I asked this question a good while back (but didn't follow it up) and am asking again in the hope that someone has had some recent relevant experience:
Can anyone recommend a good air con specialist reasonably local to me? - I'm in Hemel Hempstead and am thinking Watford/St Albans maybe, but could travel further afield.
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Not a recommendation as such but maybe a helpful source of enquiry?
tinyurl.com/das8bk
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Thank you, AS. I had already discovered this site, but the people don't seem to cover my area.
I have now booked the car in to an air-con specialist in St Albans for tomorrow. I will report back if these guys are any good. So far it's encouraging; bloke on the phone is pleasant and helpful and suggests that, if the air-con on my car has been working until recently (which it has) and has been regularly switched on, summer and winter, it may now just need servicing, which includes re-gassing. Their prices seem reasonable.
We shall see!
Edited by ChrisPeugeot on 19/03/2009 at 18:08
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I have a '98 306 TD and fixed it myself.
I would say that if you have had a leak, its never going to just be a regas - these things normally leak for a reason.
There are two weak points on a 306 so ensure that when your man regasses it he puts in a dye to find the leak:
1:) Look for an aluminium pipe running inside the engine bay on the engine side of the bottom of the radiator. There are two brackets and this pipe corrodes on both of them until it leaks. Pipe costs about £80 from Peugeot only (although if good the company may be able to repair it) horrible job to change, but I managed!
2:) The radiator for the aircon (Condensor) also leaks. This is much harder to trace as the airflow through it distributes the dye. Available for around £70 aftermarket.
The good news is that the pressure switch works and cuts off the system by disengaging the clutch on the compressor when the gas level runs low. That way when the oil in the gas is dumped the compressor doesnt pack in (about £200!).
Good luck with it mate, but expect a bill of more than £50 for a regass - its almost certainly going to be something else. Even if it works it will still probably leak again over a few days. Thats why you must ensure that they put dye in so you/they can spot the leak with a uv light.
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OK - just got back from having it done.
What these people do for a start is the basic service at £49.99, which includes diagnostics, evacuation and refill. Further work, if deemed necessary, is discussed with the customer and price is agreed before being carried out. A detailed report of the initial state of the system is provided, together with figures for its performance after the service.
In my case, no further work was thought necessary. I did press the guy I dealt with over the need to use dye to check for leaks and he pointed out that slow leaks can be very hard to spot even with dye. And they did (allegedly) test for loss of pressure anyway, which would reveal any serious leaks.
Of course, as Moulder implies above, the proof of the efficiency of the firm will be what happens over the next few days, weeks and months. At the moment the blast of air from the vents is much, much colder than I've ever had - hope it lasts.
So far, I'm happy to recommend. The car was there for an hour; there's an adequate customer waiting "lounge". Everyone was pleasant. The place is a little hard to find, off the beaten track, just outside St Albans - I'll willingly provide directions if anyone here is interested.
See their website: www.carcoolservices.co.uk/
(Mods - link above is clickable, I see - hope this is OK.)
Edited by ChrisPeugeot on 20/03/2009 at 12:20
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I hope you dont mind me responding to these posts, I work at carcoolservices.co.uk
Unlike the majority of companies we dont use automated machines when we work on car air conditioining, they are limited by what they can do and frequently miss leaks and are no help at all in diagnosing problems.
We dont normally add dye as we dont fill cars that have leaks in them as required by the current legislation. We have specialised tests including smoke generators, OFN (oxygen Free Nitrogen) pressure testers and in-house developed tools including ultrasonic leak detectors, so we can always find leaks if they are present.
The UV dyes are limited in there use as the dyes react with the UV in normal daylight and fail to work after about 48 hours. Acording to the regulations (and in our opinion best practice) UV dyes are unnecessary as a leaking air con system should be emptied and proper leak detection used to find the leak before any refigerants are added.
I would add that many of the cars we see with leaks reported have very simple problems and we are able to repair leaking pipes and hoses using specialist equipment, avoiding expensive replacement parts.
This post has been made in an effort to provide information - Not as an advertisement, so I hope it will be read in this way.
Eric
{Eric, that's fine. Thanks for the clarification - DD, BR Moderator}
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 06/08/2009 at 11:12
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