My 67 Kodiaq is due an air con service soon as it’s two years old.When I enquired about the price I was told it is £139! This is because of the age of my vehicle and the work required to replace seals etc.

Is this a con as the same service for vehicles prior to 2017 is only £75 almost half the price?

 

 

Modern car ac systems have been forced to changed to HFO-1234yf gas by the EU. And as you would expect this gas is more expensive than R134A hence the price hike.

Don't understand the work to replace the seals comment though, sounds like salesman BS, as what seals are they going to be changing on a newish car.

Edited 5 September, 20196 yr by Kenny R

why do you need an aircon service?

 

is this another money making scheme?

I thought aircon was run it till it doesn't work anymore, basically when the car is around 10 years old and needs regassed, they are having a laugh at every 2 years

If the air blows cold I wouldn't bother

I wouldn't bother either.  I have previously worked on ac systems on military aircraft and if they cool to the required temperatures, the compressor doesnt make funny noises and there is no evidence of leaking, the system is serviceable and needs no intervention.

 

Money making scam in my opinion.

There is no need to "replace seals". If you're happy with how cold the system gets, ignore them. If you'd like it colder, look up "automotive air con" on Yell.com, and expect to be quoted more like £75 for a regas.

11 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

If you'd like it colder, look up "automotive air con" on Yell.com, and expect to be quoted more like £75 for a regas.

A R134A regas may well be found for £75 but you won’t get a  R1234YF regas for that price.

Nobody needs a re-gas at 2 years old

 

maybe 5 years old plus if you notice the aircon isn’t as cold

It is a money making scheme, bit like someone saying your toaster needs a service.  Completely unnecessary.

 

If you never turn it off, seals never dry out and will probably still be working fine in 7-10 years time.

 

What you have to remember is, every time they touch something on your car there is a potential for them to c*ck it up. There's no reason why the air con shouldn't be working totally fine at 10 years old without being re-gassed. Our 2010 Qashqai has never been touched, it has evidence of a leak on one of the fittings and it still cools really well.

I haven't got anything else to add over what's already been mentioned.

 

An air conditioning service is a con, don't do it.

 

There is a reason why it isn't mentioned in any of the vehicles service regimes. It's a dealer add-on, an opportunity to extort a few extra quid out of you.

 

Leave well alone, oh, and when you tell them "thanks, but no thanks" ask them to elaborate on which seals they're intending to replace, and when he's finished lying out of his backside mention to him that not only are you not falling for his BS, you're taking your car elsewhere for future servicing.

 

Mention it to Skoda UK too. If he's trying it on with you he'll be conning plenty of others too.

11 hours ago, SuperbTWM said:

it has evidence of a leak on one of the fittings

So it hasn't been regassed because no-one will do so unless/until you get the leak fixed.

16 hours ago, BigJase88 said:

Nobody needs a re-gas at 2 years old

 

maybe 5 years old plus if you notice the aircon isn’t as cold

 

You could argue you don't need an engine oil change at a year on a low mileage car. Makes a lot of good maintenance sense though to do it.

7 minutes ago, Tech1e said:

 

You could argue you don't need an engine oil change at a year on a low mileage car. Makes a lot of good maintenance sense though to do it.

Oil yes

 

Aircon re-gas at 2 years old? even you know that is beyond overkill

 

5 years maybe yes might be worthwhile

1 hour ago, BigJase88 said:

Oil yes

 

Aircon re-gas at 2 years old? even you know that is beyond overkill

 

5 years maybe yes might be worthwhile

 

Oil in the A/C system is just as vital to the compressor though.

If A/C gas was as important to system longevity as engine oil is to engine longevity, Skoda, and most other mainstream manufacturers would add it as a service requirement.

1 hour ago, KenONeill said:

So it hasn't been regassed because no-one will do so unless/until you get the leak fixed.

 

Why would I take it for regassing when I’ve just said it works perfect. 

 

And even if I did they would gas it up no problem, it’s not like they bother to look for leaks. They do a quick vacuum check but that’s not a good enough test for small minute leaks by a long shot. 

 

I know plenty that get it regassed and within 1 or 2 years it’s low again. 

 

 

1 hour ago, Tech1e said:

 

Oil in the A/C system is just as vital to the compressor though.

I would take me chances personally

9 minutes ago, BigJase88 said:

I would take me chances personally

 

Yep and this has always been a subject of divided opinion on here, good topic for the occasional debate though.

 

It's something I always do on mine, £50 I think it is money well spent. But then I don't spend a fortune on LED bulbs, wind deflectors, badges and other such paraphernalia that people do.

19 minutes ago, Tech1e said:

 

Yep and this has always been a subject of divided opinion on here, good topic for the occasional debate though.

 

It's something I always do on mine, £50 I think it is money well spent. But then I don't spend a fortune on LED bulbs, wind deflectors, badges and other such paraphernalia that people do.

My current car is PCH with maintenance package

So I do neither.

 

The most exciting thing I get to choose is what type of tyre goes on it

Edited 6 September, 20196 yr by BigJase88

3 hours ago, silver1011 said:

If A/C gas was as important to system longevity as engine oil is to engine longevity, Skoda, and most other mainstream manufacturers would add it as a service requirement.

Škoda don't list Haldex Oil changes in their Servicing Booklets (remember them!), nor did either of my local dealerships know when it was required until I insisted they confirm it in writing the timing and mileage they originally gave; 5 years or 60k. Even SUK had to confirm via Škoda Cz it was 37.5k or 3 years. 

 

Even then, unlike Volvo who fit the same system, they only change the oil, not the filter. According to Škoda there is no filter. 

6 minutes ago, Fin69 said:

Škoda don't list Haldex Oil changes in their Servicing Booklets (remember them!), nor did either of my local dealerships know when it was required until I insisted they confirm it in writing the timing and mileage they originally gave; 5 years or 60k. Even SUK had to confirm via Škoda Cz it was 37.5k or 3 years. 

 

Even then, unlike Volvo who fit the same system, they only change the oil, not the filter. According to Škoda there is no filter. 

 

It might not have been in the service book, but Skoda UK did communicate a Haldex and DSG oil change interval via their dealer network. I'm not defending Skoda, their servicing communication and flagrant overcharging for a major service on a car less than 3 years / 60,000 miles is inexcusable.

 

Whether the blame lies with Skoda UK for not communicating to their dealers properly, or their dealers for not knowing what they need to know, remains up for debate.

 

The Haldex filter change was omitted, but then Skoda UK stand by the filter not being a service item.

 

I'm unaware of a mainstream manufacturer who incorporates and air conditioning service into their cars regular service regime.

To do a seal change in an air con system (or any other component that breaks into the sealed system the process is this:

 

Connect the gas rig and remove the current gas (this is not vented but cleaned through a filter on the rig and added to the store of gas connected to it). This takes quite a while to do properly, at least an hour or 2 depending on the amount of gas you have left in the system.

 

Then you break into the system and change whatever components need changing....this allows atmospheric air into the system, and with it water vapour.  Water vapour is the easiest way to kill an AC system, so you have to get it out.

 

Next you do a pressure test to the operating pressure of the system, with nitrogen.  The system needs to hold this pressure continuously with no drop whatsoever, we did this for at least 4 hours, and more often than not overnight.  Once confirmed that the system has no pressure leaks you do the next bit.

 

Now you vac the system down to the a full vacuum.  This does 2 things.  It lowers the pressure (obvs) which lowers the boiling point of any water that may have condensed out of the air you let in when you opened the system, turning it back into a vapour thus allowing the vac pump to remove it from the system.  You can actually see this happening as the vacuum degrades as the water boils off.  Once the vacuum stops degrading due to boil off and a steady vacuum is recorded on the guage you isolate the pump from the system, leaving the gauges attached to see if the vacuum degrades again.  If it does this is because there is a vacuum leak in the system and they are a bugger to find believe me!!  So the 2nd thing it does it a vacuum leak test.

The system needs to be left like this for at least 4 hours (but once again we used to leave it overnight).

 

Once all is ok, no water left, no pressure or vac leak, you can then fill the system using the gas rig which adds the prescribed weight of gas and injects the  correct amount of lubricating fluid into the system.

 

Then you are good to go....test the cooling temp and rate, and if all good, system serviceable.

 

It is interesting to note, that a 're-gas' is not really that, you are paying for a top up of gas to the correct weight (assuming the system is not completely empty).  A re gas does not break into the system but still should have a pressure and vac test.

 

So...in order for any servicing on an AC system to be done properly, the car needs to be with the dealer for at least 2 days, which it never is. So they dont do it properly in any case.  Nor do they do it properly when they build the car, or they would have rows of them on pressure and vac tests.

 

My point is this.

 

If it ain't broke, dont mess about with it where AC is concerned as the time limits that are imposed by the economics of the maintenance means you are only introducing more chance for problems to occur.

 

Simply using the system is enough to keep the components and seals lubricated, and until degraded performance is noticed no intervention is necessary.

 

No doubt someone will come on here telling me my timings are all wrong and you can do it in a couple of hours.

 

To them I say this: The systems I worked on where flight critical systems in state of the art military aircraft so the procedures simply had to be done properly.  Granted, the weight of gas in a car is several hundred grammes, and the volume in the aircraft I worked on was 2 systems with 12Kg of gas in each - so you can save some time in gas removal and filling, but the vac and pressure tests timings remain.

 

They dont do it properly, leave it alone until you absolutely have to do something to it, and then I would question how they can do it so quickly!!