Member Since: 28 Dec 2018
Location: Cradley Heath
Posts: 382
Aircon and Megaflush in West Midlands
Due to increased demand, we've updated some of our equipment.
Meet Ruby and Rosie . Ruby is a dual gas aircon machine that can recharge the regular R134a on older cars up to 2013 and R1234yf for cars from 2013 onward.
Aircon is charged by the number of grams required to bring the level up to the correct amount and the price per gram is dependent on which gas is required. For a typical LR 3 or 4, the correct value is 600g. There is a minimum charge of £25 if the amount of gas required is less than this value.
Rosie has replaced our old faithful ATF change machine. Now we can do megaflush jobs to bring autoboxes back to life. A quick search through this forum and you'll soon see what the benefits of a megaflush are.
The process includes running a flushing solution through the box before exchanging the fluid with fresh. The job takes about 30mins to complete and we can do both 6 and 8 speed ZF boxes.
Aside from the actual work involved, there are 2 options to choose from; We supply the fluid & filter or you bring your own. The reason for this is simple; there are many debates on which fluid to use and whether the filter needs to be changed. We use Febi Bilstein or Petronas AS8 as a direct replacement for ZF lifeguard. You may want to use Shell or genuine ZF fluids or whatever.
PM us for a chat and pricing on these and other services we can provide.Joe
22nd Mar 2019 3:11 pm
Disco_Mikey
Member Since: 29 May 2007
Location: Dundee, Scotland
Posts: 20731
Member Since: 21 Apr 2016
Location: Leicestershire
Posts: 519
I know when I had mine done it took about an hr and that was from someone I trustD3 in Buckingham blue now SWMBO's Mine D4 commercial
Xenon's fitted Timed climate
EGR Blanked Remapped
Remap Reversing Camera
gear box reset
updated Bluetooth
4x4 info
all done by Bodsy
Fridge fitted
Reversing camera fitted
24th Mar 2019 12:05 am
OvalAutos
Member Since: 28 Dec 2018
Location: Cradley Heath
Posts: 382
OK, so maybe I should have said that the procedure takes about 30mins, but the actual job can take up to an hour from ramp on to ramp off without filter change. Add up to another hour for filter change, but…….
So as you may know, the 8 speed is fitted with a thermostatic valve block. As was rightly pointed out, this does not open to the cooler until the fluid has reached at least 70deg. So how do we exchange the fluid below this temperature? Simple, just connect the exchange pipes directly to the gearbox and completely bypass the cooler. “But what about the ½ litre of fluid in the cooler?” I hear you ask. Again simple, disconnect the pipes at the cooler and connect a length of pipe to one port that will drain in to a waste container and gently blow the cooler fluid out through the other port. The amount of fluid in the pipes to the box is not enough to cause any panic.
To connect directly to the autobox, first you clean around the pipes to remove any debris to avoid contamination and then remove the in/out pipes (making sure they don’t touch any dirt elsewhere). Next, you connect our specifically designed coupling connector to the box and attach the pipes to the fluid exchanger. We designed and manufactured this coupling connector in house for our needs. It did not come with Rosie and I don’t know if other ATF exchangers have this particular fitting.
So here are a few videos to show this in operation. You have you bear in mind that we had already done a megaflush on this car recently and I wasn’t about to waste another 10ltrs of fluid for this video, so we just exchanged 5ltrs. We drove the car around the yard to get the temp up to 40deg before putting it on the ramp, removed the undertrays and fitted our coupling.
So the procedure is as follows; Introduce the flushing agent (400mls), which takes about a minute and let to circulate for 10mins. During this part, hold the footbrake down and select drive then reverse for a minute each way to open the gears up.
Once this is done, you then exchange the fluid. The autobox is 9.9ltrs from dry (empty) so we would set it for 15ltrs to make sure the whole lot is exchanged. (We call it half a triple flush) The cold fluid will push the warm fluid out.
As you can see, 5ltrs exchanged in roughly 2mins. So 10ltrs should take no more than 5 mins. Keep an eye on the temp as it never gets near what you would normally need to open the thermostatic valve.
Once the fluid has exchanged, you can then check the level because the temp is within the correct range of 30-50degs. Normally I would have shown this now, but we already knew the level was correct from the first time we did this exchange. However, in a normal situation we would not know what the current level was, so I’ll explain how we do it anyway. On our machine, we can add fluid at the end of the procedure. Simply undo the level plug and set the machine to top up and wait for the fluid to show start to drip out, then stop adding.
Once the level is correct, that’s the end of the procedure. All that remains is to remove our coupling, reattach the pipes to the cooler, pop the rear undertray on and give the car a test drive. Using the IID tool, monitor the gearbox to make sure all is good. Using a laser temp reader, a quick scan on the cooler will tell you if the fluid temp on the IID matches the reader (or near abouts) to show if you have an airlock in the cooler. Once this is done, its on with the front tray and job finished.Joe
Last edited by OvalAutos on 26th Mar 2019 12:56 pm. Edited 1 time in total
25th Mar 2019 6:43 pm
knwatkins
Member Since: 19 Sep 2018
Location: Poole, Dorset
Posts: 716
Very interesting! A great write up Joe.
I look forward to meeting Ruby and Rosie when I pick my car up on Saturday!Kev
MY2014 L405 RR Vogue SE 4.4 SDV8 in Corris Grey
MY2010 L320 RRS HSE 3.0 TDV6 in Stornoway Grey
25th Mar 2019 9:32 pm
DrRobH
Member Since: 10 Oct 2015
Location: Hampshire
Posts: 924
Great explanation and neat set up Visitor from fullfatrr.com
RR Vogue SE 2011 4.4 TDV8
1974 Lightweight
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. Ruby is a dual gas aircon machine that can recharge the regular R134a on older cars up to 2013 and R1234yf for cars from 2013 onward.
