Air Con woes

Hey all,

Needed my LPG seeing to (makiing funny sound) and whilst there told the guy that my aircon wasnt working so he offered to fill it up for free.

As soon as some new gas went in it leaked out from somewhere near the radiator. Steve from Go LPG never charged me and I booked in at Motor Climate an air con specialist in Bham.

When I got there I told them that we had tried to refill the air con and that there was a leak near the radiator where I believe the condensor is located. Unfortunately your not allowed to talk to the engineers or stay in the work area (have to wait in reception).

After half an hour they gave me the car keys back and said the engineer couldnt find any leaks and that they had topped up the gas and put an ultraviolet dye in and charged me £47 and told me to go back if the aircon stopped working. This was on Saturday morning and by Sunday evening the gas had leaked out and it stopped working again.

Needed the car during the week so was booked in for this afternoon. Again they looked at the car and said basically the condensor near the radiator was leaking and the compressor gasket / O rings were leaking too.

Then told me it would cost approx £600 to have it repaired because it was labour intensive and they were not off the shelf items / listed in any air con parts catalogues and would have to be built by their supplier.

Unfortunately by the time I got back it was after 4 so no chance to go / question anywhere else.

My questions are

Are they bespoke items?

Does this quote seem reasonable?

Anyone know how much these parts should cost new / second hand

Can a novice plumb them in?

Really short on £££ as the car got broken into two weeks ago and having to replace the audio as they nicked the face of head unit, poked / ripped the speakers and pulled the dash board apart breaking some electrical connectors (bunch of t*****s).

Jas

Speak to Ibrar from the forum, beacuse he's an air con specialist (in Brum) and he deals in used spare parts for Supras.

sounds like a similar quote to the one I had last week from an aircon engineer, but my rad is leaking too so + extra parts made my quote at around £1000.

I'm going to get the rad sorted, and try to source the other bits myself, perhaps second hand - when I can get some cash. Just found out that one of my brand new HID bulbs has blown too... gah

I've just got a price off Nic for a condenser as min has just gone and it was just over £200 delivered. Wonder if we can get a discount for 2 of em?

If the refrigerant leaked out straight away, then it can be easily found by pressure testing with Nitrogen, however seeing that you now have dye in the system it should be easy to trace the leak with a ultraviolet lamp.

I can do you a free check if required.

I know the condensor is leaking but didnt realise they cost so much or were bespoke / special order. Plus not sure about compressor gasket / O rings leak.

Should you replace these items with second hand?

Just thinking that they said labour would be 4 hours so probably £200 just for that. If I can seconds for £100 odd and put them in myself then would be saving a considerable amount to sort out other bits.

Also up for a group buy if its going to save a few bob!

Jas