So summer is coming up and I want to re-gas my car (Toyota Rav4). Anyone know any cheap places whether a workshop or one that comes to your home?
Called up one place in Wacol "Garry's Pitstop I think" and they quoted me for $150 and Envirocool for $180".
Thanks
I had a place at Capalaba do it for $140 so $150 is in the ballpark it seems
Any recommendations for the northern Gold Coast?
Some stuff I recently learned that might help:
The gas they use is pathetic. It doesn't cool like previous mixtures did. The reason they changed it was, the copyright expired. So they made up a new mix, claimed the real reason for the change was the environment, then lobbied government to ban the old gas. So to keep Dupont filthy rich, we have to swelter from using a sub-standard product.
A house aircon system uses metal tubing. But car aircon systems use rubber hoses. I assume this is due to the high level of vibration in a car. Now the gas already leaks out through the natural rubber hoses anyway (think regularly needing to add air to your car tyres). But because the "new" gas runs at pressure, that also helps it seep out even quicker.
There is another gas, that is better for the environment, is cheaper, uses all the same system components as the copyrighted gas, it's more efficient (cools better), AND it runs in the system at a lower pressure - so it doesn't force itself out of the system as quickly, and therefore it's longer between services. It's called hychill, hichill, hy-chill, hi-chill… something like that.
So… Have your aircon system/compressor/hoses/etc. checked and replaced - and find somewhere that uses the hichill gas. When the other aircon places start spinning their hogwash that it's too dangerous… Well, look it up and read about it yourself, and you'll see they're ignorant - or deceived - or lying - or any combination of the above. ;-p
$150 seems a little bit on the higher side. I remember i paid around $100 a few years ago from my local rip off mechanic. Anyways turned out i had a slow leak so they ended up putting a dye through it to see where the leak was coming from. Patched it up and told me it should be fine but they can't obviously give a warranty on it. It worked fine for a month. Worst $400 i ever spent.