the mistake you made was having it regassed when it all worked find. Really as long as it’s working it should be left alone.
Like you Jock, I don't know much about Aircon, so I am probably wrong but I thought you had to put a tracer additive in the aircon to show up with a UV light?
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Absolutely right Mike, tracer dye needs to have been added when the system was filled. I'm told though that this is common practice so I asked the garage that did it whether dye had been added and the, rather unhelpful, receptionist said maybe, sometimes they do and sometimes they don't and there would be no record he could consult to confirm. I thought about this for a while and then dropped in at both Steven's Honda garage and Kenny's Fiat workshop - both of which do aircon - Kenny has in fact just bought a beautiful shiny new machine!. They were both so busy they couldn't do anything for me immediately and Steven offered to let me use his UV lamp to look for leaks, however it was raining and I was in decent clothes so declined. He told me to buy a cheap "blacklight" torch off the likes of ebay/amazon and go looking for indications after dark - apparently these cheap torches do the job absolutely fine but are often not very bright hence the advice to do it after dark. So as there are already two cars in the "family fleet" with aircon and my boy's Astra is living on borrowed time as is his wife's Jazz so both may be replaced soon and the replacements will almost certainly have aircon, I thought buying a UV torch would be a good idea as they are under £10. No help of course if there's no dye in the system but a cheap enough addition to the toolbox in case they have. Of course it's all a bit academic because I don't have an air con machine or the license/training to use it so it'll have to go to a workshop for recharging but this way I'll know for sure that if they come back saying "it needs a condenser", or whatever, then that is in fact the problem. although I'd have complete trust in either of the afore mentioned garages not to rip me off.Like you Jock, I don't know much about Aircon, so I am probably wrong but I thought you had to put a tracer additive in the aircon to show up with a UV light?
My aircon is having the windows down and though some of my cars have it, I am not a fan even if regularly serviced, as one of my neighbours is still not 100% after catching legionaires disease working for a building firm removing aircon units from banks (I think that was all they were removing
When I buy a car with aircon I always use one of those aircon "fumigator" sprays just in case.
Lucky down here we don't suffer from limescale, probably just the radon gas from all the granite on the moors the water runs off
Just a quick point to note. The dye is generally the last thing to leak out, usually it’s the heaviest thing in the system and so when the pressure is going down lighter elements like the gas leak out first, maybe any oil that’s in the area and then some dye might get forced out, it’s not uncommon to not be able to easily find the dye. Also good or bad UV light, if you have the option do it in the dark it will make finding the leak a million times easier.
Thanks for that information Andy, not being a fan of Aircon I didn't know about about it's heavier than air risks in a pit or similar. Though I try and avoid working in a pit as once a car caught fire whilst bending an exhaust (with I might add a "blind" fire watcher) under a ramp, the thought of the same event trapped in a pit doesn't bear thinking of!
If you set the Citroën to minimum then it's putting your hand next to the vents of a freezer..but that's not actually comfortable.The only car in the past that I have been in where the aircon was extremely cold/efficient was my accountants grey import Lexus Saurer 400 coupe, a rare car at the time, you could describe it as sitting in an ice box.
I recall the cars errors came up on the dash in Japanese, in the end he paid a Japanese student to translate it......the screen washer bottle was empty!
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the old adage, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. if the aircon is working fine it’s usually far better to leave it alone than mess about with it. If you keep it switched on all the time bacteria shouldn’t build up but if you turn it on and off what happens is the moister that would normally collect and drip off the evaporator stops flowing, stays on the evaporator and stars growing nasty mould and bacteria in the water droplets kinda like the mould you get in a washing machine or a turned off fridge. That’s when it starts to smell. Yes the aircon Is switched off when the car is not moving, but then hot damp air isn’t being blown over the cold alloy evaporator right next to a hot heater for when the engine is running. The bacteria doesn’t tend to build up on a car that’s not moving and is a product of the aircon being turned on and off but left off while the car is in use.Thanks for that information Andy, not being a fan of Aircon I didn't know about about it's heavier than air risks in a pit or similar. Though I try and avoid working in a pit as once a car caught fire whilst bending an exhaust (with I might add a "blind" fire watcher) under a ramp, the thought of the same event trapped in a pit doesn't bear thinking of!
I had heard of "servicing" aircon every couple of years, but had thought of it more a visual check along with the anti bacterial spray inside the cabin for the reason I mentioned earlier. Would you say that is effective or a good idea if no apparent issues? I confess I am speaking from ignorance
To be fair all cars should have icy cold aircon, sometimes let down by a bad heater design that lets warm air mix with the cold, but mainly having lots of glass with no UV filtering and cheap cars with little to no insulation tend feel like they have very poor airconThe only car in the past that I have been in where the aircon was extremely cold/efficient was my accountants grey import Lexus Saurer 400 coupe, a rare car at the time, you could describe it as sitting in an ice box.
I recall the cars errors came up on the dash in Japanese, in the end he paid a Japanese student to translate it......the screen washer bottle was empty!
Probably worth pressure testing it before you bother, may be it's sprung a leak in the past dropped below minimum operating pressure and the safety measures have kicked in and deactivated the clutch.
I’ve seen super cheap cars like this where whole pipes or parts of the aircon system are missing and what remains is full of water and other nasties.
Some of us do, mine's a 2011, still looks good and quick enough to have some fun. It gets whatever it needs.
Hopefully the bloke will have maintained it like his lively hood depended on it, and as result most of the dv6 issues would have been fixed long before 220k...or have been taken care of by not being used round the doors. They can be strong..but need the right usage and care.It was an ex taxi with 220k now showing on the speedo, once I cleaned out the DPF and told the ECU it was new plus EGR stuff etc. as well for £300 it has been a good buy, £30 year tax, good on fuel , having said all that, it will probably blow up tomorrow
I seem to recall on one of my diagnostic checks it gave the Aircon pressure, I might be wrong but it seemed acceptable at the time, all the correct lights, switches etc. seemed to be correct, just no reaction at the pump pulley, in fairness I haven't delved to deeply as pump low down on the engine and wiring plug dissapears into the engine loom. It may be a relay but I haven't found a wiring circuit diagram yet.
Indeed some..but most follow a similar route to old Fiat's, only in the dealer network for 3 years while on finance. Depreciate to throwaway money quickly, serviced badly after if at all after and aim for the scrapyard by about 10-12.
