It's obviously got enough gas in to close the pressure switch which is in series with the compressor clutch, but not enough to give you noticeably colder air. If you poke the AC Off button so it doesn't try to engage the clutch, set it at Lo and stick a thermometer in one of the vents with the engine running, you'll measure the temperature of the ambient air being drawn through the system. Then poke the button again so the compressor engages and watch the thermometer, chances are you'll see a small drop in temperature which will confirm a low charge.

A pressure test is more reliable than a vacuum test, the vacuum is to draw out everything in the system before filling it. I've just got in from installing a domestic system so have been testing at 43 bar as they run at a much higher pressure than an automotive system. If there's a leak, that will soon find it......

A mate has a workshop doing routine servicing, MoT failures and stuff like that. No end of times he gets customers coming in to have work put right that has been done by Halfords. They should really stick to pushbikes...

I did the full FGas course so I can install domestic and commercial air con systems (and for some unknown reason have been very popular in the last few days) but took the automotive exam at the same time so am qualified to do that too. To do it properly you use a recovery machine to remove any remaining refrigerant, then pressurise with Nitrogen, leave for 30 minutes to ensure the pressure doesn't drop due to any leaks, at the end of that time use a vacuum pump to remove the Nitrogen and any remaining air that may have been in the system, before refilling with the correct quantity of refrigerant.

The likes of KwikFit and Halfords use an automated machine (that way their staff don't need to be sent on a training course and pass a City and Guilds exam). It recovers any remaining refrigerant, skips the pressure test phase and goes straight to the vac stage. As long as the system holds a vacuum, it assumes no leaks then puts refrigerant in but has to be programmed before the start with how much. Some need it entering as a figure in grams, with others you tell it what car and it uses a look-up table to set the amount. However, if you ignore that setting it uses a default quantity of (usually) 600 grams. Considering a GEMS needs 1250, a Thor 1380 and a diesel 1100, you get a half filled system which will work but not very well or for very long. Easy way to check is to put it on Lo and shove a thermometer in the vent. If it goes down to 5 degrees C or lower, it's working as it should (out of interest, I checked mine the other day and was getting 3.9 degeres with an ambient of 29 degrees). If it can't achieve that, you've been given a short fill.

The clutch is on the front of the AC compressor. You've got the bit the belt goes round that spins freely and behind it is the actual drive to the compressor. The clutch is electromagnetic and pulls in against a spring so when it engages both parts spin and not just the bit on the front. All you do is tap it to give it a hand to pull in.

We had a big bloke called Rob who weighed exactly 100kg, so a Rob became a unit of weight. I weighed 0.7 Robs and all our other kit was marked in Robs......

If KwikFit did it, take it back and tell them it has stopped. They should pressure test it for you. Presumably the compressor clutch isn't engaging? That can be a result of the air gap being too big and usually means it will engage when the temperature is warm but it doesn't when the weather is hot when you need it most. Set the AC on Lo which will cause the HEVAC to attempt to engage the clutch and, assuming you can get to it easily on a diesel, tap the clutch with a screwdriver handle. If it engages then, the clutch needs a shim removing from behind it to get the gap back to where it should be (between 16 and 30 thou).

You can very briefly press in one of the valves but be careful or you'll get a face full of refrigerant and PAG oil if it does have pressure in it (this is also illegal as you are releasing fluorinated gases into the atmosphere and contributing to global warming). If you've ever used one of the self fill cans, they often have a gauge in the hose and will have the correct fitting to go on the port. R134a systems are pressure tested to 10 bar (around 145psi) and you should really be using Oxygen Free Nitrogen and then a vacuum pump to get it all out again. Compressed air preferably dry, can be used as long as you vac it out immediately you've finished the test. If you have lost the refrigerant, the most likely leak point on a P38 is the top left (looking at it from the front) corner of the condenser where it has a piece of foam on it. It has almost certainly had leak detecting fluid put in it at some point in the past so you will see a green stain which will glow under UV light.

I got deeply involved in axle weights and gross vehicle weights when I was still working. As all the vehicles were fitted with racking and storage cupboards built in, along with a pair of huge leisure batteries with associated electronics to control them, one of the vehicles was sitting a bit low when loaded with some other specialist equipment and two people. So much so, it was spotted on a vehicle check and put on a weighbridge. Only to find that without the passenger it was just under the gross weight but as soon as he got in, it was over.......

I was tasked with getting the weight down and by removing one leisure battery, I saved 31kg immediately. After attacking some of the racking with an angle grinder and dumping some of the other useless stuff (like the jack, wheelbrace and spare wheel, as we weren't allowed to use them anyway and were supposed to just call out the AA), I managed to lop almost 200 kg off the weight. We even had a chart in the office of how much each of us weighed so we could match who could travel together too.

Re the EAS, do the sums. Unloaded each rear spring is supporting around 500kg and at that the pressure in the rear springs is roughly 75 psi. Increasing the load to maximum results in each spring supporting 920kg so the pressure in the springs will increase to around 140 psi.

However, your original weights are wrong. The EEC kerb weight (car+full tank of fuel+75kg driver), for a 4.6 is 2220 kg and the gross vehicle weight is 2780 kg, so the maximum load is actually 560 kg (2780-2220). What I find interesting is that the EEC kerb weight for a 4.0 litre auto is 2100 kg, yet the kerb weight for a 4.6 auto, is 2220 kg, a difference of 120 kg. Yet the difference between the two versions is merely a different crankshaft and con rods, which I would assume would weigh around the same and a marginally larger gearbox which, having humped both around just recently, doesn't weigh that much more. No more than 10 kg, if that, and the additional 1.3 litres of ATF in the gearbox isn't going to make that much difference either.

It can, as long as your air springs are decent. I've carried over half a tonne in the car and 3.5 tonnes on a trailer behind it. The nice thing about the EAS is that the arse doesn't sag when it's loaded so unlikely to attract the attention of Mr Plod.

Put the gear lever in Park then go to the lever on the side of the gearbox. You should be able to move the shaft the lever attaches to a little so make sure it is hard against the internal end stop, that will confirm it is fully into Park. Run though all the gears, or better still, get someone else to do it while you lay underneath and you can confirm the shaft the lever is attached to is clicking into each gear. Then check that the lights and dash correspond with the lever position. If they don't, you slacken off the nut and bolt that secure the XYZ switch and turn that one way or another until they do.

When you put it in park a lever moves into a slotted wheel on the output shaft and it sounds like it isn't fully moving into Park. You've got two adjustments there, the cable itself that changes the gears and the XYZ switch which shows what position the cable and lever are. It's on slots so you can adjust it to get them to match. If you have been adjusting the cable to match the XYZ switch, you are doing it the wrong way round. You adjust the cable so the gears engage fully when the interior gear lever is showing where it should be, then adjust the XYZ switch so the lights and dash match where the lever is.

ac6 wrote:

It's making me think about little extras to carry with me as well as basic tools, in case I'm far from home when something like this happens!

Been there, done it. Drove back from France in the middle of summer about 4 years ago with the drivers window stuck at a very funny angle due to the very same problem. I've drilled the holes out on mine and used M6 bolts and nyloc nuts instead of the rivets.

This gets even curiouser. Driving it yesterday the blowers were running at half speed but I went round a tight RH bend with a bump partway round and the blowers suddently went to full speed. This suggested a bad connection somewhere. Checked the readings from the assorted sensors and compared them with the Ascot, all virtually the same. Solar sensor was giving readings close to 100 but dropped if I put my hand over it yet the fan speeds didn't change. So, out with the HEVAC and have a good look at it. Spotted what might have been a dry solder joint on pin 2 of C245 which feeds the RH blower so re-soldered that. Gave all connectors a good dose of contact cleaner and put it back in. Now the blowers are running at half speed but if I manually turn the blower speed up, they go to full tilt as they did anyway but stay on full speed if I switch back to Auto. They will also slow down if I cover the solar sensor so seem to be working properly as long as I manually put them on full speed before switching to Auto. Very odd.

I can't swap the HEVAC between the two cars as I modified mine some years ago. I had an intermittent fault which was a bad connection on the main power feed plug into the HEVAC (C244). So I soldered flying leads to the connector pins and put an inline plug and socket on it. That has worked perfectly for at least 10 years but it means that I would need to do a similar modification on any replacement HEVAC.

As I said previously, no need for dye at all, just pressure with a gas, preferably Nitrogen but as long as you are going to be vaccing it all out immediately afterwards, even compressed air. That will leak out from wherever the leak is and you should be able to see it with soapy water.

The correct process when re-gassing a system is to recover any remaining refrigerant (which you won't have), pressurise with Nitrogen and leave for at least 15 minutes to check for any slow leaks (which you find by squirting the leak detecting spray or soapy water on all potential leak points), let the Nitrogen out then vac down to around 500 microns (760,000 microns or 760 Torr is atmospheric pressure at sea level), leave that for 15 minutes again to ensure it maintains it, before putting the R134a in.

You can skip step 1 as there's nothing in it, so go straight to step 2 rather than jumping to step 3.

It should be OK. I used the Screwfix stuff on my daughter's tarmac driveway after we'd changed the clutch on her Toyota without following the instructions in the manual to drain the gearbox oil so it all fell out of the hole the driveshaft should have been in. Didn't damage that but cleaned the pool of gear oil up well enough.

I don't think I have ever seen a P38 where those clips are still in one piece. The ends break off so there is just the centre part left. So getting them 3d printed might be a good idea as I doubt any breakers will have any that are still good (or they won't be once the pipes are unclipped from them). I know the purists will be horrified but mine are just held in place with a couple of tie wraps.

I checked the running temperature on mine yesterday out of interest. Driving back from Paris and the exterior temp display was showing 32 degrees C. Running on the motorway the coolant was at 91 degrees, slowing down in town traffic it rose to 93 so no need for the fans to come on at any time.

One thing I did notice was that my blowers aren't adjusting with sunlight. In the past I've noticed if I get in the car when it has been parked in the sun, the blowers start up then after a few seconds speed up to get the interior temperature down. Once the interior is getting comfortable the fans slow down but will speed up when the sun hits the sensor on top of the dash and slow down again if in shade. At the moment it isn't doing that so there's a problem with either the interior sensor or the sun sensor. Fortunately, the Ascot works as it should so I'll get the Nano out and compare the readings on both cars. I think the interior sensor is working as it should but no idea if the solar sensor is and as the Nano reads it out in w/sqm, I've no idea what is correct and what isn't.

It'll draw some in but probably not enough to do anything useful.

Not half as impressed as his mother was apparently, he wrote her car off!

I install domestic AC systems these days (I know, I retired over 2 years ago but sort of fell into it) and a mate does mobile car AC. When we both did our respective training courses we were told that before vaccing a system, you pressure test it with Oxygen free Nitrogen. On an automotive system it is tested to 10 bar (43 bar on a domestic system) and left for at least 15 minutes during which time you can squirt your leak detecting fluid (or washing up liquid and water) over the system to look for any leaks. As long as you vac it out immediately you've done the test, you won't do any harm using compressed air as long as it is dry. Much easier to find something squirting out than sucking in......

Not mine but one belonging to another forum member who lives just outside Paris. The car was parked, completely off the road, when a young lad who had only just passed his driving test, driving his mother's car and showing off to his two female passengers, lost it on a bend and did this......

But you know what they say, nothing that a bit of T Cut won't sort.......

OK, there was a few other steps in between. First of all, off with what was left of the front bumper which required the club hammer to come out as the sliding nylon fixing was jammed as the bumper was at an odd angle.

Then out with the light unit which, as they don't put salt on the roads in France, just unscrewed making the battery powered De Walt angle grinder in the boot of my car surplus to requirements.

Closer examination showed that the transmission cooler (as it is a diesel) wasn't damaged at all but the outrigger was bent back about 4 inches. Unbolted that and the cooler sprang back to where it should have been. Good job I had a replacement outrigger with me then.....

Then it was just a case of putting it back together with a few new bits. Replacement outrigger bolted on, new headlight unit fitted (apparently the only LH headlight for a LHD car left in Europe and was the last one they had at a supplier in Portugal, nobody else could supply one), both indicators replaced with 2000-on units, The front corner of the wing, while looking OK, had actually bent inwards slightly so with the strip under the headlight in place the grille was about 10mm wider than the gap it should fit in.... Headlight out again and with careful use of a pipe wrench wrapped in cloth and a soft faced mallet, the wing was persuaded back to shape. Headlight in, grille back on and it was time to offer up the bumper. With assistance from the owner's husband and me laying underneath to guide it in, it slotted into place nicely. The ends lined up with the ends of the wings perfectly although it was maybe 5mm lower in the centre than it could have been but by then (10am this morning) the sun was on us and it was getting a bit warm (up to 24 degrees even at that time of the morning), so fitted the blank on one side, the grille on the other and the number plate and we declared it fixed.

All she has to do now is wash and polish the rest of the car so it matches the newly painted front bumper.....

Oh yes, and find a blanking plug that covers the hole where the headlamp wiper would stick through if it had headlamp wipers. She thought she had collected all of the broken bits from around the car but not that unfortunately.