Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Impact Pete]

Ok my air con had a leak last year, I had it tested this year and they found 4 leaks 1 in compressor, 1 in condenser and other 2 on pipes so they removed the gas again, it was not worth fixing and the garage suggested for £30 it might be worth a treatment that acts a bit like rad weld, after testing and holding pressure for 4 hours I collected it a happy man, 9 days later 1 day before going away with wife and kids it stopped working day before it was still ice cold, it was awful today driving to beach 24deg.

so my question is that when it was working when you turned 'eco' off the engine revs dropped a small amount you could hear what sounds like flaps altering behind dashboard a deep growl type noise and an increase in fan speed. now it does nothing between switching eco on and off, so does the system need to be under pressure for all the bits and pieces to work ie all what is listed above?

 a simple explanation of how system works would be helpful

[ronnyd]

Google?

[Andy B]

It works like a fridge ..... the cold air inside the car has been blown over the freezer section ...... no refrigerant and the fridge doesn't get cold

When you pressed 'eco' and the light came on, then the 'eco' was on ie the car's air con compressor was turned off, hence the drop in revs ......... you're now running like any other car with air con.

[steve6367]

Ok my air con had a leak last year, I had it tested this year and they found 4 leaks 1 in compressor, 1 in condenser and other 2 on pipes so they removed the gas again, it was not worth fixing and the garage suggested for £30 it might be worth a treatment that acts a bit like rad weld, after testing and holding pressure for 4 hours I collected it a happy man, 9 days later 1 day before going away with wife and kids it stopped working day before it was still ice cold, it was awful today driving to beach 24deg.

so my question is that when it was working when you turned 'eco' off the engine revs dropped a small amount you could hear what sounds like flaps altering behind dashboard a deep growl type noise and an increase in fan speed. now it does nothing between switching eco on and off, so does the system need to be under pressure for all the bits and pieces to work ie all what is listed above?

 a simple explanation of how system works would be helpful

There is a pressure switch, now your gas has escaped your perminantly in Eco waste for you do with the button.

[aaronjb]

What Steve said - once the gas escapes the pressure switch will no longer allow the magnetic clutch on the compressor to engage and it'll run effectively permanently in Eco mode.

For what it's worth, air conditioning works like this (basically):

The compressor squeezes the refrigerant gas and compresses it into a smaller volume.  That increases it's temperature so..
.. it goes off to the condenser at the front of the car where the ambient air cools it down again to something more reasonable and changes it's phase from gas to liquid, from here it goes off to ..
.. the evaporator inside the car.  Here it changes phase again by going trough an expansion back to a gas, the drop in pressure and phase change causes a temperature drop and the climate fan blows the hot incoming air over the cold evaporator to cool the air in the car.  The now luke warm refrigerant gas goes off to the compressor and (back to the top!).

A picture is worth a thousand words:

[Impact Pete]

What Steve said - once the gas escapes the pressure switch will no longer allow the magnetic clutch on the compressor to engage and it'll run effectively permanently in Eco mode.

For what it's worth, air conditioning works like this (basically):

The compressor squeezes the refrigerant gas and compresses it into a smaller volume.  That increases it's temperature so..
.. it goes off to the condenser at the front of the car where the ambient air cools it down again to something more reasonable and changes it's phase from gas to liquid, from here it goes off to ..
.. the evaporator inside the car.  Here it changes phase again by going trough an expansion back to a gas, the drop in pressure and phase change causes a temperature drop and the climate fan blows the hot incoming air over the cold evaporator to cool the air in the car.  The now luke warm refrigerant gas goes off to the compressor and (back to the top!).

A picture is worth a thousand words:




Great stuff thanks all and by the way google was useless!

[ronnyd]

Yeah Pete, i thought that when i first looked but i then clicked on a link at the bottom of the page and came up with a description similar to the ones the guys have posted on here.

[DD-Indeed]

My Aircon went down over a year ago, and I don't know, that what could be the cause of it. The switch works, tested that one out and the fuse is ok. Compressor don't go on, when I press the button. Could it be, that the aircon liquid has escaped ? The aircon pipes under the front bumber have rusted quite a bit, so I might suspect, thet it's leaked off from there. Any thoughts ?

[Andy B]

My Aircon went down over a year ago, and I don't know, that what could be the cause of it. The switch works, tested that one out and the fuse is ok. Compressor don't go on, when I press the button. Could it be, that the aircon liquid has escaped ? The aircon pipes under the front bumber have rusted quite a bit, so I might suspect, thet it's leaked off from there. Any thoughts ?

Condenser is the likely fault

[DD-Indeed]

My Aircon went down over a year ago, and I don't know, that what could be the cause of it. The switch works, tested that one out and the fuse is ok. Compressor don't go on, when I press the button. Could it be, that the aircon liquid has escaped ? The aircon pipes under the front bumber have rusted quite a bit, so I might suspect, thet it's leaked off from there. Any thoughts ?

Condenser is the likely fault

The one in the front, that small AC-radiator ? And the problem is the leaking or something else ?

[Andy B]

My Aircon went down over a year ago, and I don't know, that what could be the cause of it. The switch works, tested that one out and the fuse is ok. Compressor don't go on, when I press the button. Could it be, that the aircon liquid has escaped ? The aircon pipes under the front bumber have rusted quite a bit, so I might suspect, thet it's leaked off from there. Any thoughts ?

Condenser is the likely fault

The one in the front, that small AC-radiator ? And the problem is the leaking or something else ?

Yes the rad infront of the main coolant rad. Being right at the front they are susceptible to the effects of road salt.

[DD-Indeed]

Yes the rad infront of the main coolant rad. Being right at the front they are susceptible to the effects of road salt.

And it has suffered from that yea, we have that road salt-issue here in scandinavia, goverment's road workers shovel it way too much to the roads, even when there is no need for it.

But, If I pay for the aircon-service, will it be sure, that it will work ? I don't want to pay for nothing.