What goes wrong with air con?

[tigersaw]

Typical, just as the weather gets hot the Xsara air con doesnt seem to work. The fuses are ok, the little picture of a snowflake lights up but thats about it. It used to make a sound like someone taking a deep breath when you turned it on, and maybe a slight discernable drop in rpm is stationary, but now nothing, and no cool air. Coupled with the leccy windows that stopped working 18 months ago, (they are well buggered; tried to open them on a frosty morning), its liable to become a mobile greenhouse.

Does AC just give up after a while? The car is 6 yrs old; I'm not prepared to spend $$ on the thing as its due for replacement sometime, but if its a simple recharge for a few quid then maybe.

[plowsie]

My mate has an M5 his temperature was reading 40 degrees couple of weeks ago, they told him it was the temperature sensor might be the same with yours

[Luckypants]

Typical, just as the weather gets hot the Xsara air con doesnt seem to work. The fuses are ok, the little picture of a snowflake lights up but thats about it. It used to make a sound like someone taking a deep breath when you turned it on, and maybe a slight discernable drop in rpm is stationary, but now nothing, and no cool air. Coupled with the leccy windows that stopped working 18 months ago, (they are well buggered; tried to open them on a frosty morning), its liable to become a mobile greenhouse.

Does AC just give up after a while? The car is 6 yrs old; I'm not prepared to spend $$ on the thing as its due for replacement sometime, but if its a simple recharge for a few quid then maybe.The most common fault is for the refrigerant gas to be lost. At 6 years old there is a good chance that this is the problem if the system has not been used for a while. Take it to an air-con specialist and have the gas checked. Gas recharge is quite cheap.

[DoubleD]

I have had this problem 3 times now... easy fix

DO NOT GET THE HALFORD REFILL KITS!!! WASTE OF £40

I posted this on a vauxall forum:

So my air con was not getting cold and noticed that the aircon pump was not kicking in..... little bit of investigation on the internet showed that if there is not enough presure then the pump will not kick in as it needs presure to work.

One £40 can of air con gas (510g of aircon 'stuff') from halfrauds to refill...... so I thought!

Instructions read twice, so engine turned on, aircon on max cold, shake can well and hold upside down, what could go wrong!

One can of refill into the system and presure gauge was showing "filled" so I was all happy and went to check how cold the air was, not cold at all, but the aircon pump was working ok again.

I tried a few times but the air would not get aircon cold, so I swallowed my pride and called the experts who came out with a nice van and he plugged his machine onto the aircon system and started to do some checks. He emptied the system and it had 140g of aircon 'stuff' in it and there should be 700g of aircon 'stuff' in it. (for my car anyway)

"REFILL CANS DO NOT WORK and are a waste of time" said the aircon man as you can never get enough aircon 'stuff' into the system to have a long lasting effect before it stops working again.

So £65 for the aircon service, presure test and refill and I now have a small blizzard coming out of the vents, Nice and Frosty.

Leave the aircon stuff to the pros is my advise as they know what to do and you will save yourself a £40 can of refill.

DoubleD

[Manguish]

One more thing to remeber - you should use it all year round too - it is more efficient if you do, when it comes to the time you need it. Seals perish etc if you don't use it.

[tigersaw]

I have had this problem 3 times now... DoubleD


Thanks for the info - are you saying you have had the service guy out 3 times? How long does the refill / service last?

I actually am not too fussed about air con for the summer, (I can use the bikes :D ), but it is/was great for clearing the windscreen when it was steamed up.

I might just use this as another excuse in my list of reasons to change the car...

[DoubleD]

took the guy about 15 - 20 mins to do it..... the only reason I have had it go again is that my pump is faulty and have a leak.


I also have my aircon on all year round.. I never turn it off, great for clearing the windows in winter.

[_Stretchie_]

Kids put biscuits in the vents.. :smt021


However one quick question, are your blowers working fine or (like the SV) do they lack in power


(runs and hides :smt042 )


IL4 Massive :cool:

[tigersaw]

Kids put biscuits in the vents.. :smt021


However one quick question, are your blowers working fine or (like the SV) do they lack in power


(runs and hides :smt042 )


IL4 Massive :cool:

They seem to work fine, except they are now a hairdryer rather than a cooler. I'm going to work on the bike today instead; need an excuse.

[2mths]

You don't need to use it all year round. That's excessive (and expensive if you pay for your fuel). However it is a good idea to give it a blast regularly (look at Honest John website or Google for exact info) which keeps things in order.

[AlanB]

You need to spin the air con for five mins a week even in winter, this will stop your pump seals perishing and letting all the gas out. Does you car have an internal pollen filter, if so check this out as if that's blocked it cuts down the air flow through the vents dramatically, this was the problem on my Megane.

[tigersaw]

You need to spin the air con for five mins a week even in winter, this will stop your pump seals perishing and letting all the gas out. Does you car have an internal pollen filter, if so check this out as if that's blocked it cuts down the air flow through the vents dramatically, this was the problem on my Megane.

Umm It has, and its been changed on the services. Heaven knows what it looks like or where it is though.

[MiniMatt]

I'd kinda expect electrical, the french are not known for their mastery of automotive elastic-trickery. If I understand correctly, you're not getting the slight dip in revs as it goes on? I'm pretty sure that tired coolant or underuse would result in the same engine behaviour as a fully working system but you'd just get mildly cool rather than cold air out the vents.

Bit far for a service, but not *that* far from Southampton - there's an independent citroen garage by the football stadium in Oxford that kept my xantia running far longer than it had any right to - they really were excellent and always seemed to know the answer off the top of their heads to freaky little electrical glitches. (although for the last 12 months of it's life I had to leave it unlocked, as the only way to unlock it was to disconnect & reconnect the battery!)

[_Stretchie_]

Does you car have an internal pollen filter, if so check this out as if that's blocked it cuts down the air flow through the vents dramatically

Yep, that's what I was leading to when I asked ab out your blowers. If they are not blowing well it'll be your pollen filter, if they are still blowing well but just no cool air coming through then find your air con unit and hit it..

If it still don't work, hit it with something bigger :smt021

[Bluepete]

find your air con unit and hit it..

If it still don't work, hit it with something bigger :smt021

Ah, the delicate art of gentle mechanical persuasion! As used by mechanics and engineers the world over. :D :D

[redbouy]

If you can, some times you can see the electric clutch bit and the shaft that goes in to the pump/compressor start to turn. If not then it maybe some thing electric. The compressor will dump back on start [unloading so as not to stess things] then after a sec or so start compressing [rpm down]
also if you can grab hold of one of the pipes coming out [heavy steel covering] if all is turning pumping then the gas coming out will be HOT. gas going in to the compressor will be cold. [hot cold pipes]
If the shaft turns then the compressor is not pumping gas out. = no gas so no gas to work on, or the low pressure switch is telling the compressor the gas is low and the by pass it back.

[keithd]

get climate control

I hope you find the above information useful to yourself :D

[kwak zzr]

close the incar circulation system so your not trying to cool 28 degrees and your then only cooling cool air.

[kwak zzr]

get climate control

I hope you find the above information useful to yourself :D

was looking for my AC button a few days ago? mmmmm havent got one?
thats because i have climate control :)

[tigersaw]

get climate control

I hope you find the above information useful to yourself :D


Its referred to as climate control - you dial in a temp and thats what you get. I assume thats same as air con but just more fancy? I usually wind the knob to 'brass monkey' setting if I need cold air, otherwise its all just turned off.
And redbouy, thans for the info - I can see the compressor, its a big thing near the floor! It continually rotates as part of the belt that goes everywhere, I'll try and check it a bit closer.