Darth Vader behind the dash of C4.

[miggsC4]

Like the subject line says, I now have Darth vader behind the dash. I never turn my air con off and a few weeks ago this faint noise arrived. It's like Vader taking a deep breath. You can just hear it while you are driving and when you switch the car off it goes on for a few min's. When you switch off it's like the sound of a balloon going down, starts loud and get's quieter, if you know what I mean. The air con by the way is as cold as ever. Any ideas.

[myglaren]

Car's haunted

[GiveMeABreak]

My C5 started down this road, made a hissing gurgling noise. Before long started to loose cooling efficiency rapidly.
Took 5 visits to main dealer to correct - as they couldn't find a leak. Filled with dye and recharged - 2-3 times, but still lost any cooling soon after. Although slightly embarrassed by their inability to find the issue, they decided to change the condenser and in doing so, found the dye from a small leak near the top that wasn't easily detectable.

Once the condenser was replaced and re-gassed, all perfect again and no more Darth Vader!

[vborovic]

First association to the topic title:

[GiveMeABreak]

Hilarious!

[miggsC4]

My C5 started down this road, made a hissing gurgling noise. Before long started to loose cooling efficiency rapidly.
Took 5 visits to main dealer to correct - as they couldn't find a leak. Filled with dye and recharged - 2-3 times, but still lost any cooling soon after. Although slightly embarrassed by their inability to find the issue, they decided to change the condenser and in doing so, found the dye from a small leak near the top that wasn't easily detectable.

Once the condenser was replaced and re-gassed, all perfect again and no more Darth Vader!

Can you remember what the cost of doing that was?

[GiveMeABreak]

Luckily for me I had it done under extended warranty. Depending on model, condensers seem to range anywhere from £80 - £280 inc. VAT, but of course the car will have to be degassed and re/gassed, plus the dreaded labour, so I wouldn't like to guess the final bill.
Have you actually lost any cooling yet? It may be worth taking it to Kwick Fit for a check first as they weren't charging if they couldn't get it 10% colder than it is for about a £50 for a re-charge. Having said that, if you took it to a main Citroen dealer with a fault, they shouldn't really charge you for unnecessary work whilst trying to locate and correct the fault. In my case for example, if I hadn't had it under warranty, I wouldn't have paid them for the 4 times they had to regass mine until they found the issue. This is why we take it to the main dealer after all isn't it? It may be worth looking at Eurocarparts or MicksGarage where you can enter your exact model - this will give you some idea for the condenser unit alone - if it is indeed this that is causing the problem. You may just have a leak from a hose which would be cheaper to fix - but the best option is to get some dye in the system first of all to try and eliminate the obvious. Good luck.

[miggsC4]

Luckily for me I had it done under extended warranty. Depending on model, condensers seem to range anywhere from £80 - £280 inc. VAT, but of course the car will have to be degassed and re/gassed, plus the dreaded labour, so I wouldn't like to guess the final bill.
Have you actually lost any cooling yet? It may be worth taking it to Kwick Fit for a check first as they weren't charging if they couldn't get it 10% colder than it is for about a £50 for a re-charge. Having said that, if you took it to a main Citroen dealer with a fault, they shouldn't really charge you for unnecessary work whilst trying to locate and correct the fault. In my case for example, if I hadn't had it under warranty, I wouldn't have paid them for the 4 times they had to regass mine until they found the issue. This is why we take it to the main dealer after all isn't it? It may be worth looking at Eurocarparts or MicksGarage where you can enter your exact model - this will give you some idea for the condenser unit alone - if it is indeed this that is causing the problem. You may just have a leak from a hose which would be cheaper to fix - but the best option is to get some dye in the system first of all to try and eliminate the obvious. Good luck.

Thanks for that, the cooling by the way is as cold as ever, its just the noise that's annoying.