Although I always leave it switched on, I have never paid much attention to my air-conditioning as a result of living in a climate where cooling is only necessary for around 7 days per annum!

I have owned my XJR for just over four years and have never had to re gas the system; when cooling was required, the system always obliged, including a couple of weeks ago when "summer" made an appearance for a day. On that occasion, it did strike me that it took the system quite a long time to cool the interior, and the possibility of needing a re gas did cross my mind. I didn't have long to wait, as within a couple of days, it was warm again, only this time the aircon was not cooling. I checked under the bonnet, and the compressor clutch was not engaged.

On checking the climate control panel codes, I had "23" showing, low refrigerant pressure/ low gas.

Air-conditioning having always been a bit of a black art, I took the car in to my friendly Jag dealer for one of their fixed price "air conditioning services".

All apparently regassed, I set off at peace with the world, and although it was not a warm day, I was under the impression that all was well. I now kick myself for not setting the system to "low" to check that the system was cooling, but at face value, all was well.
As most of you will have guessed, having not used the car for a week, I am now without cooling, have code 23 again, and having been back to the dealers again, am told that there is no gas in the system. They confirm that they put dye in during the regas, and claim to have been able to hold a vacuum before putting the fresh gas in. They cannot see any signs of the dye, but have concluded there must be a leak, which does indeed seem like a reasonable assumption.

Rather than let them run up a bill amounting to more than the value of the car, I have been googling to try to understand more about the system, and find myself puzzled about a couple of things:

-I took the car in to the dealer myself, and waited till it was finished. My appointment was for 1pm, and my invoice was paid at 2.03pm. From what I have now read online, the vacuum should be pulled for half an hour, and held for at least half an hour after that. I have not been able to locate Jaguar recommended timings for the job, but am I correct in suspecting that they couldn't have done it properly in an hour?

- The invoice shows they used four 0.25 kg gas containers. As I understand it, the system capacity is 1.150 kg, so does the difference suggest they couldn't have filled the system properly, or is the difference immaterial?
Or does the fact they only used 1.0kg suggest they just put more gas in?

- If they just put more gas in, does the fact that it took only 1.0kg to top up my system suggest that there was still gas in it to start with (i.e. it was still gas tight)? Or again, is the difference immaterial?

None of this helps find the leak, but it might help to recoup some of the cost of the eventual regas!

With regards to tracking down the leak, I can see traces of dye inside the neck of both schraeder valves. On the low pressure side, I assume this comes from the dye being injected, but should there be any on the high pressure side? Rightly or wrongly, I am of the view that the car did simply need regassed, but they have disturbed something, and my suspicion is currently on the schraeder valves.

Any help or guidance would be much appreciated, as I am resolved to get this working. Everything else on the car works, and it has just passed its MoT!

 

Hi countyjag,

I have edited your huge block of text to add line breaks so it won't be as uninviting to read. I'm sure other members will want to help, but not at the expense of severely strained eyes.

Cheers,

Don

 

I myself will pull a vacuum for 10 minuets then let sit for 10 mins and see if it holds, if it does I'll pull a vacuum for 30 mins then commence servicing. Can I get it done in an hour? Sure. The dye you see on the shraders is probably just residual. I'd invest in a black light and check for signs of a leak in the dark. The dealer would have nothing to gain by rushing your car through, they make less if they hurry. If the schraders are leaking you should hear a "hiss" when you first pulled the caps.