Bongo Fury

How cold should the air coming out of the vents be with the air con running?

Our air con definitely cools the ambient air but isn't what I would call cold, just seems to drop the ambient by a few degrees.

The air con in the car pushes out really cold air compared to the Bongo, feels like air coming out of a freezer.

Just wondering if it needs regassing but I don't want to fork out around fifty quid if it is in fact working properly.

air out of freezer here as im sure it should be

A decent air conditioning specialist should check the temperature of the air coming out before even considering a re-gas. The air coming out of the vents should be unbearably cold if you set the temperature to minimum and the fans to maximum and hold your hand in front of it for a few minutes.

OK thanks everyone, that's what I thought.

Sounds like it needs regassing then.

hi , i just got my aircon checked, emptied. regassed at the bash, by a very good chap. sorry didnt get his name or his company, but he does travel the midlands area,so i would suggest you use him.
the point he made to me was if its not done well, you may as well not bother.

as he was working on bongo's all weekend, he had plenty of time to perfect his technique by the time he got to mine at sunday teatime.

the figures quoted for the pag oil and refrigerant fill are only a guide, so if you go to a garage and get it done by the figures it may work, but not to its max. the very good guy at the bash used the figures quoted as a start point, but then fine tuned the system using his experience and skill. the result was superb.
a big thanks to ian for providing a very competant service provider for the bash,and would hope this could be a regular inclusion next year.

big thanks to those involved. .

Thanks for the tip Ady.

I'll pm Ian and ask who, where he is

have you checked the aircon radiator in the air duct ?
you will need to remove the air intake and blower motor housing to get at it, i bet its thick with everthing japanese, go easy at it, i used a small stiff brush, be careful you dont bent the fins as they are flimsy,

you'll get more airflow and you find it make a big difference.

The aircon air measured 10degC when ours was last re-charged.

Darkstar wrote:have you checked the aircon radiator in the air duct ?
you will need to remove the air intake and blower motor housing to get at it, i bet its thick with everthing japanese, go easy at it, i used a small stiff brush, be careful you dont bent the fins as they are flimsy,

you'll get more airflow and you find it make a big difference.

Hear hear. Cleaning the cooling rad can make all the difference. There are no filters on the air intakes as standard so dust, fluff, flies etc end up clogging the thing. There are several threads with comment, instructions and pictures as to how to do this. Just search on aircon. A simple mod to provide filtration is a wise move. I used vacuum cleaner filter material included with a new set of bags for our domestic machine.

Coincidently, I have recently being playing with a digital thermometer and recorded 7 degrees celsius at the air con outlet during the recent hot weather

Thanks guys, I'll have ago at cleaning it out.

Turns out the guy doing the aircon regassing at the bash lives about 5miles from me so good news.

I may be wrong, but isn't the aircon rad the one sat at the very front - in front of the engine coolant rad? I though the one hiding in the ducting behind the impellar fan was the heating rad? That does get clogged up.

Am I missing another aircon rad?

dom_e wrote:I may be wrong, but isn't the aircon rad the one sat at the very front - in front of the engine coolant rad? I though the one hiding in the ducting behind the impellar fan was the heating rad? That does get clogged up.

Am I missing another aircon rad?

The large rad in front of the engine coolant rad at the front of the vehicle is the bit that gets hot when the air con is working. The small rad visible inside the ducting is the one which gets cold. (Hopefully). There is of course another small rad (behind this) fed from the engine coolant circuit to heat air.

The cooling rad has metal piping leading in and out and the heating rad has rubber pipes, visible under the unit as viewed from the the driver side when looking under the bonnet.

We have the later climate control gadget.
It only seems to be able to be set to go down to 18 degrees on the dial.
Is this correct?
I'd like to set it lower but it won't go.

dom_e wrote:I may be wrong, but isn't the aircon rad the one sat at the very front - in front of the engine coolant rad? I though the one hiding in the ducting behind the impellar fan was the heating rad? That does get clogged up.

Am I missing another aircon rad?

That is the condenser rad in front of you radiator, as said earlier its the one that removes the heat from the system. The cold rad is in the ducting as stated.

Chris Taylor wrote:We have the later climate control gadget.
It only seems to be able to be set to go down to 18 degrees on the dial.
Is this correct?
I'd like to set it lower but it won't go.

That is correct 18 degrees C is minimum. Why would you want to set it lower than 18 degrees? Isn't that cold enough?