Aircon Sealer Recommendation

[LostKiwi]

Well, some of us don't like throwing away ****ing money unnecessarily on a 20 year old car - dick!

Actually he has a point. Bodging something invariably costs more further down the line. Best answer is to fix properly and just do the job once.

Edit: it's only a 6 year old car.

 

[Matt Schubert]

Things should be fixed to the way they left the factory and were intended. anything else is just a bodge job.

This is true and I’d always rather fix things correctly where possible. But take my wife’s mini for example, it leaked coolant from the water pump years ago so I stuck a bottle of £7 leak sealant in the header tank and it’s never leaked since (touching wood).... if there was something this easy and reliable for AC systems I’d be happy to give it a go. But obviously AC systems are not completely liquid filled so it makes sense that getting an even dispersal of a sealant could be tricky and could clog up. Now I think about it wouldn’t it be great if you could flood the AC system with a very low viscous liquid that would get everywhere inside but then drain completely before it cures leaving a very thin seal over the whole system internals!

 

[Matt Schubert]

I've used this,
Mastercool 53615 Air Conditioning HVAC Master Leak Shield Stop Sealer twice, worked both times.

It's imported from the US so is not cheap. I think the last I paid was about £26 on Ebay. But only works on slow leaks - ie 3-4 weeks to leak.

The bottle looks like this.

Did you know where the leak was before you used this?

 

[mioba]

Well, some of us don't like throwing away ****ing money unnecessarily on a 20 year old car - dick!

Now now no need to revert to foul language. Seems you need that sealer for your mouth.

 

[Denis O]

My Smart for2 would lose all its air con efficiency over a 6 month period. As it lived in Greece it had to have good air con. It was clearly a minor leak so a can of sealant from Halfords was shipped to Greece. 6 years later, the system is still working perfectly in up to 40 degrees so for a small outlay and an easy job, a sealer is worth a go , Shirley

 

[Matt Schubert]

Ok so the local garage has found the leak. It’s turned out to be the condenser at the front of the car. It’s hard to imagine how it passed two separate pressure/vacuum checks previously, but at least we’ve got an answer now. The garage wants 500 sobs to fix but I’ve found a new condenser online for £80 which I think I could manage to fit myself when I get some time. Fingers crossed.

 

[Wighty]

Ok so the local garage has found the leak. It’s turned out to be the condenser at the front of the car. It’s hard to imagine how it passed two separate pressure/vacuum checks previously, but at least we’ve got an answer now. The garage wants 500 sobs to fix but I’ve found a new condenser online for £80 which I think I could manage to fit myself when I get some time. Fingers crossed.

Sounds like the local garage tries to “vacuum” money from your wallet

 

[alexanderfoti]

Sounds like the local garage tries to “vacuum” money from your wallet

That is a lot of sobs, but MB OEM condensers are notoriously expensive

 

[mioba]

A condensor failing at 6 years old is pretty disappointing. I guess the cahrge is in the labour as its probably a bumber rad out job (not sure). Hopefully you can get at it from the bottom and have enough room to slide it out.

Glad you got a fair priced replacement and good look with the replacement.

Keep us updated on the job!

 

[joderest]

Advice.
Put a whole day aside and approach slowly, be prepared before hand with tools you require and what you have to remove, also be prepared that an after market condenser may need a little bit of work to fit correctly. Be careful when fitting the seals at the connections, they can get easily damaged.
Of course, may be an option to ask a mobile air con engineer his price to fit and gas (as you will be supplying the condenser)
some are much cheaper than a garage and do it on the drive.

Good luck

 

[joderest]

oh, and failing after 6 years !!!!, it could have been hit by a stone, or its corroded as in a very vulnerable place to salt/water/crap.

 

[LostKiwi]

Salted British roads are a prime cause of condenser and intercooler failures. The salt reacts vigorously with the aluminium.
Radiators seem less prone as they are at the back of the cooling stack.

 

[Matt Schubert]

oh, and failing after 6 years !!!!, it could have been hit by a stone, or its corroded as in a very vulnerable place to salt/water/crap.

There is a fair amount of erosion on the front on the condenser from motorway mileage. It must be the tiniest of ****** holes though to pass pressure checks.

 

[alexanderfoti]

Lots of the damage gets sucked closed when the pressure check is carried out, as its actually a vac check. It pulls a vacuum on the whole system then monitors how quickly it returns to atmosphere.

That is how the automated systems work.

The issue with this is that the condenser is often at 5-6bar. 0psia is the opposite condition its normally in, so it will pull closed little corrosion spots, normally with dirt etc and then pass.

Same with O rings that are leaky, it pulls the connections tighter and they don't leak.

 

[joderest]

My w163 had a leak so small it held pressure, but had to be re-gassed every year, there was always a tiny bit left when checked, this year it was done, and lost its gas in a month, so bit the bullet and got a new condenser for it about 6 weeks ago, fitting was ok, headlights out, slam panel off, intercooler out, then unbolt condenser, unbolt connections and lift out. Two of the holding bolts were so rusty i had to grind them off.
When i got it out i could not believe it held any gas at all, it fell to bits with corrosion at the bottom. The air con is now colder than it has ever been so it was worth doing. Cost £90 for condenser and £40 for re gas. saved myself a bundle in doing it myself, took about 5 hours because i have to keep stopping to rest due to illness, but if i had been as fit as i normally am, then couple of hours would have done the job start to finish.

 

[Matt Schubert]

My w163 had a leak so small it held pressure, but had to be re-gassed every year, there was always a tiny bit left when checked, this year it was done, and lost its gas in a month, so bit the bullet and got a new condenser for it about 6 weeks ago, fitting was ok, headlights out, slam panel off, intercooler out, then unbolt condenser, unbolt connections and lift out. Two of the holding bolts were so rusty i had to grind them off.
When i got it out i could not believe it held any gas at all, it fell to bits with corrosion at the bottom. The air con is now colder than it has ever been so it was worth doing. Cost £90 for condenser and £40 for re gas. saved myself a bundle in doing it myself, took about 5 hours because i have to keep stopping to rest due to illness, but if i had been as fit as i normally am, then couple of hours would have done the job start to finish.

Thanks for the tips. My new condenser arrived today. I’ll have a look at doing the job tomorrow and hopefully I don’t bugger anything up. It looks like I’ve got four separate coolers in the stack, I can see the inter cooler, engine coolant and condenser but there’s a fourth one that googling the PN says it’s an oil cooler. I presume this is a gearbox oil cooler?!

 

[Matt Schubert]

Well that’s the job done anyway. It was a pig of a job to get the condenser out past the oil cooler. The oil cooler is on hard lines which have little to no movement at all and since I know nothing about it I didn’t want to risk disconnecting it. The lower fitting on condenser was also corroded pretty bad and I couldn’t get the hose off so I just cut the fitting off the old rad so I could get the rad out and put some grips on each side of the joint and get them separated. I may have taken more stuff off the car than what I actually needed but it’s a good way to learn your way around the front end. The annoying bit is getting the shut line between the bonnet and the bumper to line up nicely. I can’t see how you can get the height correct without having to take the bumper off each time and to get the correct bolts. I took it my local after who pressure tested and vacuum tested the system and they said it passed so they gassed it. But I need to be mindful that it passed the pressure/vacuum test three times previously at two separate garages and it still leaked, so.... time will tell. I’ve attached a pic of the car in all it’s glory, but there was a little more to take off at this point (turbo IC and some fairings). I did notice the oil cooler hardliners also pass through the end tanks on the engine coolant radiator. Anyone know if this to help bring the water up to temp quicker on cold days, or to help keep the oil cooler?

 

[MykhailoM]

Hi everyone. Not sure if this is the correct section but I’ll give it a go. I have a 2014 E350 that Mercedes regassed for me and told me there is no leak on the system. After just two months it wasn’t blowing cold again and I tried a second garage who told me there were no leaks detected, but there was only 50gms of refrigerant left. So it’s lost approx 500gms of refrigerant in just two months but no leaks are being detected. Whenever the AC stops blowing cold, theres a constant sucking noise from behind the dash which I think is due the residual R134a rushing around the free space in the evaporator. My question is does anyone here have experience of using the STP aircon sealer and what degree of success did you have?

Hi, I had aricon refrigerant loss in our Mercedes CLS 350 CDi all the time till I tried the Air-Con Stop Leak by STP here is the Amazon link https://amzn.to/35izQ75 What I suggest doing is to take the aircon sealant to refill station and use the STP BEFORE the refrigerant re-gas at the garage. Don't use it if you are not going to re-gas straight after it, as it is a strong sealant and the manufacture wants us to ragas straight away. I used it last summer and still have the refrigerant in a system, hopefully it will last.

 

[mioba]

Hi, I had aricon refrigerant loss in our Mercedes CLS 350 CDi all the time till I tried the Air-Con Stop Leak by STP here is the Amazon link https://amzn.to/35izQ75 What I suggest doing is to take the aircon sealant to refill station and use the STP BEFORE the refrigerant re-gas at the garage. Don't use it if you are not going to re-gas straight after it, as it is a strong sealant and the manufacture wants us to ragas straight away. I used it last summer and still have the refrigerant in a system, hopefully it will last.

i say he fixed the issue.
But ta for the heads up!

 

[LostKiwi]

Anyone know if this to help bring the water up to temp quicker on cold days, or to help keep the oil cooler?

It's to bring the oil up to temperature quicker then maintain its temperature reasonably constant.
Oil takes far longer to warm up than water so this approach reduces oil warm up time. As a side benefit the oil also holds heat longer so will help warm coolant after a stop and delayed restart.