Yaris aircon re-gas

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Fri 8 Jul 2005 13:33
Yaris aircon re-gas - peterb
Mrsb has a 2 year old Yaris which is having its second service today.

Main Dealer said that an Aircon re-gas was "recommended every couple of year" at a cost of £99. As the car has been very lightly used (c. 8k miles in a mixture of local and M-Way trips) I declined until next year.

Have I been unwise?

Thanks for help

Peter
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Fri 8 Jul 2005 13:45
Yaris aircon re-gas - Adam {P}
Sounds like a bit of a con to me although I'm happy to be corrected.

Does it work? If so, I shouldn't worry too much.
--
Adam
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Fri 8 Jul 2005 14:22
Yaris aircon re-gas - Cyd
The dealer should be able to connect his regas equipment to the car and read the pressure in your system and compare this to the spec. This will give a good indication of the gas level in the system. This test is simple, takes little time and shouldn't cost you anything to do.

To simply "recommend" a regas after just 2 years is, in my view, touting for unnecessary work. Especially if it is not backed up by any investigative action which suggests it needs doing.

If you have a thermometer, put the aircon on in recirc mode with the thermometer in the airflow of one of the face vents. The air temp at the face vent should drop to about 10C or less fairly quickly. A cheap fridge thermometer will do.

Aircon systems do loose gas at around 10 - 20% per year and are thus likely to need a regas after roughly 5 years. the above test should show if the performance is dropping off before the system cuts itself out through lack of gas.

If you still feel you need further reassurance, I would recommend you find a local aircon independant from your Yellow Pages and consult them rather than your dealer. Make sure you witness any testing that takes place.
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Fri 8 Jul 2005 18:04
Yaris aircon re-gas - Chad.R
FWIW, SWMBO's 4 yr old Yaris, which she's had for almost a year, still has ice-cold aircon. It was certainly adequate enough to make the interior feel quite cold when the temp. soared to almost 30C a couple of weeks ago.

According to the service history, it has never been re-gassed.

I suppose the important question is does the AC work as it should? If not, then a simple re-gas may "fix" it.
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Fri 8 Jul 2005 18:08
Yaris aircon re-gas - dylan
FWIW My 4-yr-old Yaris has not had the aircon regassed, and it still works ok, though I think not quite as well as it did when the car was new.

As others have suggested, I would wait until the operation is noticeable degraded before getting a regas.
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Fri 8 Jul 2005 19:53
Yaris aircon re-gas - peterb
Thanks all

The service manager's non-verbal communications at collection time implied I'd done the right thing
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