Low Pressure Air Con Fill Point On A 2000 Plate Diesel

[big blue]

Can any body help. We have just got a diesel auto 1.9 TDI with a mountain of small problems, one of which is --- wait for it --- no air con. Can any body tell me where the low pressure fill point is, i can find the high pressure point but not the low.

It looks like the condenser has been replaced at some time so i would guess it got refilled. the thing is we went for a short drive (50 miles) the pipe from the a/c pump to the condenser was red hot, strange thing is we did not have the air con on, when we tried it earlier it did not work so we turned it off. Any help would be great. Sorry if this post should be some where else or some one has answered this but i am new to this site.

 

Thanks... Big Blue.

[Ivor_E_Tower]

If you've just got it and thye a/c is not working, maybe the previous owner got rid of it because of problems. No point in just regassing and hoping, better to have the system properly drained and pressure tested to make sure that there are no leaks.

I've just had the system on mine drained, cleaned, tested, re-filled with compressor oil (and fluorescent leak-detecting dye) too and new pollen filter, plus bacteriological clean-out.

Not cheap at

Edited May 27, 2009 by Ivor_E_Tower

[big blue]

Thanks for the info Ivor_E_Tower, the thing is some one at work has used a Halfords re-gas can on their air con and given me the can + gauge to check mine. Even if there is no gas left in the can i could still check if there is any pressure in my system - at least it would be a starting point to finding a fault.

 

Big Blue.

[JohnSimpson]

Thanks for the info Ivor_E_Tower, the thing is some one at work has used a Halfords re-gas can on their air con and given me the can + gauge to check mine. Even if there is no gas left in the can i could still check if there is any pressure in my system - at least it would be a starting point to finding a fault.

 

Big Blue.

 

I'm no expert but I just spent a Bank Holiday weekend googling ANYTHING to do with Galaxy aircon (see my recent posts) :-(

 

First I learned that it's easy to check if you've no gas. Lift the bonnet, switch on air con, start the engine then rush out and check to see if the compressor clutch kicks in - there's a click and the inside of the pulley starts to turn. If there's no gas then it shouldn't click in. If you've got gas then at least you're in a better place than I was a few days ago lol. The pipe from the compressor to the condensor (high pressure) should get hot, but equally the low pressure should get cold. That's on the far offside front of the engine compartment. I've been told that even if there's a bit of gas in the system, the compressor should kick in, but you just won't be getting a lot of cooling. I didn't know that you could buy the stuff from Halfords, but as I understand it, you really do have to have the system vacuumed out first (to get rid of any possible water droplets that can seriously screw up the system) - which also pressure tests the system - then refill with added dye. Most non-Ford places seem to do it for around the

[big blue]

Thanks John, the compressor drive pully is turning but the centre is not - so it looks like no gas.

Having spent the last week crawling all over the car trying to find the flaming thing - i cannot belive that Kwik fit and the like will start taking the car apart for

[1truegeordie]

Thanks John, the compressor drive pully is turning but the centre is not - so it looks like no gas.

Having spent the last week crawling all over the car trying to find the flaming thing - i cannot belive that Kwik fit and the like will start taking the car apart for

[big blue]

Thanks for the info 1truegeordie, i may have got this wrong but the pipe that goes from the compressor to the front of the engine bay up infront of the fans across to the battery compartment (where a fill / check point is) under the fan relay controll bracket ( diesel model not shure about petrol) also at this point there is a sensor?? that touches this pipe?? it then goes into the front grill and connects to the condensing radiator --- is that not the high pressure pipe?.

 

I thought the low pressure one was the bigger (3/4" - 20mm diamater) pipe that comes from the back of the engine bay where it connects to the a/c fan unit in the cabin across to the drivers side - along the side member and then goes into the side member / wing to avoid the belts and pullys on the engine, comes out of the wing and crosses to the compressor on the under side of the engine.

 

As i have said the only time i cannot trace this pipe is when it goes under the air filter / lamp guard and into the wing if the fill point is hiding under here its bloody bad design.

 

I will have another 'play' later on today, to see if i can find it, if i cant i will play dumb and let kwick fit have a go.

[big blue]

Ahhhhhhhh --- Found it.

It was hiding behind the drivers indicator - so the good news is i have pressure - the bad news the centre of the compressor pully is not turning, it will turn by hand (just). i have measured the voltage across the compressor plug and there is nothing with or without a/c on - the fans kick in but no voltage on the connector.

Back to Mr Haynes i think.