[hserus]

Originally Posted by indivic

I was thinking of getting a full service done on the AC and get an opinion on the compressor. Any recommendations for a good AC mechanic in Chennai - I mean other than Suresh, I have seen the thread about his place.

Thanks in advance

This guy is good and I've used him for my Scorpio. On North Usman Road. I've since driven past his tiny shop and seen him working on a S Class and a Lexus SUV.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/chenn...r-chennai.html (A/C mechanic - S.Jagannathan Auto Air conditioner (T Nagar, Chennai))

[poised2drive]

I own a Swift (P) , 2008 .
6 months ago , the Ac started to throw normal air. Showed it to a neighbour Ac mechanic. He said there is some leak in the pipes and gas leaked. He refilled the gas and closed the pipes.
The Ac ran good for 4 months and again, it stopped working.
I took it to Maruti ASS . My Service Advisor said the Cooling Core went kaput and needs replacement and informed the cost would be around 10K

Meanwhile, one of my father's friends knew a Mechanic and we took the car to him. He said the same ( Cooling core) but the estimate he told was half of it .

My uncle says he is reliable. He informed procuring the coil would take some time and he said filling the gas would make the Ac work for a couple of months or so though I said I would wait.

Does the Swift Cooling core cost 10 k in the MASS ?

[rajatmakar]

Originally Posted by poised2drive

I own a Swift (P) , 2008 .
6 months ago , the Ac started to throw normal air. Showed it to a neighbour Ac mechanic. He said there is some leak in the pipes and gas leaked. He refilled the gas and closed the pipes.

We are also facing a similar issue in Swift (P) 2006 model. We filled gas and it just worked fine for a couple of weeks. It is sure that the gas is leaking out and it's leaking fast.

MASS is suggesting to replace both AC Condenser (6K) and also compressor (18K). Since AC worked fine after filling gas, my guess is that compressor should be fine. The leakage is probably in the condenser and/or pipes. Since its already 12+ years old, we are planning to replace only the condenser.

Any suggestions from experts here please?

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by poised2drive

The Ac ran good for 4 months and again, it stopped working.
I took it to Maruti ASS . My Service Advisor said the Cooling Core went kaput and needs replacement and informed the cost would be around 10K

Meanwhile, one of my father's friends knew a Mechanic and we took the car to him. He said the same ( Cooling core) but the estimate he told was half of it .

This cost ratio is pretty normal. If the 'fix' does not work then you still blame the garage/xASS and expect them to fix it for free. On the other hand the local is not made responsible. Further, there are margins etc. So the 2x is pretty normal.

[poised2drive]

The Mechanic from the FNG procured the Cooling Core , gave us a call.
We took the car and he asked us a time of 2 hours to fix it and started to open the dashboard in front of us which made me worried about how perfect would It be refitted back.

After a couple of hours, as we took the car out, I was surprised to see the work. There was no clue that dashboard was open and no grease marks around.

He charged 5200/-

Part- 2400
Service- 2600
Misc- 200

The Ac seems fine and I hear no rattles.

Originally Posted by rajatmakar

MASS is suggesting to replace both AC Condenser (6K) and also compressor (18K). Since AC worked fine after filling gas, my guess is that compressor should be fine. The leakage is probably in the condenser and/or pipes. Since its already 12+ years old, we are planning to replace only the condenser.

Any suggestions from experts here please?

My SA said if Compressor has gone kaput, the Ac would make noise and wont throw out air ( and I think he is knowledgeable guy ) . Other experts may comment.

But I guess since Ac I working fine after gas fill , it may not be the compressor issue.

Originally Posted by sgiitk

This cost ratio is pretty normal. If the 'fix' does not work then you still blame the garage/xASS and expect them to fix it for free. On the other hand the local is not made responsible. Further, there are margins etc. So the 2x is pretty normal.

Yes sir, I understand when I looked at the numbers.
The guy who did the job said his charges would be around 3300 when he does the same job in MASS.

So, I could guesstimate the other numbers and 10k would be an easy number.

[Rshrey22]

Originally Posted by poised2drive

My SA said if Compressor has gone kaput, the Ac would make noise and wont throw out air ( and I think he is knowledgeable guy ) . Other experts may comment.

I guess you mistook blower motor for A/C compressor. These are the symptoms of bad blower motor.

[poised2drive]

Originally Posted by Rshrey22

I guess you mistook blower motor for A/C compressor. These are the symptoms of bad blower motor.

Ok

How much would that be to replace ?

Is that as serious as the compressor issue ?

AFAIK, the compressor is a pretty big burden !

[Rshrey22]

Originally Posted by poised2drive

Ok

How much would that be to replace ?

Is that as serious as problem as the compressor ?

Blower motors are much cheaper than compressors! But are you facing the issues that SA mentioned? Otherwise there is no need to replace the blower motor.

[pixantz]

Originally Posted by poised2drive

My SA said if Compressor has gone kaput, the Ac would make noise and wont throw out air

I think either you mistook the SA guy, or didn't hear him out properly or then mistook what he said. What I think the SA said/meant was that if the compressor has gone, the ac won't throw out COLD air. Not "won't throw out any air at all." I'm sure he didn't say that. This is a common point of misunderstanding in these cases. There's a huge difference in not throwing out any air at all and throwing out air but uncooled warm air, and the culprits, remedies and situations are vastly different in both cases.

No air at all point to the blower while air but not-cooled air could mean the compressor, among a ton of other things/components malfunctioning either independently or together.
Mostly its the cooling coil or evaporator core these days. But it could be others too.

[pkulkarni.2106]

OK, here I am again with the question regarding my Santro's AC.
This is observed while doing long highway trips. While starting the trip, AC performs quite well.
5-6 hours into the journey (typically when I'm close to my destination), the cooling drops considerably.

I've observed this a couple of times till now.

Another problem is: whenever I park the car in the direct sunlight and it gets hot, the AC simply refuses to cool no matter what blower setting I choose.
Last year when I serviced the AC, the mechanic said the gas is at correct level.

What could be the issue for both these cases?

[hserus]

Bad temperature sensor? Or cooling efficiency reduced due to a clogged AC filter and dirty cooling coil? Or both?

Originally Posted by pkulkarni.2106

Another problem is: whenever I park the car in the direct sunlight and it gets hot, the AC simply refuses to cool no matter what blower setting I choose.

[pkulkarni.2106]

Originally Posted by hserus

Bad temperature sensor?

I'm not very sure if Santro has temperature sensor.

Or cooling efficiency reduced due to a clogged AC filter and dirty cooling coil? Or both?

If that was the case, cooling should be poor before I parked it in the sun.

Originally Posted by hserus

That'd be if it were entirely clogged. If it were just dirty but functional you'd notice a loss in cooling efficiency - which would be more obvious as the AC tries to keep up with the hot sun.

Makes sense.

Check your car's thermostat if you have one - and are coolant levels ok in your car?

I'll get these checked. The car's due for service anyway.


Thanks for your inputs, Suresh!

[hserus]

Originally Posted by pkulkarni.2106

I'm not very sure if Santro has temperature sensor.
If that was the case, cooling should be poor before I parked it in the sun.

That'd be if it were entirely clogged. If it were just dirty but functional you'd notice a loss in cooling efficiency - which would be more obvious as the AC tries to keep up with the hot sun.

Check your car's thermostat if you have one - and are coolant levels ok in your car?

[pixantz]

Originally Posted by pkulkarni.2106

OK, here I am again with the question regarding my Santro's AC.
This is observed while doing long highway trips. While starting the trip, AC performs quite well.
5-6 hours into the journey (typically when I'm close to my destination), the cooling drops considerably.

I've observed this a couple of times till now.

Another problem is: whenever I park the car in the direct sunlight and it gets hot, the AC simply refuses to cool no matter what blower setting I choose.
Last year when I serviced the AC, the mechanic said the gas is at correct level.

What could be the issue for both these cases?

OK, here's what I suspect.

Firstly about the drop in cooling after 5-6 hours, I think if a properly working Ac stops properly cooling when the car has run for a considerable time that most probably points to the fact that, at that point of performance drop, your car ecm is cutting of the Ac and the only reason it would do that is that your car engine is overheating at that point. The first precaution the car takes on engine overheat situation is shutting off the Ac. It won't let the Ac turn on again until your engine is at safe temperature levels. So the problem is possibly with the cars engine cooling system/s. Not the Ac.

Now considering the above possibility, you have to diagnose why the car is over-heating at 5-6 hour intervals. The reasons could be various, like for example:
1) Internally clogged and dirty radiator, thermostat valve, pipes, etc., and/or dirty/old and ineffective coolant.
2) Faulty water pump which doesn't work properly when heated up after running for couple of hours.
3) radiator and condenser externally clogged with dirt.
4) weak Ac compressor.
5) faulty head gasket (least likely, hard to diagnose with present type of symptoms and should be dealt with if all other repair doesn't have results).
6) Faulty coolant temperature sensor.

Things you can do for repair is, pressure wash the condenser and radiator externally with water and check if any foreign material is stuck between or on top of them. Clean/replace the radiator, check and replace water pump if need be, clean out the cooling system with pressurized water after removing the coolant thermostat at a service center. Never put in the same thermostat back if it's dirty and cloggy. Check the pumping of the Ac compressor. Replace radiator coolant temperature sensor.

About the second problem, I personally think that the Santro's Ac is not as powerful as most other small cars like the i10, Jazz, Brio, Etios, Beat, etc especially if you're talking about cooling rate of the car parked in the sun. Anyway, you're not supposed to directly turn on the Ac of a car parked in direct sun and rely on the Ac alone to cool the car fast. Least for a small car like the Santro. You should ideally open all the windows and wait for a minute or two for the hot air to go out and it will take at least ten minutes for the whole superheated interiors like plastics, rexine, etc to totally cool down because they have literally soaked up the heat. Putting the Ac on in these situations with the windows up puts tremendous load on your Ac compressor and also guzzles up a lot of extra fuel for that which could be easily avoided just by using some free ambient air. It's a good habit. For your car and your pocket. Also definatley get that compressor checked for pumping and performance.

All the best. Hope this helps.

[pkulkarni.2106]

Originally Posted by pixantz

OK, here's what I suspect.

Firstly about the drop in cooling after 5-6 hours, I think if a properly working Ac stops properly cooling when the car has run for a considerable time that most probably points to the fact that, at that point of performance drop, your car ecm is cutting of the Ac and the only reason it would do that is that your car engine is overheating at that point. The first precaution the car takes on engine overheat situation is shutting off the Ac. It won't let the Ac turn on again until your engine is at safe temperature levels. So the problem is possibly with the cars engine cooling system/s. Not the Ac.

The radiator has been replaced just a year back, so we can rule that out. Also, the engine did never overheat.

<snip>
4) weak Ac compressor.
5) faulty head gasket (least likely, hard to diagnose with present type of symptoms and should be dealt with if all other repair doesn't have results).
6) Faulty coolant temperature sensor.

Faulty coolant temperature sensor sounds related. My car also has this habit of cutting the AC off every now and then. I was anyway looking for a reason for that behavior, and no mechanic gave me satisfactory reason/diagnosis till now.

About the second problem, I personally think that the Santro's Ac is not as powerful as most other small cars like the i10, Jazz, Brio, Etios, Beat, etc especially if you're talking about cooling rate of the car parked in the sun. Anyway, you're not supposed to directly turn on the Ac of a car parked in direct sun and rely on the Ac alone to cool the car fast. Least for a small car like the Santro. You should ideally open all the windows and wait for a minute or two for the hot air to go out and it will take at least ten minutes for the whole superheated interiors like plastics, rexine, etc to totally cool down because they have literally soaked up the heat. Putting the Ac on in these situations with the windows up puts tremendous load on your Ac compressor and also guzzles up a lot of extra fuel for that which could be easily avoided just by using some free ambient air. It's a good habit. For your car and your pocket. Also definatley get that compressor checked for pumping and performance.


All the best. Hope this helps.

Thanks for your valuable feedback.


Cheers!