Hi All

 

Thanks to a stone I need a new air con condenser. I’ve been quoted £380 all in fitted for a non genuine part.

 

I don’t want an eBay plastic copy but has anyone replaced one with a decent reproduction/non genuine part that was of good quality and can steer me towards a link or part number

When I replaced mine approx 4 years ago I got it from my local Euro Car Parts. I'm sure the make was EIS and it fitted perfectly and is still fine to this day. Looking on their website at the moment they are £122 (my car is a 2010 VRS diesel) before any discount codes applied.

 

https://www.eurocarparts.com/air-conditioning-condenser

 

 

This was the cheapest on Ebay, £55 at the time for my Yeti and was excellent quality and very well packaged.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/401004968172?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

Edited 10 June, 20214 yr by J.R.

While your at it, consider putting mesh over the air input slats to stop stones hitting the condenser. When I did mine I found many small stones and bigger bits of concrete on the top of the bumper below the condenser.

Full details with photos and link to mesh were in many posts around 2015.

When completed, you will not notice the mesh unless you look for it.

I tried to find my posts on plastic mesh but it seems the links and photos no longer work.

So I took a photo.

It shows a view through the lower grill. You can see the unobtrusive small black tie wraps used to hold the mesh in place and on the right and lower part of the photo you can the mesh size. It lets through about 90% of the air. No need to add protection to the top grill as stones rarely reach the condenser.

 

 The lower part is the same now as when I installed it at ~30k miles ago; and no bent fins!

I believe the mesh net was sold for outdoor fish pond or garden use but I could not find the one I used.

However, I was surprised how many people sell protector net for car condensers now- including Skoda. 

I would not buy the Skoda one as it sits tight up against the fins and I am not sure it would work with the bits of concrete I initially found. Do a search

 

 

Edited 12 June, 20214 yr by pikpilot

A/C condensors are incredibly robust compared to the engine coolant radiators or intercoolers, they have to be because their rated pressure is 10 bar and the test pressure will be several times that.

 

In my view they really dont need protecting like the other 2 heat exchangers do and them being in front of the others protects them.

 

I rebuilt several cars with hard frontal impacts, front panel, wings, inner wings etc replaced, one had an AC condensor bent like a banana but just in case I depressed the Schrader valve before disconnecting it to throw away and it was still holding pressure and its integrity remained even after I had portapowered into submission to fit back on the new mountings.

 

Corrosion will do for them though.

Thanks for the help!

Unfortunately I’d have to get a garage to do the work as I’m not up to that skill level to replace.

 

The car spends its life up and down the dual carriageway so it’s inevitable it would have happened and was only spotted on a recent remap upgrade with fault coding prior to the heatwave!