Air Con Recharge

[kenfoxy]

My Is200 is 8 years old, never recharged. Just had it done for £50+vat at an auto electics place. Result good, got the cabin down to 7C on a 26C day.They put some green dye in to help with any future leaks. Took them 20 mins, watched them do it. Funny thing is that on my way home I saw a place advertising same for £40+vat.

I went to Widnes Auto Electics. The cheaper place was C + T Garage, also in Widnes. Prooves you don't need to pay the earth.

[ormi]

my garage toyota main dealer £49.99 inc vat :winky:

[john99t-reg]

kwik fit and charlie browns 45.00 each, in wheatley hall road, doncaster, in this weather best £45.00 ever spent.

[Steviewevie]

Got mine done at Kwik-Fit last week for £45 inclusive. They've got a machine which they just plug in and it automatically does the whole thing, sucks the old refrigerant out, does a pressure test, refills it, etc. So they don't really need any great expertise.

Trouble was, the BMW being done before me had an a/c problem and it broke their machine. So they had to put me off and I got it done for half price for my trouble (and they were quite apologetic and good about it).

[rhosneigr]

How can you tell if a recharge is required?

[ormi]

the a/c isn,t as cold as it once was....

[Lexus2D]

.

[Lexus2D]

kwik fit and charlie browns 45.00 each, in wheatley hall road, doncaster, in this weather best £45.00 ever spent.

pmsl so they do a good job

[Steviewevie]

There's an IS200-specific procedure that you can use to check the aircon condition, using the sight glasses, here.

I think that it's generally recommended you get it checked out every couple of years. Over time the refrigerant will probably leak out. If you haven't had it checked for some time then it's almost certain to benefit from a re-gas.

[reganlives]

When I bought my car the A/C was working fine but due to the work which needed to be done on it the bodyshop had to drain the A/C so I need to get mine sorted soon but i'm not sure if I should just got for a normal recharge or a service. I seen a place online and they charge £59 for a full service otherwise around £50 for just a recharge.

this place...

http://www.coolcaraircon.co.uk/services.htm

what should I get done??

[kenfoxy]

The place I went to in Widnes carried out a visual inspection of the compressor part under the bonnet and recharged the system with fresh gas with a green dye (to help identify leaks). They said that if the system leaked in the future they would replace the gas free of charge. I would go for similar regass offer.

[reganlives]

hmmm, so they did carry out some form of checkup then as well. i'll have to see if i can find somewhere that will include a checkup/service in the cost as well as I dont wanna get it recharged then discover a leak as if I end up with a leak it'll be the bodyshops fault.

[kenfoxy]

I spoke to the guy in Widnes Auto Electrics about why Lexus don't service the air con as part of the regular service schedule. He told me that there is nothing to service as it is a sealed system. I would expect a regaser to at least look at the aircon unit and check that the compressor was cutting in before regasing your car. If he then offers a free regas, if it has been leaking, then that should cover it.

[ormi]

the aircon machine doesn't just remove the gas and then refill it the machine tests for leaks in the system too it removes the gas which then causes a vacum the a/c system and holds this for a set time(you can adjust the time from 10mins to 1 hour if you want) if the machine cant hold the vacum then you have a leak and the machine will not let you fill the system back up with gas.(also the machine removes and refills the system with oil).also on refill the machine puts in a dye so a leak can be spotted easy.

so then the customer will be informed that their a/c system is leaking and whats req to fix it.

[kev dood]

is this machine the same for all Toyota garages? And also your prices of 49.99?

[reganlives]

lexus bolton quoted me £79 recently for an air con recharge...hmm..

[Steviewevie]

I'd be suprised if Toyota etc don't use a similar machine to Kwik-Fit. As I said, the Kwik-Fit machine does it all automatically, the operator doesn't really do anything other than connect up the hoses and start it up. Certainly the Kwik-Fit machine used on my car did pretty much the same list of things that Ormi has mentioned.

[reganlives]

so would u say that it basically carries out the same tasks as listed in the full service page which I linked to mate?

[Yeldarb]

Mine has a leek on the pipe below the site glass, so no air con for me until thats fixed saves on fuel not using it.

[Steviewevie]

so would u say that it basically carries out the same tasks as listed in the full service page which I linked to mate?

The machine wouldn't check the operation of the compressor, belts etc, but a normal service should cover those sort of things. I can't imagine they're going to check anything more than the basics there, something that you could probably check yourself in 5 minutes. Similarly with the internal flaps etc, you can easily check that yourself. But as for the other stuff then yes, it looked to me like Kwik-Fit's machine (at least at the branch where I went) did all the other stuff.

[ormi]

to be honest most a/c machines are the same now all the operator does is connect the pipes looks at a book and progams the machine to regas it with that amount eg 550grams and how much oil eg 18grams its diff for every car also can be diff for the year too.

to kev dod i know the a/c service is the same price at our sitehill branch and poss dunfermlin branch and yes we all have the modern machine's

[Andy-R]

lexus bolton quoted me £79 recently for an air con recharge...hmm..

Ormi works for Toyota not Lexus ;)

[The Transporter]

The automated refrigerant management stations abillity to detect leaks are limited and can be misleading... They rely on the degradation of the vacuum and therefore rely on a negative pressure of approximately 1 Bar... Not a great pressure really. They will find basic large leaks but can be fooled by causing the compressor shaft seal to allow air to pass under vacuum where it never would under pressure.. Out gasing of the refrigerant from the lubricant (A bit like carbon dioxide fizzing out from a bottle of lemonade when you relieve the pressure that it is under) can also fool the machine to think that there is a leak when there isn't one. UV dye is usefull for confirming shaft seal leaks when the seal only leaks when the shaft is rotating but otherwise pretty useless... If a leak is big enough for UV dye to escape, then it is big enough for the lubricant to escape... so you simply look for a damp patch and confirm the leak with a hundred pounds of Nitrogen and a garden sprayer filled with soapy water

[reganlives]

do kwik fit also put the oil in the system during the recharge or just the gas?

[Steviewevie]

Kwik-fit put the oil in too, as well as the gas.