How cold is your Air Con

How cold is your Air Con

Postby Cowboy Dave on Wed Feb 25, 2015 8:38 pm

I went to Clark Rubber and bought 20mm thick walled rubber hose (actually it was 19mm but close enough). Slice it open and it fits on there like it was made for the spot. Added a couple of cable ties and it's doing the job nicely.

One other interesting thing to think about. Above the driver's left knee there are some small cutouts in the beige part of the dash. When I removed it this week there was a convoluted tube running from those slots off into the nether regions of the dash somewhere. Being curious I unscrewed the dash end to look inside and found what looked like a little sensor but it was covered in fluff and dirt and stuff. I could be wrong, but the impression I got was that might have been a sensor to measure the cabin temperature for the aircon. If so you'd want it as clean as possible so it gets the right reading? I resolved to hit it with some maf sensor spray before I put it all back together again just in case.
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby GLRkenny on Tue Aug 25, 2015 6:49 pm

The last couple of days I've been doing a course for my automotive air conditioning licence. As a part of this I needed to service a couple of air con systems and I thought I might as well do mine just because I can.
The instructor had informed me that it's not unusual to see a new car with a low gas charge, so was eager to see how mine was.
I must admit that I was utterly shocked to get the results, I mean I know the air con system in these is not great but I'd always put that down to the lack of a condenser fan.
My car was purchased new in January of this year and has done 22000km.
We started with a performance test where the temperature is read by a probe in the centre vent, all doors closed and system on recirc. This test was a bit embarrassing to be honest, the coldest I got was 5.4 degrees and the vt commodore next to me was getting about 2 degrees, I should add that it was a single cab ute so less cabin to cool but still a massive difference.
The next step was to recover the gas from the system and weigh the amount removed, out of my system which has a specified charge of 480-550 grams of refrigerant I only got 320 grams before it was empty, keep in mind that this is a 2015 car and 100% has no leaks.
The only reasonable explanation is that the system was only charged enough from factory to be cold on days when it's not really that hot, quite disappointing.
After vacuuming the system and recharging it with 530 grams of refrigerant the same test as before had the temperature reading of about 2.5 degrees, yep less than half of the previous reading.
I don't have a condenser fan fitted and will see how the system copes in summer with the right amount of gas in it before I fit a fan just for curiosity.
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby Calblitzen on Tue Aug 25, 2015 9:32 pm

Very interesting results. What is the expected/average temperature range at the vent to achieve an acceptable comfortable temperature within the cabin.
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby GLRkenny on Wed Aug 26, 2015 5:24 am

Given that the ambient temperature was quite low you'd expect to see even lower because the system doesn't have to work as hard, of the 10 or so cars that were tested, mine was the newest and worst performing (other than a Camry with a blend door fault) but also the one that showed the most improvement
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby coughy on Fri Dec 18, 2015 5:45 pm

hay kenny i just had my ac regased after i decided to let the gas out the hard way lol long story
i replaced the condenser and the local ac guy said 550gms is all that it needed to use to fill it up
now in my challenger manual it states 630-670gms to fill it
now the ac isnt as cold as it was before ..

will that less 100gms make that much of a difference in colling power???
as im thinking of going down there tomorow and asking him to fill it up a bit more that extra 100gms??
or will it cause more problems???
your thoughts??
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby fridgie on Fri Dec 18, 2015 6:11 pm

You'd be losing about 17% of the efficiency if the gas charge is actually meant to be 670 (I know the ml is 550) and therefore a fair whack of cooling performance. It should have shown on his gauge if it was too low, that's if he actually knows how to use them......
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby coughy on Fri Dec 18, 2015 7:11 pm

mm ok ty fridgie im going to speak to him tomorrow
as i said that thing called a user manual states that figure so i will hit him up to top it up
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby coughy on Sat Dec 19, 2015 12:32 pm

ok so i went back to see the installer of the gas and he put in 100gms more so now i have 650gm of refridgerant all happy now ac is cold again
before the idiot mishap on my behalf lol
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby georgepapas on Wed Nov 23, 2016 8:20 am

I had a massive problem with my A/C for ages until one day i was washing the engine bay out and realized the back of my condenser was blocked with mud from when i had gone off road.

You could not see the mud until i ran a hose over it.

A/C has never been colder.
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby red dragin on Wed Nov 23, 2016 3:40 pm

I did the insulation hose stuff the other week.

Overall not noticeably colder, but gets colder quicker. Gas must be a little low as I'm having to hold the rpm up slightly at the lights whilst the cabin is still cooling down.

Wonder if my mate will miss the thermofan off his challenger :lol:
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby RHKTriton on Wed Nov 23, 2016 5:05 pm

An electric condenser fan is worth every cent.
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby SLIMaxPower on Wed Dec 21, 2016 9:50 am

compared to my kluger this aircon is a pos.

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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby mad992 on Wed Dec 21, 2016 7:13 pm

POS is the Triton A/c Full stop, everybody should invest in a condenser fan like RHK said worth every cent :D
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby gregned on Fri Dec 23, 2016 5:17 pm

Anybody know if the MQ triton has the connector for the condenser fan?
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby SLIMaxPower on Fri Dec 23, 2016 6:32 pm

mad992 wrote:POS is the Triton A/c Full stop, everybody should invest in a condenser fan like RHK said worth every cent :D

m8 i have the fan, insulation on the pipes - its still a POS
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby RHKTriton on Fri Dec 23, 2016 6:41 pm

Even if it hasn't its not a big job to rig up an after market. From memory the MQ has lots more room behind the grill so should be easier.
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby gregned on Fri Dec 23, 2016 6:54 pm

The MQ has the same mounting points as the MN, I'm using the same fan that fits the MN so was hoping the plug would be there too.
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby mad992 on Sat Dec 24, 2016 12:23 pm

SLIMaxPower wrote:
mad992 wrote:POS is the Triton A/c Full stop, everybody should invest in a condenser fan like RHK said worth every cent :D

m8 i have the fan, insulation on the pipes - its still a POS


Okay so whats the next step then , have you installed the cabin filter and cleaned any evidence of dust build up under the dash behind the glove box,have you hosed out the crud that builds up between the coil near the radiator as this tends to fill up with seeds and leaves and rubbish other than this you need to go to an air con specialist and get it checked out ;)
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby srb on Sat Dec 24, 2016 1:43 pm

Yes take it to a specialist. Your AC could be a bit low on gas.. Not uncommon to be undercharged from factory.. Mine was from day one... works much better since topping it up.

I also don't have a condenser fan on mine but it's not a dual cab. Probably worth doing for a dual cabs but insulating your ac pipes is a bit of wast of time.
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby bdrjnr on Sun Jan 08, 2017 8:34 am

Hi all.

I know this is an older post, and obviously didn't want to start another one.

I had some issues with my a/c. Got it regarded and it was freezing. After a while got warm again to find out leaking seal. So the guy I originally took it to replaced seal and re gassed. Freezing again...

Only about a month ago I noticed it was getting warm. (When I look back I remember the last trip I did was very very dusty)

Took it back to auto electrician and he checked everything and all pressures were fine. He changed the relay. He said that the relay was a small one and he replaced it with larger one. Not sure how true. He hasn't done wrong by me with all my other stuff and we send our work stuff to him so I will take it on face value. It helped a little but that may have been in my mind.

So I read this forum and saw someone mention about cleaning out the condenser and the radiator etc. wow what a difference a little bit of water made.

I will do a better clean out in the near future when I do my new recovery points....
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby coughy on Sun Jan 08, 2017 9:40 am

have you checked your internal filter if you have one??? at the fan blower makes huge difference if clogged with dust and crap
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby bdrjnr on Sun Jan 08, 2017 11:24 am

Hi coughy

The auto electrician said he looked for it and he said it didn't have one. He said he pulled the glove box out to have a look.
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby Enid_Triton on Sat Mar 21, 2020 5:12 pm

Old post but I reckon insulating the air-con pipes in the engine bay is a waste of time.
The only reason some manufacturers do it is to stop condensation/sweating on the pipes & I don't think they do it to improve cooling.
Anyway, all of the cooling takes place at the evaporator & TX Valve (a kind of refrigerant thermostat) which are both located under the dash. The pump up front is just a pump to keep the refrigerant flowing under medium to low pressure. The condenser up front just keeps the refrigerant at the ambient temperature & it does not make it icy cold. But if it wasn't there things would get real hot real quick (so make sure it is not clogged or the air flow is not restricted by an added accessory. (notice I didn't say Bull bar)
The Low-pressure liquid refrigerant passes through the TX valve and it allows specific amounts of the now very cold liquid to enter the evaporator cores and that's when the magic takes place & your cabin starts to get cool. Cooling doesn't start until it gets to the under dash TX valve.
Now, warm air from the interior of the vehicle passes through the evaporator by action of the blower fan which removes the heat & humidity from the cabin air.
The cooler refrigerant flowing inside the evaporator absorbs heat from the warm air. Then the humidity in the air condenses on the cool evaporator fins and eventually it drips onto the ground under the vehicle. No icy cooling actually takes place under the bonnet, at the pump or in the front condenser.
In my opinion any cool pipe under the hood would be the return pipe from the under dash evaporator which is flowing back to the condenser up front. Insulating it to gain extra cool would do next to nothing & be pretty useless I would think because it has already passed through the cabin and is on its way back to the front air cooled condenser. But a thermo fan cooling the front condenser would help, especially on really hot days.

But because so many here say insulating the pipes next to the turbo works and helps the cooling process I will try it & see if it does work or if it is just a placebo effect.
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby explorer.dave on Wed Jan 25, 2023 1:11 pm

I always thought the MN aircon was below average, on days 34 and above really struggled, been like this since new, so yesterday I had my system re-gassed.
Only 240grams of refrigerment in the system so no wonder the poor performance, put 650grams in and WOW what a difference. Happy days.
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Re: How cold is your Air Con

Postby RHKTriton on Mon Jan 30, 2023 7:25 am

I always found system on my ML struggled compared to previous vehicles.

Fitting a fan on the condenser helped to a degree ( no pun intended ), however still not optimum.

Then I considered that having a hot heater core in the same enclosure as the evaporator can't be good design.

I ended up installing a bypass valve in the heater water circuit and problem solved. I can stop any hot water getting past the firewall.

The result is painfully cold air at the vents and quicker cooling after having parked at shopping, etc.
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