Hi all does anyone know how much gas i need to recharge my ac system as i recently had a pipe work loose and lost all the gas from it ???

525 - 575g of R134a plus 140 - 160g PAG46.

 

It's not quite that simple though, you need to have the system completely emptied and leak tested first.

Edited 17 April, 20206 yr by sepulchrave

i know the leak was due to a pipe at the bulk head that got loosened off the system is sound apart from the pipe which caused it and it emptied it before i had chance to pull over and get the alan key to it to tighten it up lol.

Thanks for the info

Edited 17 April, 20206 yr by Stewartasb

Saying that by time ive brought the gas and the oil and the pipe needed might as well just pay the £40 to kwikfit to do it probs be cheaper lol.

My point was that although you know there is no gas in the system you have no idea how much PAG is still in there or if the system is completely gas tight.

It sounds like a really strange/weird situation where you - or me am driving along and, wait, I think that an air con pipe retaining bolt must have come loose, I need to stop and take out my allen keys and tighten it - is there not a bit more to this if we are to understand the failure mode?

 

I'm just trying to understand what went wrong and why this leak appeared and was immediately recognised, that is all.

lol the issue is not the leak rum4mo i know exactly what it was and what caused it and its rectified i merely wanted to ask about refilling it myself but based on what sepulchrave has pointed out and the price of buying all of it individually im just as well to go to kwikfit as they firstly do a free leak test and then refill with gas and oil and it will work out cheaper in all honesty thanks anyway

If you have replaced a part or bolted up a connection that cuased the loss of all the regfrigerant then it will need to be vacuumed down before you can refill with the canisters which are getting impossible to source and very expensive. Otherwise you will end up with a system half full of air and half full of refrigerant gas.

 

My first investment was a guage set, my second a vacuum pump, my third a 13kg cylinder of refrigerant, each one getting more and more expensive.

 

from all my mucking around and numerous mistakes I have concluded that a slow leak of refrigerant or even a deliberate evacuation (dont do this a home folks) from above the pump is not going to result in any measurable loss of lubricant however pump replacement will but most come pre-filled.

 

What really costs money and is a step too far for me at the moment is to have the equipment to contain and recycle any regrigerant and seperate out any oil during a vacuum down of the system.

Edited 19 April, 20206 yr by J.R.

21 minutes ago, J.R. said:

What really costs money and is a step too far for me at the moment is to have the equipment to contain and recycle any regrigerant and seperate out any oil during a vacuum down of the system.

in the UK, why bother. In my travels around a few of the local estates, I notice fridges/fridge freezers left on the pavement for el  Pie key . A day or so later I see the same fridges/fridge freezers still there ,but with the condenser etc hacked off and the gas left to escape into the ether. I've brought to the attention of local councillors, but it seems that the cost of gas escaping and the cost of picking up dumped white goods  is not something of consequence.

Many years ago we had a constant problem in our local estate. Every time a council property was vacated, the front garden became a dumping ground for household items. We had a residents meeting with the head of the local maintenance team and he told us that the cost was exorbitant. Our cure- a skip placed in one of three areas ,rotated on a weekly basis. Overnight the dumping problem stopped. Maintenance team workload dropped , so the funds that needed to be spent on removing dumped stuff from front gardens went down.

Perhaps the cure- a free LA  collection service. Degas and sell off the copper bits to defray the cost of the service.

Lol I think you may have posted on the wrong site VWD as based on your post you appear to be under the delusion that this is a council complaint site and not a car site 😁

@J.R., I'd like to justify getting a vac pump, but at the same time I'd like to get a bottle of Nitrogen gas, hum, maybe I'll just stick with the remains of my 1.5Kg R134a and my fridge manifold set.

 

If the trip to KwikFit for a quick suck and fill works for @Stewartasb and no questions asked, then I'll shuffle off to my local KwikFit for the same and start keeping an eye on the running pressures and sniff around the system for leak sources, I've also got an AN134 which I trust, for looking for leaks.

 

For general information, the correct plan, when just replacing a failed compressor, is to drain and measure the quantity of oil removed from that failed compressor, check the statement made about how much oil has been put into the replacement compressor, and then drain and measure oil until it now has the same weight of oil in it as the failed one did.  That is what is written in the bumph that accompanies a new compressor for these cars.

 

I seem to have a new drier assembly for my wife's 6C Polo, or at least I have a new drier that will fit my wife's 6C Polo.(result of a poor previous compressor diagnosis!), that can be fitted if I find a gross leak in her 6C Polo's AC system.