Focus 2002 Air Con Problems

[jonny5]

Hi there,

I see there have been many posts on this issue but can't quite match up the symptoms to my problem.

I bought my 1.6 petrol focus in Jan and realised that the air con wasn't working. The light on the button was on but the compressor just didn't engage. The relay and fuse seem fine. I got advised to re-gas it as low pressure will mean the compressor won't kick in anyway. It was re-gassed last sat and low and behold the compressor was working again. Two days later and it was back to square one and no compressor but the light was still on. I assumed there must have been a leak somewhere to cause the pressure to drop again.

I took it to my local garage on friday and explained the problem. They said they would check the electrics, the pressure and for any leaks in the system. I got the car back and they said the system seemed fine and they simply gassed it up and away I went with cool air and a working compressor! However, a day later, the compressor has stopped kicking in and so i'm once again without air con - which is starting to be quite depressing given the journey I have to make soon to northern Italy.

Does anyone have any ideas what the problem may be and possible solutions? It seems I have had the system working twice but can't seem to keep it going. Possibly a pressure switch? faulty compressor? When it was working, it was fine and wasn't intermittent at all.

Cheers in advance!

[btmaldon]

Sounds to me like you have a leak that the garage has not identified. The only way a garage can test it properly, is to put dye in the system when they re-gas it. With an ultra-violet light they can spot where it has been leaking after a few days.

[catch]

I agree, it is definitely a leak and a big one at that if it only ran the aircon for two days after re gassing on both occasions.

Have you seen my thread on the subject ? Air Con Stopped Working Is It fixed ? Who knows ?

[johnH]

a ford dealership will diagnose your aircon for £65 and will only take a few hours. i had a leak and it cost me a new condensor and pipes. £460 in total. now its like a fridge in the car.

[stef123]

I thought Catch was bad at 200 but 460quid to sort the aircon :o :o HOW MUCH?!?!

[johnH]

stef - yeah that was for new pipes, condensor and iirc compressor. needed a turbo pipe replacing which would count for £60 of that.

[jonny5]

Cheers catch - an interesting read on the other thread. I can't believe that having taken it to kwikfit and my local garage that neither spotted a leak. If the story about Halfords doing free pressure tests is true then I'll bob it in there to confirm that it is leaking. Getting hacked off at !Removed! away 50 quid at a time to re gas with no fix.

Out of interest, do those leak fix kits really work or is it just delaying the inevitable and wasted money?

[jeebowhite]

At £460 you might as well buy the entire aircon system, and build your own home AC Unit lol!