Car aircon and Fgas

[jasperreefers]

Do the fgas regulations apply for leak/pressure testing for cars?

My father, who is 84 is being fed a lot of bull by a garage some examples are, "all pipes leak" "all car aircon uses up refrigerant" " we Pressure tested it with r134a to 6bar".

I want to start a firefight with this Garage on Fathers behalf, but car Aircon is not my thing and I first want to make sure of my facts . I am an fgas registered engineer (Sept 2009) and as
far as I am aware the Temperature for calculating test pressures applies for cars as well is that correct? are there any exceptions to the regulations pertaining to Cars?

i would really appreciate any advice from any car aircon
guys out there

thanks
geoff

[martinw58]

if you look on the acrib.org .uk site on the f gas section there is a section on car air con

[monkey spanners]

I'm sure they are covered as i read something in a free magazine i picked up at the car parts shop about them having to go on courses too.

[jasperreefers]

Hi thanks for that link its very detailed and answers a lot of my questions

Cheers

Geoff

[sedgy]

tell him its time for him to retire, and hand over the garage to you

[jasperreefers]

Thanks everyone you have been a great help....father will only retire when we nail him in his box he was a racing engineer in the 50's and 60's and they only fade away

[Quality]

Google EC 307/2008

[hyperion]

One of the early comments about pipework leaking i true in certain applications, dependant partly on the age of the vehicle, the make, the layout of the pipework, undue stresses on the pipes etc.
Pressure testing to 6Bar with R134A will not necessarily prove anything. Firstly it it is not recommended to add refrigerant to use as a leak testing method. Secondly the pressure is not sufficient to find a leak on the high side. If the leak cannot be found with a high pressure test using oxygen free nitrogen, possibly due to the molecular size, then it would be best to resort to utilising a specially manufactured nitrogen/hydrogen gas mix which can be used to test for leaks at a much lower pressure, due to the smaller molecular structure. You will need to use a speciallly manufactured electronic hydrogen detector.