How Do You Know When Your Ac No Longer Works?

[mikester]

dumb question maybe, but i've grown use to the temperature of the blowing cold AC air, so much so that with the hot weather here i've got a feeling what i thought was cold may no longer be as cold as should be.

Basically i had the AC on for 20 minutes on saturday and not once did i feel like it cooled the car down. This wasn't the case last year :(

So is the AC supposed to be checked during servicing? I've just had a big service, there was no mention of AC maintenance. Is it one of those things they consider perishable and your local kwik-fit are to deal with it? I've never had an AC unit no longer blow cold air before so don't know where to go next!

[Kingmunky]

[Maleforce]

Over time the A/C gradually looses its coolant and therefore the ability to cool, so it's quite possible not to notice this, I think a good way to test is to put your hand to the vent and it should feel cold enough to chill the end of your fingers. To be honest though I turned on the A/C on Saturday and was not over impressed with its cooling and my fiesta is only 2 months old and I had to put it on recurculate and the facia vents to really feel any benefit.

[Kingmunky]

Yours might be going as well then Maleforce, I had mine on all day Saturday and was getting a really cold draught through the car. You should be able to feel the difference within about 5-10 seconds from turning it on.

[mikester]

i guess you get used to the gradual drop in effectiveness.

what is the solution, £49 trip to kwik fit?

[Kingmunky]

Aye pretty much, take it to get re-gassed. Look around though, I'm sure I've seen it priced around about £35 for an air con service and gas before.....?

[iNath]

Whilst Kwik Fit are usually quite cheap for a regas I'm not sure how much then do in checking for leaks. ie. other companies use a dye in the gas that shows up under a special (UV?) light that will show if there is a leak. Otherwise you'll get the same problem a few days/weeks/months down the line when all the gas goes again. Maybe they will check, maybe they don't - would be best to ask.

[wimiu012uk]

Had my fiesta re-gassed and serviced at kwik fit approx 2mths ago and blows really cold now.

Bloke told me that it is re-gassed automatically while coupled to thier m/c and it will not continue with the re-gas if the m/c detects a leak.

[Nay ZS]

A familiar story. To put it simply you've not been using it enough. Seems to be a growing problem with the greater attention to fuel economy that people have nowaday and the fact that people only think AC is for summer. (It's great for stopping the windows misting up in winter.

Now i know that the Fiesta's AC isn't the most powerful but it shouldn't need re-gassing so soon with proper use as it's this what maintains it's effectivness. My car is 2 and a half years old and the A/C still blows ice cold. Infact my mates even commented on how nice it felt after a long journey at the weekend. It does take a while to get the cabin down to temp though when its 28 degrees and sunny outside/.

My friends Focus which is even newer AC blows warm now becuase he rarely uses it.

I believe the pipes dry up and this is what causes the gas to leak out.

My advice would be to use it once a week all year round once you've had it re gassed. It only really sups a noticable amount of fuel when you're running it on max. ( On this tank I'm 30 miles short of where I should be after a week of full blast AC use)

[Maleforce]

Tried my A/C again today before the hot weather goes and it does improve things but also with the windscreen at about 35 degrees angle and the sun hitting the all black dash board there is a lot of heat to dissipate before any real cooling starts. I''m off to Spain next week hope it can cope with the heat over there.

[Kingmunky]

Whilst Kwik Fit are usually quite cheap for a regas I'm not sure how much then do in checking for leaks. ie. other companies use a dye in the gas that shows up under a special (UV?) light that will show if there is a leak. Otherwise you'll get the same problem a few days/weeks/months down the line when all the gas goes again. Maybe they will check, maybe they don't - would be best to ask.

Last time I took my old car for a re-gas at Kwik Fit, they found out that my compressor was broken so they didn't charge me for the time and said when it got repaired I could take it in for a free re-gas. I did have quite a good relationship with one of the techs though.