Technical Aircon service

[Rustbucket]

What is involved in an aircon service?

Looking at the service records and during my time with the car (4 years) the aircon has never been looked at. It still works, blows cold air but the compressor makes a grumbling noise on start up.

One local garage reckons its a simple 2 hour job on the machine.. €90 while another reckons its a big time stripdown and complete drain/flush, filters etc and the thick end of €400.

Any ideas?

 

[afroking]

It depends on what a 'service' entails...

Generally over the water you pay around £60 for a regas which includes removing gas from the system through vaccum and then regassing along with a dye which allows you to check for leaks using a UV light.

 

[desert rat]

Dye? No wonder it's so cheap here..... (about £10)

Most i've had done on any air con systems here is a re-gas plus some kinda clear oil they add for lubrication.

Equipment used for vaccume & pressure is kinda scarey though.... normally closely resembles the internal workings of a refrigerator mounted on a trolly ! in fact... im sure that is exactly what it was :bang: I guess you get what you pay for !