AIR CON regas by Halfords!?

[ash]

Just reading through Auto Express today and came across an advert from Halfords on a DIY Air Con top up. It costs only £39.99 and does the following:

*restores refrigerant and oil
*seals leaks in rubber hoses gaskets and O rings
*cleans systems and recharges it
*reusable hose with gauge

As my air con needs regassing this could be a nice and simple method and cheaper too. Has any had experience of this or know that it would work. And also is the air con gas the same from car to car. Mines an FD 1994

Thanks
Ash

[Brett]

I\'d only use on a car that had already completely Degassed itself.  If you have a prob your better off paying an aircon engineer to sort it, its not normally too pricey.
 I have used those type of things before, but only on old sheds.

[McCARTHY]

just had the air con on my scoob re gassesd. That was totally empty(due to new air con rad) and that cost 70quid. A DIY kit does sound good but i think for peice of mind i\'d go to an garage to get it done too....

[fro]

yeah it\'s not worth the hassle to be honest. You should be able to find a local company that will vacuum, oil and fill the system for not much more. Expect to pay around £50 a pop. Your car *should* be filled with R134a

[Brett]

Oh yeah, and a similar product can be had for about £20-25 from most motor factors

[ash]

Just phoned up my local place they want £83! Think i will get it done by a prof. then i know its been done correctly and all old gasses drained.

Ash

[davefrith]

If your car is a 94 it will almost certainly have the old gas in it which is now illegal, the system needs to be changed to take the new legal gas. Yoyu can\'t buy the old gas anymore and new gas won\'t work with the old system. The conversion doesen\'t add much to the cost though, its just a new valve etc from what I\'ve gathered from limited research

Venting refridgerant is highly illegal

[ash]

Thanks davefrith, i will inform the company but hopefully they will know?!

[fro]

If your car is a 94 it will almost certainly have the old gas in it which is now illegal, the system needs to be changed to take the new legal gas. Yoyu can\'t buy the old gas anymore and new gas won\'t work with the old system. The conversion doesen\'t add much to the cost though, its just a new valve etc from what I\'ve gathered from limited research

Venting refridgerant is highly illegal

Mazda started using R134a (the new gas) from \'93 onwards. If not, the conversion is just a valve swap as stated

[davefrith]

Interesting, I was told mine was on the old gas, late 95 car

Perhaps the chap who I spoke to was wrong as he didn\'t actually examine the car, aparantly there is a sticker somewhere or some easy way to tell by looking at the unit but I must admit I never bothered

[fro]

it\'s also possible the guy I spoke to was wrong
He had a list and reckoned \'93 was the changeover year, mine was definitely on the old R12 but it\'s a \'92.

[zymark]

Hi

I have a 94 there is a sticker on the underside of the bonnet  next where it meets the passanger headlamp stating R134a

hope this helps
Gareth

[Ricco_04]

Here......

[ozzyvelcro]

An air con engineer will be able to tell by the charging ports if the system is on the old gas.If its the old gas then you can replace it with R413a without changing the oil and its not really worth doing yourself just to save 30 or 40 quid as you wont know if you have a major leak without pressure testing first.

Cheers Danny