Is this component part of the air con system?

[Gilo]

Hi Guys,

I've got an oily substance dripping on the floor. It appears to be coming from the front off-side corner of the engine bay.

Investigating under the bonnet, there's a cylinder which is verically housed. It's located directly underneath the front air con re-fill valve.

The cylinder directly below the air con refill valve appears to be the source of the "oil" leak. There's a pipe which turns 90 degrees and then connects to a black pipe.

Is this cylinder part of the air con system or something else?

4 Pics:

I've got 4 pics, but the forum won't let me link to other sites as I've not made more than 15 posts?!

(

I hope my description will be enough for you.

Thanks,

Giles.

 

[Witalik]

another one and u are there

 

[Gilo]

OK, so I cheated on the post limitation - sorry admin.

In the four pics below you can see the cylinder and in some pics the connecting pipe which you can see is slightly oily.

 

[matt110tdi]

Hi Guys,

I've got an oily substance dripping on the floor. It appears to be coming from the front off-side corner of the engine bay.

Investigating under the bonnet, there's a cylinder which is verically housed. It's located directly underneath the front air con re-fill valve.

The cylinder directly below the air con refill valve appears to be the source of the "oil" leak. There's a pipe which turns 90 degrees and then connects to a black pipe.

Is this cylinder part of the air con system or something else?

4 Pics:

I've got 4 pics, but the forum won't let me link to other sites as I've not made more than 15 posts?!

(

I hope my description will be enough for you.

Thanks,

Giles.

yes it is part of the air con system, the pipe from the condenser connects to the top of it

 

[Gilo]

OK - thanks very much for that.

I will let an AirCon expert look at it and repair.

Is the oily substance what the air con system is charged with?

G.

 

[Markyboyt]

The oily substance will more than likely be the PAG oil which is added to the air con system when gassing. Theres not normally a great deal of it though.

 

[Gilo]

Thanks for your help Guys!

G.

 

[Gilo]

Update for you all on the air-con problem I had.

The garage I took it too, Motorsport Ross-On-Wye, (SEAT Hereford GONE!) confirmed that the oil was coming from the air-con system. Unfortunately they do not specialise in air-con repairs so they gave me the number for a mobile air-con repair service that they always use.

The mobile chappy came out to my house in his van, with his doggy (!), and decided that the oil was coming from the bottom of the Filter Drier. The Filter Drier is the cylinder thingy which I took lots of pics of above.

The pipe connecting to it at the bottom has two O rings which could have failed. He ordered a new Filter Drier for £27 (I didn't see one for much cheaper on the web) and fitted it a week later along with two new O rings. He also obviously re-gassed the system. £117.

After several weeks of monitoring there is no oil leak any more! My only problem now is the icicles hanging from all my air vents in the cabin!! Hehe!!

By the way, the air-con chappy (A1 AirCon, Hereford) told me that these Filter Driers should be replaced every 3 years or so (except no-one does it!). They are filled with that dessicant stuff which soaks up moisture to ensure that no moisture is in your air-con system. When the dessicant is saturated, it releases a chemical which then eats your air-con system! I guess the dessicant would only get saturated if your air-con system was compromised, but it's interesting!

I hope my comments above help someone in the future.

Thanks,

Giles.

 

[Fl@pper]

same stuff or similar to what they put in electrical packaging (silca gel) handy for condensation and water ingress

 

[sheffboy]

Handy post that mate. I'll check mine out next time my heads under the bonnet.

 

[scott99]

By the way, the air-con chappy (A1 AirCon, Hereford) told me that these Filter Driers should be replaced every 3 years or so (except no-one does it!). They are filled with that dessicant stuff which soaks up moisture to ensure that no moisture is in your air-con system. When the dessicant is saturated, it releases a chemical which then eats your air-con system! I guess the dessicant would only get saturated if your air-con system was compromised, but it's interesting!

The stuff in side the filter drier is silcon beads similar to that you get in a new box of shoes and you dont have to replace it every 3 years! Only time you would really need to replace it if you had a leak on the suction side as moisture wuld be sucked into the system. But even then the size of filter drier is ridiculous considering the amount of refrigerant thats in the system. To get it saturated you would have to run it ages and i mean ages and go through a deep ford by which time you have already noticed its not working. Its the same as someone was trying to tell me that you need your air con regasing every 2-3years which is a load of .