Air Con - recharge or more?

[AAH!]

With today's glorious weather i put the air con on for the first time this year and there was no cold air.

Should I check anything before I get the system recharged?

I noticed that at idle the revs didn't go up when I switched the a/c on (as i seem to remember it doing in the past), but from what little I've read it sounds like when there is low pressure in the system the compressor doesn't kick in. I also read that a good place to look for leaks in the system is by around the drivers side (RHD) wheel arch, but I haven't found anything. I will get a leak test done.

Any suggestions of a/c places in west/central london.

Thanks Angus

[dan_b]

Angus - sounds to me like the coolant might have leaked out. It usually leaks through the aircon compressor chassis seal - the compressor itself sits at the bottom front right of the engine, in front of the wheel arch, it's driven by its own belt off the flywheel at the front of the engine, you can't miss it.

What you should do first is get it pressure tested and re-gassed and get them to put the UV leak detection fluid in. It'll probably charge up nicely for a bit then start leaking out over the next few weeks/ months. Then they can examine the dye to see where it comes out from.

The compressor is made by Denso - the VAG part is about £600 or something, but you can buy a on VAG-branded re-con Denso part for less than half that. Somewhere on here I detailed that on a thread when I replaced my leaking compressor 18 months or so ago.

I can recommend VACS in Weybridge - it's very West but inside the M25! They've had my car in several times over the years and have had a few other S2s as well so they know the car. www.vacs.co.uk 01932 411358

If you want a mobile service to come out and do a re-gas, I would recommend Chilly*****s, the guy who runs it is great http://www.chilly*****sairconditioning.com/


Hope that helps - I'm totally with you on the idea of fixing your aircon, don't listen to the low-weight fetishists on here who advocate ripping out the aircon and sweating!

[dan_b]

PS - no connection to either company above, I've just had good experiences working with both

[s2driveruk]

cant agree more after getting mine regassed the other week. Lovely cool air in this weather...nothing better

[AAH!]

Well I couldn't ask for a better answer to my question than that!

Thank you Dan.

[dan_b]

Well I could have given you the exact part number for the compressor, but I thought I'd give you a bit of research to do

Happy to help

[AAH!]

I found a very local air con place and took the car round to him and he shone his little UV torch around and it seems that when the system was last recharged about four and a half years ago UV detection fluid was added as he found evidence of a leak (see photo below). The detection fluid appears to be coming up the heat proof cover of the hose that disapears into the wheel arch towards the drier.

The A/C guy suggested that i change the leaky hose and the drier unit. Having checked my records the drier and an air con hose was changed was done four and a half years ago when it was last recharged. I don't know which air con hose was changed or if it is the same hose that is leaking now, but I was billed £238+vat for it and another £86+vat for the drier. No mention of the compressor.... at the moment.

I looked at vagcat.com (see pic in next post) and found the drier unit - number 22, but couldn't workout which was the hose that was leaking. Is it number 7 or 6, or something else?

Any Ideas on which hose it is or any comments?

Also vagcat.com won't give me part numbers anymore and I'm too cheap to fork out for a subscription, so a part number could be handy.

Thanks ... Angus

[AAH!]

EKTA a/c diagram.

[s2avant]

It will be hose number 7. Ironically that hose and the drier are the among the last remnants of the AC system that are still in situ on my car.

I would them to you but my catch tank has been breathing through that pipe into the drier for ages now so I doubt they are much use.

Ben

[AAH!]

Thanks Ben.

What is the best route to get to the drier and hose number 7? I assume the bumper has to come off, does anything else?

Angus

[AAH!]

When ordering the a/c hose number 7 (see diagram above) will it go from the drier to the connection joint above the heat shield/below the master cylinder (see photo in above post) or does it go all the way across the engine bay and disapear into the bulkhead.

Angus

[AAH!]

I have answered my own question with a call to vagparts; it only goes to the joint below the master cylinder. Martyn also pointed me towards an old post on the BTDT section that identifies an issue with the a wrong EKTA part number for this particular hose.

http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44