A/C clutch faulty, no cold air

The refrigerant in your car is known as R-134A. R-134A is a Hydrofluorocarbon. Hydrofluorocarbons are a synthetic, man-made, gas and they are considered a "greenhouse gas". If your country is a signatory to either the Kyoto or Montreal protocols, then it is against the law to discharge Hydrofluorocarbons into the atmosphere.
If that is the case, how can anybody (mechanics, car manufactures ETC) say that your car's refrigerant is supposed to leak out and therefore require "topping up"?
No! Your car's refrigerant is not supposed to leak out.
No! The refrigerant does not "go off".
No! There is no reason to "change" anything inside the air conditioning system of your car, if it is operating correctly.
No! there is no reason to "top-up" the A/C system IF THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH IT! Of course if some refrigerant has leaked out and the system needs to be "topped-up" then that's a failure and the fault needs to be rectified...first.
Under the above mentioned protocols, discharging minimal amounts of the gas for fault finding or by accident, are acceptable BUT to knowingly and deliberately allow the gas to escape into the atmosphere is illegal and there are huge fines.
Unfortunately most leaks in car A/C systems are slow and a "top-up" refrigerant charge may last for the 6 or-so months that the A/C needs to run, during the hot seasons, to keep it's occupants comfortable. To fix a leak may cost a lot of money and may be uneconomical. Then again it might just be a Schrader valve that costs a few dollars...er...Pounds. Either way it could still cost a lot of money just for a technician to find the leak.
So I understand if people just get their A/C re-gassed from time to time because it could otherwise be expensive or they just don't know better. I even understand that reputable companies will offer an "A/C service" that will check the pollen filter, remove dross and bugs from the condenser and inspect lines and system performance but if they are reputable they will NEVER top-up or re-gas your A/C before repairing the problem, because they know it's illegal. As I said, they are allowed to partially re-gas to find a fault but not completely re-gas if they know the system is faulty and it's going to eventually leak out.

Again I have no problems if someone wants to get their A/C "serviced". If you don't know better, get an expert to give it the once over and report their findings. However that should never include doing anything to the gas or oil or "opening up" the system unless the system requires repair.

The reason the cost of R-134A is so high is that governments mandate that R-134A is to supposed to be handled by trained and certified personnel and recovered R-134A is to be disposed of or recycled correctly and companies want to recoup that cost. Indeed, because R-134A does not degrade it can be purified and recycled. YES, there IS a market for the refrigerant recovered from your A/C system and it will go back into another car, but that does not bring the price of the refrigerant down.

I am very sorry if I have ranted on about this. I just don't like to see people ripped off because they are told they need something...when they don't.

The A/C service is a diagnosis to help catch any leaks early. In the process the refrigerant and oil is removed and the correct quantities refilled.

So how can that help prevent leaks? It can't.

But, the part of the service that doesn't get mentioned in the sales pitch is that after the system is drained down, it is pressure tested.

The pressure testing will pinpoint small leaks and can stress parts that are failing.

This is the time that parts need changing before refiling. As was mentioned, it's not legal or responsible to refill a leaking system.

Without the test you may not know there is a porous pipe or some failing seal.

So having a 2 Year A/C service , helps to identity leak faults early, before too much refrigerant is lost to the atmosphere.

This can help protect the compressor from running for longer than it needs, potentially with less oil, accelerating it mean time to failure.

Have your A/C serviced every 2 years to help spot potential problems earlier and protect the environment from the refrigerant escape.

Hi all,

I will try and check the fault code also. Is there a way of getting the part number of the compressor without removing the acutal unit?

Thanks,
Vidar

...and would you go for a new one, or a used one? Here are one of the used ones I'm looking at - £125 instead of €500 for the part only.

vidarm wrote: ↑Mon Jul 20, 2020 3:46 pm ...and would you go for a new one, or a used one? Here are one of the used ones I'm looking at - £125 instead of €500 for the part only.

Well...that's up to you. Used is used. It might fail, it might not. Is there some sort of guarantee? New will come with some form of warranty.

Again you didn't say what is wrong with the compressor. Seal failure? How was it ascertained that the compressor was the failure? If (as you said) it's just the clutch then that can be repaired without all the mucking about of de-gassing and re-gassing the system and buying a whole compressor.

For now, I only have the mechanic's word that the compressor needs changing and that there is no gas left in the system...