DIY car aircon / leak sealing?

[Adrian Brentnall]

HI Has anybody used one of the 'diy' aircon / leak-sealing kits? Typically (eBay) they come with a filling hose / gauge arrangement, a canister of leak sealer and a canister of approved aircon gas.

Like this

The aircon on my '05 Pug 307sw was recharged in spring of this year, and slowly lost pressure over about 6 months. I've a small local independent garage that supplied the car s/h, and do all of the servicing etc on it, but they don't do aircon.

The larger garage in the next town regassed the car earlier this year (130 euro or so) - but muttered along the lines of 'cost more than the car's worth to get the leak fixed...' - and denied that there was such a thing as aircon leak sealant.

FWIW - they also sell new cars - and that may be 'colouring' their advice... perhaps...?

Any experience out there, please - before I spend £60 on a diy leak-seal / re-gassing kit? TIA Adrian

[alan_m]

130 Euro seems expensive. I paid a 'standard' price of £55 inc VAT for a complete re-gas this year. Some of the national chains were offering prices of £15 below this at the time but I preferred somewhere that was recommended. The car hadn't been re-gassed for at least 10 years and as a matter of routine for older cars a leak dye was included in the price. They said it saved a lot of time fault finding if the car came back a few weeks later with a reduced performance AC.

The process took about an hour and I got a print out of the weight of gas before and after the re-gas.

I did consider the DIY approach but on reading up on the NET it was claimed that the can/gauge method didn't work with my car - no-one gave a good reason why not. It may be worth you reading up in the groups for your car to see if it is possible.

If you have a leak you may have moisture in your system which needs to be dried out before degassing. I believe the automatic machines used for re-gassing routinely perform this function.

[Adrian Brentnall]

The garage is a Honda dealership - they seem to be the only people doing a/c locally - which is probably why it's expensive!

The car hadn't been re-gassed for at least 10 years and as

Yes - they put a dye in when they regassed mine. Haven't had a look under the bonnet with the UV lamp - guess I should do that...

Not that sophisticated down here in the rural south-west of Ireland!

I did look in the Pug forums - but didn't seem to find much. The folks on ebay offer some tech support - might contact them. Don't think the gas is completely gone, yet - but can't check at the moment 'cos the heater fan's broken and the a/c doesn't run unless the fan's working.

Didn't know about that. Hopefully it's not completely out of gas... Thanks Adrian

[Andrew Gabriel]

Watched mine being regassed after the split condensor had been replaced. This whole process is automated so the folks in the garage can't get it wrong. For drying, it sucked down to a vacuum for at least 20 mins (I don't know how long it had been at this stage before I arrived), and then stopped sucking but made sure the vacuum held for another 20 mins. Then it fills with a measured quantity of lubricant and refrigerant. Dye is only added if there's thought to be an unfixed leak, which there wasn't in this case (although had been done a year before). Finally, the engine is started and the aircon switched on, and it checks the high and low pressure sides are running at correct pressures.

[Brian Reay]

I've never had to 're gas' a car's Aircon. Even our Espace, which we kept for 13 years, didn't need it and the Aircon was excellent when we sold it. My Honda CRV is over 10 year old and the Aircon is still excellent. (In general we buy new and keep cars a long time.) I think the 'trick' with Aircon is to ensure you use it regularly, even in the winter (it is great to 'demist' the windscreen, put the A/C on and the heater, the A/C removes the moisture from the air, the heater warms the air so it is more effective in 'carrying' the water vapour.)

One car, a Kia, the compressor 'died', I suspect due to my wife not using the A/C with the heater in the winter on her short drive to the station.

As for these 'self sealing kits', I would be 'dubious'. Presumably they have some king of 'gunge' which is initially fluid but changes state when it 'finds' a gap. The question is, how does it know the gap should be sealed? There must be intentional small channels etc. in the system which you shouldn't seal. Plus, what how does it seal effectively under pressure?

All in all, like those emergency puncture repair kits, I would say avoid them and do the job properly.

[Weatherlawyer]

That all sounds like Adrian's favourite Honda Franchise sell a lot of tyre s with their MoTs. Did the family that owns it used to deal in horses back in the day?

I wouldn't be considering any Hondas in the future if I was him and I'd tak e long Sunday drives in the country looking for alternatives while the weat her is good.

[Steve]

There's nothing wrong with those emergency puncture repair kits as long as they're used as intended, ie, in an emergency. Lots of cars come out of the factory these days without a spare wheel. Then there's people like me who have had their cars converted to run on LPG and the LPG tank sits where the spare wheel used to and we don't carry a spare anymore. Small punctures are dealt with very effectively by the can of goo, whereas anything more serious, like a split sidewall for instance, necessitates a call to the breakdown people.

[Adrian Brentnall]

A long time ago I had a Rover 827 with aircon. Lost its gas, was refilled, and ran the aircon perfectly (until everything else went wrong and I sold the car to the garage that had been maintaining it!)

All understood - in fact I've been leaving the aircon running more or less full-time since it was regassed in the spring. Can only be a small leakage, I'd think - but it's not my specialist subject.

As I say - the local garage weren't very encouraging. There's a mobile aircon specialist closer to Cork city, dropped them an enquiry via their website last week - but they've not got back to me yet. Might try phoning them..

So - nobody's actually used one of these 'leak seal / regassing kits then?

Thanks Adrian

[Brian Reay]

Have you ever had a puncture successfully repaired after having used one of this kits? The concern is removing the gunge to ensure the repair can be done properly.

How do you check the temp. repair isn't in a side wall or other area it isn't safe to 'patch'? Even a proper 'patch' (really a plug / patch) can only be applied in a limited are of the tread.

How do you know the damage isn't more serious than just a leak? Just because there isn't a big hole doesn't mean the structure of the tyre isn't damaged?

As much as I dislike 'space saver' wheels, I've rather carry one of those than a gunge kit. We tow a car behind our motorhome which normally comes with a gunge kit. The first 'extra' we ordered was a spare, space saver, wheel.

I certainly wouldn't use a gunge kit on the motorhome. The idea of trusting 3.5 tonnes to some gunge, even when you take it easy, seems fool hardy- especially as the tyres can be inflated to 80psi. Yet some motorhomes (not ours) don't come with spare wheels, only a gunge kit.

[bert]

Use it or lose it as my air-con specialist says.

[bert]

In article , Andrew Gabriel writes

Do all aircon manufacturers specify the same lubricant?

[David]

I was warned off the re-gassing kits because they are a combination of gas and lubricating oil. When gas is slowly lost, the oil is usually not. So if you use one of these kits you are adding extra oil and too much oil can bugger the high pressure side (allegedly).

As detailed up stream, the correct method is to drain/suck all the old stuff out before adding any new stuff.

Cheers

Dave R

[harry]

Our local Halfords regasses aircon. Maybe cheaper there.

All auto aircon leaks. The reason is there is a shaft from outside to inside the compressor that h as a seal that always leaks a bit. So your leak fixer won't work, the man is right. Think on terms of regassing it yourself. EG.