Hi all

Focus Zetec 1.6 litre (2001 registration)

Over the last couple of years our air con has given out less and less cold air. Last week I bit the bullet and got it serviced (for less than I thought it would be). My wife collected the car but said she'd not really driven it for long enough to tell if the air con was better (which is kind of ridiculous because it always used to blast out really cold air almost immediately) but when I drove it later that evening I could tell it was giving out no cold air at all after an initial few seconds of proper cold air.

Yesterday the car was taken back to the garage for them to take a second look. They said they could find no leakage but topped it up again anyway and got cold air out of it. I'm not sure for how long they got cold air, but if they got the same response as I did then they'd have got cold air, assumed it was fine and switched off the engine. Glad to say they didn't charge us for this second visit.

So, that's the long story. The short story is: Our air con has been serviced, but only gives out a cold air for less than a minute.

What should our next step be? The garage said it might need a new compressor which could be £500-£600! Help! We're going on holiday next week!

ide suggest taking it to an aircon specialist or call out a mobile aircon specialist theres a few things you can check first does the engine fan come on when the aircon is switched on it should do second with the aircon on look at the aircon compressor left hand side down past the power steering pump it should have the centre of the clutch spinning if it was indeed the clutch it would not spin so no cold air an aircon specialist can check the system it may be there is a leak since they topped it up again

Thanks, ArtScot79. Just to clarify, when you say 'left hand side' is that the left hand side as you sit in the seats (i.e. the passenger side) or the left hand side as you're looking at the engine with the bonnet up from the front of the car?