 | Home > Maintenance & Modifications > Aircon leak? Obvious culprits? |
 
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| Cheshire110 Member Since: 26 Jul 2013 Location: Cheshire/London Posts: 2770  
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Hi all,
My AC was blowing warm air a month or two ago (having not used it for a while) and so I got it re-gassed. Worked brilliantly for a week or so, then warm again. Guess I’ve got a leak - is there anywhere obvious to look/check? If I get it regassed again (doing a long drive in the warm weather this week!) would I be able to find the leak? Don’t have much experience with AC tbh... but would be nice to avoid taking it in to the main dealer for them to charge £1,200 to not fix it. Cheers, David Land Rovers of all shapes S3 onwards… Daily is a 110 V8. |
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2nd Aug 2020 9:44am |
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| Ianh Member Since: 17 Sep 2018 Location: Essex Posts: 2190
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If your aircon was very low before having new refrigerant added a seal may have dried up. Causing a leak. You can plug in an OBD2 elm237 reader and free software on your phone to see if there are any diagnostic trouble codes such as PO533, a nanocom if you have access to one will provide more details.
Hard to do much yourself due to laws re letting refrigerant into the atmosphere, so you need specialists equipment to recover and refill the system. There are lots of specialist vehicle aircon companies out there, so no need to go to a dealer, and they can give you a price to do a diagnostic and rectify the issues. Just need to find one with a good reputation. Ps. Find a company that just does vehicle aircon , I.e a specialist aircon company, not a garage that does lots of things including aircon. As a bit of background have a look at this, lots more on the web and here covering vehicle air con. [/img]https://www.autoblog.com/2016/08/08/p0533-...ccounter=2 You can do a few checks yourself, such as seeing if the compressor is kicking in when aircon switched on, or see if the aircon fan is kicking in. As dreamer 90 states, whoever regassed it should have done a pressure test, but a lot of non specialist people just plug the machine in, remove the existing gas, measure its weight, see what the weight should be for a particular vehicle, top up the removed refrigerant to that level and pump that back in. Leave it running for a few minutes and then they are done. A good aircon company will wait to see how well the system is holding up over time and do full leak checks, as a minor leak won’t show up straight away. |
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2nd Aug 2020 11:43am |
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| Cheshire110 Member Since: 26 Jul 2013 Location: Cheshire/London Posts: 2770
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Thanks for the advice all!
Just took it to quick fit who plugged their machine in and regassed it. They said that it was holding pressure as far as their machine showed but they don’t have a leak detection system at that branch. Presumably the leak is slow/small so I’ll take it in for a leak test at some point if it doesn’t hold up this time, and hopefully it’s an easy enough fix. Cheers, David Land Rovers of all shapes S3 onwards… Daily is a 110 V8. |
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2nd Aug 2020 1:58pm |
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| 90 Dreamer Member Since: 13 Jul 2019 Location: Oop North Posts: 2203 
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Sounds like bullshoite as pretty sure the machines have the facility to do a pressure test
Also given how illegal it is to vent to atmosphere then can't see how any legit business can refill a known leaking system?? |
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2nd Aug 2020 3:01pm |
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| cold Member Since: 15 Dec 2018 Location: Yorkshire Posts: 123 |
On my Puma the engine hoist mount on the rear of the engine had worked loose and then rubbed away at the aircon pipe on the RHS - I found this after I had it regassed (a week earlier) and assumed that by regassing they had unwittingly moved the pipe enough to accelerate the rubbing against the loose bracket.
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2nd Aug 2020 3:21pm |
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| newton-tony Member Since: 18 Sep 2016 Location: Wiltshire Posts: 122 
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Mine was pressure tested recently as there was small dye mark visible under ultra violet (after re-gassing last year).
Told I need a new compressor but around £1000 from LR only. Is anyone aware of other options? 2014 110 Utility - Googling suggests compressors for far less, but not sure I am looking at the right item  |
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2nd Aug 2020 5:43pm |
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| dorsetsmith Member Since: 30 Oct 2011 Location: South West Posts: 4554 |
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2nd Aug 2020 6:00pm |
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