Recharging or regassing your car’s air conditioning system can be inconvenient and time-consuming. And generally takes a few hours to service the a/c system. It will cost you around $189 to do a regas service for the air conditioning system.
A Correctly Working System Should Not Leak
The refrigerant should not leak if your air-con system is in good condition. Your car’s air conditioner should be leakproof for at least three to four years. So if it leaks there has to be an underlying reason you need to regas your air conditioning system.
The problem is that the refrigerant escapes from the air conditioning system – even as a slow leak. When it all escapes, you will have to replace it again.
Components Of Your Car’s Airconditioning System
Here are some of the ways gas leaks from the car’s air conditioning system:
- Most commonly from the condenser assembly because it’s at the front of your car and is both open to the atmosphere and thin and brittle and is subject to accident damage and stone chipping.
- Via rubber seals or o-rings in pipe joints.
- Through test or charging ports and pressure switches.
- From rubber hoses in the system that have gone hard and cracked or formed pinhole leaks.
- Sometimes rubber hoses crimp from poor manufacturing. We see this mostly in Hyundai, Kia, Holden and Mazda cars.
- Out of tiny holes in other parts of the air conditioning unit. Some examples of these parts are the condenser, evaporator or compressor.
This means we must find and fix the problem that caused why you needed to get our car regassed.
We have listed some other costs that could impact your total costs below. It all depends on what we find when we check out the reason the gas is leaking in the first place.
- Around $600 to replace a condenser.
- Around $1,000-$2,000 or more to replace an evaporator, depending on the vehicle.
- Around $350 to replace a high-pressure rubber hose.
- Around $800-$2,000 to replace a compressor.
Other things that may impact the cost are;
- The interior cabin airconditioning filters should be serviced or replaced regularly (about every 2 years)
- There is a range of electrical components to make your vehicle’s air conditioning work. These are items like; fans, controls, relays, computers, sensors and mixing door actuators. If any of these components fail or need to be replaced this may add to the cost
The total cost will depend on the make and model of the car.
So, even if re-gassing an AC system is around $189, the total cost may be higher because of labour and other repair costs involved.
We always provide transparent upfront costs, and we do not carry out any additional work without discussing it and clearing it with you first, so you always know where you stand.
Summary
In summary, the cost of regassing your car’s air conditioning is likely more than that of regassing the unit. It will depend on how old the system is, how damaged it is, and the make and model of your car.