General Air Con Gas

[thehog1960]

Hi Everone , I have a problem with a 150BHP diesel Bravo , I have taken it to two places to have the air con re gassed, both places checked for leaks, went through the full cycle of re charging the gas only for both to say the car would not accept the gas, so back to square one , no air con, can anyone point me in the right direction please

 

[GettinBetter]

Welcome,

Is that not accept, or leaks back out?

 

[thehog1960]

They check for leaks before they refill , the gas will not go in if you like

 

[jonti]

They check for leaks before they refill , the gas will not go in if you like

there may be an expert along, but you will probably need an auto electrician to tell you if your pressure switch, compressor, valve or something else on the circuit isn't working. the leak test was a probably a vacuum test, not a pressure test with nitrogen, so the components don't need to be working for that.

 

[varesecrazy]

@AndyRKett may be ablr to make sense of this..

So, when did it last work (as a chiller..)?

Any maintenance work carried out since?

 

[thehog1960]

It had an engine re-build last year, air con not worked since shortly after that ,

 

[PuntoHowTo]

standard refil proceedure for most places is to draw and hold a vacuum and if it holds the vacuum then fill it with gas.

If they can pull a vacuum then the valves presumably are working and they can release the vacuum then there should be no issue with filling the system with gas.

I don't know what you mean by

the gas will not go in if you like

Unfortunately a lot of people performing this sort of work, have no training on using the machines and barely any understanding of how these systems work, so if the machine is not doing what they expect they may just abandon it.

I always advocate speaking to a specialist in air conditioning systems to not only diagnose the problem, but they also know what they are actually doing when it comes to refilling and fault finding.

To me saying that it won't accept the gas is not an acceptable report of the problem and if that's what you've been told with no further explanation then you've been badly let down.

 

[thehog1960]

Thank you for your answers, I have it booked in at a air con specialist, will let you know how I go on

 

[jonti]

Thank you for your answers, I have it booked in at a air con specialist, will let you know how I go on

please do. your engine rebuild sounds like the cause. Did they refit the compressor, has it got a drive belt, did they reconnect hoses, did they refit the electrical connections. Something like that

 

[PuntoHowTo]

It had an engine re-build last year, air con not worked since shortly after that ,

what this tells me is that it did work, the people who did the rebuild were likely able to gas the system but there was very likely a leak at the time and shortly after the gas all leaked out.

most common failure on fiats is the condenser because of cheap alloys used and being prone to impacts from stones and other debris