Air Con

[timtheenchanter]

My fiat multipla is reaching is 4th birthday soon, I beleive that air con should be recharged after 4yrs from new then every 3 years, 2 questions

1, What will happen if i dont recharge straight away, will the air con just be useless, or will i actually damage somthing

and:

2, approx how much is a recharge or a recharge/ air con service, a good idea of a reasonable price has protected me from previous rip-offs

thanx in advance

 

[davieboy]

1. if you dont recharge it after 4 years (don't think anyone really does ) it will just become less efficient/cold. It shouldn't damage anything. there is a low pressure cut off switch that shuts the system down if the gas charge is too low, so if I were you (like most of my customers) just leave it until it stops working. The lubricating oil in the system doesn't evaporate like the gas, the gas is lost throught minor porosity of the pipes.

2. we used to charge 85 inc vat for a vacuum discharge, dry the system with pure nitrogen, recharge with new gas and leak test.

hope this helps
dave

p.s. landrover quoted me 250 to recharge the a/c in my range rover just last week!!!

 

[biblejohn]

Alternatively you can recharge it yourself. I got some quotes to recharge my 306`s air con last year and the cheapest was 65quid. I bought a hose & some coolant charge kit off ebay for about 20quid and bobs your uncle. Easy to do.