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W204 Aircon Condenser

dad4geer

dad4geer

Active Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2016
Messages
188
Location
County of Jane Austen
Car
W204 C180 AMG Sport
Dear all, I am looking for suggestions as to how should I go on about replacing my Aircon condenser.
The Aircon light was not coming on so I took it to my garage who normally deals with servicing/MOT and he said that there is a leakage in condensor and there was no gas. He did top up the gas but after a week or so back to sqaure one and the A/C light was off (not coming on). The gargage has now quoted me an estimate of about £600 just for the part/labour. Part I think is OEM. The price is too much for me at the moment so I am looking for cheaper alternate. Can someone please suggest a third party condensor which is good in quaity and will fit my W204 (C180 Petrol). I did a quick google search and found below:

FRIGAIR Condenser, air conditioning 645 x 415 x 16 mm (0806.2083) buy cheap online

Will it be compatible? should I go 3rd party parts like above?
 
Try one or two of your local aircon specialists for quotes
 
It was an after market one, but with a two year warranty on it. My air con man got it and fitted it on my drive in about 3 hours.
 
An EIS/Hella (preferably) condenser will do the trick and will be a little cheaper. See if they will source one for you.
 
dad4geer said:
The Aircon light was not coming on so I took it to my garage who normally deals with servicing/MOT and he said that there is a leakage in condensor and there was no gas. He did top up the gas but after a week or so back to sqaure one and the A/C light was off (not coming on). The gargage has now quoted me an estimate of about £600 just for the part/labour.
Click to expand...

Ha ha. That reminds me of the time I had a Citroen C5 and had a similar problem with my A/C. The garage said I needed a new condenser and that the total cost would be around £600 as well. I called an independent mobile A/C man to get a price and he quoted me £100 for the part and £50 to fit and recharge. He ordered the part and came to fit it but found that the system was fully charged. He tested for leaks and found it was quite sound, so just flushed, lubricated, and recharged. Cost me £50.

I went back to the Citroen garage and told them what had happened and they muttered something about having a new piece of equipment and they didn't really know how to use it yet, etc. etc.
Needless to say I didn't use them again.

My advice, find an independent A/C man who knows what he is talking about when it come to A/C.
 
Guys, I am now in a new dilemma!

I got an aftermarket condenser cost me £100 and the Merc Specialist I mentioned above agreed to fix it in £220 labor+gas refill. As the guy knows my car I decided to get it done by him.
So all in all I got it all fixed cheaper then what was initially quoted. However, now I am having this hissing noise when A/C switch is on. I forgot to mention this in my initial post that I was getting the same hissing noise with my old condenser (Original) which the Merc Specialist told me at that time is because of gas leakage. He then showed me as well the leakage when the car was on the ramp and this is when we decided to for the new condenser. Now I have the new condenser in (albeit aftermarket not OEM) and the Aircon is working super no issues but there is noise. I took the car back to the gargage and the guy agreed that there is definitely that hissing sound coming similar to the one coming with old condenser. He lifted the car up the ramp and checked for leakage and found nothing. He also mentioned that had there been a leakage the Aircon light would have turned off by now as the gas would have escaped. Its been three days now since I replaced the condenser and the noise is there. it is so annoying for a person like me who wants to drive a quiet car. It has been a very nice quiet car until this aircon saga started a month ago. I have made a video of that noise and would really like to get your thoughts on this.. what should I do? If I go back to the merc specialist he will say see I was telling you to go for OEM part and you went for aftermarket and this is why there is noise but then why there was noise in the previous "OEM" condenser? yes there was leakage but there is no leakage in this one so why the noise!!!! :(


Listen to the noise here, you may have to put your headphones on:

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nickpb said:
Ha ha. That reminds me of the time I had a Citroen C5 and had a similar problem with my A/C. The garage said I needed a new condenser and that the total cost would be around £600 as well. I called an independent mobile A/C man to get a price and he quoted me £100 for the part and £50 to fit and recharge. He ordered the part and came to fit it but found that the system was fully charged. He tested for leaks and found it was quite sound, so just flushed, lubricated, and recharged. Cost me £50.

I went back to the Citroen garage and told them what had happened and they muttered something about having a new piece of equipment and they didn't really know how to use it yet, etc. etc.
Needless to say I didn't use them again.

My advice, find an independent A/C man who knows what he is talking about when it come to A/C.
Click to expand...

How would I find an independent Aircon specialist for a Merc?
 
AntMB said:
Why on earth was the gas refilled knowing there's a leak?
Click to expand...

Well initially when he did the service he coud not find the leak and said lets refill the gas and see if the aircon light comes back on. As there was no gas in it at all he could not find the leak.
We filled the gas, the light came on and aircon worked. This I am talking about when there was original OEM condenser in. I noticed there is some hissing noise coming out of aircon so I told him about this and this is when he said it could be the leakage and he found the leakage too. He tried to seal that leakage with some solution but that didnt work. During all this time I heard that hissing noise which he said is due to gas leakage.

Now if you look at my other post I have new condenser in and there is NO leakage yet there is hissing noise! Who will help me? :(
 
dad4geer said:
How would I find an independent Aircon specialist for a Merc?
Click to expand...

All I did was open Google Maps and search for "Mobile Air Conditioning" and chose one after having checked the websites of the hits.
And by the way, the indy I used removed the remaining refrigerant, flushed the system with a air con lubricant(?) that contained a fluorescent dye that glows under UV light. Then he pressurised it and checked thoroughly for leaks (with a UV torch) before refilling with gas. I'm not sure how you would test for a small leak without the fluorescent dye.
 
dad4geer said:
Well initially when he did the service he coud not find the leak and said lets refill the gas and see if the aircon light comes back on. As there was no gas in it at all he could not find the leak.
We filled the gas, the light came on and aircon worked. This I am talking about when there was original OEM condenser in. I noticed there is some hissing noise coming out of aircon so I told him about this and this is when he said it could be the leakage and he found the leakage too. He tried to seal that leakage with some solution but that didnt work. During all this time I heard that hissing noise which he said is due to gas leakage.

Now if you look at my other post I have new condenser in and there is NO leakage yet there is hissing noise! Who will help me? :(
Click to expand...

Sounds like your air con guy doesn't know what he's doing.
 
AntMB said:
Sounds like your air con guy doesn't know what he's doing.
Click to expand...

:-) This is why I am asking on this forum as what should I do next... that noise is annoying and no matter how hard I try to take my mind off it even by increasing song volume I could not... did you watch the video and hear that noise? I am thinking about getting it checked by a mobile aircon guy to see if he spots something...
 
Does the hissing stop after a while or is it constant? If the AC gas is low it will usually hiss for a bit but then go. Or maybe you have a pipe leaking as well?
Natacha
 
Last edited:
BlackC55 said:
Does the hissing stop after a while or is it constant? If the AC gas is low it will usually hiss for a bit but then go. Or maybe you have a pipe leaking as well?
Natacha
Click to expand...

No it doesnt go... it stays constant even if I drop temerature from 22 to lets say 16. I think it does go away if I inrease the temp towards warmer side. I need to confirm this...
 
Ok I have just checked it again, if the temp is increased towards warmer side say 25-27C then slowly the noise disappers.
The noise also disappears if I turn the A/C switch off.

I hav checked few youtube videos with regards to same hissing noise issue and quite a few people suggesting the issue went away after getting "freon" refilled! what is this? is this not the same gas which was filled after putting the new condenser in or is this something else?
 
Denso condenser runs about $100 and drier is about $40 here in the US so if you factor in 2 hours labor plus a vac and charge. You might be in the money at around 400 GBP
 
alabbasi said:
Denso condenser runs about $100 and drier is about $40 here in the US so if you factor in 2 hours labor plus a vac and charge. You might be in the money at around 400 GBP
Click to expand...

Thanks, that issue is already sorted as I got a new aftermarket condenser in.. all in all I paid £320 but now I am getting this hissing noise from aircon (video above).. trying to find a solution for it as it is so annoying!
 
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