Air con not cold

[sadistic_J]

Just had my system re-gassed, have to admit cant remember the last time I used the air con, weather has been so blinking awful.
Anyways its not getting cold, nada, nil, nothing.
Pump is kicking in, revs drop slightly when the middle button is pressed but thats it. High pressure pipes not getting hot either.
Edit: Oh and there now (hard to describe) a low audible hissing/whistling noise from inside the car but can not be heard in the engine bay.

Thought I would ask here first before going and spending more money.

Cheers.

 

[Messy]

Sounds like a leak on the evaporator (the bit that gets cold) this lives behind the dash. You need to have someone check the pressures, if it's only just been regassed and the pressure is low you have a leak. A pressure test is standard procedure to confirm a leak on the system but identifying where it is on a car can be tricky. And if it's the evaporator (common failure on fridges and aircon) it won't be cheap as the entire dash will need stripping out to change it.

 

[dazzawest]

There's an A/C pipe that runs along the underneath the lower front of the engine, where it's clamped, it leaks there. Stick your head under the front bumper and see if you can see any drips of green /luminous coloured oil.

 

[Messy]

Generally the oil will only be 'green' if it's had uv dye put into the system to attempt to track a leak. This is the case on all commercial and domestic systems anyway. If the leak can't be heard from the engine bay but can inside the car I'd suggest the leak won't be on the condensing side of the system (in the engine bay), however it's still a good idea to check all pipes and joints on the ac system for signs of oil. Although oil is a sign of a refrigeration leak it's not always present even if a leak is.

 

[dazzawest]

I'm just going by personal experience. I've seen a couple of others experience the same issue aswell. Chances are a ep3 will of had uv dye put in it at some point over the past 10+ years.

Air noise inside the car would maybe suggest evaporator but unlikely, depends if it's still making a noise or not aswell. If it's been making a noise for longer than 5 minutes it's not a ac leak, if it started then stopped then yea maybe.

 

[Messy]

Evaporators are quite common places for them to go due to the thermal fluctuations. A lot of regas places will charge your ac system to run at fridge pressures to make them colder which adds extra strain on the coil. Agreed though the hissing would only last as long as the gas is in the system, so not that long. The rubber O rings are common to go as well due to not being ran all winter.
I've been a fridge engineer for 13 years but I tend to stay away from automotive due to the awkwardness of repairing the systems.