Deckchair5 said:

Broken pipe? Any decent air con specialist will be able to deal with that easily but a good Fiat garage might still give a better price as they'll get the Fiat only parts cheaper. Keep away from these places that simply offer "air con top ups" though

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Any idea of a reasonable price? And yes the pipe has broken. Just below the low tap in point, the pipe directly beneath it has snapped and when i tried to top it up, it just sprayed everywhere including the driveway...

Not really but a professional air con system vacuum down, leak check and refill alone would be around £60, put in cost of pipe arnd fitting and I'd expect a wallet minus of £150. Get some quotes from different places would be your next step

Thanks D.C. Unfortunately for me and for Charly (the stilo), this month is insurance renewal month and i'm looking at £850 for her to be insured the next 12 months. Can't afford to get her air con fixed just yet.

Greggers said:

The pipe you mentioned (46840061) is number 1 in this diagram and ePer shows it as being £67 including taxes... not sure how old the ePer is though.

46841699 is pipe number 10 and is listed as £41. Both pipes are listed for the M20 engine, which I assume is the 1.8 lump As for their compatibility, I'm afraid that I couldn't say

Here's another ePer link for you:

http://212.187.114.126:7080/navi?CO...&EPER_CAT=SP&WINDOW_ID=1&GUI_LANG=3&DRW_NUM=6

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Can confirm that on my 1.8 that the number 10 pipe will not
fit as there is no joint at the compressor the pipe is one long
one which runs from the condensor to the compressor then
over to the other side of the engine.

At some point prior to me buying the car that pipe was removed
and the "O" ring seals are letting the gas past on the condensor end
down to the local fiat garage for replacements.
Number 1 pipes now £97

John

Maybe just replace the o rings? Mine blew an o ring just weeks after a new pipe was fitted so i just replaced it. The o ring is the only part that forms the seal, the union securing nut just holds things in place

Yes I'm going for "O" rings first. I'll then vacuum the
system out and see if it holds minus pressure first then
as there will be no R134A in the system I can pressure
test it after as air and R134A explode. As the pipe is a
non refundable item from fiat I thought I'd clarify
compatability for the forum.

John

DubWitStilo said:

When I have the fan on full (4) wit the temp turned to cold and the air con button pressed It makes a huge amount of noise wit fu** all air being blown from the vents.

I was in a ford focus last week and when the fan speed was at 1 it was equal to being on full blast in the stilo.

It has been like this since i bought the car but its now I need a bit of cold air coming through the vents.

Any help would be appreciated..

Thanks..

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dubWitStilo is right, have a look at the pollen filter, they tend to block up fairly quikely. I took mine out completely. Somewere in the forums are a description to get to it. Just be careful when pulling the plugs out, that you don't overstress the cover and crack it. Good Luck. G

gerhardj said:

dubWitStilo is right, have a look at the pollen filter, they tend to block up fairly quikely. I took mine out completely.

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Very bad idea not to replace it

Ok, Ive read all post but still cant really match it to my case....

Bought Stilo 3 months ago ('02 1.6.petrol) aircon wasnt working from begining...
well actually air was not blowing from vents at all - but that was cabin filter and its fine now.
went to halfords, guys checked if there is no leak with r134a did everything as they should..engine runing, they ve started putting gas in...and for the first time ive heard my compressor to work. but after 4-5mins there was no difference in temp inside the car.
so they said i might need to go to garage to have it looked at..
any ideas? should i try it myself for another few mins or go and spend money on kwik fix or some other place?
cheers

Kwikfit X
Halfords X

Yellow pages>> Air con specialist>>
find leak>> get estimate>>fix leak>> vacuum and pressure check>>refill
pay bill>> coo! not so bad>> get guarantee
nice air con

thanks for interest mate, ive tried again and put rest of the can in the car and it worked

its nice and cooooool now =]

sixpotman said:

Yes I'm going for "O" rings first. I'll then vacuum the
system out and see if it holds minus pressure first then
as there will be no R134A in the system I can pressure
test it after as air and R134A explode. As the pipe is a
non refundable item from fiat I thought I'd clarify
compatability for the forum.

John

Click to expand...

Now have the two ''O'' rings from fiat that fit
the two ends.

10552083 and 10552183 £5.00 including postage
from B.S. Marsons & Sons Ltd Newcastle Staffs.
Young guy in the parts department new which seals
they were because he had bought them for his punto.

John

"as there will be no R134A in the system I can pressure
test it after as air and R134A explode"
Crikey! I hope not otherwise there would be exploding cars everywhere when involved in frontal collisions. Flammable refrigerants are illegal. Just wanted to put your mind at rest so you can call off the bomb squad

Deckchair5 said:

"as there will be no R134A in the system I can pressure
test it after as air and R134A explode"
Crikey! I hope not otherwise there would be exploding cars everywhere when involved in frontal collisions. Flammable refrigerants are illegal. Just wanted to put your mind at rest so you can call off the bomb squad

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If you check you will find that compressed air and R134A don't
like each other when mixed and compressed they will blow compressor
seals and or other parts apart and MAY be cause injury.
Explode ok it's a bit over the top.
Aircon technicians alway use compressed nitrogen and a leak test dye
to find leaks due to this fact. A repaired aircon system is always vacuumed
out for a length of time to boil off the moisture remove all the oils and any
air prior to being refilled with the correct gas .

On an open forum it's best to at least warn incase someone does
try testing a part filled system R134A with compressed air.

John

It's not that R134A and air "dont like one another" , they're quite happy to co exist and R134A is non toxic, non-flammable and non-corrosive.

It's simply that you don't want what is in air (ie moisture, oxygen and noncondensable gases) circulating around your air con system. That's why a system is evacuated before refilling, to take out as much of everything, not just air, not just moisture but everything

A system is pressure checked with dry Nitrogen because it's cheap, it has no oxygen, it cleans the system through and helps get rid of moisture

More injuries are caused by inexperienced and untrained persons putting unregulated Nitrogen straight from the bottle into their aircon system. 3000psi bottle pressure into a system that operates at a tenth of that. Boom! Plenty of leaks now to investigate once they put your body parts back together again. Or someone, somehow connects a refill can to the high pressure side. Result- exploding refill can. Shouldn't be possible as they're different size fittings but hey ho

Interesting that R134A is planned to be phased out in 2011. Ozone friendly yes but not so good for global warming apparently

Cheers for that - obviously the composition of R134a has changed
from the early 90's then.
http://daliracing.com/v666-5/download/pdf_article/tsb/r-134a-refrigerant-ac-systemb92-027.pdf

John

sixpotman said:

Explode ok it's a bit over the top.

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sixpotman said:

Cheers for that - obviously the composition of R134a has changed
from the early 90's then "Some mixtures of air and R-134a
have been shown to be combustible at elevated pressures and can result in fire or explosion" (pdf quote)

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or maybe not :chin:

Well as with most chemicals containing hydrocarbons, give it some oxygen, pressurise it and raise it's temperature enough and give it a strong ignition source and it will combust. It's how your engine works. But as for exploding on contact then -no