AC Experts please!

Update!

Went to the Kwik Fit near where I work this morning. Spoke to the manager of the site and he went from 0 to very angry in about one sentence. He was on the verge of refusing to do the work, asking me why he should do it, who was going to replace his gas etc. He was clearly in a bad mood so I was trying to explain that it was possible that they had made a mistake whilst trying to calm him down.

He was adamant that they would have used whatever weight was specified on the system - I asked him to show me and if it was right then I would leave it alone and just go to the original place and try and get my money back. He went to the system to show me and... no data! They had no data on the car on the system! He then could understand where I was coming from, immediately calmed down and apologised and we set about working out a way forward. He said that in cases like this he would have consulted the customer (ie me) and discussed the problem rather than just going ahead and blagging it...

We went to the actual machine which does have some data in, again no W220 S 430 in there at all! Looking through the list we reckon he has picked the W124/W140 4.2 which has a whopping 1.2Kg of gas! My car needs 950g according to the sticker.

After much to-ing and fro-ing between the machine and the sticker we agreed that the W220 S 280 settings (the only W220 in the list!) was in agreement with the sticker on the car and it is now in their hands having that done.

If this doesn't absolutely resolve my issues then I am going to press Kwik-Fit to put right whatever damage they have caused by overfilling the system so severely. After all, I drove in there with a working air con system that was low on gas and drove out with a completely broken system.

I honestly only went to Kwik-Fit because I believed that these machines could be operated even by Kwik-Fit without getting it wrong - but as per their adverts: "You'd be amazed at what they can do"...
 
I'm laughing at the fact that you had to calm him down and not vice versa.

Yeah, I went in there for my car to be fixed not for an immediate barney. I dunno whether to tack that on to my complaint or not because in the end he was very apologetic and reasonable but I shouldn't have to calm their staff down to get reasonable customer service!
 
I just collected the car.

The process only takes 45 minutes to do and they started early doors this morning so it has been sat in their car park for 2-3 hours. Got in, bam, immediately ice cold. I hope this is the end of the story but the machine printout claimed to have only recovered 250g so it could have a leak still (despite passing the leak test on the machine). Or they put in just enough gas to not trip out the low gas warning fault but not enough for the system to run.

Time will tell I guess.
 
Does not fill me with confidence that they only recovered 250g of refrigerant. Only time will tell though, problem is they only rely on a vac test for a leak but leaks can seal under vacuum but leaks under pressure so they should ideally pressure test with OFN
 
Do you mean they purged the system and only got 250g, then they refilled it? Or that they just drained 250g from what was in there?

It just says "recovered" and then the figure. I presume as the next stage is the vacuum pressure test that the figure is the sum total of all of the gas in the system. I left the slip in the car else I would be able to give you the exact figure.

I know that the system put 955g of gas back in plus 15g of lubricant. I presume the extra 5g is to allow for tolerances and for any gas left behind in the system when it is disconnected, plus a small amount for when the valves are disconnected.

As long as it stays cold I'll be happy.
 
It lasted less than 24 hours. Complaint has gone in to Kwik-Fit Head Office.

Probably looking at a £1k bill here to put it right, I dunno. Hoping it is the condenser rather than anything else as that is the cheapest part and the easiest to get to. If it is the evaporator then I might cry.
 
Could be the compressor too I guess. Easier to get to than the evap, but expensive typically as the magnetic clutches are usually the £££ part.
 
Could be the compressor too I guess. Easier to get to than the evap, but expensive typically as the magnetic clutches are usually the £££ part.

The fact it got cold again after the re-gas leaves me a glimmer of hope that it is not the compressor. If that was dead it would probably have never been cold in the first place, got colder again after the 1st regas, colder again after the 2nd etc.
 
It is a good sign, could just be a failed gasket between the pressure hoses and any other part of the system. However if a seal has gone inside the compressor, then its new compressor time anyway, even if it does "pump" correctly.
 
I had a £1kish quote for my Alhambra to fix a leak problem(new compressor, front pipe and rad). Did a DIY leak repair and regas and it's still working after 3 weeks :p

It is a banger though.
 
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Hope you get it fixed DRZ and it isn't too costly (although I'd hope Kwik Fit would cough up for any work that needs doing).

Guess the moral of this story is don't let Kwik Fit near your car! :rolleyes::(
 
Incredible - I've always been of the thinking that these things were impossible to mess up!

I had something similar on my old car (sudden loss of all cooling) - turned out to be a bad joint between a metal and flexi part of the pipework, when it flexed a certain way it almost completely discharged. Saying that, if it was holding the gas OK before and just needed redoing then they've obviously shafted something - 20% more pressure on seals and things that have a fair bit of use under thier belt anyway is quite a lot!

I'd find a good independent specialist to diagnose the issue and get them to do a proper report in writing which you can send to Kwik Fit
 
Said it before - kwik fit is fine if you genuinely just need a regas and there's nothing much wrong. Any problems real - forget it. You'll be lucky if they recognise that there is a problem - let alone diagnose it.
 
Said it before - kwik fit is fine if you genuinely just need a regas and there's nothing much wrong. Any problems real - forget it. You'll be lucky if they recognise that there is a problem - let alone diagnose it.

OP just needed a regas and it wasn't fine...
 
OP just needed a regas and it wasn't fine...

To be fair, it had stopped cooling prior to the re-gas. IMO the re-gas (albeit possibly overcharged) just highlighted this imminent failure.

I feel that this would have happened regardless, but I guess only an autopsy of the A/C system will prove this either way.
 
To be fair, it had stopped cooling prior to the re-gas. IMO the re-gas (albeit possibly overcharged) just highlighted this imminent failure.

I feel that this would have happened regardless, but I guess only an autopsy of the A/C system will prove this either way.

The way I read it was that it wasn't cooling as effectively as it could. Even with a complete strip down it could be impossible to pin blame - but the main lesson is that there ARE things the monkeys at kwik fit can screw up, so best left to somewhere reputable either way
 
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