Halfords Air Con Service. Briliiant result. £49.

[J44EAG]

After the Brooklands Test Hill session that PTJS1 and I enjoyed on Sunday and the fifteen minute wait between the three runs we completed, I suspected that the XJR air con was not at its best. Not bad, but not quite all there. Heck, Sunday was hot! No records existed in my car file which gave any indecation that the aircon had ever received any servicing in thirteen years or 88K miles. Time to get something done.

A call yesterday had me an appointment at my local Park Gate Halfords facility on the A27 just west of Fareham, today. Another call to Halfords PR & Marketing Department got the OK to photograph work in progress and chat to the technician during the work. The idea being to give me the material for another technical article for our 350 magazine pages. I arrived and was treated like Royalty. The PR man had let the facility know I was on my way! The car went straight into the service bay and the work began immediately.

My car was around one third of refridgerant cool level short and the vent temperature could only get down to 12 degrees. On hour later, the Delphi automatic service machine had done its stuff. The correct charge weight had been re-established, pressures were correct and the air vent temperature had dropped to 6.9 degrees.

The technician was well pleased and lead me through the process.

£49 paid over and off I went again.

Ice cold air again which is brilliant. The system clearly needed some maintenance applied in order to get it back to more useful levels. Well done to the technician. Top guys all at this particular Halfords outlet. Next visit, possibly in a couple of years time just to keep things right on the spot.

Great service, enthusiastic technicians, a manager keen to show what proper service was. What more can one want for?

Mike

[Brakebuster]

excellent

its not about where you go , but the attitude of the people when you get there that counts

good job, must get my renault checked, cold, but not cold enough

BB

[J44EAG]

The service of the air con is worth doing for the following reason alone. That of pump lubrication. You will see from the print out that my oil level had dropped. Not that badly in my case, but if left to continue, could cause oil starvation to the pump bearings. I know we have seen one such case of this recently, I think on an X300 which caused the pump to seize solid on a motorway. Showers of sparks and clouds of rubber smoke as the engine continued to turn the drive belt against the siezed pump. Not good.

That my system was due for this service is without doubt. Given running for another year, then I could have expected to have to pay out for replacement parts plus a commissioning of the system.

All these systems, services and components need service. That`s the same as fitting a new air compressor ring, changing all fluids, old belts, thermostats, sensors, etc, etc. As I`ve often said...nothing lasts for ever but we can all help ourselves by applying the stitch in time saves nine approach.

There we go. Another invoice on the car file and an entry on my running maintenance log.

Mike

[davidr]

I used the ezchill system from Halfords at the weekend on my wife's Dsiscovery. It was getting a bit ineffective so needed a top up. The gas bottles cost £40 each (which includes a £10 refundable deposit) and you will also need an adaptor which is about £20.
This is fine for topping up a system but that's all it does. I try to keep a bottle in the workshop for just that.
What you've done Mike is more comprehensive in that the system will have been vacuumed out so removing any moisture and checking for leaks by checking that the system holds the vacuum for a set period of time. The better ones also pressure test as a system can hold vacuum because it pulls in the seals but may not hold pressure when the gas pushes against the seal.
Mine is a bodge and yours is a better job.
For that reason I do have my cars plugged in to a proper machine like yours now and then but systems naturally lose gas over time so the bottle approach keeps it topped up.
I also didn't have time last weekend to get to a machine so I earned some brownie points with 'er indoors knowing that it would be bloody hot and I'm away all week!

[J44EAG]

I had considered the DIY approach myself, David.

As you describe, the cost of buying the kit put it so close to the professional service, that I just didn`t think it was worth doing myself. I`ve no test or vac gear, so taking the car to Halfords seemed the easiest thing to do to get a known result and a credible invoice for my file. I had no idea what pressure, vac, oil or contamination might be in my system so the DIY kit idea just became consigned to limbo. It just didn`t seem worth the agro. Least effort set against maximum possible result.

I believe some servicing is best left to those doing it for a living and whom have all the kit to make a dream come true without me getting filthy fingers and a naff result. The £49 is in my opinion very well invested in my attempt to future-proof an expensive pile of components. I take the same view about topping up or servicing another well known Jaguar unit. ie the gearbox. Best left to the professionals who will offer a reasonable warrenty against defective workmanship. I`d prefer to pass my problems to them and read the paper in reception as a preference.

Mike

[jeff1954]

All good advice this. Having had my car for over nine years without having the air con touched I took it to my local Halfords for a service. I thought it blew cold air before, but now it's really cold. £49 00 well spent and Iv'e got the piece of mind that the system is running as it should.
Preventive maintenance springs to mind.

Jeff

[J44EAG]

Money well spent, Jeff.

Young Mr Frost, with an appropriate name at Halfords, did my car to perfection. He told me it was rare not to find that he had significantly managed to drop air con temps as a result of his servicing work. Given a few years on the road, most air con systems loose efficiency with age. My own plan is to repeat the service again in three or four years time. I was very pleasantly suprised at the very positive result obtained on this occasion. I suspect that my car could possibly never have had an air con service in thirteen years so it was certainly long overdue.

Mike

[poprivet]

by J44EAG » Sun Sep 03, 2017 6:56 pm

Young Mr Frost, with an appropriate name at Halfords,

Quite often people have appropriate names for their job for some reason.
There was a chap at a local outdoors shop named Mr Snowdon, a tall man with white hair.
My brother once had a broken leg sorted by a Dr Bone

[J44EAG]

A chiropracter in Surbiton that I consulted was a Dr Paine!

Mike