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air con diagnosis

R

redjon71

Messages
10
ive had my ep3 since may & never really had cause to use aircon but i was trying it the other week & noticed it was not going cold when air con was on so i figured a re-gass maybe was due but then i was sat in car idling & playing with the dash & thought id see how much my revs went up if i pressed the air con button just out of curiosity & to my suprise my revs didnt move which got me thinking that the air con wasnt working even though my button light lit up, now i may be being thick here but i was always under the impression that using air con upped your revs because of the extra load in power needed to run it hence your car revved higher to compensate & resulting in higher fuel consumption because of it & if mine wasnt doing that isnt it possible that my air con motor,fan is not working hence it not getting cold anyway & not just the re gas i thought was all it needed in the first place, Any input on this theory of mine would be appreciated & any advice on checks to find out why its not cooling or working would be helpfull.
p.s all ideas welcome before i spend any money on having a full check at garage as i know you guys are good with fault finding on this forum :)
 
If its lost its gas or there's a fault the light will still come on mate, it just wont let the aircon work....safety device built in, hence no rev change, saying that my DC5 revs dont change anyway.....As far as i remember it did on the older cars i had ***.

Get yourself a quote from an independent aircon man in a van who wil come to you, he will look for any leaks (usually shows as they put a coloured dye in the fluid, he may have to gas it to proove.....

Go to a main dealer and it'll cost ya an arm an a leg especially if the condensor/evaperater/compressor pump/pipes etc are shot.....So much to go wrong.

Have a look at the pollen filter as well as they are often forgotten.....Still wont make a faulty aircon work but you will notice a better airflow if its clogged.

Also make sure the blower fan is on as well.

HTH

Ron
 
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Mate modern pumps put little added weight on the belt so revs hardly change is at all. Get some one to switch the aircon on and off and see if the clutch kicks in, the clutch is the centre section of the pump, when not on you will see the centre stays stationary and starts spinning when light on dash is on. If light is on and centre still not moving then its not working. First step is to get a re-gas. My machine does a complete suck out, leak and vacuum test before re-gassing, if it doesn't recover much old gas then it's likely that it's just under pressure for pressure switch to pick up.
 
Jetmanjay said:
Mate modern pumps put little added weight on the belt so revs hardly change is at all. Get some one to switch the aircon on and off and see if the clutch kicks in, the clutch is the centre section of the pump, when not on you will see the centre stays stationary and starts spinning when light on dash is on. If light is on and centre still not moving then its not working. First step is to get a re-gas. My machine does a complete suck out, leak and vacuum test before re-gassing, if it doesn't recover much old gas then it's likely that it's just under pressure for pressure switch to pick up.
Click to expand...

my centre part of the pump doesn't spin when I put the air con switch on,does this mean I need a new pump.
i have checked the fuse and relay and seems ok.or does it need gas to work.
 
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The center part is engaged by (I'm assuming here not checked an ep3) a magnetic clutch.

The outer spins freely when the ac is off, allowing little drag to be added.
When they ac is on, the clutch engages and drives the center part of the pulley to drive the compressor.

It not working is most likely to be low on gas.
Though it of course could be other things. But that's your first port of call

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
 
Fins missing doesn't necessarily mean leaking. It sits in front of coolant rad, so they often loose fins.
Think radiator, can have loads missing and not be leaking.

You need to get the gas checked before you buy anything.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
 
This was my condenser:



Unfortunately the seal part of the pipe that connects to the receiver-drier stayed in the port. This doubles the cost of the job as they seem to be prone to failure, I've ended up buying genuine.

Got a Groupon deal in Warwickshire for £30 re-gas. Just hope that I have it rebuilt before it expires.
 
Your link looks like the right part, I was just saying don't bank on the expenditure ending there.

There are UK sites that do both a condenser and a receiver drier for about that much, though. What seems to vary is the warranty. Have a look at

Autoairconparts.co.uk

Adrad.co.uk

I think in older threads that people on here have successfully used the first one.




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Edit 21/06:

Depending upon how long your A/C has been out of order, I recommend using a system cleaner. I bought the aerosol type that sits in the car for ten minutes with re-circ running for ten minutes. It was £5 from Euro Car Parts.

I did this because earlier in the week I realised that I've had almost constant colds since fixing my A/C. Not definitely connected, but for the sake of £5.....
 
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