AC recharge needed?

[Welly]

In the UK you would be drawn through the streets naked and publicly flogged to death by bearded environmentalists for charging a car's a/c system without first pressure testing.

I hope yours will be ok now without leaking (fingers crossed).

Welly

[OdinEidolon]

In the UK you would be drawn through the streets naked and publicly flogged to death by bearded environmentalists for charging a car's a/c system without first pressure testing.

I hope yours will be ok now without leaking (fingers crossed).

Welly

Actually i'd agree, but that's how they told me they usually do... this is the first time I fix an AC system so honestly I didn't exactly know how to proceed, I trusted them. Is this procedure wrong?

[Welly]

No it's not wrong in terms of the car and its components it's just a bit frowned upon to allow refrigerant to (possibly) leak out. They've got kinda tough with it in the UK but personally I think they should focus on car breakers and the sale of 'gas in a can' products to the public etc. first.

Your garage decided perhaps that the system appeared to be sound and gassed it up with the idea that you should 'see how it goes'. The refrigerant oil has a dye added which can be seen quickly under UV light (and funny glasses) the point at which it is leaking will show up as a bright green area.

[Doggy]

Yes, yes, but is it working now?

[OdinEidolon]

No it's not wrong in terms of the car and its components it's just a bit frowned upon to allow refrigerant to (possibly) leak out. They've got kinda tough with it in the UK but personally I think they should focus on car breakers and the sale of 'gas in a can' products to the public etc. first.

Your garage decided perhaps that the system appeared to be sound and gassed it up with the idea that you should 'see how it goes'. The refrigerant oil has a dye added which can be seen quickly under UV light (and funny glasses) the point at which it is leaking will show up as a bright green area.

Yes, yes I understand how it works (that's what I've been studying for the last 4 months actually - optics and light I mean), just wondering what was the most common / better approach: if the recharge+UV reactive addtive or the pressure test. I guess the first method allows for faster recognition of the faulty component.

Yes doggy, the system now works wonderfully, my multimeter says 6°C at the output so it's fine.

By the way I hope there's no leak, after 10 years of use it could be that the gas excaped somehow. My gf's Lancia needed a recharge when it was 11 yr old, but had no leak.

[Doggy]

Cool.

When I got mine filled up, the garage had an automatic machine that first of all drew a vacuum and checked the system would hold it for 20 minutes, before it would add any gas.

[OdinEidolon]

Cool.

When I got mine filled up, the garage had an automatic machine that first of all drew a vacuum and checked the system would hold it for 20 minutes, before it would add any gas.

cool what?
I dunno, they didn't do it in front of me. It's a huge garage (the only Peugeot-only dealer in the whole city) so probably they have something similar. When I first seen the garage I was like , they have all sorts of tools and treat something like 15 cars at a time. However next week we'll know, I'll have the free test on monday or tuesday depending on when I have lessons.