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bluebottle

Member Since: 08 May 2015
Location: Not in my Landy enough!
Posts: 705

Td5 Air Con - should have left it alone...

Due to the recent warm spell (to put it mildly - I’ve nearly melted) I thought I’d get the system re-gassed at Kwik-Fit for £60.

The chap fired it up and said my blowers were getting air out at 7 degrees and he couldn’t guarantee to beat that; however, he said, when was the last time you had it done. Not in the 3 years I’ve had her, says I.
In that case it’s up to you but flushing the old gas out and refilling can’t hurt... come the end of the procedure and he tells me the capacity of my system is 750g of gas, it had less than 500 in it, so I go away happy thinking things should be great with more than 150% more gas in the conditioner.

Several hours later I had to pop out for an errand, it’s 30 in the shade, I fire up my newly filled system and - nothing. A vaguely cooler blast of what I presume is outside air. Plus now there’s an occasional wind howl in the passenger side vents, a bit like the draught noise you get reverberating in a chimney.
I think I’ll be putting the Kwik-Fit guarantee to the test.

In the meantime, any bright sparks care to take a guess at the culprit of my woes? My initial fear was that they’d put in the wrong sort of refrigerant, but I think the LR system uses standard r134a right?

Either way I’ll try to get things sorted this weekend and report back.

9th Jul 2018 10:43pm

4RF RDS

Member Since: 19 Jul 2015
Location: Ottawa
Posts: 959

2000 Defender 110 Td5 XS CSW Epsom Green

First check fuses, 1 and 2 if I recall correctly on pre 2002 models. There is also a 60 amp fusable link under the seat with the ECU. Check that. If a fuse is blown it will be for the compressor. If so... Check the front condenser fan is not seized up they last only about 10 years. Remove the grill and spin it with your finger and or then unplug it and apply a 12 volt source to it independantly from the plug. Its easy to replace the fan if it is dodgey.

Next you can whack the bottom of the plenum under the switch plate. Often the connections for the airco ECU get finicky after a few years and sometimes this startles it back to life. Lastly you can try to remove the cap on the low pressure (top line) Schrader valve and just tap the pin to see if there is pressure. Perhaps the full charge forced a leak and it is mostly gone??? Who knows... You should get a quick and forceful pffft out of it.

My experience is that it is one of these things. If you have pressure, you have good fan, good fuses and the whack did nothing, you could undo the plenum securing screws drop the unit a couple inches and pull the ECU out and check and clean the connections, reassemble and try again (wow run on sentence... Mrs Haversham in the 7th grade is rolling in her grave)

Failing all this take it back and check the actual fill numbers to confirm any leakage. At this point you’ll require specialized tools, as well as R134 recapture tanks, vaccuum testing etc. Blah, blah, blah...

Hope this rambling helps some. Good luck! 👍 2010 Range Rover MkIII Autobiography Super Charged (Idris)
2003 Range Rover Mk III (Desmond FitzWilliam)
2000 Defender 110 CSW TD5 (CTX)
1992 Range Rover Classic (Lizzy)
1972 Series III 300 Tdi (Stanwood)
1967 MGB GT

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.
H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

9th Jul 2018 11:53pm

bankz5152

Member Since: 02 Feb 2017
Location: South London/North Kent
Posts: 2192

Similar issue!

Had the AC regassed around 6 weeks back been used every day and working excellently. However other day went to use it and its tepid.

Compressor is spinning and the clutch engages when active
Fan works but doesnt spin when the AC is on - Tested via nanocom

Yet to check fuses! Instagram @defender_ventures
Empire Tuning - Agent

10th Jul 2018 6:02pm

bluebottle

Member Since: 08 May 2015
Location: Not in my Landy enough!
Posts: 705

Thanks for the tips, I must look at those points before I take her back in on Saturday for the Kwik-Fit chap to look at.

10th Jul 2018 10:13pm

bluebottle

Member Since: 08 May 2015
Location: Not in my Landy enough!
Posts: 705

Fingers crossed this seems to be fixed now and quite an easy win too - it turns out that the 750g figure is for a more recent Defender with air-con in the rear as well.
So in short, the chap had overfilled the system which caused the compressor to cut out due to excess pressure.

Let a bit of gas back out, hey presto - 6 degree chilled air from the vents at full blast. Nice.

14th Jul 2018 11:56am

Gareth

Member Since: 12 Dec 2011
Location: Woodford
Posts: 1116

Question to all you with AC on a TD5. Mine is 2002, and blows very cold and strong out of the left side vents where the wife sits, yet hardly a puff out of the drivers side?

I usually end up opening both the passenger vents and angling them to the driver. Not ideal.

Seems like a simple aircon channel, so what’s inside that could be blocking the drivers side? 2021 Defender 110 X-Dynamic HSE D300 MHEV
1966 S2a 109 aka Betsy

14th Jul 2018 12:51pm

bluebottle

Member Since: 08 May 2015
Location: Not in my Landy enough!
Posts: 705

Hmmm... good question, without opening up the plastic channel housing I couldn’t guess. For what it’s worth I think the compressor and everything is on the passenger side so the best performance is always likely to be that side. Mine is better on the passenger side too, but not to such a dramatic extent. Maybe a vent is blocked or there’s a crack in your ducting which is letting the cool air escape somewhere before the driver’s vent?

15th Jul 2018 7:24am

bankz5152

Member Since: 02 Feb 2017
Location: South London/North Kent
Posts: 2192

GarethR wrote:
Question to all you with AC on a TD5. Mine is 2002, and blows very cold and strong out of the left side vents where the wife sits, yet hardly a puff out of the drivers side?

I usually end up opening both the passenger vents and angling them to the driver. Not ideal.

Seems like a simple aircon channel, so what’s inside that could be blocking the drivers side?

Thats just what its like. The fan is on the passenger side Instagram @defender_ventures
Empire Tuning - Agent

15th Jul 2018 7:48am

4RF RDS

Member Since: 19 Jul 2015
Location: Ottawa
Posts: 959

Agreed it is just the limitations of the system to blow hardest on the passenger side. You should close the floor vent flaps (set to defrost) to prevent cool air from going in the dash plenum. Some poepleturn the heater fan on low and leave it on the floor. FWIW the owners manual says to turn the fan completely off and not allow ambient air into the cab👍

If you are up to it you can also drop the whole AC unit and ensure the foam gaskets are in place at the floor vent holes. You can lose a lot of the blowing force without them. Regardless I close the far paeenger vent and angle the closest passenger vent towards the driver when I am alone.

Cheers 2010 Range Rover MkIII Autobiography Super Charged (Idris)
2003 Range Rover Mk III (Desmond FitzWilliam)
2000 Defender 110 CSW TD5 (CTX)
1992 Range Rover Classic (Lizzy)
1972 Series III 300 Tdi (Stanwood)
1967 MGB GT

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.
H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

15th Jul 2018 2:59pm

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