Air Conditioning

[plastic orange]

I took my car in today to ATS for one of the groupon air con recharges, and was told that they couldn't complete the refill as they said my air con compressor wasn't working. As I stay in Scotland there isn't really much need for air con, but of late I thought it wasn't as cold as usual (I turn it on now and then to keep it working). I told the guy that the compressor appears to kick in as the revs rise when air is selected - he said he'd noticed that too, but that his gauges indicated that it wasn't pressurising. They performed a leak test prior to attempting a fill, and he said it was fine and that it had refrigerant in the system.

They were quite decent really and have allowed me to use the voucher for the wife's RX 300, but I'm wondering how to test that the compressor has failed.

Pete

[The-Acre]

I took my car in today to ATS for one of the groupon air con recharges, and was told that they couldn't complete the refill as they said my air con compressor wasn't working. As I stay in Scotland there isn't really much need for air con, but of late I thought it wasn't as cold as usual (I turn it on now and then to keep it working). I told the guy that the compressor appears to kick in as the revs rise when air is selected - he said he'd noticed that too, but that his gauges indicated that it wasn't pressurising. They performed a leak test prior to attempting a fill, and he said it was fine and that it had refrigerant in the system.

They were quite decent really and have allowed me to use the voucher for the wife's RX 300, but I'm wondering how to test that the compressor has failed.

Pete

If you open the bonnet and get someone to switch the AC on you'll hear the compressor engage. If it engages but the pipes don't get cold the compressor is suspect. Mine went on my last MK1V

[ambermarine]

Pete ,If you look at the sight glass on the drier. the tubular canister in front of the Radiators , the glass should run clear of foaming bubbles after a few seconds after the A/C is switched on.

If that is not happening the system is short of refrigerant.

The pipe that should ice up is the thick one running into the condensor adjacent to the the Battery it will show frost if the engine compartment is not hot .

The narrow pipe on the firewall with the grey filler cap with a L on it should also be cold and will have condensation on it if everything is normal.

Run the system analysis and check the code for compressor circuit fault,

Its on the threads in the archives .

[plastic orange]

Cheers folks, I'll check further.

Pete

[plastic orange]

I checked the pipes mentioned and they are cold-ish, but no frost. Bubble in window doesn't seem to alter much. I'll have a look for codes.

Pete