Air-con. Or More Precisely No Air-con

[KMcD]

I have a Toyota Avensis estate T180 (diesel) with a fault on the air conditioning system. The problem is it is losing it's gas and it started last year. I had it re-gassed at an independent and it ran well for much of the rest of the summer but failed again after a while. I took it back to the workshop who informed me they could not find where the gas was leaking from, so they added a dye in order to trace the fault.

It failed again and I have just had it to another independent who say exactly the same, they are unable to trace any leakage but their equipment did show a minor one was occurring. So that suggests if they cannot find a leak in any of the components within the engine bay, the leak may be in the car, under the dash maybe?

It has been suggested that to investigate further would now be an expensive proposition, and I wondered if anyone has come across this before. If so, how expensive, what needs to be done ie dash out, can I do it myself ?

Any help appreciated.

[Konrad C]

You have done everything possible to find the leak. It could well be hidden within the dashboard.

I am not an expert but here is a link to diagram of your air-con components: -

http://www.japan-parts.eu/toyota/eu/2007/avensis/adt251r-alfnyw/3_273550_121_352W/electrical/8718_heating-air-conditioning-cooler-piping/1

Now if there was a sniffer device, that can detect the presence of escaping gas.

[KMcD]

Konrad, thank you. Looking at the diagrams there appears to be a pressurised matrix buried deep within the dash, in front of the air/fan boxes that looks like it would be a nightmare to get to. And I'm guessing when eventually one did get to it, it would be a 50 pence 'O' ring that has failed ! Thanks again.

[IgReilly]

The pertinent questions seems to be - How old is the car that has air-con failure? Does it's age justify a possibly on going air-con repair

bill or air-con complete replacement?

Experience (and reading many posts re air-con) has taught me that if your air-con goes down and your car is out of warranty, then the best option is to forget about it. Any local garage will 'have a look' at it or 'service' it and the unit will come back re-gassed plus an invoice to pay. 5-6 weeks later it won't be working.

Air-con seems to be a finely balanced, high performance element in a car, not something that will take to ageing well. Is your car still in warranty? Because a repair won't necessarily be like a new clutch in that a new clutch will very probably still be working after 2 months. No warranty? Then it's gonna cost you, with no promise or reassurance that it will be working after the cheque has cleared.

Having said that; my car is a 2001 Avensis so if your car is in warranty then the various internal seals/O rings etc might be more amenable to repair with certain cost limits but know what you feel good about spending before you start. Personally, I would just get used life without it.

If you buy a 2nd hand car and the air-con works - GREAT!. When the air-con stops working it's time to buy another 2nd hand car that has working air-con.

[Exvec]

Forget the Air Con its only needed for a few months each summer if your lucky anyway,i would be fitting a shorter auxiliary drive belt as in one without aircon and you'll see an improvement in economy or at least you should do.