Air con effectiveness

[jasst]

Any Gransport/4200 owners care to comment on the effectiveness of the air con? Went for a blast over the Brecon Becons today, and whilst the air con was reasonable in the early morning, in the heat of the day it was pathetic, definitely cool air coming out, but no way was it cold, and struggled to keep the car cool

 

[Oishi]

Live in the southern US, my Spyder is black, even in 95+ deg. heat, my ac works fine.

 

[FIFTY]

Get it re-gassed. Mine was useless on hot days as it had less than half the gas left and the system was really struggling - I found on hot days it would only blow cold when I turned the recirc on.

 

[hashluck]

Drove the MC-V yesterday and it coped OK. I agree get it re-gassed

 

[PhillV8S]

Out in mine today and was fine, too cold if wanted even. Try a re gas and if that fails probably the condenser has a small leak ime.

 

[jasst]

Had it tested a few weeks ago when I had other probs, and he said gas was fine, but not sure if I believe him, would the drier cause a lack of effectiveness if it needed changing?

 

[Zep]

Had it tested a few weeks ago when I had other probs, and he said gas was fine, but not sure if I believe him, would the drier cause a lack of effectiveness if it needed changing?

Yes, very much so. A partially blocked or saturated drier adds pressure drop which gets worse at high temps.

 

[Eightpot]

Out in my 4200 CC most of the day and had to adjust fan a few times between too cold and not enough.If its got Climate Control it doesn't work that well but definately very cold when you want it to be.

 

[allandwf]

My 3200,surprisingly, worked well.

 

[philw696]

Had it tested a few weeks ago when I had other probs, and he said gas was fine, but not sure if I believe him, would the drier cause a lack of effectiveness if it needed changing?

Did his Aircon machine give you a print out showing the specs of your car and what you had or was he old school using gauges ?
Many cars will still have the original reciever drier on still and that's what I would be changing first.

 

[jasst]

His machine was old school, gauges, connected up and read pressure from gauge, do all cars have similar pressure?
Do you have to empty the system to replace the receiver /drier?

 

[philgarner]

There are two sizes of AC condenser, the US market cars got a much larger one. That said the standard one is bigger than on my W211 E-Class and that blows very cold also. Get it regassed and report back.

 

[Zep]

His machine was old school, gauges, connected up and read pressure from gauge, do all cars have similar pressure?
Do you have to empty the system to replace the receiver /drier?

Yes they are similar (because it is based on the properties of the refrigerant) and yes it has to come out to replace the drier.

 

[jasst]

Drier on the way from Scuderia,

 

[jasst]

Just been to another local garage who I had forgotten did air con, he has latest Sun machine. He has removed 230g of gas and 8ml of oil, considering it is meant to have 750g of gas and 135cc of oil, it is not surprising it didn't work effectively, He said it was showing good pressure, but just because it has good pressure does not mean it has correct amount of gas to make it function, which this proves.

 

[Zep]

Interesting. Good standing pressure normally means good charge, but it sounds like you might also have had non-condensible gas in there too. This stops it transferring heat and makes all of the pressures a bit unpredictable.

Unscrupulous types have been know to remove refrigerant until a system runs to prevent complete failure with contamination.

 

[Boomerang_GT]

If anyone wants a real good cooling A/C, the best solution is to fill it with hydocarbon cooling gas. I refill my A/C on every car by myself and there are lightyears between the lousy r134a and HC coolants. Last week I was traveling with my 3200 for 5 hours at around 35-37 degrees Celsius and it was super cool. Once I measured the temperature and it was -40 degrees! No joke. But that was too good so after some time there was no air coming out anymore because the heat exchanger was completely frozen.
There are several brands like „envirosafe“ and „articool“.
Please no discussion about warranty or legality.

 

[Zep]

Personally, I wouldn’t use iso-butane in a system designed for R134a. In some rare cases a small leak could become a big fire as it is A3 flammable. I don’t like the idea of a small leak is a storage area, as it is heavier than air and has is highly flammable in a wide range of stoichiometry.

As a refrigerant it is very good, the pressure / temperature curve is favourable and it works well in very small quantities in hermetic systems designed for its use. In time the industry will move to A2L refrigerant for the retrofit market.

If anyone is wondering how flammable, here is a guide to working with A3 refrigerants:



There are quite a few of these in a car.

 

[Scaf]

That’s illegal and will void any warranty

 

[Boomerang_GT]

Personally, I wouldn’t use iso-butane in a system designed for R134a. In some rare cases a small leak could become a big fire as it is A3 flammable. I don’t like the idea of a small leak is a storage area, as it is heavier than air and has is highly flammable in a wide range of stoichiometry.

As a refrigerant it is very good, the pressure / temperature curve is favourable and it works well in very small quantities in hermetic systems designed for its use. In time the industry will move to A2L refrigerant for the retrofit market.

If anyone is wondering how flammable, here is a guide to working with A3 refrigerants:

View attachment 88228

There are quite a few of these in a car.

Don’t be shocked but I will tell you an uncomfortable fact: you car contains up to 90 liters of highly flammable hydrocarbons!!! Shocking, isn’t it? I understand you weren’t aware that gasoline is highly flammable.
Btw. What kind of leak do you expect would an AC have that leaks enough gas to be flammable and at the same time keeps the gas for more than 5 minutes.
And spoiler: I was once involved in an accident where my ac was damaged which is very noticeable due to it‘s smell and, well, it didn’t blow up…