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AIRCON
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Chris x
 


Member Since: 08 Jun 2017
Location: England
Posts: 98

United Kingdom 
AIRCON

This is a very touchy subject for me and something I could ignore up until now, the warm weather...

May last year I bought my 55 plate TDV6 which happens to have rear aircon. Flew up to Scotland and drove it back to Bexhil. Only problem being (which I knew about), was the non working aircon.

Got it back and had a look at the condenser. The bottom half had rotted out so I replaced that before getting it gassed. What a Censored job that was. Turned out in the end it was just the fins that had dropped out - however it was done and I had a nice shiny now one. £150 in parts later I set off to get it gassed up.

The machine was coming up with a leak, they chucked some gas in it and it was coming from the pipe that ran along the sill. Bought the pipe - £150, had to drop the air tank, pull the arch lining out where it meets the front wing and swapped it out. Great difficulty separating it from the wing side, but managed it.

Went back to gas it up, leak from the next section of pipe.... £150 later, dropped the compressor, Censored about with exhaust heat shields, rusted bolts e.t.c and replaced it. Gassed it back up, leak from the rear where it goes into the car...brilliant! Purchased the new pipe £190 later.. (can you see the trend here?) thinking that would be the last bit of pipe I needed. However upon fitting it, I had miss read the diagram that I found on here, there was actually 4 sections of pipe from the wing joint. Another £180 later - yep that's now pretty much £800 spent on some poxy Censored aluminium pipe - I set about fitting it. Turns out you can't fit it without lifting the body!!! I very carefully bent the pipes in and bent them back into there original position.

Gassed it up and voila! Leak tight and working aircon. Over £1000 later with the condenser and that's with me doing the work myself!!! It took me about a 2 months all in. Every pipe. nut, bracket, captive nut was Censored /rusted.

Fast forward two weeks and I looked around all the joints for leaks. I noticed the green die around the front connector - the one that goes up the bulkhead and joins behind the engine. So I take the wheel off, remove the arch liner and see that its leaking higher up. Great, another £150 spent. Stripped it down and spent the best part of a day trying to find a way of fitting this b Censored d pipe. No chance! I hand it to the indy and they fit it for about £160 (from memory). Gas it up an all is good for a week. No leaks and ice cold aircon.

Into the 2nd week and the aircon becomes intermittent. It keeps kicking in and out, doesn't match with me stopping or starting in traffic - completely random. I hand it back to the indy who plug it in, no faults and they cant see why its doing it. It eventually stops working all together but it still has the same amount of gas - so no leaks. They change the pressure sensor near the battery - no difference. They check all the wiring - no difference. In the end I purchased a 2nd hand compressor for £75 as its the only other thing it can be. They fit it - takes them about 13 hours! and its working again. Price agreed for the work they've done (paid a fraction of the price that it should have beem) and i'm happy. I finally think I am there! Not far off £2k now, many days of hard graft!!!

1 week later, its intermittent again and I give up. Winter was only around the corner as its about 4 months on now. I say to myself I'll revisit it come Summer 2018... which brings me to today!


What do I do?

I'm not sure if I have a kink in the rear pipes - which from some research kills compressors - however I am 95% sure they are OK, and when working the air is ice cold as quick as the front vents which would suggest fairly good flow of refrigerant? Also, it would only be 1 of 2 circuits that are blocked so the compressor should never be under strain if how I think it works is correct?

Did I buy, by complete chance a compressor that was on its last legs and gave up? However the symptoms were exactly the same as the original death so I am unsure.

I know allot of people blank the rear pipes off (wish I had done now), but I got in so deep early on I was fairly committed after that.....

The car is black, the leather is black, it has the glass roof and the windows behind the front seats are tinted - so it gets Censored hot! My kids are 2 & 3, and its the family wagon, so it is quite uncomfortable.

I'm after advise really, or previous experience?

My specialist is mechanical repairs - so my next step is maybe finding an aircon specialist.

HELP! Laughing


Thanks if you've made it this far.........
  
Post #193804519th Apr 2018 8:42 am
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segrub
 


Member Since: 12 Apr 2015
Location: CAMBRIDGESHIRE
Posts: 32

United Kingdom 2008 Discovery 3 TDV6 HSE Auto Tonga GreenDiscovery 3

Assuming that it has the full charge of gas as your being told,the options are intermittent electrical fault or faulty compressor but my guess is moisture in the system. If it works fine after not being used for a while then stops could be the expansion valve freezing this would in effect block the flow of gas and would cause the low pressure switch to stop the compressor running.in effect giving symptom of being out of gas.every time you open the system they fit a vacuum pump to in effect lower the pressure to allow any moisture to boil and be removed from system.there is a drier in the system that should be changed.As you have invested so much money into this a would first ask if the dehydrator (drier)has been changed recently and if not i would defiantly start there.When you changed the condenser you would have had a new one but as you have had so much work after suspect your drier could be saturated and need changing.Your local ac engineer should be able to check this.
Long winded reply but hope that is all it is as would be cheapest repair.Good luck
  
Post #193827019th Apr 2018 8:21 pm
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Chris x
 


Member Since: 08 Jun 2017
Location: England
Posts: 98

United Kingdom 

Need to attack this again...

Is the drier not permanently attached to the condenser?
  
Post #20575031st Jun 2019 7:29 am
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Pete K
 


Member Since: 15 Jan 2016
Location: GL
Posts: 10336

England 2005 Discovery 3 TDV6 HSE Auto Rimini RedDiscovery 3

I would have thought so
  
Post #20575061st Jun 2019 7:41 am
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Chris x
 


Member Since: 08 Jun 2017
Location: England
Posts: 98

United Kingdom 

Seem to remember it being so. So if the drier is at capacity you have to replace the condenser again? I wonder if you can put heat on it to dry it? Smile I have just messaged a local specialist to look it over.... will report back!
  
Post #20575101st Jun 2019 7:53 am
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Pete K
 


Member Since: 15 Jan 2016
Location: GL
Posts: 10336

England 2005 Discovery 3 TDV6 HSE Auto Rimini RedDiscovery 3

Can’t say I have heard a dryer doing that.
But not an expert.

A speclist is always the answer for air con.
  
Post #20575141st Jun 2019 8:04 am
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sasdiscos
 


Member Since: 22 Feb 2013
Location: Northants
Posts: 885

United Kingdom 2010 Discovery 4 3.0 TDV6 HSE Auto Bali BlueDiscovery 4

Put it on vac for a day in hot weather.

Steve
 You remind me of a younger me, not much younger mind...perhaps even a little older!  
Post #20575341st Jun 2019 9:18 am
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Chris x
 


Member Since: 08 Jun 2017
Location: England
Posts: 98

United Kingdom 

Whats Vac?
  
Post #20575351st Jun 2019 9:20 am
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aja4x4
 


Member Since: 14 Apr 2019
Location: Westbury
Posts: 2459

United Kingdom 2005 Discovery 3 TDV6 SE Auto Zambezi SilverDiscovery 3

Before you refill the aircon you use a vacuum pump to suck out the system.
This is a very powerful pump and will lower the pressure so much that moisture will evaporate and be removed.
Any moisture left in the system will form ice crystals when the aircon starts working and can block the pipes.

Most places vac the system for 20 mins max and this may not be enough for such a large system, i would vac the system for a couple of hours before refilling the system with gas.
How much gas are they putting in? As there are two amounts depending on wether you have rear aircon they may be putting too little in
  
Post #20575411st Jun 2019 9:47 am
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lynalldiscovery
 


Member Since: 22 Dec 2009
Location: Maidstone
Posts: 7274

United Kingdom 2006 Discovery 3 TDV6 Metropolis LE Auto Bonatti GreyDiscovery 3

I think you can get the drier seperate, was only looking a couple of weeks ago as replaced section 3 of the alloy pipes, that was a fun job.

Is the viscous fan doing its job when the a/c is switched on, ie dragging enough air through the rads?

Have you got an IID tool or someone local will plug in for you and see what temps the car is seeing/gas pressure etc?
  
Post #20575791st Jun 2019 2:48 pm
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Charliecloud
 


Member Since: 31 Jul 2014
Location: Tonbridge
Posts: 980

United Kingdom 2005 Discovery 3 4.4 V8 HSE Auto Bonatti GreyDiscovery 3

Have you checked the relay R18 is the one that controls the fan. They all start off by only working intermittently, then stop all together. To check you can swap one over of the same rating and try it. It's a fairly common D3 fault.
  
Post #20576151st Jun 2019 5:49 pm
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lynalldiscovery
 


Member Since: 22 Dec 2009
Location: Maidstone
Posts: 7274

United Kingdom 2006 Discovery 3 TDV6 Metropolis LE Auto Bonatti GreyDiscovery 3

Charlie, in car fan or engine fan?
  
Post #20576892nd Jun 2019 3:20 am
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Charliecloud
 


Member Since: 31 Jul 2014
Location: Tonbridge
Posts: 980

United Kingdom 2005 Discovery 3 4.4 V8 HSE Auto Bonatti GreyDiscovery 3

^ It's the in car fan.
  
Post #20577432nd Jun 2019 9:31 am
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Chris x
 


Member Since: 08 Jun 2017
Location: England
Posts: 98

United Kingdom 

Fair point about moisture in the system. I tried using the aircon for the first time yesterday, since it started failing again in 2017. No difference at all. Stopped the car and went back to it a few hours later and the aircon started working - lasted a good 10mins and was ice cold before cutting out again. If it was moisture, surely it would do this ever time rather than not work from the get go? Certainly worth bearing in mind however.
  
Post #20578762nd Jun 2019 7:50 pm
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Chris x
 


Member Since: 08 Jun 2017
Location: England
Posts: 98

United Kingdom 

lynalldiscovery wrote:
I think you can get the drier seperate, was only looking a couple of weeks ago as replaced section 3 of the alloy pipes, that was a fun job.

Is the viscous fan doing its job when the a/c is switched on, ie dragging enough air through the rads?

Have you got an IID tool or someone local will plug in for you and see what temps the car is seeing/gas pressure etc?
It raws from cold and I have considered this before and cant get it to match with traffic VS fast driving/good airflow. So dont think its this Smile

No IID tool, I am thinking this is probably the next step, but so expensive £££!

Lucky to have a great local independent (read fault codes for free e.t.c.), but aircon isn't their specialty so a bit stuck. The only reason I haven't purchase one yet.
 

Last edited by Chris x on 2nd Jun 2019 8:01 pm. Edited 1 time in total 
Post #20578782nd Jun 2019 7:52 pm
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