for it, any other time i would be chatting away with the chaps gleaning whatever info i could from them, but here its a bit different i have to just stand by and wait for the wife to translate what she thinks is important

Oh I really need to get my Polish up to scratch ASAP

Whoop Whoop Im gonna be cool again

[mjb]

Aye, my Golf's condenser and compressor need replacing and that's going to cost a heck of a lot more than that, even if I do it myself

[Welly]

Ewww..compressor failure on Golfs is very common unfortunately and a sh*t of a job because the pipework has to be flushed through before you even think of fitting the new compressor.

Have you heard that the UK is set to see record breaking temperatures this summer? with long dry spells and high 30's temps particularly in August.

Looks like you might need a back up plan if the golf aint fixered?

[highlander]

Backup plan would be the Coupe, wouldn't it?

[Doggy]

Dan,

Mine cost £110 for the condenser & £45 for the re-gas see here

[mjb]

Ewww..compressor failure on Golfs is very common unfortunately and a sh*t of a job because the pipework has to be flushed through before you even think of fitting the new compressor.

Whatwhat? flushed? Can I just fit the new bits and leave a pipe disconnected, then take it somewhere to flush+fill?

[Welly]

When a compressor breaks up then small bits of it can be sent through the system. The expansion valve (or orifice tube depending on the system type) at the evaporator (think heater matrix behind dash) is the smallest orifice in the system and any bits can end up here.

Expansion valves have an inlet screen which can be back flushed but orifice tubes must be replaced after compressor failure.

Reciever/driers must be changed for new (sometimes this comes as part of the condenser, like the 406's).

Basically you need to break down the system into many smaller parts and flush independantly but never in a way that could send 'bits' towards your new compy.

Some further info here.....http://www.autoacsystems.com/_faqs/3tiplist.html

You might want to speak to an a/c specialist explaining that you have the compy and want to fit it in conjunction with the flushing.

[DiscoPol]

Dan,

Mine cost £110 for the condenser & £45 for the re-gas see here

cheers doggy, thats 155 uk stylee, hmm *ponders a while* yep the Poles have it,
about 40 quid more but no scraped knuckles for me and i dont even want to think about postage to get it here from the uk

on a brighter note just been informed by a new found Polish friend in the local scrappy, all english motors in there by the way that i could easily get between 7-8000 zloty for my 406 out here, which equates to about £1850 and i wont have to drive back to blighty to sell the old girl, oh yes bring on daddies new-old P38 Range Rover wont be as easy on the pocket but stick a bottle of calor gas on the bugger and we are talking equivalent to 40 mpg on petrol, money wise, and its the only thing i can see that will survive these roads for more than a few months, hmm when should i look at flogging the old girl, oh thats right when the mot expires