Air Conditioning

[JimM]

Hi All,

My XF has an issue with the Air Con system.

I had it regassed by local Halford garage (2015).  No leaks reported by Halfords and system did cool but not as good (cold) as my 7 year old Mondeo that the XF replaced. The system was regassed again last June 2016 This time using local Kwik Fit garage. Again no leaks identified but still not happy with how cool the temp would go. 2017 this time no cooling what so ever. Take the car back to KwikFit as it has 12 month warranty only to find I have driven 14,000 miles and voiding the warranty of 12,000 miles, or 12 months.

Any suggestion on why the cooling system while showing no leaks, manages to loose the gas over time?

Suggestion on what to do to correct the problem? How cool should temp drop too when at lowest setting?

Car is great to drive, however it becomes an oven in the rare summers days we get in Scotland 😎

Need to get it fixed once and for all.

Cheers

Jim.

[JOE-DOT-COM]

HI

You must have a leak, though it might be small, problem is most garages now have these all in one machines that vac it down, leak test and fill with gas.

You need to have a good look around, most common place would be the condenser, radiator behind the bumper, have a good look at it, especially in the corners, if you see any staining that a yellow/green color, odds are that's where your leak is

most air con people will put dye in that shows up with a uv light, they can also put in a sealer, that will fix minor leaks, like that,

my S-type R which uses the same component as the XF, the air con is ice cold,

your better off ringing a proper air conditioning engineer out, most do cars and should be able to find the leak, there no more expensive and all they work on is air con, most are old school and don't use the all in one machines

cheers

Joe

[B11LEY]

Hi Jim.

 

I had the same issue, I bought the car in December last year so didn't notice anything until we had a warm day in March when it didn't cool down at all. I went back to the garage where I bought it from which is about 110 miles away, so ten gallons of petrol there and back, seemed okay for about a week to ten days then stopped cooling again. I then got a local chap who did the vacuum test refilled the gas it worked fine for another ten days then stopped. So as Joe said I called in an expert who charged £30 for an inspection when he found the fault which was in fact a tiny hole in the condenser. He ordered one and replaced the defective part, it did cost £360 but well worth it as we were leaving the same week to drive to Sorrento. Needless to say the garage I bought from declined to even contribute to the repair, bad mistake as I won't go back when it's time to change the car. The car ran well all the way down and back covering over 3000 miles averaging 26.5 mpg. 

Bob