New Air con compressor fitting cost (estimate)

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Kell
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New Air con compressor fitting cost (estimate)

Post by Kell »

My daughter's car's Air Con isn't working.

Drove it down to Halfords for a quick check to see if there was a leak or it needed regassing and was informed that the compressor isn't kicking in.

I've checked the fuses (but that's about the limit of my abilities).

Assuming worst case, what is the likely cost of replacing the compressor? A google suggests a dealer price of around £475. Does this sound about right?

Thanks in advance.
amer6R
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Re: New Air con compressor fitting cost (estimate)

Post by amer6R »

Check Pressure sensor, Check sensor N280, check if air con clutch is engaging ( should hear a click when you give it power)
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Re: New Air con compressor fitting cost (estimate)

Post by RUM4MO »

As above, but these compressors are driven continuously so no clutch built into the drive pulley, the demand from the system to the compressor pushes a swash plate backwards and forwards to change the compressor's displacement, so if there is a problem with the system somewhere, then the compressor will not get demanded to send fridge gas through the system - and that includes if the pressure sensor is faulty, and they can/do fail on any VW Group car.

You really do need to get the AC system fault codes read before spending any money on hardware, Carista should be able to report system faults as well as things like fridge gas pressure, normally, if the gas pressure sensor is faulty it will cause a fault code to get logged, I've never used Carista to check for AC faults as I have not needed to - so far, but it does claim to be able to check for AC system logged faults, though originally, years ago, it did report faults correctly by their ID number, but their fault library was not complete so weird faults were given wrong names - but I'd think that has been sorted out by now. Typically I use VCDS, but Carista is cheaper and should work for you in this case.

Edit:- just one other thing, to protect the rest of the driven systems that the auxiliary belt services, the compressor pulley has a rubber coupling, so, if the compressor does end up seizing, to let the other driven bits to keep on working, this rubber coupling will shear. Maybe a bit tricky to check, but if this coupling has sheared, if you shine a light down onto the shaft of the compressor, you should be able to work out if the shaft is turning along with the pulley when the engine is running - but keep well away from all moving parts!
Kell
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Re: New Air con compressor fitting cost (estimate)

Post by Kell »

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

All that stuff above literally went over my head. Have know idea how to do any of that stuff.

I do have a friendly independent who've said that if the compressor does need replacing, the final cost would be around £350.

I do trust them. They saved me thousands on an old BMW when Sytner wanted to charge me £3,500 to remove the entire interior and change the full wiring loom to replace one faulty connector.

My independent sourced a SH one for me, snipped the old one off and soldered on this SH part and cured the problem for less than £300.

Fingers crossed they can do the same here. It is my daughter's car, but somehow the bills appear to be ours.
Kell
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Re: New Air con compressor fitting cost (estimate)

Post by Kell »

amer6R wrote: Sat May 14, 2022 10:19 pm Check Pressure sensor, Check sensor N280, check if air con clutch is engaging ( should hear a click when you give it power)
If I was to go to the car and listen for the click under power - do you mean when I turn on the aircon or when I rev the engine?

THX
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iichel
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Re: New Air con compressor fitting cost (estimate)

Post by iichel »

If your aircon compressor is with a clutch, then you should hear a click when the AC is engaged.
If your compressor is of the variable displacement type, you will not hear any click.
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Re: New Air con compressor fitting cost (estimate)

Post by RUM4MO »

Unless someone has been very creative with the AC system in your car, the compressor will not have an electro magnetic clutch on the drive pulley, as said already, it will be continuously driven UNLESS, the sacrificial rubber shear coupling built into the drive pulley assembly has failed due to seized internals on the compressor. Compressor output is varied to match demand and so save energy, ie fuel.
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