Aircon fault - Help needed

[CFB]

Hi all, aircon on my 2005 Pathy is not blowing cold, been in to the dealer and they say the pipes running front to back have a leak and need replacing, problem is the body has to come off to get to these pipes so I am looking at a very big bill, around £1500 ukp !!!

Now before I bought it I new about the risk of these pipes but thought they were just heater pipes, had no idea the a/c pipes ran down the car too. Is this really the case or am I being taken for a ride here???

[disallow]

Hi all, aircon on my 2005 Pathy is not blowing cold, been in to the dealer and they say the pipes running front to back have a leak and need replacing, problem is the body has to come off to get to these pipes so I am looking at a very big bill, around £1500 ukp !!!

Now before I bought it I new about the risk of these pipes but thought they were just heater pipes, had no idea the a/c pipes ran down the car too. Is this really the case or am I being taken for a ride here???

If you have rear AC then there are pipes running to the back.

A couple options:

1. Do the repair as prescribed. Very expensive!
2. Take to an AC shop willing to repair the damaged portion of pipe. They can just replace the section that has the leak. Can be hard to track down, and may not be possible depending on where the leak is.
3. Plug the rear AC lines and live with having AC just in the front.

Good luck!
t

[CFB]

Well I could live without the rear A/C I reckon, wonder if the front system would struggle to cool such a big car though?

[Tech]

there is a repair kit from the dealer. not all dealers purchased the kit. shop around. an aftermarket shop can do the repair - it's not hard to find. they all leak in the same place

[eieio]

they all leak in the same place

specifically, where?

[pawjr74]

It should have fresh oil around where it's leaking.

[CFB]

Been down to the dealer and they showed me the leak, it is on the right hand side where the pipes run along the inside of the chassis rail next to the rear heater pipes, just behind the front wheel. I could see the oil/residue from where they tried to charge the system. It's well protected there so it is really odd that it should spring a leak. Access is very tricky as the pipes mounts etc are all fixed from above hence the body lift to replace. They are going to see if it's possible to cap the pipes so I just have front a/c which would be fine, not sure if this will work though as the pipes maybe a feed and return so they might need a linking with a custom piece which the main dealer won't do.

[pawjr74]

I would think you would have to install a loop in the system. Also coming up with the correct amount of freon may be tricky since your eliminating some of the capacity of the system. I guess you could charge the system based off of a pathfinder with out rear a/c.

[JAHBLESSINGS]

there is a repair kit from the dealer. not all dealers purchased the kit. shop around. an aftermarket shop can do the repair - it's not hard to find. they all leak in the same place

do you have a picture of the repair procedure or the leak.

[CFB]

Dealer confirmed they can blank off the pipes, saves me £800 off the total bill so a 'no brainer' for me.

I'll live without rear a/c

[JAHBLESSINGS]

i wonder if the problem was fixed for the 06 + models. mine build date is 08/2006

[jerry6]

no they did not fix it , just had this done on my 2007 , nissan quality ! my 98 exploder never had an ac prob in 10 years of service !