Aircon Compressor/Condenser

[harveyg77]

Hi all,

My airocn doesn't seme to be chilling the car now we're getting warm weather. Had an aircon dude check it and we could hear it leaking under pressure test as well as smell some gases escaping. The guy says it is the condensor.

He has quoted 4 hours labour for this plus parts.
How easy is this to do?
Are there any common faults?

Thanks,
Harvey

[waveydavey]

In just had the same thing;
Four hours is a bit excessive mine took about two.

[barnhill4x4]

Dont know if the Diesels are different to the V8 but I changed my condenser a few weeks ago and it took me abot 20 minutes!

[waveydavey]

20 minutes is going some!

Battery out (Make sure you know your radio code)
Lift the engine ECU out of the box and move it out of the way
Unbolt and remove the battery box
Take off the slam panel
take out the intercooler
Unbolt the condesner and it comes out that way. The hard bit is you need to Degas it but then if you can hear a leak it has nothing left; you will need to vac it out and regas afterwards.

If you search the web you can get a new condenser for about £100 delivered. If your doing it yourself make sure that you get new o rings for the pipes going in.