Hi. So a couple of years back my air con stopped working.. assumed no gas so had it recharged and it worked, perhaps for about 3 months or so. I took it to a garage who quoted extortionate amounts to replace a leaking condenser.. took it somewhere else to try other things first. Turns out there was leaks around the orings either end of the condenser so changed this and it was working better. 
But now it doesn’t work as well as it should. The system holds pressure and everything seems to be working but it just does not get cold in the car. Any ideas?! 

Hi,

If you've only noticed this in the last couple of days, you may be expecting too much of it.  With the outdoor temp being 30c+, the AC system will struggle to cool the car.  Best compromise is to keep fan speed as low as possible, vents on face only (close passenger side if no passengers), and once the car is cooler inside than out, use the recirculate mode for a few minutes so it's just cooling 'pre-cooled' air instead of fresh hot air.

When you say the system holds pressure, how have you verified that? Did a garage or whoever put pressure gauges on it to check ?

10 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

Hi,

If you've only noticed this in the last couple of days, you may be expecting too much of it.  With the outdoor temp being 30c+, the AC system will struggle to cool the car.  Best compromise is to keep fan speed as low as possible, vents on face only (close passenger side if no passengers), and once the car is cooler inside than out, use the recirculate mode for a few minutes so it's just cooling 'pre-cooled' air instead of fresh hot air.

It’s actually been like this for quite some time. I didn’t even consider trying it when we had 30+ degrees outside! 

7 hours ago, isetta said:

When you say the system holds pressure, how have you verified that? Did a garage or whoever put pressure gauges on it to check ?

So a garage has checked it, but also my partner bought a DIY kit with a pressure gauge and that shows pressure in the system