yesterday had an aircon technician out to test the system, it was empty and also had a leak at the accumilator (where it is banded to the chassis) plus he said the condensor was not in a great condition. so it looks like no aircon for the duration.
for the info he quoted £168 for the condensor and £60 for the regas but i would have to stump up for the accumilator and fitting myself. cheers for the previous advice on all of this from a previous thread. tone.

I've got no gas in my air con either. Think there's a big split in one of the rubber pipes though.

There's no way I'm going through another summer without air con!