Air condition leak solution

[Amir_hmn2002]

Hi all

I hope you are all well.

On my last service for the car I was told my air-conditioning has a very small leak. They told me they will have to investigate further to find where its leaking from and if its the seal it will cost me around £150 to replace, but if its the main unit, it will cost £500.

As they mentioned it was a small leak, I thought I can use https://www.halfords.com/motoring/engine-oils-and-fluids/air-con/ez-chill-auto-air-conditioning-recharge---gas-r134a-264627.html

to fix it myself as I have done in the past on combustion engine. As this is my first hybrid car I noticed on the can I mentioned it says not suitable for hybrid vehicles.

Does anyone knows what type of gas you need for Is 300h model and ideally if anyone knows any reliable brand that I can get to fill the gas and seal the leak?

Regards,

Amir

 

[Britprius]

14 minutes ago, Amir_hmn2002 said:

Hi all

I hope you are all well.

On my last service for the car I was told my air-conditioning has a very small leak. They told me they will have to investigate further to find where its leaking from and if its the seal it will cost me around £150 to replace, but if its the main unit, it will cost £500.

As they mentioned it was a small leak, I thought I can use https://www.halfords.com/motoring/engine-oils-and-fluids/air-con/ez-chill-auto-air-conditioning-recharge---gas-r134a-264627.html

to fix it myself as I have done in the past on combustion engine. As this is my first hybrid car I noticed on the can I mentioned it says not suitable for hybrid vehicles.

Does anyone knows what type of gas you need for Is 300h model and ideally if anyone knows any reliable brand that I can get to fill the gas and seal the leak?

Regards,

Amir

 

Under no circumstances use R134A with PAG oil added. This is for non hybrid cars with engine driven compressors. Hybrid cars have electrically driven compressors that use the same gas "R134A", but the oil used is ND11, The gas and oil in hybrid compressor washes over the high voltage "500 + volts" motor windings, and needs to be an electrical insulator. PAG oil is electrically conductive, and if used or even equipment contaminated with it will cause compressor failure at some time in the near future.

John.

[Britprius]

If you wish to top up the gas in the system you can use Rothenburge pipe freezer that plumbers use to freeze pipes. This is pure R134A with no oil added, and can be obtained from B&Q, Toolfix, and other plumbing outlets like Wickes at around £16 for 16ozs.

John.

[Amir_hmn2002]

1 hour ago, Britprius said:

Under no circumstances use R134A with PAG oil added. This is for non hybrid cars with engine driven compressors. Hybrid cars have electrically driven compressors that use the same gas "R134A", but the oil used is ND11, The gas and oil in hybrid compressor washes over the high voltage "500 + volts" motor windings, and needs to be an electrical insulator. PAG oil is electrically conductive, and if used or even equipment contaminated with it will cause compressor failure at some time in the near future.

John.

Thanks for the information John its interesting to know why, but I wasn't going to use it, I was just asking if anyone knows what I can use to seal the leak and top it up instead.

I assume the gas you recommend can't seal the leak and its just for topping up. Can you use the standard air-con trigger to use this?

I was looking at https://www.halfords.com/motoring/engine-oils-and-fluids/air-con/superseal-air-conditioning-leak-sealant-mrl-3-134448.html 

for sealing but im not sure if it has any PAG oil

[Britprius]

The gas aerosol I described has a tube outlet that you can push the trigger hose on to after removing the trigger. The aerosol has a push button  to control the gas.

Look on eBay for AC sealants other than the STP version as it's not clear if the STP sealant has PAG oil added. There is a sealant called "Xstream" that is very good, and also contains a dye that shows leaks under UV light.

John.

[PCM]

Our daughter's Aygo had an AC leak - as good as empty.

Took it to Japex (Herts) - they fixed the leak. ( Zero cost ), re-gassed it and it has been fine since. 

( And much used in the last few days! )

[m4rkw]

Topping up yourself is probably not a good idea. Modern AC systems use a very small volume of refrigerant and there's no way to accurately determine the current charge, so you'll inevitably over-charge it and damage the compressor. Putting anything in the system other than what should be there is also a bad idea (stop-leak and similar products) and will damage things eventually. Your best bet is to just fix the leak properly.