AirCon Regas

pepp77

pepp77

pepp77

Soldato
Joined
13 Oct 2008
Posts
5,243
Location
SE London Born and Bred
Kwik-Fit, ATS, Halfords AutoCentre all obviously offer the service

Kwik-fit seems to be about £60 and 5 minutes away, Halfords Auto Centre seem to want £80, £40 for an inspection and then £40 for a refill and is about 15 minutes away. ATS is £60 with 10% off for June, but is the furthest away (at least 30 mins). I dont know any local garages that offer this service as havent used an indy for several years. BMW themselves want £100

Should I risk Kwik-fit or what would people suggest?
 
Why do you need a re-gas, does the system have a slow leak? I notice you mention BMW .. these are common for condenser leaks, I've just had to replace mine on my F30.

Personally I would use a local a/c specialist who comes out to you, it will only cost about £60-£80 and they will do a proper leak test if one is suspected and not just a stupid vacuum test that only shows the biggest of leaks.
 
I have had the car 3 years and it has been fine previously, went out in the car today and was getting nothing chilled coming through the vents,just lovely warm air, so I am assuming it needs a regas.
 
pepp77 said:
I have had the car 3 years and it has been fine previously, went out in the car today and was getting nothing chilled coming through the vents,just lovely warm air, so I am assuming it needs a regas.
Click to expand...

If it's only 3 years old and you keep the a/c active year round on the HVAC system it shouldn't have stopped working, so I suspect there's a leak. The gas must have gone somewhere, and even though the system will lose a small amount of gas per year it shouldn't go empty in just three years unless it's not used for a long time throughout the year and the seals dry out (and that's still a maybe).

I had the same problem last year on my own car at just over three years old. Weather warmed up and it wasn't cooling. Took it to the local BMW specialist and they vacuum tested it said theres no leak and regassed it for £70. It worked like a boss all last summer through the heatwave but as soon as the weather started warming up again this year it wasn't cooling again, so obviously a slow leak. Took it back to the BMW specialist they vacuum tested it and couldn't find a leak and there was no sign of the dye leaking out anywhere that they put in the previous year, so I called out an air con specialist who did a proper leak test where they put nitrogen in and sniff out the leak. Found a leak on the condenser which is common on these cars because it's just behind the kidney grills and gets hit by stones easily. £350 later all working again with a brand new condenser ice cold air con with no leaks.
 
Cheers, Halfords Autocentre, include a nitrogen check and I can get in tomorrow morning, so I have decided just to go for that, especially as I have discovered one closer than 15 minutes away.

The car itself is 4.5 years old and is on its initial air con gas and all googling suggests it should be topped up every couple of years, so fingers crossed.
 
what car? theres different gas in new cars that a lot of places cant or wont do yet and if they do the gas is a lot more expensive new cars use 1234yf whereas older cars use R134a and one before that in the 90s that i cant remember the name of
 
233 said:
what car? theres different gas in new cars that a lot of places cant or wont do yet and if they do the gas is a lot more expensive new cars use 1234yf whereas older cars use R134a and one before that in the 90s that i cant remember the name of
Click to expand...

R12 :p

My Golf use R1234yf which I don’t have any of, got R410a and R134a.
 
RJC said:
R12 :p

My Golf use R1234yf which I don’t have any of, got R410a and R134a.
Click to expand...


should know that the Omega uses is still
had to regas the vivaro last year after splitting the rear air con pipe was an absolute bugger finding somewhere to do it
 
pepp77 said:
Cheers, Halfords Autocentre, include a nitrogen check and I can get in tomorrow morning, so I have decided just to go for that, especially as I have discovered one closer than 15 minutes away.

The car itself is 4.5 years old and is on its initial air con gas and all googling suggests it should be topped up every couple of years, so fingers crossed.
Click to expand...

Your car is approx the same age as mine and will use the R134a gas.
Yes BMW recommend topping up every 2 years but really if there's no leak and it's used all year round it shouldn't run out of gas in under 5 years.

If Halfords can do a nitrogen leak test that's a better option than kwik fit sticking it on the machine and doing a simple vacuum test which won't even show up a leak that loses all the gas in just 2 weeks!
My only concern is if the Halfords employee is properly trained to find the leaks.
 
233 said:
should know that the Omega uses is still
had to regas the vivaro last year after splitting the rear air con pipe was an absolute bugger finding somewhere to do it
Click to expand...

Hopefully the Omega will be ok - otherwise you will need to use a drop in replacement!

Looked at a neighbors Ka a few years back and the discharge line had a crack in it, I think Ford wanted silly money for this piece of pipe and that was a fairly easy job to do - some of the pipe work does get hidden well.
 
Thankfully its a Halfords Autocentre and not just a Halfords, so will hopefully be better. And yes I saw the thing about different gases and one site had a link and the only BMW on it was the i3.
 
pepp77 said:
Thankfully its a Halfords Autocentre and not just a Halfords, so will hopefully be better. And yes I saw the thing about different gases and one site had a link and the only BMW on it was the i3.
Click to expand...

You would hope they are better trained then.
Let us know tomorrow if any leaks are found with the nitrogen test. If you're lucky the car might have come from the factory slightly low on a/c gas or the previous owner didn't use the air con and it lost some because of that and will be fine after a simple re-gas.
 
RJC said:
Hopefully the Omega will be ok - otherwise you will need to use a drop in replacement!

Looked at a neighbors Ka a few years back and the discharge line had a crack in it, I think Ford wanted silly money for this piece of pipe and that was a fairly easy job to do - some of the pipe work does get hidden well.
Click to expand...


the omegas been off the road 7 years and currently getting recommisioned dont even know anyone that stocks the gas for it lol

the vivaro was a pita ended up a local commercial ac place sorted it all new pipe made and regassed vauxhall couldnt even supply the pipe as it runs front and rear ac units
 
233 said:
the omegas been off the road 7 years and currently getting recommisioned dont even know anyone that stocks the gas for it lol

the vivaro was a pita ended up a local commercial ac place sorted it all new pipe made and regassed vauxhall couldnt even supply the pipe as it runs front and rear ac units
Click to expand...

You might have to change the Omega to R134a, R12 was banned / phased out many years ago (I think around 1997)
 
Not that I personally know a lot about these things but I always remember a guy on the radio (a car A/C specialist) talking about re-gassing being the biggest con job in the industry, because as Spartacus is saying why would you need a re-gas if you don't have a leak? And if they are just re-gassing without fixing the leak it's just a waste of time and money.

The A/C system is a closed system, there's no-where for the gas to go without there being a leak and ask yourself, how many times do you need to re-gas your fridge?
 
Indeed, only time you really need to touch the system is if your having problems.

My sisters Golf is 12 years old and I had a quick check last year for the first time and all is running fine.

Larger systems do, due to them having a larger environmental impact.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom