Decided to get air con done

[mr james]

The other day, before I went on hols, well meant to be hot hot, so took the plunge.
Went to farmer autocare, £60 to get the old girl done, never been done in my ownership, some 4 years!, yes it was cold but not cold, cold, but Elgrand only goes to 18, in jockland it doesn't get that hot anyway, well things change.
So, guy does the stuff, says, took pressure, no problems, removed then filled, said the amount, but just numbers to me anyway
No charge, it was free.
Said not cold enough, thinks something wrong with condenser.
So, me thinks it's not to bad, got home, pulled grill off, well the bottom of the rad doesn't look so great, lot of aluminium about the bottom shelf and quite a few damaged all along the bottom half, top looks good, cutting a long story short, I'll replace the rad, I'm quite surprised that the rad does the engine coolant, the transmission and also the ac!!
By the way the weather wasn't hot, so didn't need the supper cold ac, just the normal heater, so cost me nothing, but at least I found my rad is on the way out, so I'll change soon

 

[Lpgc]

The other day, before I went on hols, well meant to be hot hot, so took the plunge.
Went to farmer autocare, £60 to get the old girl done, never been done in my ownership, some 4 years!, yes it was cold but not cold, cold, but Elgrand only goes to 18, in jockland it doesn't get that hot anyway, well things change.
So, guy does the stuff, says, took pressure, no problems, removed then filled, said the amount, but just numbers to me anyway
No charge, it was free.
Said not cold enough, thinks something wrong with condenser.
So, me thinks it's not to bad, got home, pulled grill off, well the bottom of the rad doesn't look so great, lot of aluminium about the bottom shelf and quite a few damaged all along the bottom half, top looks good, cutting a long story short, I'll replace the rad, I'm quite surprised that the rad does the engine coolant, the transmission and also the ac!!
By the way the weather wasn't hot, so didn't need the supper cold ac, just the normal heater, so cost me nothing, but at least I found my rad is on the way out, so I'll change soon

The AC condensor (rad) is completely separate to and in front of the engine cooling rad. The engine cooling rad does engine cooling and transmission cooling but not AC cooling.

If you want to change the AC condensor you should get the AC guy to degass the system first. It is possible but illegal just to vent the refrigerant gas to atmosphere. After changing the condenser the AC guy will need to put it on a vacuum and regas it again.

 

[mr james]

The AC condensor (rad) is completely separate

If you want to change the AC condensor you should get the AC guy to degass the system first. It is possible but illegal just to vent the refrigerant gas to atmosphere. After changing the condenser the AC guy will need to put it on a vacuum and regas it again.

Thanks for the helpful information, yes I did look at some diagrams after I posted, forgot to update it, too busy enjoy myself ( the break away from the grind)
In all the years I've had her I've never put ac on, but times are changing, so I'll look a bit deeper.
But first has to be the radiator as the bottom ain't to healthy, yes both in same area, so I'll look into doing both, but I'll need to think into how.

 

[AnthonyUK]

..In all the years I've had her I've never put ac on, but times are changing, so I'll look a bit deeper...

I never turn mine off. I find this is the best way to keep it working and even in the winter it stops condensation on the inside.

 

[skystalker1]

I find with mine if it's just blowing on the front but not the back it does not get very cold but if I turn the rear on it comes out ice cold at the front ,not sure why but it does .

 

[Lpgc]

I find with mine if it's just blowing on the front but not the back it does not get very cold but if I turn the rear on it comes out ice cold at the front ,not sure why but it does .

There are a few reasons why that could happen. Usually the most likely reason when there's more than one evaporator fitted (like on Elgrands) concerns evaporator core temp sensors which when fitted tell the hvac system when the evaporator(s) get to freezing temp so it can turn off the compressor momentarily to allow defrosting. If there were a problem with the front sensor (like it was unplugged or open circuit) and the rear AC was turned off the hvac system would read that the front evap was below freezing and might reduce the duty cycle of the compressor, if the rear is also switched on it might not reduce the dc of the compressor until both evaporators read freezing.

 

[PhillB]

@mr james your next holiday needs to be in Yorkshire, drop the Elgrand with Simon, get the train to York, when you get back to @Lpgc the aircon will be sorted

 

[mr james]

@mr james your next holiday needs to be in Yorkshire, drop the Elgrand with Simon, get the train to York, when you get back to @Lpgc the aircon will be sorted

Ok, so I know nothing about air con and how it works, but nuts and bolts I can do.
If I can't fix it it ain't worth fixing
I need a ac condenser, this i believe is the ac radiator ( my language) new is too much about £500 plus, second hand, toooo much £250 not paying that for something that should be £50, looked at getting it refurbished but no one does that anymore, all the old guys I knew have all moved on ( retirement or no longer around)
Looked at others that look similar and do a bit plumbing, but to be honest, is it really worth the hassle, taking it to Simmonds does nothing to my wallet ( you still need to purchase the parts)
So it will just have to stay as is, it works but not perfect, no leaks, the front to rear pipes are perfect from the outside, in all it might not look the prettiest bus but it pulls like a train, I wouldn't hesitate to go anywhere with it.
Bottom line it's an old bus, I'll keep it going untill it gives up, easily pass the 200k soon.
But if I pick up one at a good price, I'll put it on.

 

[Lpgc]

Simple how AC works, when you compress a gas it gets hotter, if you have compressed gas and allow it to expand it gets cooler. Normally just doing that it'd end up a bit warmer than when you started but if you compress it, put it through a radiator to dump most of the heat from compression and then allow it to expand it can end up cooler than when you started. The effect is more exaggerated with AC because there's also a 'phase change' which means the gas is compressed, loses heat in the condenser and turns into a liquid (which is why it's called a condenser), still at high pressure it goes through a jet into the evaporator (so called because that's where it evaporates) where it expands and gets cold and changes phase again to a gas. The vapour then goes back into the compressor and the cycle continues.

You can see how half of it works by using a bike tyre pump (which gets hot), see how the other half of it works by busting an aerosol full of lighter gas / butane (which gets cold).

I haven't priced up condensors, you might get one from a breaker? But if your system seems to be working OK and doesn't leak then like you say you could just leave it alone and enjoy it.