Well phoned Citroen and asked how much to check and regass my Xantia, £90 plus VAT but it will probably be leaking so may need more doing and we can't look at it for about four days. Phoned a little place round the corner that does trailer fridges, they said free check, and £50 to regass,and bring it straight round, went to see them, they put a digital thermometer in the car and turned the Air Con on it said 15 degrees and that was after I had been driving for a while, they checked for leaks and said it was low, but no leaks, probably just natural leakage, they topped the gas back up again, the thermometer dropped its reading to 5 degrees and now its absolutely wonderful, “how much do I owe you” I said. “£30” he said, I will be recommending everyone I know to use this place.
A nice cool Robbie.
Air Con again
Moderator: RichardW
Robbie,
Far be it for me to rock the boat but as a qualified refrigeration mechanic with many years of experience, I can assure you that there is no such thing as "natural leakage" in a refrigeration system; it just does not work that way. If the system is low on gas then it was either low when it left the factory or the last time it was serviced, they didn't fully charge it. Refrigeration/air conditioning systems are a sealed system and unlike a gas stove, they don't consume gas they actually circulate it in their systems.
I won't comment on price as we live a half a world apart, but I will tell you that if the system again gets low on gas, then it definitely has a leak which must be repaired. In most cases this leak usually turns out to be on the TX valve which is normally found on the intake to the evaporator & can be accessed on some Cits by removing the glovebox. All car air/con systems should be run at least once a month to prevent the low pressure side of the system building up back pressure & allowing a small low side leak to create problems that would be greater if left idle.
Alan S
Edited by - alans on 19 Jun 2002 14:00:06
Far be it for me to rock the boat but as a qualified refrigeration mechanic with many years of experience, I can assure you that there is no such thing as "natural leakage" in a refrigeration system; it just does not work that way. If the system is low on gas then it was either low when it left the factory or the last time it was serviced, they didn't fully charge it. Refrigeration/air conditioning systems are a sealed system and unlike a gas stove, they don't consume gas they actually circulate it in their systems.
I won't comment on price as we live a half a world apart, but I will tell you that if the system again gets low on gas, then it definitely has a leak which must be repaired. In most cases this leak usually turns out to be on the TX valve which is normally found on the intake to the evaporator & can be accessed on some Cits by removing the glovebox. All car air/con systems should be run at least once a month to prevent the low pressure side of the system building up back pressure & allowing a small low side leak to create problems that would be greater if left idle.
Alan S
Edited by - alans on 19 Jun 2002 14:00:06
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Whilst the refrigerant "leak" rate is virtually zero on a say a fridge or freezer, flexible hoses are needed on cars between engine mounted compressor and the rest of the a/c system. Rubber is permeable. So, in the same way as tyre pressures gradually decreases due to diffusion through the rubber, the same tends to happen through the a/c hoses.
The rate of diffusion is dependent of the molecule size. Freon and the more recent alternatives have relativly large molecules so, despite the higher operating pressures vs tyres, it could be 5 years or more before the effects of reduced refrigerant levels become noticable.
The rate of diffusion is dependent of the molecule size. Freon and the more recent alternatives have relativly large molecules so, despite the higher operating pressures vs tyres, it could be 5 years or more before the effects of reduced refrigerant levels become noticable.