[anonymous]

Me today went for AC checkup of my Indica, its 3 yers old and I started feeling this session that AC is not that affective as it used to be earlier. The service center guy checked the AC by turning it on on full and said that ac is fine and there is no need to do anything. When I asked him for Gas top up, he said that there is no need for it.......he suggested that for more effective cooling, I can put some kind of cover on the dashboard, as the ac coil is right underneath the dash and if the dash it covered with something, it will work more effectively.......It sounds like a good idea but I do not know what to use to cover the dash............I want something nice and decent looking cover there.......Any suggestion?

[anandpadhye]

I have some questions about car A/C:
1. Ideally the refrigerant gas should never leak. Then why is it often recommended to top-up? Can this gas leak in normal circumstances (without any accident, etc).
2. I have an NHC and there is sticker in the engine bay that says R134...I thinks this a kind of CFC gas. Correct? Leakage into atmosphere will cause ozone depletion. Isn't it?
3. A/C compressor lubrication? What's normal serice duration? And I was thinking - for our home A/C, I have never got the lubrication serviced...is that OK?

[somebodystopme]

I got my Esteem's A.C serviced.

1. Got the compressor, blower and radiator removed throughly cleaned and lubricated.

2. I Got the a/c's pipes checked for gas leakage no major leake points bt one area was doubtful so got that removed and installed a new pipe.

3.Full change of gas.

4.Got the outside/inside vent sealed.
Total procedure costed me 1400.

The guy said no need to change O rings as it wasnt necessary.
But unfortunately when time to check came then it strted raining heavily and ofcourse A/C's performance Was amazing.
I will test it in heat tom. LEts see If i still smell auto rickshaws smoke.

Did i miss on some points. If yes let me know will go to him again.

[nura]

I would like to know the normal readings on the manifold gauges for low pressure & high pressure sides in a Santro ZipPlus 2002 AC. What other measurements are to be taken when diagnosing AC problems in the Santro?
Also, can a customer buy a service manual? I did buy the Maruti 800 service manual a few years ago & it was really good.
Thanks in advance.

[anandpadhye]

[quote=somebodystopme;439824]
I will test it in heat tom. LEts see If i still smell auto rickshaws smoke.
/quote]

I sometimes get the auto/truck smoke smell inside my NHC (while A/C on) and I get disturbed...don't know how to spot where the leak (By leak I mean atmospheric air leaking into the cabin, not the refrigerant gas)is...just wondering how this got taken care of during A/C servicing for you?

[squarecut]

Sometimes even cleaning the engine compartment with water ( that cleans the AC components too) can have dramatic effect on the cooling of AC. My AC temperature was not going below 16 degree centigrade. After cleaning with water ( which removed the dust), the temperature is now getting down to 7.9 degree centigrade, which is perfect.

[drifter]

I sometimes get the auto/truck smoke smell inside my NHC (while A/C on) and I get disturbed...don't know how to spot where the leak (By leak I mean atmospheric air leaking into the cabin, not the refrigerant gas)is...just wondering how this got taken care of during A/C servicing for you?

No AC system is completely in re-circulation mode, even when the re-circulation mode is on, tiny amount of outside air will always come into the cabin.

Drifter

[megger]

I got WagonR 2002 serviced at 60k kms yesterday. All the work was carried out including clutch replacement, but my blower issue- hardly throwing any air, was not fixed. Blower also sounds choked.

AC is chilling very effectively though.

The service person told me that AC coils must be clogged
and cleaning them takes 2 days as they have to open entire dashboard. They will also have to top up the gas. The estimated price is 3.5-4K!
He was trying his best to discourage me from getting the job done at this service, also since I wanted the car back urgently. It had already spent 3 days at service station.

Can anyone please throw light on cause of low air from blower, time it takes to clean and costs?

Regards

[anandpadhye]

Originally Posted by megger

I got WagonR 2002 serviced at 60k kms yesterday. All the work was carried out including clutch replacement, but my blower issue- hardly throwing any air, was not fixed. Blower also sounds choked.

AC is chilling very effectively though.

The service person told me that AC coils must be clogged
and cleaning them takes 2 days as they have to open entire dashboard. They will also have to top up the gas. The estimated price is 3.5-4K!
He was trying his best to discourage me from getting the job done at this service, also since I wanted the car back urgently. It had already spent 3 days at service station.

Can anyone please throw light on cause of low air from blower, time it takes to clean and costs?

Regards

Cleaning of evaporator coil is no doubt cumbersome and for my NHC it took them 1 full day (the entire dash has to be opened). But they should give you concession on gas refill (because, ideally they should charge the customer for the net amount of gas filled i.e. amount of gas filled - amount of gas evacuated) and because the complaint is not about cooling or gas leakage, they should appreciate that gas recharge is just an un-necessary step required here (I mean technically it's required, but they will end up reusing all the gas that was already in).

Since it's a maruti, you can find non-maruti AC guys who can do the job a little cheaper, but yes, please get it done.

BTW, I am pleasantly surprized to see the chanrges for Wagon R similar to that of my NHC (if not a little higher)...

[megger]

Originally Posted by megger

I got WagonR 2002 serviced at 60k kms yesterday. All the work was carried out including clutch replacement, but my blower issue- hardly throwing any air, was not fixed. Blower also sounds choked.

AC is chilling very effectively though.

The service person told me that AC coils must be clogged
and cleaning them takes 2 days as they have to open entire dashboard. They will also have to top up the gas. The estimated price is 3.5-4K!
He was trying his best to discourage me from getting the job done at this service, also since I wanted the car back urgently. It had already spent 3 days at service station.

Can anyone please throw light on cause of low air from blower, time it takes to clean and costs?

Regards

I wasn't very convinced with Bimal service person so I opened almost 90% dashboard. Realising I need to remove ICE and fron speaker which are not properly connectorised, I repacked and started searching for air filter. And I found it below glove compartment. I had hit upo it last month too, but it is behind a protective plastic grill.

To my amazement I found Bimal Auto guys have already cut that grill . My fingers slide in easily and hit 2-3 mm fiber mixed dirt on the filter. I sucked it all out with a vaccum cleaner in a minute and blower is as good as new!

3-4K saved and I am shocked to see my trusted dealer's service personnel trying to take me for a ride. They cut the grill and did not clean the filter. Even told me on phone that there is no inside air filter which was hard to digest even for a novice like myself.

[sandeep108]

What should be the general recommendation for carrying out AC servicing? My general impression was about 20-25k km or 3 years. My Maruti A.S.S. is insisting I carry out the servicing every 10k km or every 1-1.5 years.

If this has been asked before, my apologies and request the mods to delete this thread and/or links to that thread.

[gpa]

sandeep,

Actually, am not sure if a "general a/c servicing thread" and the do's and don'ts that go with it. Mods, if this post is out of place, kindly move it to a new section/relevant thread.

To answer your question, you don't need a service of your car's a/c every 10,000 kms. The service guy is trying to pull a fast one on you. Which car do you have?

A full service of the a/c is recommended every 3 years with occassional checks every 2 years even if the a/c is working fine as all vehicles leak some refrigerant past seals and through microscopic pores in hoses.

The older the vehicle, the higher the rate of seepage. The a/c system capacities also tend to be smaller on newer vehicles, so any loss of refrigerant will have more of an adverse effect on cooling performance.

Hope this helps

Cheers,
gpa

[harjeev]

I agree with GPA
I had an Accent earlier and sold it after using it for 8 years. Though its recommended to service it every 3 years I did the 1st service after 4 or 5 years, I think!!!

This thing is if its not giving any issues, why do you wanna play around it with. But a AC service every 10k is total crap!!!

[sandeep108]

Thanks for your replies, GPA/harjeev. It is a Maruti Swift and this appeared to be usual ploy by the dealer to increase billing.

I did have an AC compressor failure in a car that was 7 years / 60k km old, because that AC was never serviced. On asking / reading around, I have decided to carry out full AC servicing on all my cars at 25-30k km or 3-4 years, even if I have no problems with the AC.

Obviously the 10k km / 1.5 years is crap by the dealer (as is engine wax, fuel saver, additives, etc.) and I just wanted reconfirmation of this.

[jaguar9]

I have a 1999 Santro (top end)
The AC is working fine, but when ever i switch it on i can smell the same smell which we get when it rains for the first time. Or to be precised the smell of dust getting wet.
I have used the option of ventilation (as opposed to Circulation) a number of times at including few dusty roads. Does this mean that i need to clean some kind of filter somewhere? Also i observed in a new Santro that it was written/marked, that the Ventilation option should be used only with blower option, of air from the grills below the windscreen ONLY.

Can some throw some light on this?
Also how can i clean the filter myself, and the location of it.