Aircon recondition costs

_peas, Nov 17, 7:01pm
Any recommendations for mobile air con regassing/repair(?!) services in Auckland? The Legacy has just clicked over 230km and isn't blowing cool enough for the family and we've got some road trips this summer. Figured it might be a couple of hundred well spent. Just hoping that a regas will do the trick and its not a new compressor or worse.

franc123, Nov 17, 7:04pm
Depends on the reason why the refrigerant level is low IF that's the issue. It could be that a recharge might get it working satisfactorily for a few years yet.

sr2, Nov 17, 7:21pm
I've had great success with CRC's aircon re-gass. One can has topped up 4 cars!
https://www.supercheapauto.co.nz/p/crc-crc-ac-charge-refrigerant-r134a-refill-and-hose-400g/541364.html

s_nz, Nov 17, 8:15pm
The daily deal sites tend to have cheap aircon regas deals.

https://new.grabone.co.nz/auckland/search?query=Air%20Conditioning%20Gas&view=grid

My understanding is that is better than topping the refrigerant as they use a vacuum pump to purge the system of the old gas and any contaminates (water vapor etc) before adding new gas. Also cheaper than the CRC bottle linked above.

I had one of these re-gases done on my corolla.

If you want a top notch job done, you might have to look beyond those deals for somebody who will replace the refrigerant dryer and oil as well as doing the regas. Assume the deals will just check the oil level and move on if OK.

intrade, Nov 17, 8:46pm
if you get aircon work done corretly . and it has a real problem like puncture in the condenser. Then 1 grand will be gone real quick or more.
you have to repair it draw a vacuum after you also replaced the dryer then check then fill and recheck. if more problems evacuate the whole gas again and fix more and start over to draw a vac again. quite labour intensive . And if something under the dash failed then its really going to cost ultra maga when half the car has to be dismantled to get to a temp sensor. This is generic info only What you need has to be found out first.

kazbanz, Nov 17, 10:29pm
l reckon you have a pretty good chance a simple regas will sort it . About $150 . It’s only about a 10 minute job. Most auto sparkles carry the gear to do the job

msigg, Nov 18, 7:13am
Yes above, keep it simple, unless its a late model car worth lots of money, an older vehicle high km things are not perfect, so do the cheap job, the window down is best anyway, thats if you have a monsoon shield. each to their own.

scuba, Nov 18, 4:39pm
Window down . are you kidding I nearly melted last year when I was in the North Island. Mind you the fresh fruit available was unreal.

s_nz, Nov 18, 6:05pm
Counterpoint is that older high mileage vehicles are more likely to have an issue to diagnose, oil level that is low / needs replacing, contamination / moisture in the system etc, hence greater value in doing it properly.

For me I would never purchase / keep a vehicle without functioning air conditioning. If a lot of people without me the value of even an old car must take quite a dive if the system fails.

A Legacy should be good for in excess of 300,000 - 350,000km, so still quite a few years running left in it.

franc123, Nov 18, 8:28pm
Except for the fact that putting a window down is letting more humid air in. A/C is a refrigeration process, it's not the same thing at all.

intrade, Nov 18, 8:37pm

mrfxit, Nov 19, 12:01pm
BOOM . . . .

msigg, Nov 19, 2:45pm
Yes franc we know what refridgeration is, we work on it weekly. But you want to spend good money on an old 2 _ 3k car, not me. I would have window down and arm out the window like a westie , feels more like freedom to me that sitting in a fish tank, some need to harden up, bring on the warm weather, each to their own.

gpg58, Nov 19, 4:34pm
Only ever worked on a few(eighties) cars, but all the ones i did, either had a perished/cracked hose at its connection point to compressor, or more common was the o-rings under the flanges on the compressor had gone hard, and were leaking.
Imo, unlikely to have lost oil from compressor, unless it has a huge leak, that allowed the the oil to be dumped with the gas, (basically all gone in just a few seconds).
Those quick recharge kits can be ok, (assuming it is the correct gas for yours) but imo only if the system is short of gas, not empty.
An empty system will be full of air, which contains moisture, which freezes at metering devices, blocking them, and the air itself will cause high pressures in system.
Many have a sight glass on the filter body, so basically imo, if you can see a liquid flow in sight glass, you may get away with a top up, but if no flow, its likely that a proper service is best bet.
Also check the condenser coil is not blocked /dirty (usually in front of radiator coil).
ps - i agree re winter use (below) too, i actually use as much in winter as in summer, especially for drying out car, with often having a wet dog in it.

franc123, Nov 19, 4:36pm
A surprising amount of people in this country are actually too stupid to know the difference, its evident from some of the comments on here, and there is equally ignorant comments like "oh you dont need to use that in the winter". Having functioning A/C is actually a safety enhancer in colder weather obviously because of it's much quicker demisting action. All my cars have working A/C where its fitted regardless of their age or value.

_peas, Nov 27, 8:58pm
Bit the bullet and had it re-gassed and oil added to lubricate seals. The guy dragged the cabin filter out from behind the glovebox (which was news to me) and it was majorly blocked. It blows much harder now and while not the coolest aircon I have experienced its enough to keep a young family happy on the upcoming summer road trips. The window down doesn't do squat sitting in the queue at Warkworth. On the move I'm all for the window though. Thanks for the advice, it was $160 well spent.

intrade, Nov 27, 9:02pm
luckily no puncture or broken compressor as that would bump it to a grand and beyond quite quickly .

intrade, Nov 28, 7:24am
i fixed the AC on my astra i have a video load testing the clutch with the loadpro test leads abd bidirectional controlling the AC clutch on to find the clutch had gone replacing the clutch fixed that and later on it was not as cold topped it off with my AC gear . as you dont really need to exchange the gas . you dont echange the gas on your fridge or freezer its the same thing . the slow leaks can happen on Ac compressor seal . but thats like 20 years leak if it leakes out in 6 month you would need a new compressor or a exchange and then its $$$$$$$ as once the system is empty for more then 2h moisture and acid forms inside and must be cleaned evacuated to dry and flushed and filters then need to be exchanged its called a dryer and its all explained by argo contractor mr olivas in greater detail in his pay videos i own to learn all about AC as well . Air condition is air-condition its like gravity it don't changes inside the house outside the house in the car or in the shopping mall= the same gravity exists=

if its in a fridge a car a heat-pump a cars-AC its all the same. just slight different means to do the same thing.
Now to explain why you would need to remove the gas on a car to top it up is because you have no idea how much is still inside them machines remove all the gas and then refill what exactly should be in there. because overcharge is not exactly helpfull for the system to function correctly = thats basically the only reason why it gets removed.
Dangers are some moron put leakstop in there and you 400- to 6000$ machine gets distructed by drawing the sealer in to the machine and then glues it up whiping your machine out in worst case scenario. or the machine then goes and spreads the glue like the corona virus in the next system. That is why i dont evacuate nothing. Not that i have a machine to do this as i dont invest in tools that likely will be wiped out like this.
but gives you hopefully a understanding why AC work costs so much money to get done correctly.

nice_lady, Oct 18, 10:04am
Hubby would strongly disagree. His experience driving Mums 1995 Toyota with failed aircon from Whangarei to Auckland on Waitangi weekend. Stuck in traffic at Warkworth in the VERY hot sun wasn't fun at all. He was very very happy to swap it for a Hyundai Elantra with great aircon. Windows down work when you're moving but only to some extent - they are useless when you're not moving.