Things to check for old car a/c system and goto car aircond shop, not workshop.

1. AC Gas - If low, top up. Usually can last up to 2 years. If 3 months lose gas already, ask them to check if got leakage at pipes or joints. they have gas detector to do that if u go to proper car AC shop. Gas can also leak through the gasket of older compressor.

2. Low gas cutoff sensor for compressor - Some idiot usually advise to bypass this sensor when it's faulty. What will happen is when your gas is low the compressor will keep on running spoiling the compressor. Happens to my old car last time, change compressor 3 times because of this.

3. Thermostat - rarely spoilt, but if spoilt will cause your condenser to over cool and makes water in the condenser freeze to ice. Air flow will be blocked and no air will come out of your blower until it melt again.

4. Compressor - The heart of the AC, if older than 3-5 years usually have issue like gasket leaking or wear and tear on the piston. Will die really fast if the low gas cutoff switch have been bypassed.

5. Condenser - Place where the air become cool and hot air is absorbed. Rarely need any attention because a normal cleaning shoul dbe sufficient if it's too dirty. Only need to change when there's leaking but only on really2 old car.

Always try 2-3 different shop to troubleshoot before you repair, checking is always free and it's good to have a 2nd opinion especially if you're not familiar with the shops. Ask the problems and price for repairing it. Compare it with other place.

leaking or the piston have problem due to wear and tear. Last time for my old car i change the compressor and tell the shop to fix all the leaking. My aircond gas didnt need a refill for 2-3 years. If you want to test how severe is the leak, just go to any ac shop and tell them to check the gas pressure and refill the gas and then take note how long it will take for it to get to current condition.

If you need to refill the gas every month then it's better to do a full repair, but if it only need to refill like once every 6 month then just refill it until the compressor totally break down. Any gas loss in less than 2-3 months is considered bad since the price to top up the gas have increased too nowadays.

ah the air sound, i think i had the same issue too last time. There's a thingy (i dont remember the name) it have like 2-3 pipe hose connected to it. Must be a valve or something that uses air to trigger it. I change the thing and the AC start getting cooler again.

It's pretty rare to find car repair shop that also do aircond repair. But if you can find one that can do both your pretty lucky already.

Just try to get it checked at a few places so you can compare the results they gave to you and the price. It's important to get a nice and honest shop, because last time i've changed almost everything up to more than 1500 just because they didnt know it's the gas cutoff switch that's having trouble. So mine is a pretty expensive lessons.

Yeah, they will asks you to change 1 stuff 1 by 1. I think it's either because they are inexperienced or just trying to rip people off.

This post has been edited by marumaru: Jul 27 2012, 09:15 AM

Usually they need to add gas then check for leakage, yes you will be charged for it. But only do it if you have a budget to repair it at the same time, for eg. repairing the leakage while changing the compressor.

Regarding the compressor, yeah you need to change the whole unit. I used to get a bit cheaper by using recon or from kedai potong. Usually if the shop is considerate they can advise for a cheaper alternative. But that's the 5-6 year old ago price lol.

my favourite shop last time was at bangi, i'm not really familiar with other areas to recommend to you. But it would only take 4-6 hours max, for major repair works anyway.

This post has been edited by marumaru: Jul 30 2012, 01:16 AM

Ah they use bubbles is it to check? The one i went last time use an electronic sensor to detect the gas. It have a long probe like thing and will beeb loudly near leakage area.

wow really canggih la nowaday, my old car last time the leak mostly at compressor (change to recon) and pipe joints. Must be cause i did bang the car a few times before

But they fixed the joints, not sure how they do it cause i spent the whole time waiting in a cyber cafe playing online games

But after all that, even after 2 years the gas pressure seems ok. Haven't top up any gas at all after that, i even see droplets of water frozen on the pipes in the engine

This post has been edited by marumaru: Jul 30 2012, 10:23 PM

last time my compressor spoil cause some smart alec before bypass it using a jumper. With leaking on the pipes joints (minor) and the old compressor gasket, the compressor keep running even though it's low on gas. Costs me a fortune changing the compressor 3 times. Only the trusty shop at bangi spot the problem and advise me to change the cut off switch. It's not that expensive too, blardy hell.

Really owe the towkey big one for doing a proper check and spotting the problem for me.

This post has been edited by marumaru: Jul 30 2012, 10:36 PM

nah no problem, i've seen worse. If i'm not mistaken the sensor is only rm80 - 150. I've spent so much finding good shop and changing almost all the aircond parts last time in the span of 5 years.

It's an old 89' ford 3rd hand, the previous owner is really terrible. After 3 month i got the car, then engine oil sump gasket leak. My mom is furious seeing a lot of engine oil on her nice garage floor

I'm sure he's also the one that messes up with the bypass switch.

I've changed the thermostat (cheap one, just hide it under the dashboard), condenser (the shop guy con me, shouldn't have changed it), Blower (fan not so strong), Compressor (so many times because other issue is causing it to spoil and they fail to find the cause)

Now i think i'm pretty expert already with old car aircond system and try to help others not to undergo the same issue like me.

This post has been edited by marumaru: Jul 30 2012, 10:52 PM

ye lor, spoilt compressor how to repair anymore. Better just to change, cheaper somemore than repair.

This post has been edited by marumaru: Jul 30 2012, 11:11 PM