Air Con Troubleshooting

[Chlorate]

Hi all,
Been a while since I've been here but my Xantia has been amazingly trouble-free for over a year

I know this question is likely to spell doom for the British summer, but here goes:

Can't figure out what's wrong with my air conditioning - the rad fans obediently turn on and off with the air conditioning button, the compressor engages and there is apparently gas in the system (as evident from the little bubbles in the dryer window).
Yet I get no noticeable air cooling...

A few years ago I gave the car a little bit of a charge with one of the Halfrauds EZ chill kits, which worked amazingly for a couple of months. But it didn't seem to do anything this time.

I'm tempted to take a punt and have the system vacced out and recharged properly. Other than that I'm drawing a blank.

Any words of advice would be greatly appreciated.

Alex

[SaabC5]

If you intend keeping the car then it would seem a UV dye test is in order. If you recharged it last year and there's no noticeable cooling now then it would appear you have a leak somewhere. I'm not a fan of the DIY kits because you have no way of knowing whether you have the correct weight of coolant in the system. Overcharging is as bad as undercharging. Even Krap Fit will do a reasonable job for £50.

[GiveMeABreak]

Ditto above - they won't charge you either if they can't get it at least 10% cooler than it is now, so no loss there really. HOWEVER If you know it is leaking, I would spend the money on geting it dye-checked first and then eliminate the problem before spending the £50 on gassing - as they may get it cooler on the day - until the gas discharges and then there is no recourse as basically they kept their promise!

Even with a UV dye check it can take several attempts and lots of time. I had my X7 done at Citroen under warranty. They thought they had it fixed after three visits, but within a few days it was out of gas again. The Service Manager decided that was it and pulled it in for a thorough exploration and another dye test and finally found it hidden up on the condenser - a very small leak and not immediately visible. So hopefully there will be less gubbins on your Xantia and a UV test will show it up. As the condenser radiators can be prone to having the fins damaged - (like any radiator, a well-placed stone chip will do it) this could be a likely candidate like mine - but get the UV test done first so you know where the problem is and what the cost will be.

[xantia_v6]

Before even getting the dye test, look carefully around and under the condenser and the pipes near it for oil stains. A/C leaks always discharge a little refrigerant oil, and provided there isn't too much other oil flying around your engine bay, it should be easy to spot.