Last week I noticed a fairly big difference in temperature from the aircon. It's now only slightly cooler than just having it off.

Does this indicate that the gas needs topping up or could there be a leak?

This is all new to me, I've had the car for 10 years now and this is the first time this has happened. I've never had to regas it.

After a quick Google search, KwikFit are offering a free test then £72.95 or £137.95 for new gas depending on which gas the car uses.

Is this price reasonable or a rip-off? Is there anything to be aware of with a Focus 1.6 LX 2004/5?

Thanks very much and hope you can help.

Your car uses the cheaper gas.

We are now in the middle of summer so unlikely to find many air con deals at this time of year.

The KwikFit price is acceptable and they do offer a money back guarantee if it doesn't work.

Could just be naturally low on gas now or there could be a recent leak.  No way of knowing without testing it.

Getting quite a few issues now with my Focus, they all seem to come all at once 🙄

I had my aircon regassed by Kwik Fit but it's not working again now 😞

I called them up and they said they would get back to me as it would need testing. It's been 2 days and still waiting.

Just wondering what goes wrong with the aircon units and is it usually cheap to fix e.g. a leak?

What should I expect?

Thanks very much.

The AC system is fairly simple.  Just 3 main components.  Compressor (pump), condenser (radiator) and evaporator (essentially a reverse heater matrix that gets cold instead of hot).

However there is also a lot of pipework and seals.  Generally AC repairs aren't quick or cheap.

Most common is a stone through the condenser as it's exposed at the front of the car.  £100-£150 to replace with aftermarket part.  Next likely is compressor, very expensive new, but again around £100 for a good used one.  Evaporators rarely break, but would cost hundreds of pounds to access due to dashboard removal.  And pipes and seals vary depending on which one has failed.

If you regularly use your AC, hopefully the system is in better overall condition. 

Not using it is worse as as the seals will fail if the oil is not circulated around the system. 

The re-gassing machine should automatically vacuum test the system before refilling with gas.

Have you ever had it re-gassed while you have owned the car? If not, perhaps it held enough gas to work and the extra pressure of having it refilled caused a seal to fail. 

A stone hitting and puncturing the condenser just after you had it re-gassed is also possible. 

The usual way to leak test the system is to add a dye which glows green under UV light. This shows where the leaks are. 

6 minutes ago, AntonovAN12 said:

If you regularly use your AC, hopefully the system is in better overall condition.

I'm a great advocate of this! All my cars in the last 20 years have had A/C, I have never turned the A/C off in any of them. People often have a great misunderstanding of what A/C is and just think of it as a system that supply cooler cabin air. It's not. It 'conditions' the air so even in the depth of winter, it removes the moisture so your windows don't condensate anywhere near as much! Just keep it on, let it do it's work,  & forget about it....

7 hours ago, Groot said:

I had my aircon regassed by Kwik Fit but it's not working again now

I had the same situation recently with our Vitara. Had it regassed because the aircon wasn't working at all and the report printout said it had held a vacuum for 25 minutes but a week later it wasn't working again. It turned out to be the condenser leaking. The car hadn't been used since the regas so unless the damage occurred in the 10-minute journey home the vacuum test hadn't picked it up. I suspect it had become damaged before the regas. The report had said there was only about 10% of the gas left in the system.

The vacuum test doesn't work as a test.  That only shows gaping holes.  It's also ridiculous to suck all the pipes and seals in together, when they all get pushed outwards under pressure in normal use.  I've had a few cars pass the vac test with not inconsiderable leaks...

It's initial purpose was to boil off any moisture before regassing, not really to test for leaks.

31 minutes ago, mjt said:

The report had said there was only about 10% of the gas left in the system.

I'm assuming KwikFit gave you their promised refund?

It wasn't KwikFit. I had it done at my local trusted indie. The diagnosis and condenser replacement was done during a service & MOT at a Suzuki franchise. I haven't bothered the indie garage as I have a good relationship with them and want to keep it that way.

5 minutes ago, mjt said:

It wasn't KwikFit....

That's why I always recommend KwikFit, their 'money back' guarantee if it doesn't work is fabulous. There's not many jobs you can get done on your car that if it doesn't work out, you don't end up out of pocket...

Oh lord, I hope it's an easy and cheap fix for me, already got other stuff going on.

I've had the car for just over 10 years and the AC worked right up until June of this year without having it refilled.

Thanks for all your help.

 

2 hours ago, Groot said:

Oh lord, I hope it's an easy and cheap fix for me, already got other stuff going on.

I've had the car for just over 10 years and the AC worked right up until June of this year without having it refilled.

Thanks for all your help.

 

In the worse case, it won't do any damage to use the car with no air con working. That's what opening windows are for!

My current car is only the third I've owned with working air con. I managed all through the summer of 1976, which was a massive heat wave, in a Renault 12 estate that didn't have air con, when I was doing about 20,000 miles a year. I did get a bit sweaty each day that summer!

20 minutes ago, Alan G H said:

In the worse case, it won't do any damage to use the car with no air con working.

A few years back I bought an old Mercedes with non working A/C but took a chance as I saw some familiar brown staining on the condenser signifying a possible leak. It didn't even take me a week before I got it fixed, I can't drive a car with no A/C LOL Yes, a replacement condenser and recharge sorted it...

23 hours ago, StephenFord said:

I'm a great advocate of this! All my cars in the last 20 years have had A/C, I have never turned the A/C off in any of them. People often have a great misunderstanding of what A/C is and just think of it as a system that supply cooler cabin air. It's not. It 'conditions' the air so even in the depth of winter, it removes the moisture so your windows don't condensate anywhere near as much! Just keep it on, let it do it's work,  & forget about it....

This is something i always get confused about. So its best to just leave air con on all the time no matter summer/winter or heater or hot/cold? 

I can see the logic of the system being used this way for cool air and and condensation issues in winter ect but I presume that the gas circulation around the system is better for seals ect than it just laying there when the system is turned off

 

3 minutes ago, sonic113 said:

So its best to just leave air con on all the time no matter summer/winter or heater or hot/cold? 

Correct 👍

That's why it's called 'Air Conditioning' and not as many people like to think of it 'Air Cooling' which it is  not.

Leave it on and just adjust the temperature as required the 'Air Conditioning' will provide clean conditioned air at the temperature selected.

1 hour ago, sonic113 said:

This is something i always get confused about. So its best to just leave air con on all the time no matter summer/winter or heater or hot/cold?

Mine gets kept on at the same setting, 'temperature' year round. Except for hot days when I've just got into the car and wind the temp down to the min until the cabin is comfortable...

just got mine topped yesterday but it still didnt work, there was no leak and the gas was full so i thought i would check if the clutch was engaging on the compressor and it wasnt 😞 

1 hour ago, StephenFord said:

Mine gets kept on at the same setting, 'temperature' year round. Except for hot days when I've just got into the car and wind the temp down to the min until the cabin is comfortable...

You must be very tolerant of temp differences.  I have to move the damn knobs constantly in cars without climate control.  Always too hot or too cold.  

33 minutes ago, froggy8 said:

just got mine topped yesterday but it still didnt work, there was no leak and the gas was full so i thought i would check if the clutch was engaging on the compressor and it wasnt 😞 

Have you told the dealer?  They should cover repair costs under warranty if the car was advertised as having AC.

That is odd though, if the gas is full the compressor should kick in.  There is probably a fuse for the compressor so could check that.  If still not working then swap the relay with identical one just in case.  Battery SOC should be ok as you said stop start works.  Could be a faulty pressure sensor, but that's not easy to detect unless you've got Forscan?  Could also be the radiator fan or possibly the grille shutters stuck, again that would be picked up by Forscan.

50 minutes ago, froggy8 said:

just got mine topped yesterday but it still didnt work, there was no leak and the gas was full so i thought i would check if the clutch was engaging on the compressor and it wasnt 😞 

Take it back and complain!

10 minutes ago, Alan G H said:

Take it back and complain!

If they refilled it with gas, and the gas is still in the system, unsure if they're responsible for a fault elsewhere in the system?

20 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

If they refilled it with gas, and the gas is still in the system, unsure if they're responsible for a fault elsewhere in the system?

I read it as they didn't fill it because it was already full...  

This is an interesting situation though, as they do claim to refund if not colder afterwards I think?  So that doesn't exclude other faults in the system... 🤔

26 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

If they refilled it with gas, and the gas is still in the system, unsure if they're responsible for a fault elsewhere in the system?

I meant, back to the dealer he bought it from! Replying to froggy8.

many thanks guys

dont think the seller wants anything ot do with it as i think they would tell me to contact my warranty company which i have done.

my warranty company told me to get it checked out but dont do any work on it and they recommended halfords as no garage wanted anything to do with a claim. 

anyway halfords told me there are no leaks and it filled it up no problem, i just thought because it was only 70 pound i was just going to sort it myself. drove away and let the ac on for awhile but it still wasnt ice cold so took it back to halfords and they checked that it was still full so when i got home i decided to check the clutch was engaging.

@TomsFocus it was strange when i read you wrote try the forscan because i tried to do just that to see why ac wasnt working to be exact but i coundnt connect it at all which i will be putting up a thread about it later 😄 

i have sent my warranty company an email but i will also ring them tomorrow too.