mickwall
Active Member
Hi folks
Well one more job off the list.
My Aircon has never worked since buying the car so I thought I'd have a go at fixing it in case summer ever comes!
I bought an aircon refill canister at Halfords the other weekend and tried to fill it, it initially looked OK but then when the compressor kicked in the pressure dropped! I turned the car off and could hear a hissing noise from the air con radiator (top left as viewed from the front of the car). I duly ordered a replacement from island 4x4 for about 90 quid.
It arrived in the week along with a new "drier" (as recommended by folk on here!) and this morning has been spent fitting it.
My procedure was as follows
Earlier in the week spray wd40 on the connectors in case it helped!
Remove the front grill
Remove the panel on top of the radiators
Undo the top retaining bolts and also completely remove the bracket (just one more bolt either side.
Remove the lower bolts through the lower grill.
Undo the connectors - they came off nice and easy so maybe the wd40 worked!
Pull the radiator up and remove the fan connectors
Remove the radiator - its quite a tight fit but a bit of wiggling and it came out.
Now I spot where the drier is, its not gonna be possible to get to it without removing the bumper, I initially decided not to do the drier and just put the rad back.
I swapped over the fans to the new rad and slotted the assembly back into position, this is where my trouble started, I just could not get the bottom to locate properly so after a bit of frustration I decided to remove the bumper.
I wish I had done it in the first place, Its got to be one of the easiest bumpers to remove, just two torx bolts and it slides off, I placed a dust sheet underneath the car for it to lie on to save disconnecting all the wires.
Now with access I managed to locate the rad and get all the bolts back in.
As I now had access to the drier I changed my initial decision and decided to replace it.
There are two connectors to remove and a sensor, the two connections were very difficult to get undone, it may well have been the original one but the look of it, really nasty!
Eventually new one in place.
I now got another refill from halfords and tried to pressurize the system, success it filled fine and nice cool air was blowing!
Now just to put it back together.
Bumper back on with the help of the missus
Cover plate for the radiators
Grill back on.
Took me about 3-4 hours start to finish and I rate myself as a beginner so probably Ok for most to have a go at.
Hope this helps someone else.
Mick
Well one more job off the list.
My Aircon has never worked since buying the car so I thought I'd have a go at fixing it in case summer ever comes!
I bought an aircon refill canister at Halfords the other weekend and tried to fill it, it initially looked OK but then when the compressor kicked in the pressure dropped! I turned the car off and could hear a hissing noise from the air con radiator (top left as viewed from the front of the car). I duly ordered a replacement from island 4x4 for about 90 quid.
It arrived in the week along with a new "drier" (as recommended by folk on here!) and this morning has been spent fitting it.
My procedure was as follows
Earlier in the week spray wd40 on the connectors in case it helped!
Remove the front grill
Remove the panel on top of the radiators
Undo the top retaining bolts and also completely remove the bracket (just one more bolt either side.
Remove the lower bolts through the lower grill.
Undo the connectors - they came off nice and easy so maybe the wd40 worked!
Pull the radiator up and remove the fan connectors
Remove the radiator - its quite a tight fit but a bit of wiggling and it came out.
Now I spot where the drier is, its not gonna be possible to get to it without removing the bumper, I initially decided not to do the drier and just put the rad back.
I swapped over the fans to the new rad and slotted the assembly back into position, this is where my trouble started, I just could not get the bottom to locate properly so after a bit of frustration I decided to remove the bumper.
I wish I had done it in the first place, Its got to be one of the easiest bumpers to remove, just two torx bolts and it slides off, I placed a dust sheet underneath the car for it to lie on to save disconnecting all the wires.
Now with access I managed to locate the rad and get all the bolts back in.
As I now had access to the drier I changed my initial decision and decided to replace it.
There are two connectors to remove and a sensor, the two connections were very difficult to get undone, it may well have been the original one but the look of it, really nasty!
Eventually new one in place.
I now got another refill from halfords and tried to pressurize the system, success it filled fine and nice cool air was blowing!
Now just to put it back together.
Bumper back on with the help of the missus
Cover plate for the radiators
Grill back on.
Took me about 3-4 hours start to finish and I rate myself as a beginner so probably Ok for most to have a go at.
Hope this helps someone else.
Mick
