Air-con, is it DIYable?

[boyse7en]

My daughter's old Yaris is obviously losing air-con pressure. We had it topped up last summer and a year later it no longer works.
If i can find the leak, is it a DIY-able job to replace condenser/hoses and then i can take it to get re-pressurised?

Or do aircon pipes have special fittings and connectors that require specialist kit to assemble/disassemble?

[ian332isport]

If there's no pressure in the system, there's no reason not to DIY.

Unless there's obvious physical damage, it may be hard to identify where it's leaking though.

[steveo3002]

nearly always the rad , worth doing regardless of what you find

and yeah just nuts n bolts like everything else , keep it all clean and use new seals

[Zulu 10]

Once the system has lost its CFC gases to the atmosphere then no further harm can be done by a DIYer. The biggest problem I've ever faced is extracting steel fasteners from the aluminium air con pipe fittings the manufacturers seem wilfully blind to the issues of dissimilar metal corrosion.

The professionals use bottled Nitrogen to pressurise the system for diagnostic purposes, but if you've got access to a source of inert welding gas such as Argon, then you can use that and soapy water to identify leaks. Also, once you think that you've cured the problem then you can perform your own leak-down test before taking it to a garage for refilling.

Don't be tempted to use compressed air to pressurise the system. I realise that 71% of it is Nitrogen, but it's the other 21% that will cause damage by introducing moisture to the system.

I know that the vacuuming of the system prior to filling will cause most of the moisture to boil away, but even so, it's not really a good idea to knowingly introduce moisture unnecessarily.

On that subject, whilst changing the condenser (radiator), for typically £20 I would always change the receiver/drier.

[ARHarh]

If you have your car re-gassed by a normal machine (like most garages have) It will introduce a UV dye to help trace leaks. So try looking at the condenser and any pipe joints with a UV torch. Or get it re-gassed with a dye again and then check.

My car was re-gassed and after a week all the gas had leaked out, took it back to the local tyre shop who re-gassed it and in about 5 minutes it was obvious the condenser was leaking. Easy enough to replace.

Also if you don't use the AC it will have a tendency to leak more as seals dry out (apparently)

[JimM169]

Halfords will do a nitrogen leak test as part of there Aircon diagnostic for £35