Suzuki SX4 - Aircon woes

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Fri 26 Jun 2020 18:10
Suzuki SX4 - Aircon woes - dan86

I may have mentioned once or twice how my trusty little Suzuki has never let me down, only ever needed general maintenance but the time has come for it to actually need a repair.

After 10 years of faultless motoring it decided on the hottest day of the year that the A/C would no longer work, I diagnosed the fault as the compressor and contacted my trusted indi mechanic. He confirmed my diagnosis and quoted for the work. I'm happy to pay as I use my A/C all year round.

I know the cars not worth much and the cost of repair is around a third of the cars value but i have no reason to not believe this car will last at least another 5 years.

My wife thinks it's a waste of money on an old car what do other back roomers think?

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Fri 26 Jun 2020 18:26
Suzuki SX4 - Aircon woes - badbusdriver

It is entirely up to you and down to how much the car is worth to you, not its monetary value. How much would it cost to replace the car, and would its replacement be as reliable?, indeed would you like it as much?.

You have not said what your indy is charging, but i had a look on Ebay. New air con compressers (i'm assuming it is a petrol?) are available from just under £180 (www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Auto-Air-Compressor-14-0237P-Fi...3), and used from £40 (www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2006-SUZUKI-SX4-MK1-PETROL-Air-...4)

Edited by badbusdriver on 26/06/2020 at 18:27

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Fri 26 Jun 2020 18:51
Suzuki SX4 - Aircon woes - gordonbennet

A car you own might have a rough value if you sold it, but for long term owners like you the sale value as such means nothing unless you wrote the thing off completely your own fault and had to accept your insurers valuation, because you aint selling.

You know in your heart whether there's another 5 years in it, i'd be fixing the aircon and enjoying the next 5 or more smiling to myself at the almost nil depreciation, one months payment on some new cloned eurobox losing value by the £thousands in the first year alone will probably fix that aircon issue.

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Fri 26 Jun 2020 19:48
Suzuki SX4 - Aircon woes - dan86

A car you own might have a rough value if you sold it, but for long term owners like you the sale value as such means nothing unless you wrote the thing off completely your own fault and had to accept your insurers valuation, because you aint selling.

You know in your heart whether there's another 5 years in it, i'd be fixing the aircon and enjoying the next 5 or more smiling to myself at the almost nil depreciation, one months payment on some new cloned eurobox losing value by the £thousands in the first year alone will probably fix that aircon issue.

I've no plan on changing this car anytime soon, it owes me nothing and does all I need from it it takes me 10 miles to work and 10 miles back it does tip runs it's good on fuel I don't see the point in paying out for a newer car just to do what this one does, if I moved or changed jobs to a further location I might think about it but I can see me owning this car for a few more years yet.

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Fri 26 Jun 2020 18:54
Suzuki SX4 - Aircon woes - elekie&a/c doctor
How much is the repair ? Compressors in these are generally reliable . Is he sure about his diagnosis?
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Fri 26 Jun 2020 19:09
Suzuki SX4 - Aircon woes - dan86
How much is the repair ? Compressors in these are generally reliable . Is he sure about his diagnosis?

It's the clutch that's failed it's not engaging as it should, the repair is £500 including VAT and I'm more than happy to pay that to have ice cold aircon again.

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Fri 26 Jun 2020 19:21
Suzuki SX4 - Aircon woes - elekie&a/c doctor
Provided there is nothing else wrong on the ac , then I would go for it . Can’t drive a car with no ac in this heat .
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Fri 26 Jun 2020 19:28
Suzuki SX4 - Aircon woes - bathtub tom

Could an A/C specialist repair the clutch?

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Fri 26 Jun 2020 19:33
Suzuki SX4 - Aircon woes - dan86

Could an A/C specialist repair the clutch?

I could go down this route but whist the car is in for the work I'll get the service done as well it's a couple of months early but I do such few miles in a year it hardly matters. I also trust this indi he's always been honest and reliable before, even helped me out when money was tight.

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Fri 26 Jun 2020 19:29
Suzuki SX4 - Aircon woes - dan86
Provided there is nothing else wrong on the ac , then I would go for it . Can’t drive a car with no ac in this heat .

To true its torture.

I've not owned a car without ac for so long I forgot how intolerable it is. How did we manage before ac was common on cars.

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Fri 26 Jun 2020 19:38
Suzuki SX4 - Aircon woes - _

Wound windows down.

I remeber in about 1983 or so a customer coming in and the top of the dashboard had curled uo in the heat.

He was Fuming, warranty wouldn't pay!

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Fri 26 Jun 2020 19:46
Suzuki SX4 - Aircon woes - dan86

Wound windows down.

I remeber in about 1983 or so a customer coming in and the top of the dashboard had curled uo in the heat.

He was Fuming, warranty wouldn't pay!

That must have been some heat to do that.

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Fri 26 Jun 2020 19:56
Suzuki SX4 - Aircon woes - gordonbennet

That must have been some heat to do that.

In Aus its an issue with Prados in the extreme heat, dashboards crack, probably not helped by leaving dust on the dash which itself gets hot and dries the plastic out even more.

I make a point of spraying our car dashboards with a quality product designed for such jobs, i use Autosmart's 'Finish' but others available, the dash tops look like new, obviously its good for feeding external unpainted plastic panels that are exposed to the weather too.

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Fri 26 Jun 2020 19:39
Suzuki SX4 - Aircon woes - elekie&a/c doctor
It’s very likely the pump is repairable , but not worth the grief . Nobody stocks these sort of parts any more and I would suspect the parts are more expensive than a complete unit .
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Fri 26 Jun 2020 19:43
Suzuki SX4 - Aircon woes - dan86
It’s very likely the pump is repairable , but not worth the grief . Nobody stocks these sort of parts any more and I would suspect the parts are more expensive than a complete unit .

It will be a reconditioned part he will replace it with but it doesn't arrive until Monday and SWMBO won't let me use the other car, apparently her need for ac is greater than mine.

He doesn't use cheap crap parts either as he says it only leads to grief in the long run to fit cheap parts.

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Thu 23 Sep 2021 20:07
Suzuki SX4 - Aircon woes - Steveieb
I took Elekie Docs advice and had my compressor refurbished at Compressor Tech in Warwick.
Three attempts to find a direct replacement had failed so it's not so easy to match them up in my case as the part from Denso was only fitted for three months. Audi no longer supplied the part but at £1200 plus vat it was a non starter.

I got a genuine Denso OE part , they tested the old one first to prove the system had not been polluted with broken bits from the internal workings and fitted the manifold from the old unit to the replacement as it was unique to that model.
Such amazing service and they have a fitting service next door to their unit.
Be sure to have a new filter fitted as they get clogged up after ten years with corrosion etc.
I now have a system that's working better than ever and at 170 k I really didn't think it was possible.
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Thu 23 Sep 2021 20:16
Suzuki SX4 - Aircon woes - SLO76
Far better bet than buying another old car you don’t know that could’ve suffered the same issue shortly after. Those old A4’s are hardy old cars. Keep it running.
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