Having just bought a 2012 XTR Auto the only fault was the Air Con which was not working, and having searched for garages  who did Air Con services  and I was surprised at the wide range of prices, some as much as €120+ vat  but as i was going to Dublin today I phoned a guy who offered a full Air Con Service  so phoned and arranged to take the car to him I arrived at the garage drove strait in the the service bay having done a check he said the system was completely empty so started a compete test I waited about 45 minutes   expecting him to say there is leak in the condenser or compressor needs to be replaced but to my surprised when he said everything now working recharged and cleaned  but my biggest shock was  when i ask how much I owed him  he's reply was  . . €45 (£37)  this is guy only does Air Con with state of the art equipment    Just goes to show there are still some very good value for money garages.
http://www.autoaircon.ie/

It's £40 to £55 round here to get it regassed. The machine empties the system and filters the contents then tops up with the correct amount of lubricant for the system. The thing is to remember to use it to keep it in good working order, I use it to clear the screen in the morning and run it every week. You can use it at the same time as the heater not just to cool the car in summer but to remove moisture in winter and autumn, it bugs me to see people wiping the inside of the screen and driving almost blind when the aircon would clear it in minutes.

Best is to keep the aircon on all the time. Mine had been running for 10 years without a hiccup or a service.
Had it serviced at evening classes, sonce it was a lesson of ours now...

(24-02-2017, 04:08 PM)sparco Wrote:  Best is to keep the aircon on all the time. Mine had been running for 10 years without a hiccup or a service.
Had it serviced at evening classes, sonce it was a lesson of ours now...

So how much extra fuel have you used in the last ten year's say 2p a mile .

Couldnt care less about that to be honest...

(24-02-2017, 08:07 AM)doofer Wrote:  Yes, I had my last car done at a local specialist for around £50.  This was after I'd almost wrecked the compressor by trying to top up with with I now know is a nasty, nasty Halfords "Ez-Chill" DIY kit, which actually costs about the same so doesn't even save any money.

It's basically a can of mixed oil and gas.  The circuit needs exact amounts of each to work properly, as specified by the manufacturer.  The problem is that the gas leaks out, and often the oil stays in.  So if you just add a mix of the two then you just end up with too much oil, as I did.  The compressor was trying to compress oil instead of gas, as it was full of the stuff.  Oil doesn't compress.  In my case, it was just noisily disengaging itself and stopping, but it could have been much worse - the compressor could have blown apart.

The garage sucked the lot out, and there was a stupid amount of oil in there - they had to stop and empty the machine once while draining it.  Then, after topping it up with the correct amounts it all worked perfectly - thankfully, Halfords had only ripped me off for a useless kit, they hadn't wrecked my car too.

Be warned - don't DIY air con like I tried.  No matter how clever you are, if you don't have the right gear you can't do it.  Halfords should not be selling that dodgy Ez-Chill kit.  I'm surprised they're still selling it really, I'd have been suing them for the price of a new compressor if it had got wrecked.  I'd always thought they were over-priced, but I thought they had some decent standards - now I just think they sell expensive rubbish.


Far play doofer for giving people the heads up with this one - my mate has recently been on the aircon course and he told me about these diy regas bottles - he said they are infact very dangerous to use as you have no idea how much gas is in the system!! And like you say they can put too much oil in and that can be a danger in itself as the system is trying to compress the oil. 

I noticed Halfords were selling them off recently in the bargain basket 

(24-02-2017, 05:57 PM)Jed Clampit Wrote:  

(24-02-2017, 04:08 PM)sparco Wrote:  Best is to keep the aircon on all the time. Mine had been running for 10 years without a hiccup or a service.
Had it serviced at evening classes, since it was a lesson of ours now...

So how much extra fuel have you used in the last ten year's say 2p a mile .

It supposedly adds 3% to running costs similar to running with the window open or fitting a roof rack. Your car would need to be doing one mile per litre to add about 1.2p to your running cost per mile at present prices.

I have used "Ez-Chill" with a aircon gauge (which I still have) on a mk2 Zafia but before  buying  "Ez-Chill"  I paid €40 to be told I had leak, which resulted me spending around a £100 to replace the condenser, but I had no problems using "Ez-Chill"
As for Halfords selling off "Ez-Chill" maybe they have a shelf life hence the sell off.
Now I am staring to regret that I did not take my 07 Desire to my airCon guy as I bought a replacement compressor  but never had it fitted as I bought my current 2012 XTR  but I have since sold the Desire

So its back to updating my XTR and using my Bootcamp. also updating the rear Boot light as shown by ''doofer''   but I must admit I am having a problem removing the complete panel

(24-02-2017, 05:57 PM)Jed Clampit Wrote:  

(24-02-2017, 04:08 PM)sparco Wrote:  Best is to keep the aircon on all the time. Mine had been running for 10 years without a hiccup or a service.
Had it serviced at evening classes, sonce it was a lesson of ours now...

So how much extra fuel have you used in the last ten year's say 2p a mile .

I use the aircon nearly all the time on my annual German holiday & it appears not to affect the fuel consumption by any discernable amount in 2,000 miles.