Air con re-gas Leicester. Recommendations?

[stonecoldrmw]

Done just over 21k miles and noticed today that my air con is just not cold anymore.

Anyone else needed to re-gas around this sort of time frame? But also, any Leicester based air con specialists in Tesla recommendations?

 

[Bernard_S]

Under warranty surely ?

 

[gangzoom]

I used these guys recently for our X.

Electric Vehicle Specialist in Leicester | eTech Midlands

eTech Midlands has the equipment and expertise to repair and maintain your electric vehicle. Contact us today!

www.etechmidlands.com

 

[Jason71]

Under warranty surely ?

Agree. seems unlikely it just needs a re-gas. more likely there is a leak

 

[MrBadger]

Maybe worth checking for the possibility of stone damage et al. before deciding to risk going the warranty route and finding out that its damage needing a costly repair at Tesla price rather than potentially cheaper third party price.

My old cars (non Tesla) A/C failed and a mobile air con guy came to regas but found a stone strike had taken out the A/C radiator. He came back a few days later with new radiator to fix/regas and whilst more expensive than just the regas I was expecting, was far cheaper than had I got a main dealer to take a look.

Whilst not Leistershire, for anyone in north west Surrey area, I can certainly recommend Gary Soames who features in this article News | Auto Air Conditioning Ltd

 

[Sparkeur]

Done just over 21k miles and noticed today that my air con is just not cold anymore.

Until I read your post, I'd never given aircon much thought. I was therefore surprised to see the internet full of advice about re-charging every two years. Really? My Disco has 110,000miles and still blows cold air from new and I can't remember re-charging any car I've ever owned. If my M3 (similar mileage) had a similar problem, my first thought would be a fault rather than maintenance. However, do let us know the result.

 

[Tony Hoyle]

I had a peugeot for 10 years whose AC ran as cold when I sold it as the day I bought it.

Anyone selling a 'regas' without also fixing the leak that caused it to be necessary is just taking you for a ride. It'd be like a tyre place just pumping the tyres up again and not removing the nail.. they know you'll be back. kerching.

 

[Jason71]

Until I read your post, I'd never given aircon much thought. I was therefore surprised to see the internet full of advice about re-charging every two years. Really? My Disco has 110,000miles and still blows cold air from new and I can't remember re-charging any car I've ever owned. If my M3 (similar mileage) had a similar problem, my first thought would be a fault rather than maintenance. However, do let us know the result.

a lot of those people probably live in much hotter places than you so notice a drop off in performance sooner.
AC does lose refrigerant over time. And slowly loses efficiency until it gets too low and shuts down. All AC. It used to be standard to need to re-gas every 3 years or so. NOT using it used to make it worse since the refrigerant lubricates the seals so they would dry out and leak if it was not used.
Most of us only ever re-gas when the cooling is affected, maybe with an EV where efficiency is important it would be better to top it up more regularly to keep it running at peak efficiency?
despite this 2 years and not working at all does not seem normal so I still suspect a fault in the ops case.

 

[NigelT]

Also, unlike a regular ICE doesn't the M3, and others(?) run air through the A/C for battery cooling, perhaps that's added wear & tear

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Also, unlike a regular ICE doesn't the M3, and others(?) run air through the A/C for battery cooling, perhaps that's added wear & tear

Bjørn Nyland had a video showing the X's cooling covered with crap.
Model 3 is a different design, but it could need a clean rather than coolant.

 

[Sparkeur]

a lot of those people probably live in much hotter places than you so notice a drop off in performance sooner.

Not sure Leicester, Shropshire and Kettering are hotter than the Charente Maritime...but good effort

 

[davidmc]

Done just over 21k miles and noticed today that my air con is just not cold anymore.

Anyone else needed to re-gas around this sort of time frame? But also, any Leicester based air con specialists in Tesla recommendations?

I also noticed this yesterday. It was weird that the air (AC) felt warmer than usually even compared to the day before.

I put it on Auto (Full power) and a few mins later it was cold again.

I do have filters on order from Tesla, but not sure when they will turn up.

 

[tsh2]

NOT using it used to make it worse since the refrigerant lubricates the seals so they would dry out and leak if it was not used.

I think it is still sensible advice to try and remember to turn on the A/C once every couple of months just to keep the system lubricated (although this mostly applies to cars where the A/C is a separate switch and would otherwise remain unused for at least 9 months a year).

 

[Jason71]

Not sure Leicester, Shropshire and Kettering are hotter than the Charente Maritime...but good effort

My AC works just fine in Shropshire thanks. It even copes when I venture into Wales #extremeheat. I was referring more to the "internet full of advice about re-charging every two years" which, if Tesla specific, I assume originates mostly from places like California which seem to be permanently on fire these days.

 

[Sparkeur]

My AC works just fine in Shropshire thanks. It even copes when I venture into Wales #extremeheat. I was referring more to the "internet full of advice about re-charging every two years" which, if Tesla specific, I assume originates mostly from places like California which seem to be permanently on fire these days.

Ah...sorry, misunderstood. Actually, I looked at the RAC UK site - genuinely surprised at the two year recommendation: RAC Re-Gassing

To be honest, the weather here this year is weird. Normally at this time, I'm contemplating sleeping in the car because it's +38c...this past week we've struggled to get over 21c.

 

[Rustybkts]

I ways understood that the problems with leaking AC seals was an ICE issue.
EV's have a fully sealed compressor with no external drive shaft.
My daughter's old Zoe made a crunching sound once from the bonnet area and the air con stopped being cold/hot but no alarms came up. Before we sold it I purchased a new compressor from Ebay and had it replaced by a local HEVRA dealer.
After stripping the old one I found it had chewed the internals to a thousand pieces. The motor seemed to run in the refrigerant gas so was completely sealed.

 

[MrT3]

Until I read your post, I'd never given aircon much thought. I was therefore surprised to see the internet full of advice about re-charging every two years. Really? My Disco has 110,000miles and still blows cold air from new and I can't remember re-charging any car I've ever owned. If my M3 (similar mileage) had a similar problem, my first thought would be a fault rather than maintenance.

Same. Never had to regas any of my family's vehicles unless there was damage causing a leak. The two year advise just seems to be a way of gaining extra business, and seems a particularly bad environmental practice. In theory the system is sealed so the gas cannot escape, and using it regularly keeps the seals in good condition. My fridge freezer also doesn't require a two year regas.

 

[Jason71]

I ways understood that the problems with leaking AC seals was an ICE issue.
EV's have a fully sealed compressor with no external drive shaft.
My daughter's old Zoe made a crunching sound once from the bonnet area and the air con stopped being cold/hot but no alarms came up. Before we sold it I purchased a new compressor from Ebay and had it replaced by a local HEVRA dealer.
After stripping the old one I found it had chewed the internals to a thousand pieces. The motor seemed to run in the refrigerant gas so was completely sealed.

makes sense I always wondered why car AC was prone to leaks and needed re-gassing but fridges / domestic AC seem to go on for ever.
That being the case there should not be much need to re-gas an EV AC unless there is a fault. certainly it should be less common than on ICE
All of which suggests the op may have an issue

The problem when they chew up like that is that they can spread metal throughout the system before they fail completely so you have to flush or even replace the condenser, expansion valves etc as well as the compressor. happened to me on a Skoda £1000 to repair. happily under warrantee. Not your problem though if you were selling it anyway.

 

[stonecoldrmw]

So, slight update. Had the AC on the following couple of days and all is normal again...?!

No idea whats occurring, all completely fine n cold again.

Gonna keep an eye on it...

 

[Sparkeur]

There's a lot of threads on the wider TMC about this issue - some going back to 2018. You are obviously not alone:

Air Conditioner Blowing Hot Air 3 days before my road trip...

So it turns out the SC also did replace thermal controller. I have no idea why they replaced my Center screen frame. I have to ask them about that. Attached is the work order. So far so good.

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