Blowing hot air even after recharge of gas

mikemac2

Hi

My car is quite old but I but don't use it much and I like it. 2001 Mercedes C200 Kompressor 243km on the odometer.

I bought it off a friend 2 years ago and passed our annual test 2 years in a row now. Not NCT , is controle technique in Europe but tbh it's the same thing.

I don't use a lot and the no AC didn't bother me. I did have it checked by a mechanic last year who confirmed no AC leaks but I didn't pay for R134A at the time.

Last week I paid 85 euro (could have gotten it 65 euro elsewhere but this garage is convenient) for full recharge of R134A. Looking at the printout docket it was pretty much empty, a handful of grammes taken out of it and they installed 750grammes and according to the sticker in the car that's the maximum. They also put in 5grammes of oil and 5 grammes of tracer. I do not know what that is. But I believed a good job well done

However my blower works fine, I get strong blow of air but nothing has changed. Nothing at all. Just warm air which is what I had before.

What would the next step be? Compressor to be checked over? I think I could live without AC if that's very expensive. Just interesting to learn what a common issue could be :)

jmreire

You will need to to have it scanned with an OBD scanner. That will show codes for any malfunctioning, and the problem can be identified from these codes.

Good Luck with it, they are a great car!!🙂

Atlantic Dawn

Can you hear the clutch of the compressor engage when you turn on the A/C in the car? If not it could be a relay/fuse, if you open the fusebox in either the engine bay or glovebox there should be one for the A/C, if you can see another one which is the same as this for something non-important you can try swapping it temporarily to see if it resolves and engages the clutch after the swap.

zg3409

You ideally need an air conditioning expert to give it the once over. In fact whoever put the gas in should have checked the system cooled and held the pressure. If all the gas is gone again you have a leak.

mikemac2

Thanks for replies. I checked online for a fuse diagram and this Mercedes does not have a relay for the AC clutch. I understand the point as I watched some youtube videos on it. Maybe it's a Mercedes thing. I read some Mercedes forums on this. Instead there is a pressure switch but I could not explain or understand much further.

I kinda regret going to this garage. This offer was refill the gas so I suppose I got what I paid for but looking at websites at other garages they test the compressor and do a lot of other checks along with the R134A. And they were less expensive, I picked this garage based on location. So the place I paid for are not exactly comprehensive. Looking at the time stamp it was completed in minutes, very fast.

I don't believe there is a leak as another mechanic checked it over last year but maybe there is.

Anyway it's beyond my skill and I will get it checked over. But first a friend as an OBDII scanner so I will scan just to educate myself, not that I would know how to resolve.

End of the day it's 21 years old and I had no AC for 2 years. If it's a big bill I will live without AC. Thanks for all the replies :-)

TheRiverman

Surely they should have checked that it was working properly before you left the garage. Definitely sounds like a faulty compressor, which is not cheap. Don't know what it would cost for a Merc, I drive a Ford Focus and a compressor for it is €500-600 incl.vat.