Aircon recharge for £45 thanks to OBDII and Kwik-fit

Following through a thread from OBDII regarding tyres and aircon I called my local Kwikfit as my aircon desperately needed recharging. I nervously took my C4S down to the Harpenden Kwik-Fit branch and they quoted me £44.95 - sounds like a good deal An hour later job done, temperature down from 21 degrees before recharge all the way back down to 7 degrees! I also got a report and computer print out. I'm absolutely delighted.

That sounds great !! what exactly did they do?? i mean did they anti bac the sytem ?? I wanted to get mine charged as its started to whine a bit, aparently this means it needs gassing, did yours make a whining noise?? Dave

Another bit of praise for KwikFit - in the past I ordered PZero's through them as they had a deal on and were cheapest at the time. I know they currently have a deal on Conti's which makes them v v competitive. And at my local KwikFit (Wandsworth one way roundabout) the head guy loves his cars and if you take him a 911 he tells all the other mechanics to sod off and he works on it himself. I went to him for balancing and he got my wheels balanced to within 1gr (or whatever unit it is on those machines), taking loads of time & care over them. Would happily take my aircon to him if all it needed was gas.

I guess all the winging and wining on bulletin boards about damaged alloys, tighteneing with air guns etc has finally hit home. BTW The current 25% discount offer for 4 tyres is on Michelins. Air con charge is £25 if you spend over £50 One thing I have noted (as another poster has) is alot depends on the person in charge. I called a couple of branches. The quotes and genuie interest in getting the business actually varied. It was the manager at New Kent Rd that was super keen for the work.

Completely agree - like any garage it all depends on who does the work. There will be bad KFs, there will be good KFs.

A word of caution though - it's worth having the air con system checked over by a pro. There is usually a reason why the system has lost it's refrigerant - 21 degs C suggests it was empty, so it may well lose it again.

my air con is basically not cold, so is that probably a case of needing a re-gas? Or could it be something else?

Have the system checked for leaks and is operating as it should. If all is well then a regas maybe all it needs. In many cases there is a reason why the gas has leaked which causes the poor performance.

To answer a number of questions already posed, they pressure tested the system and re-gassed. I accept that no refrigerant is not good or ideal. However, any system with moving parts/vibration and seals is going to leak. Eventually pressures will equalise to ambient conditions. The fact that Kwik-Fit are offering this service proves that it's a common problem. No, my engine, or any other parts wasn't whining - I do have the sports exhaust system though, so maybe it was! I will of course keep an eye on things, if my aircon fails again in a month I'll know that I have a more serious leak than that through the sealing system. I didn't have the anti bacterial service, but this is available at an extra charge.

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You (as I do) probably have a leaking condenser or 2. They sit behind the front bumper. If you get a torch and shine it in the through to the corners of the bumper you will see two radiators (condensers). If either is stained (looks a bit like an oil leak) then it is leaking. They leak becasue the corrode due to damp leaves settling behind the bumper. They can also get holed by stones. These cost £150 ea, plus 2 hours labour, plus regassing. I will be changing the condenser myself, by removing the bumper and using new o rings and then having the system regassed by KWF. I know that this is the only place its leaking as it is actually still working and so there is quite a lot of refrigirant still in the system.