A rare(?) problem or one for the memory bank?

Post your Cit/Peu/Ren air conditioning queries or advice.

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alan s
RIP 2010
Posts: 2542
Joined: 26 Jan 2001, 15:53
Location: Australia
My Cars:
x 6

A rare(?) problem or one for the memory bank?

Post by alan s »

Here's a posting I made on another forum. Long winded admittedly, but has some info that might save someone the frustrations I've had in recent years with a mystery long term problem.


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Ever since I've owned the BX16V the air/con has been an issue. Fortunaetly a combination of being white, having a sunroof and having the option of other air conditioned cars to drive on screaming hot days has meant we've been able to work around it, but on a couple of occasions, when I've had the time (and inclination) I've checked out the problems and seem to keep finding more as I go along, but the latest is a ripper.
The return line from the evaporator is about 1/2" OD and only about 4 inches long and pokes through the firewall. I had serious reservations about it having been ruptured when I found what appeared to be a bubble on the outside sheath, so decided I'd totally remove it for closer examination. After much grunting and snorting, I eventually withdrew it from under the battery carrier that it passes through as well as a variety of saddles and clamps and after about an hour of undoing the flare nut at the rate of about 1/20th a turn at a time, I eventually extricated it from the fitting at the firewall.
When removed, it seems that possibly at the factory, the hose, with an aluminium end elbow fitting must have been forced at an angle onto the piece of pipe that protrudes inside the flare nut to which it attaches. The fitter, obviously a rather strong and forceful type has not let this dissuade him, in fact amazing what a bit of force will do, so heave ho and tighten up the fitting and there you go...........it's in. Only problem is that in the process, it has gouged a half moon shaped furrow about 5/7mm across right across the face it's supposed to seal onto. (From hereon, it becomes more of a hypothesis than a known fact but) Enter someone to solve the problem possibly when it's just out of warranty, who decides that perhaps it can be fixed on the cheap, because the hoses aren't all that cheap and quite possibly has also had a couple of goes at it under warranty, so tries something a bit radical; he fits a tapered plastic "O" ring which he hopes will do the trick and possibly did for that particular summer, but nobody has ever seen anything like it before. The pipe end that did all the damage supposedly has a normal "O" ring about 1mm thick on it and this slips into a section on the end of the hose resembling a swage. When slipped in, it is obvious that this is what was originally intended and should seal well.
Moral of this story??

Well, this system has been dosed on more than one occasion with the "magical" green dye and it has never shown up. Neither did it have the telltale oil stain and just for good measure, I had it at Fentos yesterday to blow nitro through the hoses etc and in the process, looked at his Trs which was also leaking and also had been Dyed/UV tested with no success and in the process, it appears we may have also found his leak; loose nuts on the condensor. Telltale in his case was signs of green dye on the threads but not showing externally, so if anyone has a leak that can't be found, sometimes it has to be a case of physically dismantling the system to find them. Mine has obviously existed for 17 years and fooled a lot of people in the process. It was just that it decided to act weird last time I charged it that made me decide to go looking in earnest for it.



Alan S
RIP Sept 19th 2008.

She said "Put the cat out" She didn't mention it was on fire!!
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