Cheapas

Anyone had this before ? Fabia MK2 Greenline in for MOT today . Failed on rear brake imbalance . Not a happy chappy on hearing this as previous week had done my usual yearly strip and clean brakes all round . Typically on last corner found a leaking wheel cylinder . Changed it , bled brakes up , adjusted handbrake . Presumed MOT failure was down to me over adjusting handbrake cable or forgetting to rough up / sandpaper shoes one side . Left car with garage to sort , 5 hours later done , tested , passed . Reason for imbalance ? Other side wheel cylinder leaking ! Definitely wasn't last week as I'd checked under seals . So question is , if you change one side does that put more pressure on other older cylinder causing possible failure ?

Ok thanks, car dumped down road now for 3 am start for work , I'll have a go Sunday at getting more in.

Is there a knack/ trick to getting final contents out ?

Thanks JR , now elevated you to genius status. Warmed bottle up, tried again and sure enough fan kicked in, cold air in cab and climatronic fault codes gone. Guage reading low side of green. Bottle weighed 1250 g at start, down to 800g, so presume used nearly all gas. We'll see how long it lasts, and if Winos theory about fan was correct or there's a leak elsewhere. Thanks again for your advice and all other contributors, particularly Wino who seems to have the schematics for Skodas imprinted in his head !

Thanks JR. On it later this morning. There's a You Tube video of a chap keeping his cannister in a bucket of hot water while filling, is that a bit extreme at this time of year? Also reading your earlier advice is it best to ignore guage and just fill till fan kicks in ?

Thanks both, I'm learning as I go along here from you. Xman - yes that's what I did last year at one of the auto center places, forget which one. Still had to go back and get the port caps they forgot..... There's a bit of history behind this In relation to the slow speed fan packing in. Had a lot of advice of Wino ( thanks) who suggested slow speed fan failure put a strain on air con system seals . Anyway, it's all at the start if your interested. I'd hoped the system had only lost a small amount of gas, and the top up bottle would work. So will probably look for who has best deal on for professional regas. I'll weigh the top up bottle tomorrow.

The bottle cost £59 with £10 back on return of bottle. Says it can top up 3 cars ! Herein probably is my mistake, probably have been better to get car gassed up at garage and saved bottle for what it was designed for - top ups.

Ok, bit of detective work and trying to marry it up with your advice. Back of can says weight is 510g /18 oz. Air con label on car says 500g with a +-15g allowance. So taking all that in presumably if my system is very low as per climatronic fault code, 2 squirts of the trigger is not going to do it, regardless of what the guage says . More like looking at the complete bottle minimum.

Thanks JR . Annoyingly I'd planned to weigh the can before starting , but totally forgot. Back of the can does state it's R134 gas, it's not one of the cheaper eBay cans. Your stated pressure of 70 - 80 psi is according to the guage I've got is in the danger zone. But then as you say , how accurate is the guage? If the climatronic fault code is still showing low pressure fault code maybe I should ignore guage and carry on filling. Current temp here is around 18 degrees.

Thanks Rumo. Yes , while refilling had air con on on low, with recycle button on. In the photo of the guage, that's what it indicates attached to low port with engine off. Just this minute been out and attached guage again, needle in the green , charged zone. ( With engine off). Presume if I had serious leak guage would be in red empty section. And refill bottle still has plenty of gas, weird.

Well finally an update. Finally after a fair amount of grief managed to source replacement fan. This turned out to be wrong fan but this morning finally got right one. Decided to go for new one, as didn't want to end up with faulty used item. New one £94 ( ouch ) and that was with discount after they supplied wrong fan. Installed it, bridged wires , both fans working. Bought STP guage and air con recharge bottle. I'd bought guage first, it showed system safe to recharge, so then got gas. Unfortunately this is not a happy ending as 2 pumps of the trigger put the guage into green charged section, then, with engine still running guage dropped into 0-5 psi section, indicating abnormal leak. Still warm air, and fan not kicking in. So now with the engine off , guage attached, it reads 25-50 psi, fully charged. Start engine, and guage drops to 0-5 psi. Very puzzling. Did another climatronic diagnostic check, fan kicks in full blast, on high setting, gradually slows to stop, not sure though if it tests slow speed while winding down. Still showing fault codes 318 ( low pressure ) and 02. Bit stumped tbh, not sure where to go from here.

Just about to say the same . Our workshops are concrete floor with 4 or 5 of these dropped in. They use some type of sliding beam jack the width of the pit, our tankers go 7/8 ton empty, so must work easy on a car. Think the beauty of this type of lifting is it just slides out of the way when not in use. Next time I'm in Liverpool depot I'll have a closer look, ( I'm curious myself now ). The picture DieselMonte posted reminded me of watching one of our lads do the same with his BMW. Cringing I was !

Hi JR, Just reread this thread, this product is what I was talking about. Dunno why I didn't spot this yesterday. Obviously ours being for commercial vehicles ours are a lot longer. UndertheRadar quotes £1000+ , as it's a long term item don't think it sounds too expensive , especially if it prevents drainage problems. Not sure how long they've been around , I'd never seen them before last year . Reason I say that trying to think if they'd be available second hand ? Haulage companies go under, and they have auctions selling off their workshop equipment etc, presume same would be with car garages. As your living in mainland Europe , presume with shipping costs would be cheaper to buy from there , as opposed to UK. Pound to a penny or rather a Euro, with their obsession with cleanliness someone in Germany must make them.

I consider myself just a basic diyer mechanic. My thinking is know your limits, what you think you can succefully complete yourself or pay someone else to do. Basic service , changing oil and air , pollen , oil filters should be achievable. Buy yourself a basic metric socket set that starts at 10mm and goes up to 21mm , make sure your only buying a metric set not AF. Any other socket you need can be bought separately as and when you need it. Go to any petrol station on main routes, see if they've got any old ad blue containers around the commercial pumps, cut top off and you've got a container for oil changes. I've never bothered with oil filter wrenches, just hammered a stubby flat blade screw driver through it and wound it off. Be careful with sump plug, don't overtighten. Don't use Halfords for your parts, find your local independent factors. I can get VW 507 grade oil for ,£22 ish for 5 litres. If you're lucky like me and have several make a list of service parts you need and see if you can play one off against the other on price. Have you tried silicone spray on the window runners? Use it on our cars to ease windows. Good luck !

Another+for Milenco. However , think it all depends on condition of your mirror housing how vibration free your image would be. Used to still use bungee straps on ours hooked under the bonnet. Hated poor visibility through towing mirrors.