I'm working on a crash damaged ka (mk2 2011) at the moment. It's taken a fairly light knock on the front. It has AC and the AC condenser was damaged so I took it off today. It had already dropped it's gas/coolant when it was damaged and a little extra trickled out today when I took the hoses off.

My question is recharging. Is this a job I can do myself. I thought not but a quick google/youtube shows it people recharging A/C. I don't think this is the same as getting the system going from empty?

Any advice appreciated.

TIA

A garage with a proper test and refill kit is far more reliable.

A nitrogen pressure test with UV dye will confirm integrity before pumping in the refrigerant.

You could do it yourself with cans but would use quite a few and unless you know the correct capacity of the system you could cause problems.

Cans are fine for a quick top-up though.

a proper place for air con wil dry the system out,wiegh whatever is left and replace the correct ammount needed,

Seems like the sort of thing you should be able to do. It's a shame Ford don't put in the handbook the capacity of the system. How do garages know how much to put in?

the info should be on a plate within the front of the engine.

Ah thanks, I'll have a look now.

Couldn't see any info panel on the engine, or the front panel. Not much info on the inner door stickers either.

Found some info online. It requires 500 grams of R134A and 95ml of PAG46 oil. Prices for the stuff to do it would be about £40-50. I think I can get a garage to do it for that, maybe less without all the hassle.

Dont mess about, just get a garage to do it, as if you havent got it sealed properly , it will all escape. Garage will put a vacuum on the system first so they know it wont leak and remove moisture, before putting refridgerant in., air con gas nasty stuff in the wrong hands.