Peugeot 405 aircon sudden death

If you didn't have that bias/pov you might have got the system gassed/serviced every few years and not had what's possibly a BIG expensive issue

eplace more than is needed just to make more

Well thank you for your completely useless reply. Anyway my biased point of view is entirely justified.

Kris gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

For once, the Tooomtard actually made both sense and a good point.

Regular regassing is cheap. Letting an aircon system sit empty is a great way of ensuring a fair few bits need replacing.

The best way to avoid being ripped off is to diagnose it yourself, start by getting a set of gauges from ebay and have a look at what pressures you have in the system.

My recommendation is to take it to an aircon specialist, or get one to visit you.

But I thought so long as you used it regularly and there's no leaks it wouldn't need regassing?

The first thing to check is the level of gas in the system. To do that you need a set air con gauges, hoses and the right sort of adaptor.

Every car manufacturer that I know of recommends that their systems get evacuated and regassed on a periodic basis.

Err no, that's why regassing it & changing the lubricants in the service schedule.

Not in mine it isn't! But hey it is French after all.

Had a visual check around earlier, couldn't see anything, but then I didn't expect to see much as it seems if you have a leak that UV dye is required to find it. Next stop will be the telephone to a specialist.

If it's just run out of gas then kwik fit are as good as anyone else (their machine won't let them take shortcuts but you can input the wrong information), but if it's got anything else wrong then you'll end up at a specialist.

Check pressure's an annual check, regas is once per 4 years.

There's no mention of any of this in the schedule for my car - it's an Alfa

156 & a/c is standard equipment. There's just a test - basically switch the thing on and watch the temperature drop on a thermometer - which it passes with flying colours after nearly 10 years!

D A Stocks

they just don't expect it to last long enough to service ;)

[...]

There is also no mention of any servicing to the a/c in my Focus, either in the handbook or the service guide.

Mine is working at what appears to be the same level of performance as it did when I bought the car 10 years ago. The car is of so little value now that I would just live without if/when it fails.

Chris

Autodata says to check the aircon every two years on the Focus, since the simplest way these days is just to hook up the recycle machine, tell it the VIN number and walk away for a while I expect that is all that the Ford servicing would recommend.

Believe me a Focus without Aircon is an unpleasant vehicle in summer especially. Major expense might be out of the question, but a regas wouldn't be.

Now that so many vehicles have air as standard I am checking the output temps as part of the service and topping up if it is out. I am not having much luck with getting people to shell out an extra fifty quid every two years for a complete change, but just a top up and the odd ten or twenty quid is acceptable.

[...]

So does Haynes(!); not Ford however.

No, as I said, the Ford service schedule doesn't menti> "Every car manufacturer that I know of recommends that their systems

Maybe not; TBH, I do such a low annual milage now it wouldn't be a problem.

I would be perfectly happy with that as a customer. What worries me about a/c servicing is that lots of people I know end up spending a lot more than just the cost of a regas, even when the only reported problem was a low output.

It might be that the expense was necessary, but I know that many customers end up disgruntled, especially when it usually fails again quite soon.

Of course, if you were close enough for me to use, I would send them all to you!

Chris

Best one of mine is the Ferrari, the factory manual says to evacuate and regas every year and states that 'up to 1kg of lost gas is within spec' Great, esecially since it originally uses R12 which as I understand it has the CO2 equivalent of 700 times its own weight, perhaps ferrari were responsible for global warming!!

[...]

And in more ways than just the a/c ;-)

Chris

Thats fine if you have one locally, my nearest is at least two hours drive away (I posted an aircon query about my mondeo a few weeks back)