AIR CON RECHARGING

[Harebear72]

Hello All,

After a bit of advice on Air Con. Firstly as far as I know the Evap Core is all OK in my car.

My car is a 2016 which I have had from new and only covered 26000 miles. Air con worked fine from day one. After approx 2 1/2 years I had the Air-Con regassed by Fords and all OK. Fast forward to now and I used the car the last weekend and was not getting cold air form the vents but warm air. I am assuming and hoping that it only needs a re-gas, I do not wish to take the car to fords and have had a couple of prices of £200 for a re-gas. Done a bit of Googling and on youtube and it looks like its an easy enough process to do the re-gas myself aftger getting the filling gauge and a can or 2 of the R134a refrigerant.

Now my question, has anyone done this themselves and is it as easy as it appears ? and also is it possible than i either have no gas left in the system or it has too much ?

Any advice and help on this appreciated.

Thanks

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[GR11M]

Air con takes R1234yf, which is slightly more expensive. Looks like you can buy 500g top up kits on Amazon for £60, so if they're going to vacuum the system and recharge it for £200, it doesnt sound too expensive.

The reason I know is I did a little bit of digging when I saw my condenser had started to crumble away. It's got a lot worse since that photo was taken but luckily my air con is still pretty cold.

 

[WD Pro]

A few comments from me that may / may not be relevant :

• A prior recharge and now an empty system on a six year old car would suggest (at least to me) that something is wrong somewhere. Maybe its normal for a mustang, but I'm basing my comments on a 10 year old Kia that I've had from new. The system is left on auto and its just been left to do what it needs to do. No top up's and its still icy cold. I'm hoping the Mustang follows in the Kia's footsteps ...
• I had my M3 re-gassed and its not something I would like to tackle myself without the correct equipment. The guy vacuumed the system, refilled, added UV dye and used scales and bottle heater etc.
• My partners mini cooper S blew up its aircon whilst I was driving - loud bang and lots of gas / vapour escaping from under the hood. I would be concerned of similar occurrences with a DIY top up with the potential for a bit of guesswork / over topping etc.

I'm not sure about recommending Kwik Fit, but I found this on their site :

Good luck with whatever direction you choose to take

WD

 

[Harebear72]

A few comments from me that may / may not be relevant :

• A prior recharge and now an empty system on a six year old car would suggest (at least to me) that something is wrong somewhere. Maybe its normal for a mustang, but I'm basing my comments on a 10 year old Kia that I've had from new. The system is left on auto and its just been left to do what it needs to do. No top up's and its still icy cold. I'm hoping the Mustang follows in the Kia's footsteps ...
• I had my M3 re-gassed and its not something I would like to tackle myself without the correct equipment. The guy vacuumed the system, refilled, added UV dye and used scales and bottle heater etc.
• My partners mini cooper S blew up its aircon whilst I was driving - loud bang and lots of gas / vapour escaping from under the hood. I would be concerned of similar occurrences with a DIY top up with the potential for a bit of guesswork / over topping etc.

I'm not sure about recommending Kwik Fit, but I found this on their site :

Good luck with whatever direction you choose to take

WD

Thanks for this although I in theory could do this have now taken the plunge and booked in with Kwik fit on Sunday -I suppose at least if they damage my car its their problem rather than mine !!

Will let you know what happens.

 

[welsh treg]

my GT vert was only 3 years old when I had it re gassed last summer, was a little worried as it seemed to early for me, so local ATS did it (and checked system out for me) everything was good, cost about £80.00 approx, still working fine today, personally I wouldn't do this myself, but I'm fairly useless as stuff like that !

 

[raptor17GT]

Air con takes R1234yf, which is slightly more expensive. Looks like you can buy 500g top up kits on Amazon for £60, so if they're going to vacuum the system and recharge it for £200, it doesnt sound too expensive.

The reason I know is I did a little bit of digging when I saw my condenser had started to crumble away. It's got a lot worse since that photo was taken but luckily my air con is still pretty cold.

looking at your rad there reminds me of the time i asked on here about how folks protected their radiators. Some clever cookie said an intercooler, which was funny sort of but just moved the problem forward. Anyhow, yeah doing air con re-gassing best left to someone with the right equipment

 

[GR11M]

Topping up the refrigerant is fairly straight forward, you'll notice 2 ports on the left side of the condenser. Re-gassing requires re-claiming the gas, which you have to do by law.

a new condenser (KR3Z-19712-A) looks to be about $165

 

[Dannyh1991]

I found this Groupon deal for £90 which makes it cheaper than going direct to them.

https://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/ats-euromaster-5

Iv thought about getting mine regassed, it never feels as icy as it once was, Im sure I remember it getting condensation around the vents... But on Monday and Tuesday I was still able to drive comfortably with the aircon on and windows closed so hope that means it doesn't suffer the evaporator or condenser issues Iv saw mentioned before.

 

[Harebear72]

Update on this.

Went to Kwik fit yesterday and had a complete check over, Vacuumed out the old stuff and checked for leaks and put in new gas. The guy after told me the reading was only 199miligrams or whatever and it should have 600 odd so mine was quite empty. Drove off with icey cool air so it did appear to be lack of the coolant stuff in the system.

by the way, if you book this online you get it £10 cheaper compared to booking it direct.

 

[RR550]

Hi Harebear, sounds like you had a result, as I am also in Essex, just wondering which Kwik Fit you used? Thanks.

 

[Harebear72]

Hi Harebear, sounds like you had a result, as I am also in Essex, just wondering which Kwik Fit you used? Thanks.

I live in the RM16 Area and it was the branch at Daneholes roundabout in Grays.

on looking at the Kwik fit website i think that alot of them will do it.

 

[RR550]

Thanks for that Harebear,will have a look a bit closer to home,cheers.

 

[GR11M]

Ford quoted me £241.57 for a new condenser, which doesn't come with the drier - the round tubey thing on the side.

 

[raptor17GT]

is this what we would need complete with drier ?
More Information for TYC 4688 (rockauto.com)

 

[GR11M]

is this what we would need complete with drier ?
More Information for TYC 4688 (rockauto.com)

It looks like it as it has the correct OEM alternative part number listed.

You can also get the drier separately - FR3Z-19C836-A

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