Fairly easy. Many places do / can put a dye into the refrigerant - so leaks can be spotted - some are visible, some need a UV lamp to see.

Kwik-Fit did the original air con recharge, so I took back to them as they said they could check for leak with dye.

After 45 minutes, they said they could not complete leak test, as it had detected major leak. They are not allowed to pump in refrigerant if they know it is leaking out, it's against the law, you "Cannot knowingly release refrigerant into atmosphere" .

I'm not sure what they were doing for 45 minutes, as I told them there was a leak and they said they could check with dye, strange.

Checked with another garage, they said they would check for leak with Nitrogen & dye.
They said Kwik-Fit had not done test properly or didn't have equipment to do Nitrogen test.

I assume to test for leak you should use Nitrogen & not refrigerant.
Maybe you can use refrigerant for small leaks & need to use Nitrogen for larger leaks.

Can anyone clarify ??

Edited by peter973 on 11/07/2010 at 10:20

.I would certainly use a uv dye first in the gas charge then nitrogen as the next step

the most common area for a leak on a Cavalier is the a/c condensor radiator,often showing leakage on the reverse side so it is not immediately evident.hth

I think Kwik-Fit could not do leak test with refrigerant & dye, as their machine detected "major" leak, so would not continue with test.

Another company said most common place for leak is the Condenser radiator.