Retro-fitting air-con?

Let's see, you'll need -

Compressor (bolts on engine) + associated pulleys/belts (might even find steering pump and alternator are in different places on air-con equipped vehicles) Evaporator (probably need the complete the heater/air distribution box for inside the vehicle) Dryer Condenser (radiator type bit) Probably an extra cooling fan All the pipework Electrical wiring and switched to operate it all And all the other various brackets/clips etc......

Short answer, sell it and buy one that already has aircon

Thanks Moray - I knew there'd be a catch:)

Unfortunately[?] the vehicle is adapted to carry a wheelchair user so a simple swap isn't an easy option. Never mind, summer finishes tomorrow so I won't feel quite as jealous at the sight of all those people driving around with their windows up when it's 30C :)

Thanks again.

When air-con was a true option, you would have been able to have it fitted later as an accessory. Now, it's pretty much built-in and the likes of the heating/ventilation unit may well differ according to whether the air-con is fitted in the factory. Adding it to a system that was never expected to have it added, probably isn't feasible. (I have the servicing CDs for my own car and there seems to be 3 styles of unit inside the dash - one without, one with a/c, and one with climate control, for example.)

It is do-able, though you'll need an almost identical donor car with air-con fitted to be able to get all the bits. There is much more to an air-con system than just the bits you can see (many modern systems integrate with the engine management) and you'll need a specialist to regas the system and check for leaks, assuming you remove and refit everything yourself.

I would check with your Citroen dealer about the possibility of having it fitted, though I'd expect you'd be looking £2000+ if you factor in labour, etc. As has already been mentioned, there may be other changes to ancillary device locations too such as PS pump, alternator, etc. which would involve new wiring or hydraulic hoses just to keep them working before you even start fitting the air-con components.

Personally it's not worth the effort and money for the relatively short heatwaves we get.

Darren

The message from John Laird contains these words:

And the ECU these days.

In news:F8Gue.1241$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe2-gui.ntli.net, Darren Jarvis decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

Indeed, my old Range Rover has AC, and the list of stuff that's different is a bit long. From the entire bottom half of the dashboard to the alternator.

Aircon is Gods Own Gubbin. People who think it's only useful for one week of the year don't know how to use it correctly.

I suffer badly from hay fever and about the only place I get peace from the constant itching and sneezing is the car. I sold my Golf Cabriolet because if I went out in it with the roof down, I needed so many hay fever tablets it was unsafe to drive the bloody thing. with AC on in the Range Rover, not a sniffle. Other advantages include windows that are perfectly clear even when you have 4 soaking wet passengers in the car and the heating on full in a storm.

AC *rocks*

There are firms that make and fit aftermarket units. But I'd expect them to cost 1500 plus.

True, however I'd expect that to be a common unit which simply never sees the "a/c on" signal in a vehicle without a/c, but is still programmed to make the required changes to fuelling if it ever did.

I couldn't agree more. I get hayfever too and a car with AC and a pollen filter is the bees knees, dogs dangly bits etc.

I did ask one company about preces for retro fitting AC and it looks to be 2K plus.

Hmmmmmm.....

Drive faster.

Si

In the crudest form, all that happens is the throttle opening at idle is increased to maintain the idle speed with the extra load. Although these days many will cut the AC when large demands are made on the engine for overtaking, etc.

This is true if you want a factory finish but if you're happy with a heath-robinson type arrangement then you just need the basic components from a car - probably an older one with a simple on/off switch, but fo coruse you'll still need to mount the evaporator and compressor somewhere.

Yeah, I know all that ;-) The point I was making was that, in vehicles where some models have air-con and some do not, that there may be components in common (the ECU perhaps), and components which are quite different (the internals of the heating/ventilation unit in mine). My car also has an extra cooling fan, sitting side-by-side the coolant-operated one (which comes on at the same time even if it was off) - a non-equipped variant may have just one fan, perhaps on a different mounting. It may be far from a trivial task to "bolt-on" an a/c unit. My mother did have a/c added after a year to her last car (at quite reasonable cost, too), and I know the evaporator was somewhere in the glovebox area in the air intake path. I have a newer model of the same car and it's deep in the dash next to the heater matrix. Seems unlikely the designers would have left space anywhere for an add-on unit.

Buy an aftermarket sun roof or two.

sponix