General Aircon dead

[heliophile]

Despite comforting re-assurances (https://www.fiatforum.com/bravo/348464-air-con-problem.html) my aircon seems to have given up the ghost now and is mostly blowing warm air - but with very occasional cooler blasts.

Was re-gassed recently, so could it be a slipping compressor belt?

 

[RobBravo]

Anything slipping usually comes with a squeal or a whine as the belt can't grip on to the wheel. Do you find the car screeches on colder days or early in the morning?

Next I would look to get the system pressure checked. If you have a small leak then of course the gas that you had fitted not so long ago will now have mostly escaped.

If it's neither of those things, then it could be the compressor, but as I have not had this fault personally it would be difficult to know for sure..

 

[portland_bill]

When it was re-gassed, they should have evacuated the system and checked it held the vacuum for a minimum time. This checks for leaks. Ask if they did. My guess is that there is a leak. May need some dye added to show where leaking. This is usually visible under an ultra-violet light, so you may not see it your self, unless you have a sunlamp handy.

With the re-gas recently, did it give up suddenly, or did it lose effectiveness over time? The gas will escape gradually, usual recommendation is to re-gas every three years, some say two years. But if it faded quite quickly, that suggests a leak.

Needs a proper diagnosis, then the sucking of teeth, and the estimate!

 

[heliophile]

Cheers for the replies.

Aside from the constant pulsing of the rad fan there is another on-off-on-off humming noise from further back in the engine bay that stops when I turn off the aircon, and which I started to notice just before it failed.

But the failure itself was sudden.

I'll book it in and see what the dealer says, and let you know.

 

[Matthewr1990]

If it's any consolation, I get intermittent fan use. I also get a deeper hum from the engine bay that seems to get louder the harder I rev. I'm having that looked at when I get my car serviced, though I presume it's fine as my aircom works fine, in fact it freezes my eyebrows.

 

[heliophile]

If it's any consolation, I get intermittent fan use. I also get a deeper hum from the engine bay that seems to get louder the harder I rev. I'm having that looked at when I get my car serviced, though I presume it's fine as my aircom works fine, in fact it freezes my eyebrows.

"...freezes my eyebrows off."
*wistful smile*

It's booked in tomorrow so we'll see, I'm telling myself it will need a new compressor so anything else is a bonus!

 

[griff74]

Could be the clutch on the compressor not engaging all the time, happened on my mates old Mazda 3, was intermitent and then stopped working altogether, Mazda said it needed a new compressor, the garage he used to service it stripped the clutch down, cleaned out loads of rust and lubed it all up and it worked fine after that.

 

[heliophile]

So I'm driving it to work yesterday, planning to drop it off at the dealer on the way and the air-con is freezing my eyebrows off again! Typical.

I've just decided I may as well not bother taking it in until it breaks again, as the dealer will just say no fault found and bill me for diagnostics, when the red oil light comes on and the dash says change engine oil! I know it's not related but it's like THE CAR WANTS TO GO TO THE DEALER!

So I do take it in, get the oil changed and the warning reset (oil was 18m old to be fair) and they pressure test and re-re-gas the aircon, clear a couple of old flap warnings from the diagnostics, change the pollen filter and declare everything in perfect order. We'll see.

Ah the joys of car ownership.