A/C regassing - NOW CANCELLED

[spark_38]

I've rung around a few places and $60 seems to be a good deal to re-gas with R134a refrigerant. So it applies to most late 90's onwards vehicles.

The older Gen 1 legacy's will still use R12, which is less common but still avail. Unless it's been retro-fitted to take R134a.

Now whilst A/C isn't really necessary in Wellingtons cold climate. I still like to use it on road trips, Aucks, for example where one might use it.

I've booked mine into a place called: Wellington Auto Air. 49 Raroa Terrace. Linden.

Saturday morning at 10AM, 22nd Jan 2011.

The whole re-gas process takes about 20-30 mins. So he will have time to do a few cars if anyone else wants to tag along.

[nickch]

$60 is an awesome price.

Got charged $105 for regassing on mine...

[Scoobydoo]

My AC is working fine :-)

[spark_38]

Yeah rang around about 4 places and got usual quotes of around $102+GST. So when this place said $60 I booked it in.

My A/C was working fine when I was last in Auck's, it failed when I was up there...

[Guest]

#@$%

When I test drove my WRX in Vegas, was working fine.. Got up to A town and surely enough - stopo farkn working!!

Ended up paying just shy of $200 too

Works like a charm now though

[nickch]

yeah.. a pipe on mine was leaking..

so i had to have the pipe repaired.. and regassed..

total ended up being $228 all up including regassing..

this is after paying $120 to regas about a month earlier with dyed coolant..

:-\

[spark_38]

i hope my pipes aren't leaking, they shouldn't be it held refrigerant for 12 years!!! but they have been bent a few times

they will all be inspected and checked prior to the re-gas anyway

now the one's in the 1989 - that will be rather interesting.....

[Dacca]

I have 450 air con unit fitted

4 windows down @ 50kph

[subout]

my last fill before xmas was $148 but included new filter and 1 new seal.

regas was $70 on it own so $60 is alll good

[Guest]

there is a guy named Andre in the Wellington area, he works out of his home garage and does mobile work from his truck as well, he is generally acknowledged as the best of the best in the welly area and his pricing is really really good, if anyone wants his contact details PM me.

[albaru]

Mine needs a recharge. Will be there. Will ask if he can put tracer in it to look for the leaks.

[Russki]

Andre is the guy on 49 Raroa Tce, very good guy, dont be shocked when you see his working place, its just a normal garage, he is working from home. He can check, trace, refill, diagnose and repair any AC, and very good on pricing too... last year I was able to regas AC on MR2 for $30 cash...

[spark_38]

I think Andre is the guy we are going to see

[madmike]

One thing of note with cheap cheap a/c regassing that you may not be aware of...

Some of these guys are able to do really cheap jobs because they are using refrigerant that has been recovered from systems that they repair.. Sometimes this refrigerant can be full of nasty contaminants and acids. It can even Be a really ugly mix of quite a few different refrigerants that may have been recovered from old systems...

Any refrigeration engineer with basic skills should be able to pressure test and find a refrigerant leak in an automotive system..

If they spend 5 seconds looking for a leak and the. Suggest putting infared dye in your system they are either lazy or dodgy...

Leak checking, vacuum of at least 20 min and recharge should at the least take an hour.

And in fact "best practice" suggests that the system drier/reciever should be replaced every time. System is opened..

You get what you pay for.....

[spark_38]

Just got a call from Andre.

He can't do it today....he's been told to take the month off.

Premi-Air Auto Services, 6 Wakefield St in Lower Hutt

or

Auto Airconditioning Services, 9 Arthur St in Te Aro

were the other possible options....I'll have to make enquiries. There maybe more, but they tend to outsource the services.

[albaru]

I've used Auto Airconditioning Services many times, and got good results every time.

[spark_38]

Yeah I'll try and book it in with them.

Want to get it done before the next road trip outta welly - in the pursuit of real summer weather!!!

[ClubSub Mum]

 spark_38 said:

Yeah I'll try and book it in with them.

Want to get it done before the next road trip outta welly - in the pursuit of real summer weather!!!

Haha you always go on about how good Auckland weather is - mmmmmmm think ours was better this weekend even with the rain we had.

[Guest Freak Boy]

 madmike said:

One thing of note with cheap cheap a/c regassing that you may not be aware of...

Some of these guys are able to do really cheap jobs because they are using refrigerant that has been recovered from systems that they repair.. Sometimes this refrigerant can be full of nasty contaminants and acids. It can even Be a really ugly mix of quite a few different refrigerants that may have been recovered from old systems...

Any refrigeration engineer with basic skills should be able to pressure test and find a refrigerant leak in an automotive system..

If they spend 5 seconds looking for a leak and the. Suggest putting infared dye in your system they are either lazy or dodgy...

Leak checking, vacuum of at least 20 min and recharge should at the least take an hour.

And in fact "best practice" suggests that the system drier/reciever should be replaced every time. System is opened..

You get what you pay for.....

id call that being 100% sure that they dont waste their time or your money and get it right the first time....not always easy to spot a o-ring with a crack in it

[madmike]

The dye is a very lazy and messy way to look for a leak..

Any refrigeration engineer with half a brain will spend time looking for a leak if the refrigerant in the system has leaked out.

And if they are too lazy to pick up their electronic leak detector to look for the leak and just chuck dye in you can bet your arse that when You go back to spend more $ getting it regassed if by some miracle they find where the leak has left a trace that when they repair the leak the will not bother to clean away the UV dye left behind. Leading you to a false reading. Next time you get your A/C serviced.

These unqualified pricks that have started popping up and have begun to install home A/C units and service car units are causing huge amounts of refrigerant to be lost out of systems causing yet more greenhouse gas accumliation inthe upper atmosphere.

That coupled with bad trade practices are causing far more repairs than should be required..

And given the pressures in most newer systems it is only a matter of time till someone gets killed.

[spark_38]

Yeah I went in and spoke to the guy at Premi-Air in Lower Hutt, he did say they do a check, etc... and flush out any old stuff and that the whole process took roughly an hour and a half. I later rang up a garage, and they also recommended this place...

 ClubSub Mum']

[quote name='spark_38 said:

Yeah I'll try and book it in with them.

Want to get it done before the next road trip outta welly - in the pursuit of real summer weather!!!

/quote]

Haha you always go on about how good Auckland weather is - mmmmmmm think ours was better this weekend even with the rain we had.

I didn't say Auckland weather was any better than Welli, just warmer and far less windy - and somehow I find my a/c switch on when I'm up there, hence why the gas has run out!!

And it's also useful on the track, in overalls & helmet it does get quite warm on a good day.

[Bazza-NZ]

Are we looking to do this again, jack it up again or is this a no go??

[WorkshopMgr]

Yeah Jase, I will join in the 89 needs regassing.

[Guest]

yeah my honda and bmw needs regasing

[spark_38]

Now that the supposedly 'humid' summer weather is gone, it kinda defeats the purpose of getting it done.

Don't need A/C in winter conditions! Just the heater