Coupe Turbo with A/C.

A/C blows pretty cold, but not as icey as it was and it's starting to pong a bit with all the use it's had recently. The front driver's matt seems to get a bit damp when it's on for long periods (8hrs non-stop last Saturday). I've seen products about to clean the A/C system yourself and refill. Worth a pop or shall I just take it to a Kwik-Fit type place and pay the £60?

The pipework, compressor and rad are all in very good conditioner - it just literally needs a refresh I think.

All tips, hints, cost-cutting idea's welcome.

Thanks
Rob

Better to go to a proper A/C place and pay that little bit more - Kwik-fit aren't known for their skills and abilities with A/c - you certainly shouldn't just shove some more gas in and hope for the best, the system is designed to work with a measured quantity and will cause compressor damage with more or less.

I'd expect that some of the refrigerant has vented naturally to the atmosphere as the molecule size is smaller than the size of the pores in rubber hose causing the pressure loss.

Go to a reputable A/c service centre, and ask for a system service. They'll evacuate the system and reclaim the refrigerant, check for leaks and then replenish the refrigerant to the correct capacity.. I paid £80 at a well known a/c place near me the last time I had it done.

kwik fit arent known for any skills brian

Ahhh air con.

Must be nice eh rob - i wouldnt know

Im trying my best to refrain from trying to invent a reference to a windy cabin and a hole in the chassis but im finding it difficult dude

OK thanks for the reply Brian.

Next question: Anyone know where the drain is from the A/C cooler in the evaporator system on a 220 Coupe? The damp carpet appears to be a result of the drain being blocked and the condensate overflowing from the cooler/heater/evaporator unit....

Edit: found this

http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-GRID002251



20 is evaporator drain tube. Best go digging for that tmw then. Assume it goes through bulkhead and drains to ambient.....

Correct, hooks down behind the front suspension rear beam..

Muchos thankos!

Just to close this out for any future searchers -

A/C drain was inded blocked (with underseal! whoops) and is easily got to from the passenger-footwell, or looking down under the expansion-tank just below the brake lines running across the bulkhead. Once unblocked, no more dampness on passenger floor mats and you can feel a slight cool breeze blowing down the drain from the evaporator (reaching into n/s front wheel-arch just infront of ARB-2-body bush location).

Had the A/C system "serviced" - purged, vac'd, leak-down, re-gas - at a local garage that advertise as A/C specialists and I now have very, very cold A/C (it's more impressive than a recently re-gassed 5 year-old Focus' system).

Always good to hear of a sucessful outcome..

Since i'll forget when i see you Bob, do they actually investigate leaks? Wouldn't mind knowing if it's just my condenser that's goosed on the 306.

What refrigerant is in the 220 ttrw2?


I know most modern cars are using R134a now but im just woundering about older cars?

R134a...

Older AC, pre R134a is R12 (i think it is) which iirc isn't backwards compatible due to seal changes. R12 is rare.

Pointless fact of the day: R12 was limited then banned from 1992, so anything after that will most likely be R134 (i did a refrigerants course not so long ago...)

Fairly sure it's in the pipeline to replace R134a and move onto something more eco friendly at some point in the future too. We had some involvement at work with a company who makes refrigerant who were working on a repacement a little while ago. It may have been dropped since though as it was working out very expensive IIRC.