Air Conned

[Meggyman]

Ah well. A whole year of relatively trouble free motoring with this Megane has finally come to an end with the promise of a future large handover of cash.
Took it to Kwik fit yesterday to get the air con topped up due to lack of cold air. Came to pick it up an hour later and the monkey told me that - "There is no charge." "Oh great!" I said. He then continued - "The pressure is correct but there must be a compressor problem."
"Oh Bugger." I said. Anyway I drove home and fiddled with the controls, and the only thing that niggled my brain cell was that usually I hear a click as the compressor engages. This time nothing.
Its climate controlled and that works normally because when I increase the temperature to over 25 degrees it heats the car up. Just no click from the air con when I drop the temp to 15 degrees or by manually pressing the A/C button.
Could there be another reason why it doesn't engage or is the compressor buggered. Wouldn't mind but the warranty only ran out at the beginning of the year and its only done 20,000 miles. Not looking forward to sending it to the stealers to be conned out of cash

[dougieCC]

This is want happened to my wifes scenic, first switch fan onto speed 1 with aircon switched on, then go up the speeds this will rule out the heater resistor, if still does not work could be the pressure switch located on pipe going into the aircon radiator.

Alan

[STEVIE]

Dont trust Kwik fit they did this to my wifes old car the air con was cool but not freezing
so off i went to kwik fit they did the same but i stood and watched the monkey do it
the machine sucked all the stuff out of the aircon then it couldnt put it back again
he tryed it a few times then asked me to take a seat in the waiting room ( i didnt)
his machine had a problem thats why it didnt put the coolant back in now instead of having cool aircon i had non
he told be no charge i said great cheers you sucked it all out and cocked my air con up cheers cock end
anyway i went to halfords and bought a can of coolant and the aircon was freezing result

so dont blame the car just yet it could be all down to kwik fit try another air con place
If you have no coolant in your system then it wont engage this i think is the problem

stevie

[Ray]

i had Kwik Fit job and i wasn't that impressed. I'd rather pay more and have it done properly at a manufacturer garage
(it doesn't have to be Renault... Peugeot, Merc etc can do the same job if you have a dealer nearby)

[pw981]

I wouldn't recommend kwik fit either, had it done about 18 months ago, and I didn't notice much of a difference.. I actually suspect nothing was done in the first place (I left and went back to kwik fit giving them an hour to do it). Further more to my suspicions, my air con actually stopped working about 3 months ago, so I too went to halfords and bought an air con top up kit. Armed with an adapter (can't remember the type) to fit the can onto the weird (can't remember the type) connector Renault have used for the low pressure port, I've re gassed it myself and presto. . . the system has been working fine ever since.

[davelowe]

Got me worried now. Took mine to Kwik Fit (Chesterfield, Derbyshire) and they hooked it up to 'the machine'. To be honest the compressor was making a noise before I took it. They gave me a print out of 'the machine's' activity. I have the receipt somewhere but not on me. It basically replaced a very similar amount of refrigerant, but took out about 1mg of oil and put in 15mg (from memory). It works silently now. It's been a few months and nothing seems to have gone wrong... yet.

[Meggyman]

Thanks for all the replies,

Its now booked into Renault Cannock for a full check on Tuesday. Not a bad Stealership there, so fingers crossed and will update on here next week when I find out what exactly is the problem.
Someone else has said that if the pressure was low and because its Climate control, it may need a switch of some kind resetting as it may have shut off to protect the compressor. Would be nice and cheap if its that simple but i'll expect the worse in the meantime and preheat the ol credit card in preparation.

[Meggyman]

Well i've heard from the dealers and all they have done is Re-gas the system and all is working again, no sign of leaks.
It leads me to think that Kwik fit aren't fit to touch almost any car on the road.
More likely they emptied what refrigerant was left in the system and didn't know how to refill it. barstewards nearly gave me a heart attack when they said the compressor was faulty. Nothing wrong with it at all!

Heres the good bit. Renault Cannock are only charging me £49 to re-gas and waivering the diagnostic fee of £29
Not bad for any garage, let alone a dealer.

[STEVIE]

Well i've heard from the dealers and all they have done is Re-gas the system and all is working again, no sign of leaks.
It leads me to think that Kwik fit aren't fit to touch almost any car on the road.
More likely they emptied what refrigerant was left in the system and didn't know how to refill it. barstewards nearly gave me a heart attack when they said the compressor was faulty. Nothing wrong with it at all!

Heres the good bit. Renault Cannock are only charging me £49 to re-gas and waivering the diagnostic fee of £29
Not bad for any garage, let alone a dealer.

Result
Told you mate nowt to worry about now email kwik fit and complain about the poor service

stevie

[pw981]

haha I e-mailed kwik fit to complain in disgust a few days ago, I even linked them to this exact post... and did they reply? obviously not!!!!

Not only do kwik fit provide a bad service, they also provide bad customer service. Steer clear!!

They once tried to con me £680 (I think I may even still have the quote) for 2 budget tyres, brake discs and pads all round - all I asked them to do was to give me a "free" brake report - detailing how much disc thickness I had left - instead I got rude, persuasive and cheeky staff who in the end did not give me the brake report because I wouldn't let them go ahead with the work. Why should I? In the end Renault (yes Renault) told me the disc thickness as I thought they were running low - they were actually about 60% worn.

(ok so on the other hand, I do believe there will be people with positive views and opinions about kwik fit, but 85% of the time all I hear are the negatives - online and in person!)

[Meggyman]

Cheers guys.
Yes will email head office and see what happens. Failing a response from that - a phone call.
I worked at Kwik fit for several months on the old YTS scheme many years ago now. (Well, more like I was forced into it.) and the work practices to get the targets was quite unbelievable at the time. Such as spraying shock absorbers with penetrating oil to make them look like they are leaking. Then dragging the poor customer over to break the bad news. I've seen it all and I recall leaving on a Saturday telling the Manager to F - Off because I couldn't stand the place and its practices. Best thing I ever did and felt very liberating on the day.
Never worked in the Car industry again.

Should've known it hasn't changed a bit.

The Meganes still fine this morning and the Air cons working a treat

[dougieCC]

Its got me thinking has my aircon actually got a leak, mine was topped up by Kwikfit last year and it leaked out, and was told to get it dye tested I did and the garage said no leak could be found. So has Kwik Fix as I now call them actually topped it up properly, Im currently checking car every night with a UV torch looking for a leak.

Alan

[Meggyman]

Well the air con is still working. No sign of a leak. Gave it a good run tonight with it on all the way and never felt so happy to feel the cold air.
The compressors working a treat so at least its not that at fault as Kwik fit would have me believe. WIll get a UV light and check myself over the week to make sure, but i've not had it re-gassed since I had it in Feb 09 and i'm not sure when it was done before that as it only had 4500 miles on the clock. Dealers think it was just in need of some gas.