Hi,
The aircon on my Rover 220 turbo (petrol, 1995, Japanese version although never made it to Japan) is a bit limp. It basically works, but the air is only cool, not cold. On really hot days it doesn't keep the inside of the car all that cool.
My previous car was almost identical - 1994 UK version of the same car - but the aircon on that was really cold. On its coldest setting it was uncomfortably cold, even with four people in the car, on a really hot day.
A garage had a look and said it was running OK but may as well regas it. They did that (and broke it in so doing, but that's a different story) and there's no change at all. They said it tested OK - down to 2degrees, whatever that means.
There is no problem with airflow (no pollen filter on this model, for example), and plenty of coolant. No overheating or other odd temperature behaviour.
One thing which has been suggested is that the old car may have had the "old" type of refrigerant (whatever that is), and the new car a different, less effective, type. I'm not aware that the old car ever had its refrigerant replaced but the new one certainly has.
Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks,
Mark
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Hi
There are 2 different types of gas for aircon systems, The old gas R22 was changed because it had CFCs in it what dystroy the ozone layer, the new gas R134 is more enviromently friendly.
You really should take the car to an aircon specalist & get them to look at it, you dont just regas an aircon system on a car, it should have the system vacumed out & re-oiled before the new gas goes in, About £65 - 70 for this.
You should also use the aircon for a minium of 10 minutes a week to stop the systems seals from drying out.
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Hi,
Thanks for the reply. I wasn't specific enough in my original post. The garage which looked at it was an aircon specialist, and they tested it at deep vacuum - no problem at all there. I presume they would have re-oiled it too. They charged £80.
I do run it periodically to make sure it doesn't dry out.
So any more suggestions folks?
Thanks,
Mark
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The spec is a vent temp of 4-8*C, fan speed high, engine at 1500rpm, ambient 24*.
If it matches that, then you need to be sure the airflow isn't blocked somewhere.
Change of gas should make no difference, but it may be they checked it with a low ambient, in which case it may have got to 2* easily, so check when it's hotter outside.
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Thanks Dave. I'll try to test it.
-Mark
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Try the aircon on with the re-circulate switch on. It should make it a bit cooler.
Be careful if you smoke though as the smell will be impossible to get rid of on re-circulate.
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Hi,
Thanks for the suggestion, but I've tried all the combinations of recirc etc. As I mentioned, I had an almost identical car before and my comparison is with that.
Cheers,
Mark
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Are the condensor (the 'radiator') fans running at a low speed with the a/c system on?
You should be able to see two alloy pipes running from the engine bay to the evaporator. One large and one small.
With the system running, the small one should get fairly hot, whereas the large one will be very cold and will probably have a large amount of condensated water on it.
That's a simple way to see if the system is working 'well'
--
groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words.....
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Thanks DL, I'll have a look. The engine bay is so packed full that you can't see the condenser at all easily, but I'll try and work out which pipes go where and see if they are as you describe.
Thanks,
Mark
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