The air con in my 1.6 zetec wasnt blowing cold at all.

I took it to kwik fit for a £49 re-gas. Once the vacuum had pulled out any old gas, one the new was been pumped back in it was obvious there was a leak. Gas was steaming out, I wasnt charged and was given a number of an air con guy who could arrange to see the car and diagnose/price up repair.

Last night i could see lime green on the drive. The leak is coming from the bottom of the compressor unit. I couldnt see very well due to the scuff panel blocking my view but it looks like its coming from one of the joins on the compressor. Its definitely not coming from up the top end of the engine where any of the pipes feed to.

Does this sound like this has been hit at some point and thus a new compressor is highly likely? :(

More than likely it's a dried out seal or something similar.

If its rarely been used the seals degrade and no longer seal. The gas has a lot of oil in it which should be cycled through the pipe work to help maintain all the seals.

Depending on how good an A/C engineer, he maybe able to service it, bit a lot of people these days just replace large parts, which is a shame as it'll probably be something silly like a 10p o-ring!

If its rarely been used the seals degrade and no longer seal. The gas has a lot of oil in it which should be cycled through the pipe work to help maintain all the seals.

Depending on how good an A/C engineer, he maybe able to service it, bit a lot of people these days just replace large parts, which is a shame as it'll probably be something silly like a 10p o-ring!

I only bought it in Oct last year so it was difficult to tell if it was working then or not.

I hope so, at the moment im debating if its worth it at all. Im struggling to find a recommended air con engineer locally to see what the likely cost is.

its very common and caused by the fact the bracket on the front is pop riveted into place as this naturally rusts as its open to the elements through the front grill it seperates and starts leaking the ford guy showed me mine when it happened to me and said it was a stupid idea to pop rivet the bracket on in that position anyway but to be sure he painted the bracket with underseal left it to dry then painted it with aluminium coloured rust protect paint ford done mine with new rad labour aircon clean and fill for £165

its very common and caused by the fact the bracket on the front is pop riveted into place as this naturally rusts as its open to the elements through the front grill it seperates and starts leaking the ford guy showed me mine when it happened to me and said it was a stupid idea to pop rivet the bracket on in that position anyway but to be sure he painted the bracket with underseal left it to dry then painted it with aluminium coloured rust protect paint ford done mine with new rad labour aircon clean and fill for £165

That's a relief to know. I might give it a go myself now you ve told me that. If I can undscrew the scuff panel I can easily reach the area and get some underseal to put plenty on.

Thanks very much!

no need you lie down and look up to the right youll see a rubber cover over it behind theres the bracket the left ones pretty well covered except the lower one at the bottom you can fit youre hand through the lower grill with a small brush easily to get to it

its very common and caused by the fact the bracket on the front is pop riveted into place as this naturally rusts as its open to the elements through the front grill it seperates and starts leaking the ford guy showed me mine when it happened to me and said it was a stupid idea to pop rivet the bracket on in that position anyway but to be sure he painted the bracket with underseal left it to dry then painted it with aluminium coloured rust protect paint ford done mine with new rad labour aircon clean and fill for £165

thats near enough what i was told when i had mine in and found a leak on the condensor unit, glad to know someone else has had the same issue and i wasnt been fobbed off, although he did quote me £340 in total

no need you lie down and look up to the right youll see a rubber cover over it behind theres the bracket the left ones pretty well covered except the lower one at the bottom you can fit youre hand through the lower grill with a small brush easily to get to it

Thanks artscot.

Im pretty sure its the same one. Below is a diagram of the one i mean.

When i lay down and look up, its the bracket that is closest to the road. Just wanted to make sure we were talking about the same one :)

Vince - they quoted that just to do some underseal?!?!

Nah that quote wasfor new condenser rad + fitting and regas

yeah thats the bracket in question sits i think midway up you can buy a small brush on tin from halfords for say £5 you can use hammerite smooth aluminium paint and just put a few coats of that on or put on the underseal let it dry then overpaint with the hammerite

yeah thats the bracket in question sits i think midway up you can buy a small brush on tin from halfords for say £5 you can use hammerite smooth aluminium paint and just put a few coats of that on or put on the underseal let it dry then overpaint with the hammerite

Cheers artscot.

Ill give it a go over the next few days. Ive just checked and there are still drips of green oil coming out and its 2 days since the attempted regas was done, so the leak cant be that big. ill give it a good clean with water and wipe off as much crap as i can before putting plenty of hammerite underseal on. ill do two coats to make sure :D

yeah the seals burst its only a few drops but it does mean air gets into the system as does moisture thats not so good as it can cause serious damage

Hammerite and underseal wont fix it itll just prevent it happening again if you get a new condenser fitted, it will go to over 200 psi when running correctly

yeah its to prevent not fix you wont fix it if you get it done the compressor will be fine leave it too long you may have more damage in the end

I know in an ideal world a new compressor is what is needed. However if the guy at more than one ford garage have done this with success to avoid the £350+ cost of a new compressor im happy to do it too. For how often the weather is like this I can't justify it at the moment. I know you need to run the air con through the winter too so I'll make sure I do this.

Condensor not compressor the condensor radiator needs replaced the compressor will be fine