Car Air Conditioning

Hence the enquiry:-) Catering departments car. I rather doubt she remembers to push the button for cabin only so probably trying to cool Hertfordshire as well. Doesn't seem to achieve much when I drive it.

Understandable if you hang your arm out the window but even plain glass stops most UV light.

Just get an twin LCD thermometer with a flying lead, and put the thermistor sensor directly in the output of the vent and the main unit on a seat in the shade and out of the air flow. If both displays are reading about the same then the a/c isn't working. The a/c outlet temperature should be at 8°C or so in hot weather. The difference between the two should give you some idea of how well a partially-working a/c is operating.

If you have a VW that uses R-744 gas an A/C service at a VW dealer is £640

Jeff. I think there is little doubt she is right. I do have a single input thermometer which might give some indication. The vehicle is not used for long journeys and has a service/MOT due shortly. Current plan is to include air/con in the service.>

Sadly modern 'eco friendly' refrigerants are out of this world expensive, especially with a dealer markup and with a small undetected leak, needed regularly...

Are you even allowed to say that CO2 is eco-friendly?

I don't think you are allowed to say anything at all unless you are a fully paid up left wing intellectual who works for the BBC.

When I replaced the 3 way fridge in our previous motorhome with a 12v compressor one, I was surprised to see the refrigerant was propane. ( Yes, the refrigerant. It didn’t burn propane as 3 ways do when mains isn’t available.)

CO2 has, by definition, a GWP of 1. That's a lot better than R134a (1430).

R1234yf was initially thought to have a GWP of 4 but seems they've now revised that down to below 1, although some of the PFAS decomposition products are Not Nice.

CO2 doesn't have those problems, and of course you can capture it from the air (or other processes which would emit into the air) so it's not adding any net CO2 to the atmosphere.

I'm not sure why it's so expensive - R744 water heaters are common in Japan. CO2 refrigeration systems are under higher pressure so maybe the equipment is more expensive (and perhaps the system on the car has to be higher grade too). They probably have relatively few cars to amortise the equipment over. I'm sure it will improve as R744 cars become more popular.

Theo

R744 isnt expensive. You can buy top up cylinders for a few quid. It's the 'certified green with special additives that can only be installed by your dealer on pain of removing all grantees' R744 that is reassuringly expensive.

E,g, in a completely different arena, to buy a 'genuine 1970 Marshall impedance selector switch' will set you back £75.

We had something like that with hybrids and EVs - the electric compressors need a different nonconductive oil from the regular belt driven ones. If you get even a trace of conductive oil into the electric compressor you get internal flashover and kill it. So garages need to have a separate machine with the hybrid oil and you average backstreet place wouldn't touch them. (They also need separate R134a and R1234yf machines, so that's four machines in all)

It's not rocket science, it's just that to begin with there were few hybrids on the road and it wasn't worth general garages investing so you had to go to the dealer. Now hybrids and EVs are common, more machines are appearing and it's easier to find garages to do it.

Twas ever thus... various switchgear cost a lot less if you bought it from Fiat instead of Ferrari.

I wonder how many that seller actually sells? Setting a price is one thing, finding a buyer to pay it is another.

Theo

Er, newer than around 2014

I once owned a Citroen ZX which shared its platform, engines, and parts with the Peugeot 306. I found that the same parts for the Peugeot were cheaper from many sources than parts if you just searched for Citroen

About 1/3 the price for a similar looking item

You may find that it can normally lose upto 5% of the refrigerant per year. If it's 17 years since a recharge perhaps most of the refidgerant has gone. If that much has been lost than there may/will be other problems.

I had the aircon on my 2017 Focus checked last year for the first time. It had only lost around 1% of refrigerant per year. I do use the aircon regularly, including during winter, so all the seals are well lubricated all of the time.

Well yes, I looked for sold items to show what buyers would actually pay rather than how much sellers wanted ...