Air con trouble

Another Freelander tale of woe!!

Am over in the Lowestoft area for a few days. Was heading out of town and it was getting warm, so I switched on the Air conditioning. A few minutes later the power steering started to fade. Flipping drive belt I thought. I carried on.

Now out of town the traffic came to a halt and it was soon apparent there had been an accident. I could smell burning and assumed it was to do with the crash. Passed that and then another hold up. Then I noticed smoke coming out from under the drivers side wing.

****!!

Pulled over quick and shut off. Popped bonnet and inspected. Major hissing noise from pulley sets. No over heat and no steam. Closer inspection revealed the problem.

The high pressure hose from the compressor to the condenser had reached out as it pressurised and had found the auxilary belt. This had promptly cut a hole in it. Air con oil all over the belt, right hand side of the engine bay, dripping out from underneath and refrigerant venting like buggery.

Nothing I could do about that other than switch off the air con. No critical systems effected.

Back to base and all I could do was to tape up the damaged pipe to stop crap getting in the system. Now the pipe had no pressure on it there was a good inch of clearnance with the aux belt.

So now thats a new pipe, which is custom to the car so bound to be expensive. Then its a system purge, oil replacement and then complete regas.

Also got to figure out why the pipe made contact in the first place.

That's going to cost I'm sure .

What on earth made you come to lowestoft. :doh:

Got family there. Normally two trips a year to see them. Wonderful place. Nuttiest drivers around I'm sure. Loads of accident sites and some of them fatal it seems. Had me a bit worried at times when I saw the standard of the driving.

Home now after a days dragging of the pikey wagon. Next visit is planned to be in August.

Darmain said:

Got family there. Normally two trips a year to see them. Wonderful place. Nuttiest drivers around I'm sure. Loads of accident sites and some of them fatal it seems. Had me a bit worried at times when I saw the standard of the driving.

Home now after a days dragging of the pikey wagon. Next visit is planned to be in August.

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talk all funny dunt they . . . . .

Attention all L series Hippo owners. You might want to check this!!

I had the air con fixed today. The pipe was replaced, the system was nitrogen pressure tested, evacuated, and recharged with oil and R134. System goes like a good un, and well it should. I am now short of 330 squid.

What willl be of interest is the new pipe. The design has changed from the old one and the hose is now rooted further across and away from the pullies and the aux belt. Even the garage noticed this as a likely improvement over a problem seen before.

Therefore, if your compressor to condenser pipe routes diagonally from the back of the compressor up to the condenser then you have the new design. However, if it is routed across to the pullies first, then turns straight up to the condensor in an L shape, then you have the old design and I would recomend you take steps to not allow this pipe to move towards the pullies. Even a piece of string between the pipe and something solid on the onside of the engine bay would do if can stop said pipe being able to move in that direction.

Worth a check, if the pipe finds the belt then it gets expensive rapidly.

Hope that is of help.