A/C has lost refrigerant charge.

[GrahamSneddon]

Contaced OPC and explained I have no A/C and asked if this was under my current warranty. They replied saying this is a maintenance job and they will check and if a re-gas is required it will be £283.
A re-gas doesn`t really fix my issue if the refrigerant is lost as it will happen again. Anyone had a similar issue?

Another question, my car was manufactured in 2016, does anyone know if the car is charged with R134a or the newer R1234rf Refrigerant?

 

[nigel99]

In my old 991.1 GTS (2015), I had a few occurrences of this. Once when I first purchased the car and the selling garage paid for a regas at a local garage. 12 months later, same thing happened. I paid for another regas and then month later same thing. Took it to my indy who was unable to locate the issue. He added some dye so if happened again would be able to see where it was escaping but it didn't happen again and I've now sold the car.

Gas is gas so I'd take it to a local F1 Auto Centre or KwikFit for a refill. Will cost about £80 and they will perform a test too.

My GTS took the old type of gas.

 

[Zingari]

Kwik-Fit is the best and easiest place to take it provided you help them out where the connections are! Opening the front lid when I had my 964 was not a good start for them :roll:

It's £49:95 and no charge if there is a leak or it fails. You can then go and get it investigated elsewhere if needs be.

Most owners who seldon use the AC have the most problems I've found. In my cars I never turn AC off (as part of a 'climate control' it's designed to stay on all year round) and I got 15yrs out of my Audi before it needed a regas

 

[TonyC911]

Very common on later 911's, the location of the condensers means they are susceptible to corrosion / damage, leading to leaks :roll:

http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=140338

 

[deMort]

I'm pretty sure the new gas was 2017 onwards and didn't affect the 991 range.


Even so it's only a cost difference for you and any garage will soon know by looking at the connectors .. they are different from R134

As mentioned .. any place such as halfords can regas a car .. if the a/c is not working though its not normal leakage but an actual leak with the a/c condensers being the most obvious .

Have a peer through the front Bumper at the condensers which are in front of the radiators , one each side ..

Any dark , oily patches and they will be leaking .

As this is usually caused by stone damage then it won't be cover by warranty .

Rule of thumb ..a/c leak ... it won't be covered by warranty !

 

[boardingnath997]

My 991 needed a regas at Brooklands OPC and from memory the cost wasn't too bad (about £150) they searched for a leak and couldn't find one.

 

[deMort]

Any car will loose approx 10 % volume of gas per year .. normal leakage ..

As the gas gets lower you tend to hear whining noises in the car which go with the a/c turned off .

Every 4 years an a/c service or a regas is warranted .

Working fine one month then not the next is a leak .

These can be hard to find ..

Talking in general here .. we drain out any a.c gas .. we pressurise the system with nitrogen .. this is a gas with small molecules which will escape from small " holes " at a faster rate than a/c gas ..

Also as a/c gas is a greenhouse gas we are limited as to what we can do ..

If a mechanic suspects a leak he is Not allowed to regas a system .. this is these days punishable by law .. we are talking 50 - 200K fines for the mechanic ..NOT the garage that may well have told him to regas the system .

Ok that's in the extreme but that's basically how it works .. 50-200K for putting gas into a system that has a leak !!!

reality is who would know but that's the basic principle .

Ok so i put 30 bar of pressure into the a/c system .. that's 435 psi .. your tyres are at 43 psi , rears that is .

We then walk around under the car trying to hear a hiss .. a leak .. we have a " gun " that can detect nitrogen .. it's not that accurate so listening is the best ..

A small leak .. fat chance in hell springs to mind !!

A sensible leak .. yup .. a small leak in a clamp .. very hard to find .. ill add we also look for dye .. green fluorescent .. but it may not have been added to the system and we also look for damp oily patches .. pag oil leaking out .

In short .. finding an a/c leak .. it's pretty archaic .