Is Car Air Con Regular Servicing Needed?

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GarryP

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#293662 6-Feb-2022 12:15

Does anyone get their car's AC serviced (regassed) on a regular basis?

Seems to be recommended by places that perform this to have it done every two years. The claim is that the AC may lose upto 10% of its gas each year so needs to be checked/regassed, plus other parts such as dessicant filter need to be assessed.

The car's manual doesn't mention service intervals, only to run the AC for 10 minutes every week or so to keep seals etc lubricated.

Nate001

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#2862472 6-Feb-2022 12:29

Use your judgement. Does the AC still put out cold air?

GarryP

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#2862474 6-Feb-2022 12:33

Nate001: Use your judgement. Does the AC still put out cold air?

It is not about judgement. It is about preventive maintenance.

If it didn't put out cold air then obviously I would have it looked at.

Goosey

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#2862492 6-Feb-2022 12:38

How old is the car, how often do you get an actual service?

Whens the last time the AC had a service / gas check / belts check

Theres a few good "spray bombs" out there which once the cap taken off... you quickly close the door (whilst AC is running full)... and let this can dissapate.

(This sanitises the system somewhat)

Other than that, as the previous poster said... if its blowing cold as you expect or hot as you desire....then its ok.

Also, if you are running it and find the idle of car is rough when AC kicks on/off....(like really rough), then maybe get it checked...but remember its normal for the AC to take load off the engine when its running and you normally hear it kick in too.

richms

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#2862515 6-Feb-2022 13:40

Mine have all suddenly lost the gas because of a failure of a seal or coupler. Nothing that topping up would have helped with. This sounds like the BS that home aircon companies do inorder to get steady income during the quiet times of servicing those.

Richard rich.ms

MadEngineer

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#2862528 6-Feb-2022 14:07

Of all the cars I’ve had I’ve never had the ac serviced aside from standard yearly maintenance at a workshop.

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

Jase2985

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#2862531 6-Feb-2022 14:16

make sure you run it for 5 mins every couple of weeks to keep the seals lubricated, change the pollen filter every 1-2 years

if its loosing 10% per year there is an issue that needs fixed

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Mehrts

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#2862622 6-Feb-2022 16:21

I'd only consider looking at it if the cooling performance wasn't as good as it used to be. Yes, small leaks can occur, but you'll know if it's struggling to produce cold air.

I've only ever had instant catastrophic failure due to a split hose.

If you think your A/C system does need a service, don't use the recharge cans you can get from Repco/Supercheap. They're a quick & dirty way to charge the system before selling the vehicle with a "working" A/C system to some poor soul.

Take it to a place that specialises in A/C. They'll be able to pull a vacuum on the system & properly check for leaks, and then recharge it to the correct level.

mdooher

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#2862785 6-Feb-2022 19:15

No it does not need servicing.

Apart from cleaning out any crap from around your radiator area and ensuring you replace/clean your cabin filter regularly of course

If the gas gets low you must find and repair the fault before it is refilled. But that is a repair not regular servicing.

Matthew

gehenna

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#2862788 6-Feb-2022 19:18

Never proactively serviced aircon. Have had aircon die on a 2yo car though and replaced under warranty. That type of issue wouldn't have been preventable I'm told, and didn't show any issues on regular services that it'd had before then. I don't think it's something you need to worry about.

timmmay

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#2862807 6-Feb-2022 21:18

My 19 year old Corolla's air con has never been serviced. The air con is starting to give up the ghost a bit, but at 19 years old it's done well. The old Corolla's pretty amazing, for the most part still good, engine and such, just needs another repaint but it's old and crash safety not great even as a second car.

insane

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#2862869 6-Feb-2022 23:31

I bought a DIY top up canister from Supercheap https://www.supercheapauto.co.nz/p/crc-crc-ac-charge-refrigerant-r134a-refill-hose---400g/541364.html. Pumped the whole big can into my 13 year old car at the time and it hardly raised the pressure at all. Started just below 50% and ended at maybe 55-60% and just shy of 'good' on the gauge.

Can't tell if it made much difference at all.

And no I didn't put it in the gas tank 😅

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Wheelbarrow01

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#2862875 7-Feb-2022 02:01

GarryP:

Does anyone get their car's AC serviced (regassed) on a regular basis?

Seems to be recommended by places that perform this to have it done every two years. The claim is that the AC may lose upto 10% of its gas each year so needs to be checked/regassed, plus other parts such as dessicant filter need to be assessed.

The car's manual doesn't mention service intervals, only to run the AC for 10 minutes every week or so to keep seals etc lubricated.

Just my 2 cents based on my experience....

Nah that sounds like a lie to get business. Air con gas doesn't just leak out over the life of the car - it only leaks if there is a faulty part in the system.

I have a 34 year old Hilux that I have owned for 20 years. The aircon stopped working around 15 years ago - by stopped working I mean the compressor stopped turning on so the air out of the blower was just ambient temperature even though the aircon light indicated it should be working. It never bothered me as it was only a weekend bush basher for many years. A few weeks ago I decided to get the aircon working again as part of the restoration I am doing on the Hilux. I took it to a local aircon guy. He tested it and said that some of the hardware needs to be replaced due to age (and it needs to be converted to R134a gas) but he said it was still full of R12 gas - literally none had leaked out in 20+ years. He replaced a few parts, sucked out the R12 gas, pumped in R134a and it's now working again.

If what you were told is correct, then by rights my Hilux should have had no gas in it at all.

I've owned 30ish cars in my time. The Hilux is the first one of which I've ever had to pay someone to get the aircon working again. But even then the gas (or lack of) wasn't the issue.

Yoban

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#2862925 7-Feb-2022 10:54

Just spotted this thread - over the last coupe of days when I have been parking up the car (2009 subaru legacy), switching the engine off - there has been a burbling and bubbling coming from where dash meets the bottom of windscreen. Certainly sounds like aircon unit and it has not been running as cold as I would have thought it should, certainly compared to our 2019 Outback.

Any recommendations in Auckland for a good automotive Aircon crowd?

hamish225

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#2862930 7-Feb-2022 11:09

I have a KIA Soul EV imported from the UK, thus it uses r-1234yf in the AC system. I had to get it re-gassed as all the gas had disappeared for some reason. maybe the previous owner never used it?

Anyway, KIA charged me $1400 for the re-gas. Afterwards out of curiosity, I reached out to an AC specialist in Rangiora, They quoted me $800 for a re-gas of 1kg. Oof. I bloody hope it doesn't need re-gassing again!

It seems the newer yf type gas is required under EU legislation (due to it being CFC free) and it seems car manufacturers are dumping their less environmentally friendly cars onto the NZ market, and thus the newer refrigerant is rare and expensive here, whereas we re-gassed our Renault Zoe in France for 50 euro. (but that's probably a topic for another thread!)

*Insert big spe*dtest result here*

mudguard

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#2862940 7-Feb-2022 11:47

Generally it only needs to be re-gassed if it's leaking. So if you've done it once...

I had an old Civic that I'd got re-gassed a couple of times. I think they found the leak eventually but I don't remember having it re-gassed being so expensive.