Fitting Air Con

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » 25 Jun 2005, 20:59

Hi
Is it feasable / possible to fit air con to a Xantia that does not have it fitted.
If so what sort of cost am i looking at? and how much work is involed in doing it.
Xantia 1.8i prestige,8v engine, 1995, five door hatch, 32000 on the clock, as the milage is so low i am not planning on getting rid of the car, but i don't think i can handle many more summers in it without air con.
Regards
Tony

tomsheppard · Post by **tomsheppard** » 25 Jun 2005, 21:02

Yes, it can be done. It is neither simple nor cheap, budget £500 for a car with the right bits and the work you'll have to do to fit it. Several weekends' work will be necessary, too.

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » 27 Jun 2005, 04:21

Hi
Thanks for the reply.
If i am lucky enough to find a scraped 1.8i 8v Xantia with A/C, would it be just just a matter of fitting it to my car? Would it work or is it all ECU controlled aswell?
Tony

adamskibx · Post by **adamskibx** » 27 Jun 2005, 05:30

Exactly what parts do you need to do this Tom? I may be intersted in giving myself something demanding to do! Either to the current BX or the next one after this depending on what happens etc. Im just fed up of roasting and having to open the windows etc, which on a motorway run probably uses more fuel than air con anyway. The BX blowers arent the most powerful so some ice cold air would be nice. Cheers, Adam

bernie · Post by **bernie** » 27 Jun 2005, 16:07

Adam
Parts needed
1 condensor + fittings
2 another front fan
3 evaporater
4 hoses
5 dash switch and control
6 swiching relay
7 pump
8 alloy sump
9 various relays
10 2 air intake/blower assemblies
11 receiver/drier
12 80 amp alternater
13 wiring
14 time
15 oil/gas
16 *
Then fresh cool air
* may have missed a few bits

tomsheppard · Post by **tomsheppard** » 27 Jun 2005, 16:43

Luck. You may need the bits Bernie speaks of but first you have to find them. Expect that to take a year. You'll need another car, too. the 1900 won't pull a BX and an aircon system at the same time and if you turbodiesel it, the insurers will crucify you.

adamskibx · Post by **adamskibx** » 28 Jun 2005, 06:05

UMM-might give it a miss on this one then! Ill do my best to find a BX with air con but I might just have to accept that I may have to go without it as there is no way im going to get a more modern Citroen than a BX-the Xantia is nice but not to my taste-I like the minilism of construction and overal style of the BX too much and the Xantia is a bit Euro-bland in my opinion. My local Citroen specialist tried to sell me a lovely Xantia the other day though, and I have to admit, I loved it. Its was an M reg TD in silver with air con, alloys, sports interior and the funny reflective thing accross the back between the lights. Mind you he did want £1200 for it so it should have been good at that age.

alan s · Post by **alan s** » 28 Jun 2005, 06:19

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by tomsheppard

Luck. You may need the bits Bernie speaks of but first you have to find them. Expect that to take a year. You'll need another car, too. the1900 won't pull a BX and an aircon system at the same time and if you turbodiesel it, the insurers will crucify you.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
???????????????????????????????????
I presume that's a mistype? Do you mean a 1400?
Reason I ask is that we have 3 1900 cars with air/con and in no cases would you really notice the air/con was going.
I used to own a 1.6 and that one used to get a bit "interesting" if trying to get across an intersection in second gear from a slow starting speed, but apart from that, it was also pretty hard to detect it was on, whilst a 1.4 I could imagine would start to feel the load.
In any case, did the 1.4 ever come with aircon and if not, the biggest hurdle I can see would be finding a crankcase with the mounts to take one.
Alan S[:D]

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 28 Jun 2005, 06:27

Alan, I think Tom means a 1900 diesel rather than petrol. Converting it to 1.7TD I wouldn't have thought would be any particular insurance problem as the car was a standard model and would 1.9 TD be a problem either as its not much more powerful (but probably pulls rather better at the bottom end.)
Jeremy

adamskibx · Post by **adamskibx** » 29 Jun 2005, 05:57

Yep it a 1900 Deisel, and yes it is slow, but as its slow its pointless trying to go fast anyway so an aircon system wouldnt bother me-id try and go ahead with it if I knew I was keepin the car for years but im not, im selling it in December to get a 16 Valver instead, hopefully with aircon but if not ill fit one over time. And I wouldnt mind loosing a bit of ecconomy to keep cool in this one-ive just recently filled the tank completely (£54), and it reached 712 miles before showing signs of running out of deisel!!! (ie it was hard to start and was a bit slow and lumpy) Definately filling up at BP from now on! Its never done that sort of MPG before. Yes ive been on a few long runs in it but also a few fast ones too so I was pretty impressed with that.