Anyone recharged the aircon system with a cannister?

I have seen aircon recharge cannisters you can get from the car shops... my aircon doesnt cool and never has assume... yes assume it need recharging... anyone done it? any thing to watch out for? do these cannister refills work? The last time i drove my porsche i almost melted OK the 996 is water cooled but its sort of half and half in my book I think half water half air cooled is certainly a better description it gets hotter than most traditional water cooled cars i have owned this make the cab a bit hot in extreme weather... so its a must that i sort my aircon... Does anyone else think that the 996 runs hot my car shows 82/84 on the dial but the heat does effect the cab temperature... any comments I dont think i have any problems doesnt use any water , water clean etc etc... temp doesnt rise much on standing tickover... Ant help would be great... Phil Mod Update, no need for CAPS LOCKS title !

No I have not used a cannister (or heard of them). But why would you when Kwikfit will do a complete evacuation and regas as well as check for leaks for aroud £50 while you wait.

Should really hold steady on the centre of the "0" in "80" on dial. The engine won't make the cab hot (it's slung out the back - no cabin heatsoak in 996s). Of course if your climate control has gone AWOL itmay even be on HOT aswell as not cooling. If you have a prefacelift 996 (Boxster lights, pre 2001/2): Try this for a more accurate monitor of engine coolant temp: With engine turned on, using the climate control buttons press and hold the UP button then at the same time press and hold the RECIRC button in. After 5 seconds or so of holding the buttons the didital display changes to say 1c . Press the + button on the temperature control (not the fan speed +) until 1c changes to 6c . Now press the CENTRE button on the climate control below the UP button (this is the button for directing air through the centre dash vents). The display should now show the digital coolant temp (actually 85-92 degrees is normal, although hot weather and racing will send this close to 100 or beyond. 105+ may indicate a problem, particularly is it isn't hot weather and you aren't racing!) To exit this mode back to normal AC mode, press the AUTO button.

Why bother doing it yourself when you can have a full diagnosis from Kwi-Fit for £49 and if they cant get it colder or find a leak there is NO charge.

Because the charging kits about a £10 with the remaining £40 I can have a curry and a few beers !!!! :floor: :mrgreen: I am in no rush to get rid of my cash... plus I bought the car as a project and I am slowly learning stuff as i go along... you may just drive yours I am slowly upgrading everything myself .. already done some major stuff like front suspension, full exhaust rebuild etc.. :grin:

I'm not an air-con expert but I've heard those canisters are a bad idea. When your air-con is recharged properly, they remove the gas, remove the moisture from the system and then refill the gas with the correct quantity for your car. The canister won't do any of those things. Not saying it won't work - but you might risk damage to the air-con.

49 quid is not a bad price from quick fit and they will refund if the system discharges after they have refilled, like they did for me. I bought a 30 quid refil kit and can now just buy a 13 quid combined R134 and PAG lubricant to top up. AC systems do lose charge and a kit like mine is certainly cheaper than kwikfit to rechage, unfortunately many times there will be an AC leak from a condenser etc which will need some new hardware to fix rather than a recharge. Overall, if just a top up is needed i would recommend a DIY kit...

The cannisters do not work. From memory a 1997-2004 "996" holds 900grms of gas. You would need alot of cannisters to fill it, and as the pressure drops in the cannister they always leave a bit in the bottom.

I lost count how many fingers and toes you need to do this ... must be why they call a mechanic a grease monkey :dont know:

Apart from the first two buttons (UP+RECIRC) to trigger diagnostic mode, all the other buttons are pressed one after the other with one finger! :hand:

Ah ... think the problem might be that I fell asleep half way through :floor:

Spend the money at Kwikfit as they will put the dye/lube in and also when we do this at work the machine uses a portion of the re-fill to put lube in for the A/C pump to keep things running smoothly :thumb: A/C pump ££££ or Curry +Beer not so ££££ :hand:

I expect your car needs new condensors, it would be best to check for leaks before you potentially go pumping a can of refrigerant into the atmosphere.

After hours of practice on a Piano I managed co ordinate my fingers to put the aircon unit into coolant monitoring mode... Keep in mind the outside temperature was 27 deg C bright sunshine. :floor: Running on a B road the coolant temp was 84 to 86... slow traffic sub 20mph up to 89-91 static in traffic highest was 101 deg C. dropped back to 86 in about 1 mile at 20mph + Is this right :?: I know my motorbike operates in this range and goes to 106 deg before the fan kicks in... On the aircon what and where are the condensers? :?: wpu;d expect it to be a few deg less on a cooler day. Phil :worship: