graeme.

I have had a bubbling noise behind the dash (heater matrix) for a while, and I am told by the knowledgable Gods on here I have air in my water system.

Thought I would have a go at bleeding the water system, opened the bonnet and thought I spotted a couple of bleed valves. They have blue tops and there is one at the back of the engine bay and one in the middle. Used a screwdriver to press in the "valve type thingy's", and lots of air (probably gas) escaped before some smudgy liquid came out. That was the point when I thought I should stop, just about the time my hand started to freeze !!

Have I let all the gas out of my air con ?? And if so what do I do now ??

I can hear "loser alerts" going off all throughout the Subaru community and the tuts of despair.
I know I shouldn't touch things I know nothing about, but I'm a man, I can't help it !!

It's an STi (MY53).

Not looking forward to your replies,
Graeme.

Brun

Worst case - you need a re-gas. £60 or there abouts.
If you only let a small amount of gas out, the chances are - it will be fine. Have you not tried it?

Brun

Just noticed - you said lots of air
Re-gas

graeme.

Was it gas or air ??

Have I found the bleed valves for the water system - winner.

or

Have I found the fill / drain for the air con - loser.

That is the question.

p.s. - the front valve cover has a "H" printed on it, and the back one has a "L" printed on it. The pipes they are attached to the "thingy" to the right of the aternator (what I thought was the water pump).

kin quick

iTrader: (2)

Definately the air-con,

H = High side (high pressure)
L = Low side (low pressure)

Basically when the air-con is switched on, the gas (refridgerant) gets dragged from the low pressure side and passed through a condenser.

You can buy a can of air-con refridgerant gas from Halfrauds, I have just done this myself to top up my system, very easy to do and comes with all instructions and a gauge. Instead of approx £60 - £80 to get it re-charged, I spent £30 and done it myself.

Although, you may need the system "vacced" down now that you have totally discharged it, this will have to be done by someone with the equipment and know how.

kin quick

iTrader: (2)

PS - don't worry about it too much, just try and get it sorted fairly soonish, shouldn't cost too much to have it done!

Live and learn

graeme.

Yes - definately a loser, that'll teach me to mess with things I know nothing about !!

Thanks for the advice.

BuRR

Isn't aircon gas toxic?

Brun

Yep

kin quick

iTrader: (2)

It's not good but the newer gas is much safer than the older R12 type.

To be honest, there isn't much gas in a car air-con system.

I used to work in the power section of BT and service the building air-con units, most of them had approx 8.4kg of fridge in them, now thats a massive amount compared to a car unit.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Depedning on how much gas you let out and how much was in there to start off with - it could work better and turn the evaporator into a solid block of ice. Unlikely though - normally it's the large commercial stuff that does that

Lucky you didn't get frost burn (seriously - it's not nice).

Smudgy stuff will probably be the compressor oil that circulates round the system as long as you didn't let a load of that out it should be ok.

Worst case, as mentioned you'll need a regas.