Sold 2003 Fiat Stilo JTD 128.8k few months MOT £2.75 a ticket

[Ian_Fearn]

Really interested to see how long this lasts. I spent a bloody fortune re-commissioning the air con on my MX5. Had it all checked out, no leak. 9 months later I was re-gassing it. When I took it to be re-gassed absolutely no leaks were found, I can only assume the aircon fairies had robbed the gas??

[Kringle]

A legend of our time is Mr Bol, that's a great repair and it's going into my storage under the title, blue sky thinking.

[The Moog]

Absolute winner. Bookmarks thread for future plumbing reference

[binhoker668]

LOVE that fix Sir.  I guess i never have the balls to undertake some fixes which I could probably nail - mostly because whilst I love unloved cars, I still have to have them fighting fit* for 5.30am every morning!  I need a driveway and a project.

Respec' yo!

[cort16]

The true test will be is it still cold on Monday .

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Well this is a good point. You never know how long it's gonna last! I'm off to France for a week on Saturday so I'm hoping for a solid 10 days service!

[SiC]

I've just driven home freezing my bollocks off in the first car I've ever owned with actual working air conditioning!!!! Bloody fantastic!!!

 

 

Didn't your second Laguna have working air con? Iirc it was short cycling but it worked?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Yeah it sort of half worked, it did try to work but always cycled itself on and off permanently which was both mega annoying and also meant I only ever got like 50% of its capability out of it.

[Talbot]

Copper pipe on AC (or refrigeration systems in general) is quite common. The vast majority of custom built refrigeration systems are done in copper. The only bit they don't do is generally use compression fittings.. most are flare joints or "soldered" with Copper eutectic (which is basically a copper alloy that melts a little cooler than copper does so you can use it like high-temperature brazing.)

 

But.. to join from Aluminium to Copper.. I can't thing of a better way than what you've done. If it's leak free, it's leak free and that's all that matters.

 

I have similar investigations to do to the Berlingo AC as soon as I can. If it needs a new pipe, I can see this being the "approved Autoshite AC repair method". Assuming the pipes on the Bling are anything close to a standard off-the-shelf diameter. Which of course they won't be, because French.

[rainagain]

Excellent work, it's nice to see a Stilo getting some love, a thoughtfully underappreciated car. My OH's Stilo was the same age as my 156 but looked mint underneath compared to my tug boat 156. I changed the rear bushes on hers as well. I made a tool up at work similar to that I used to do the engine mount on my 307. I had problems with the passenger seat mat on it, and found a guide on line that showed how to replace the mat with a network of resistors that replicated an adult sitting in the seat. I used the multiscanECU software and a OBD cable to read the air bag faults, I just needed to move the pin it read to do this. Still think it was a really comfy car, it had soft long travel springs that weren't going to set any lap records but in the real world were perfect. I drove it from central Scotland to Cornwall with only one break and arrived with no aches or pains unlike a lot of other cars I've driven..  

[Ian_Fearn]

I often wonder how these AC charging machines actually do a pressure test, anybody know? What is the pass/fail criteria? One guy told me if the machine detects loss of pressure then it just stops the cycle and won't re-charge but that hardly answered the question.

 

Based on my experience, if it's got massive hole then you'll see it during the pressure test cycle BUT minor weeps will cause loss of gas within weeks potentially and you just can't find them.

 

I had a guy do a manual pressure test on the MX5 (whilst I watched) with what I was told was nitrogen but despite spraying leak fluid on all the visible joints no leaks were found and yet it still needed a regas a few months later.

 

Whenever you see the "Just needs a regas m8" theres a good possibility if checked would hold pressure but if the gas went once, it'll go again. There must be tons of AC equipped cars out there with no detectable leaks but still loosing gas constantly.

 

I shall stick to cars without AC for the foreseeable until i've got the energy to take this fight on again.....

 

Have a nice holiday!

[wuvvum]

Isn't there like a K-Seal / Wynn's Stop Leak equivalent for aircon systems?

[Kringle]

I often wonder how these AC charging machines actually do a pressure test, anybody know? What is the pass/fail criteria? One guy told me if the machine detects loss of pressure then it just stops the cycle and won't re-charge but that hardly answered the question.

 

Based on my experience, if it's got massive hole then you'll see it during the pressure test cycle BUT minor weeps will cause loss of gas within weeks potentially and you just can't find them.

 

I had a guy do a manual pressure test on the MX5 (whilst I watched) with what I was told was nitrogen but despite spraying leak fluid on all the visible joints no leaks were found and yet it still needed a regas a few months later.

 

Whenever you see the "Just needs a regas m8" theres a good possibility if checked would hold pressure but if the gas went once, it'll go again. There must be tons of AC equipped cars out there with no detectable leaks but still loosing gas constantly.

 

I shall stick to cars without AC for the foreseeable until i've got the energy to take this fight on again.....

 

Have a nice holiday!

Is there a hand held tool you can take to car viewings which could pressure test these things??

[Ian_Fearn]

The guy that did a non-automated pressure test on mine connected a gauge to both the ports and declared it empty. Then he connected up a bottle of nitrogen to pressure test. Not exactly hand held but didn't look like thousands of £££ of kit. 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Just back from driving this 1700 miles in a week for my holiday to France. As I zipped along the Belgian motorways at a cruise-controlled 80mph, achieving 52mpg in my air-conditioned box while listening to podcasts through the stereo, I had to admit that despite the world seemingly accelerating itself towards Armageddon, we are living in truly amazing times for tight-fisted shite car lovers.

[nacho man]

Isn't there like a K-Seal / Wynn's Stop Leak equivalent for aircon systems?

 

I had a air con re-gas recently and they was trying to sell me a stop leak "just in case" there is a tiny little leak the machine didn't detect.