Cheers RobG, i'll let you know how i get on. I hope it's something more accessable. It seems a lot of arseing about just for a £35 valve   

Maybe your system would respond to what they call a good vac and dry out. The firm who did mine said they left it on for a good 3hrs as I have already said from what I was told by who I now consider to be some sort of dickheads
I expected 1 or more of the following to be at fault,condenser,expansion valve,reciever/dryer,In the end it was a faulty front filler valve,when you think about it to function proper the system lives in a permanent gas sealed state so where can any blocking material come from?Only perhaps the compressor wearing, the other medium could be ice hence the drying process,to remove any traces of moisture.Hope I'm right and your ok Thanks RobG for your info on accessing the expansion valve, at least I know now to run away with arthur and my hands.

I'm taking it to Coolcaraircon on Thursday morning and he's going to have a look, he's fully booked up until then. I just wanted to know where the expansion valve lived if that is what the problem turns out to be 

http://www.autoairconparts.co.uk/Car-Air-Conditioning-Expansion-Valve-for-Vauxha...

Listed as having expansion valve in thier online shop   

I'm hoping it's only low on gas as the Highside service valve was leaking last time it went there but he managed to get it to reseal as he didn't have a replacement, i've got one now so that can be fitted while i'm there   

Will do duggs, i hope it's not the expansion valve but something tells me i'm going to be disappointed   

Entwood wrote on 05. Jul 2010 at 10:36:


Does your a/c now cope when faced with an ambient of 30^oC+? Mine bearly does

I had my system re-gassed a couple of months ago and during the recent hot spell I had 26 deg outside temp and 6 deg at face level vents with re-circ on and lo settings on the dials,after 10 mins like this the car was pretty chilly inside.
also my aircon mans quote was "use it or lose it" so I leave it on auto all the time and let the system do its own thing,does'nt seem to alter consumption much(maybe 1-1.5mpg)

Just got back from my visit to the aircon man 

  When i arrived there he asked what the problem was and i explained it just stopped getting cold and the pipe along the plenum chamber was getting warm/hot. He put the gauges on and the gas pressure was found to be border line so he suggested he put a little in and see what happens. A small amount of gas was all that was needed to get the system working again so it was decided that all was well in general with the system. Now that the fault had been found he then drained the system so as he could fit the new High side service valve that was a bit problematic last time(it needed several goes at getting it to seal) which in itself was a bit of a strange situation, a normal nut has 6 sides, a normal socket has 6 sides or 12points but Vauxhall decide that the valve has 8 sides = a normal spanner fits but you can't get it in and turn it, a socket is the ideal way to remove the valve as you can get onto the valve from directly above but a normal socket won't fit    so to undo the valve we had to remove the SAI pipes and solenoid  so as to get enough room to use a spanner, it took 2 minutes to fit the valve 15 minutes to make room 


Once the valve was fitted the system was vacumed out as normal and then refilled and leak tested as normal and it's all working fine and dandy now 

So the day turned out better than i was expecting, had visions of it needing an expansion valve which i wasn't looking forward to fitting after finding out where it lived but it would have been done had i needed to.

A big thanks to Nick @ CoolCarAircon   

For some reason a 12 point 15mm socket wouldn't grip it and 6 sided 15mm wouldn't fit on without forcing it on and we couldn't support the underneath of the pipe because not enough room so played safe and made a bit of room