2009 air-con (or not)

[Rossybrown]

Hi all,

I’m after some air con advice…

It didn’t work when I bought the car (2009 NA) a month ago so I checked the fuses and relays and cleared all the codes with no success.  I therefore took it to my local garage who diagnosed a leaking condenser by filling the system with nitrogen. 
 

They fitted a new condenser but still no joy (other than it now holds gas).  I’ve cleared the codes again, as the spanner light was on, and now the compressor clicks in and out as requested but no cold air…

Any ideas on where to look next?

Thanks in advance,

Ross

[philcool]

When the clutch clicks in does the middle of the pully now spin with the outer pully as sometimes they slip as the gap is to large if it is spinning you need to connect a set of gauges to the suction and discharge ports to see if the compressor is pumping.

Ie suction goes down and the discharge goes up 

[Rossybrown]

Thanks, I’ll take a look when I can get under it. The other thing that’s been mentioned to me is the thermal expansion valve (TVX)?

[EvoraBob]

when your operate the air-con, press the air-con button and then put the temperature control to cold and fan on high speed. If the car is ticking over you should see the rev counter pointer move slightly when you switch the A/C on or off. You can check if the expansion vale is not working by removing the front RHS arch liner and mud flap and you have the two air con alloy pipes  with valves and black caps fitted where the regas is charged, when the car is running and A/C is on if you touch the thinner pipe it should be cooler then the thicker pipe which will be hot. If the garage that fitted your condenser are any good they should have replaced the filter/drier and the expansion valve at the same time. Also if they have filled the system with to much or less gas it would affect the operation. They should have used R134A gas and 0.645 grams of gas.

[Rambo]

They filled it with nitrogen. Are you sure? 

[Rossybrown]

Yes, to check for leaks - diagnosed as condenser leaking.  It did look a mess of bulges and green stains.  Now filled with refrigerant as per the service manual. 

[philcool]

Usually if the expansion valve has failed closed then the compressor would cycle on and off on the low pressure switch if its jammed open less likely because its still only got a small orifice it would still produce enough pressure drop to achieve some cooling 

[Rossybrown]

Many thanks

[Rossybrown]

9 hours ago, EvoraBob said:

when your operate the air-con, press the air-con button and then put the temperature control to cold and fan on high speed. If the car is ticking over you should see the rev counter pointer move slightly when you switch the A/C on or off. You can check if the expansion vale is not working by removing the front RHS arch liner and mud flap and you have the two air con alloy pipes  with valves and black caps fitted where the regas is charged, when the car is running and A/C is on if you touch the thinner pipe it should be cooler then the thicker pipe which will be hot. If the garage that fitted your condenser are any good they should have replaced the filter/drier and the expansion valve at the same time. Also if they have filled the system with to much or less gas it would affect the operation. They should have used R134A gas and 0.645 grams of gas.

Thanks Bob,

The revs noticeably alter when switching the air con on and off, the gas was filled as per the spec in the service manual (I gave them a copy). Unfortunately however, the expansion valve and drier were not replaced which may come back to bite me...

Ross