Ibiza 6j 2014 1.4 AC issue

[Jonezyfr]

After trying to post on FB pages for help and getting nowhere I thought I would try this seen as forums used to be excellent for this sort of thing!

AC hasn’t worked in missus Ibiza for a while, has worked when it was bought but about 12 month later it stopped.

Attempted a halfords regas which they couldn’t manage and it just leaked straight out from somewhere.

Went to a garage to have leak detection done, they said it was the “compressor behind the dash....” (think he got his terminology mixed up) and it would be a dash it job. I wasn’t convinced and thought I was getting mugged off

Seen as my own leon had an AC fault I bought a set of AC gauges and fired some compressed air into the Ibiza whilst I was at it to try and find the fault myself.

So with the system at 50psi I started spraying soapy water around the bay with AC off, nothing to be seen. I then started the engine and AC on and started getting bubbles from the plate where the two AC lines go through the bulkhead into the evaporator I assume. I was getting like a howl/ whistle from the AC, and the compressor definitely kicks in (see rpm drop and hear it engage)





Anyone seen this? Is it likely to just be an R134 gasket on the two lines or is it a common fault for the evaporator to just fail for like no reason.

I do have videos but figuring out how to host stuff nowadays is difficult.....photobucket doesn’t do videos anymore

 

[Jonezyfr]

The videos I mentioned.

 

[RUM4MO]

Maybe have a look on an on line VW Group parts listing to seem what seals/O-rings are available for that fridge connection point. It does sound like it is leaking there and that needs sorting out before moving on.
I'd take a lot of care in what you are injecting into a fridge system, compressed air will contain quite a bit of moisture and the compressor and other points in the system will not like that. It would be better, for just fault finding, to lift the system pressure to a higher value and never ever allow the compressor to operate - that would mean removing the drive belt.

I'd be taking it to a proper A/C fixer place as garages are not normally clued up on A/C fridge systems, yes a dealership workshop will know a lot about the control system, but not much probably about the bones of the R134A circuit, a mobile A/C fixer might suit you better?

 

[Jonezyfr]

Thanks for the reply matey!

I’ve since found all the seals needed on Etka / 7zap and grabbed most except one which proves to be quite hard to come by.

I have heard about this, but involving a garage like that becomes terribly costly quickly and I did attempt the route before. Though he actually did find the correct leaking place, he was over costing the fix as he didn’t know that part was removable.

Yeah i get you, i was running the comp up and filling through a water trap and tyre inflator in reverse (don’t ask) so should catch at least some of the badness.

Was hoping there would be a crowd of other owners who had similar issues, or had had a similar diagnosis and a potential bill which would be silly money.

 

[RUM4MO]

Looking at that again, it looks like it is leaking where or on the orifice assembly, if that is what EKTA calls that, ie the part that both the high side(discharge) and low side(suction) pipes connect to and that is connected to the rear of the evaporator assembly. So you will need gaskets for these pipe terminations and for the orifice assembly, although, that orifice assembly itself might be leaking, I think a "proper" A/C specialist,might want to replace that orifice assembly as well as it contains a strainer, I'm sure that I've read that somewhere.

Edit:- can you work out if the dashboard and evaporator need to be removed to replace that orifice assembly, I'm thinking that they will unfortunately.

Another Edit:- there is a very good chance that a proper A/C fixer will not refill an emptied system with R134A, so that system would need flushed out, new version of oil added and refilled with R1234yf!

 

[Jonezyfr]

We will see! Was hoping to just chuck it at Kwik Fit and do their £60 effort

I’m not sure what you mean by oriface assembly tbh.

From what I have seen the expansion valve bolts to the evaporator but it it accessed from the engine bay IF I have read the diagram right

And the screws being positioned the way they are would suggest so

 

[RUM4MO]

Expansion valve, I thought that these small simple systems always just used a fixed orifice instead of a more expensive expansion valve to control the gas/liquid flow into the evaporator, so maybe I'm wrong there. That assembly typically has mesh filter had can get clogged up if any nasties get in there.

It does make sense for you to be able to remove that "block" without dropping the evaporator, but often "making sense" is not important to car builders.

 

[Jonezyfr]

Yeah I get you, I’m just going off the direction of the bolts tbh.