Aftermarket A/C - 300Tdi dual cab

Hey James,
well done and well worth doing. For $1500 its a bargain compared to what you might spend on other A/C fixes and about $15,000++ cheaper than buying a Puma (one other way to get a better A/C)

Noted the insulation around the hoses, did Mr Cool do that ?, not a bad idea.

Also agree even without ducts we dont feel cold on the back of our necks either (well we have recaros - no air could get on our neck anyway) and it does have the impression the cold air is coming from the front, thats convection at its best - something that the standard A/C or even a Puma AC could never hope to do - the entire interior is cooled.

In actual driving have yet to have the fan on 2 and the temp past about 10%
I think mine is an overkill, big test will be up north in Summer .

For anyone contemplating spending money on their Defender A/C you could easily blow $1500 trying to get your standard system working but it would never be a patch on one of these overhead evaporators.

Thanks again for the Tutorial, I'f I hadn't read it I'd still have the crappy original A/C in mine.

cheers Don

Quote:

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Originally Posted by goingbush

Noted the insulation around the hoses, did Mr Cool do that ?, not a bad idea.

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Hi Don,

Yes that was all Mr Cool's work. They've insulated the whole lot, right through under the body to the engine bay. I'll take some more photos when the camera is operable :cool:.

James.

Hi james

I also own a 300tdi twin cab with very average aircon

I live in Central Qld and want to know if you think your aircon install will hold up to the high temps up here? Should I go for the bigger unit with twin motors or do you reckon the same as yours will do?

Thanks for all the pics and posts

Armani

Hi Armani,

I would say my unit (the EV2208) would be fine for warmer climates. I haven't had to use anything other than the first fan speed in normal use so far, and I generally have the temperature set at about 65%. Still, goingbush paid less for his 22500 BTU unit than I did for my 18000 BTU unit because he bought online. Have a look around on eBay and the Speedy Air Spares site.

James.

Good man.
Thanx for that feedback.

I might add that the unit James used is probably more suited to a Defender,

Wev'e had some warmer days down here now in the low 30's and I've been able to test mine out a bit better. Even on the lowest setting mine is a LOT colder than the standard A/C ever hoped to be on full blast, To the point that I have to keep turning the thermostat off & just have the fan running as it gets too cold.

hopefully once we head north west we will find a happy medium.

Wow :). That's some serious cooling Don. Armani, just in case you're not aware, goingbush's unit is in a 110 wagon so he has at least 50% more interior volume to cool as well.

James.

So, the latest on my air conditioning is that I haven't made any progress on the ducting in the past week and a half, but to make matters worse it has stopped working! The fan still works, but it is just blowing ambient temperature air.

I first checked the two fuses (12V supply and feed to compressor) and then confirmed that the corresponding relays were still activating. My next assumption was that the condenser had probably leaked, meaning there was no gas left in the system, but the compressor was still activated when the fan was switched on, and still deactivated if the temperature control was turned down to the minimum. I stuck the multimeter across the pressure switch to be sure, and it's still "on"/"active" so I guess I still have gas (in more ways than one ;)).

Next I unplugged the temperature rheostat and checked the resistance - 12.2 ohms in the maximum position down to 14.5 ohms just before the minimum position, where it then goes to open circuit. I don't know if those figures are correct, but at least that shows it's still working in a manner that you would expect.

My next step was to ring Mr Cool :). They said they'd just prefer to see the vehicle rather than trying to diagnose the problem over the phone, which is fair enough, so it goes back tomorrow.

My suspicion is that it's the main control unit behind the fan control. I'm not sure what it does, but it seemed to activate and deactivate something in the evaporator unit to control the temperature. It used to click on and off, but sometimes make a buzzing sound when doing so, which didn't seem right to me.

Anyway, hopefully about this time tomorrow we will know.....

James.

The issue is, plain and simple, a leak. There was still enough gas in the system to keep the pressure switch active, but not enough to do any cooling. Despite there being UV dye in the system, it's not obvious where the leak is so Mr Cool has replaced the o-ring on one of the compressor fittings (the other fitting is seized on :mad:) and re-gassed the system with a bit more dye and I am to just keep running it and take it back as soon as it stops working again.

James.

thats no good, I would have thought it the switch too with a buzzing sound,
must have been a loud buzzing to hear it over the 300.

I dont think you can see the a/c dye with your eyes, you need a UV light or UV LED Torch and look for leaks in the dark.

hope all is good this time round.