Had my A/C fixed

Benny · Postby **Benny** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 5:23 pm

In a previous post, I mentioned that my A/C had never worked very well, and lately, it only seemed to blow air that was just barely cooled down.
Today, I was driving to my office and noticed an auto electrician that had a sign saying "Air Conditioning Experts", so I pulled in and had a chat to them.
They pulled some things off the system and plugged in a machine and tested the temperature of the air coming out of the vents, and it was only 20 degreees.
So they pumped out the old gas, and refreshed it etc., and now the temperature coming out of the vents is 6.7 degrees!
Hallalluah! The A/C didn't work that well when it was new!

All that discomfort was fixed for $139.00 and 20 minutes of my time.

If your A/C is not what it should be, go visit an A/C expert and have your system re-charged.
You'll be so glad you did.

marcusus · Postby **marcusus** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 7:28 pm

That's a pretty good temperature! I got mine regassed not that long ago, and although it's definitely cold, it's not 6 degrees cold...

Hammer · Postby **Hammer** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 10:25 pm

Hell yeah! As most SP owners, this is a constant bug bear.

Do you have details of this A/C expert?

Boags · Postby **Boags** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:25 am

My A/C is knackered. I really need to get this done. Thanks for the prod Benny.

kazjim · Postby **kazjim** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 11:32 am

Questino is though, did they test the system for leaks or other issues first ?

Mine needs to be re-gassed (it blows the same temp if the ac button is pushed or not!) but I'm concerned that a quick regas will turn into a multiple hundred AC rebuild !

Hmmmmm thoughts ?

Benny · Postby **Benny** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 2:18 pm

The place I went ot is in Botany (a suburb of Sydney near the airport), and their name is Chas Gibb's Mascot Auto Services.

They are at 1253 Botany Rd Mascot and their phone number is (02) 9667-3147.

They put some special dye into the gas and checked for leaks.

I don't think they are magicians as such, but they did the job on the spot and it worked out well for me.
They mainly do electrical work, so you can get your driving lights fitted at the same time!

Garry · Postby **Garry** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 8:59 pm

When I got my A/C serviced last year the pre-service test showed all the pressures to be within the specified range but the air coming out of the vents was around 11 degrees I think from memory. Mazda told me this was normal :roll:

The guy at the A/C place evacuated the system and started from scratch and the temp dropped to around 7 degrees. He was a bit disappointed. He thought it should be around 5 degrees.

Postby **orx626** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:18 pm

Boags wrote:My A/C is knackered. I really need to get this done. Thanks for the prod Benny.

Geoff, give me a call as we do air-con.

Cheers,
Danny

Hammer · Postby **Hammer** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 11:08 pm

orx626 wrote:
Boags wrote:My A/C is knackered. I really need to get this done. Thanks for the prod Benny.

Geoff, give me a call as we do air-con.

Cheers,
Danny

Do you also do metal fabrication? I.e. a heat shield for the SP?

I might as well ask, since you do those CAD drawings real well on your other thread.

Postby **orx626** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 11:25 pm

Hammer wrote:Do you also do metal fabrication? I.e. a heat shield for the SP?

I might as well ask, since you do those CAD drawings real well on your other thread.

Hammer, I'd love to be able to earn a living doing Mazda (especially) MX-5 bits and pieces...but at this stage in my life it's not possible :frown:

.
The metal fabrication we do rarely gets under 3mm in thickness...wouldn't want to go and upset the weight distribution on your 5. :lol:

Cheers,
Danny

Mr Morlock · Postby **Mr Morlock** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 10:38 am

I had my a/cond regassed last summer ( NB 2001) but in my opinion the unit is just adequate and in my view underdone- it might be my car or general for the model. . Compared to larger late model vehicles performance seems below par. Perhaps the NC has better a/c performance ?

ducktape69 · Postby **ducktape69** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 11:11 am

also had my A/C regassed and checked over by jason(TT Auto). it was never particularly cold air blowing from it before...but thanks god for it now...its 41 degrees today...yippeee...

by the way, do remember the roof in vinyl...very poor insulation. the unit in the MX5's is fine...blame the lack of a roof.

Postby **mx5racing** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 11:18 am

NA and all but the last of the NB's had the A/C fitted in Australia from kits. We have found the pipe joint fittings are generally the most common area for leaks expecially the ones from the evaporator where they come through the firewall. I have seen them literally finger tight.... The condensors seem ok as the pipes are bolted on. Keep in mind A/C high pressures are in the 200 - 250 psi + range so you only need a very small leak for the gas to escape over time. Every pipe joint has a little rubber o ring and these go hard expecially if you dont use the A/C so this is part of the reason you should run it regularly - even in winter (great for defrosting the windscreen). The average A/C system can have 10 or so of these o rings and these do deteriorate over time.

Additionally the blower motor forces the a/c through the evaporator and then into the heater box. If the heater flapper (the one that controls the temps) is not sealing properly the cold air can get mixed with a bit of very hot air and drop the temp considerably. Its worth gettting the temp checked at the exit of the evaporator and then at the vents to see what the difference is. There is only a piece of foam on the flapper that acts as a seal and this falls apart over time.

The 1st kits ran on R12 which was a good gas except for the ozone layer.... R134a is ozone friendlier however the newest ones coming onto the scene are even better. The R12 packages that run on R134a generally dont get quite as cold as when they ran on R12 but this can change car to car. At least the penguins dont get sunburnt......

Late NB8B's and all the NC's had it fitted it the factory, yet still some listed A/C as an option.......

On days like today its worth every cent :mrgreen:

Garry · Postby **Garry** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 12:18 pm

Mr Morlock,

The A/C fitted to the NC works much better than the units in the NA/NB's.

Fuzzlet · Postby **Fuzzlet** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 3:46 pm

mx5racing wrote:Additionally the blower motor forces the a/c through the evaporator and then into the heater box. If the heater flapper (the one that controls the temps) is not sealing properly the cold air can get mixed with a bit of very hot air and drop the temp considerably

This is something I need to fix on my SE...especially since its 35 in the shade at my place