Air Conditioning Condenser

[Swayze88]

Took the car in to get the AC looked at as it's been rubbish since I got the car (2012 diesel XV) 18 months ago. 

The garage tested and found a small leak in the condenser, a genuine Subaru part is going to cost in the region of £300, plus an hour and a half fitting and gas. Probably around £500/£550 all in. 

The garage are happy for me to get an aftermarket condenser and they will fit and fill it.

Question is: has anyone used any aftermarket AC condensers, any to recommend /avoid. Or should I bite the bullet and go OEM? 

Online I can see aftermarket ranging from £70 to about £120, a denso one would cost around £100. That's a big saving if it lasts a reasonable length, most seem to have a 2 year guarantee. 

Comments and thoughts greatly appreciate. 

[Jay762]

I would go aftermarket, I have used denso products in the past and had no issue with them - although never an aircon unit

[Siluro]

Depends how you think about it. If aftermarket only lasts 2 years then the OEM works out about the same if the broken one is the original from 2012.

[Swayze88]

13 hours ago, Siluro said:

Depends how you think about it. If aftermarket only lasts 2 years then the OEM works out about the same if the broken one is the original from 2012.

Yeah, I know what you mean, not sure if it's the original or not, I believe there were a few issues with the original condensers (true or not I'm not sure ) due to the change from R134a to R1234yf. Just seems a big difference in price. 

 

One thing that's putting me off a Denso unit is that it is always listed as R134a, if it is then it may not last. 

Wouldn't be such a bother if you didn't have £100+ of gas contained in it. Could replace the condenser 3 times or maybe even warranty it, but you'd have to replace the gas. 

[Dogconker]

Sorry not been on much but not sure if this is still ongoing, it’s a known problem with condensers on XVs, every XV we have had has had to have a new condenser after 2-3 yrs under warranty. 

[Swayze88]

Sorry not been on much but not sure if this is still ongoing, it’s a known problem with condensers on XVs, every XV we have had has had to have a new condenser after 2-3 yrs under warranty. 

Ours are out of warranty now, so no chance of a replacement that way. I ended up going with an NRF easy fix unit.
I expect it will go the same way as the original in 2 or 3 years, but fingers crossed. It was about £200 cheaper than the Subaru unit. Garage that fitted it seemed to suggest it was an easy fit, and it seems to be blowing cold air for the first time in its life, so that's good.

Sent from my COR-L29 using Tapatalk

[Dogconker]

4 minutes ago, Swayze88 said:

Ours are out of warranty now, so no chance of a replacement that way. I ended up going with an NRF easy fix unit.
I expect it will go the same way as the original in 2 or 3 years, but fingers crossed. It was about £200 cheaper than the Subaru unit. Garage that fitted it seemed to suggest it was an easy fit, and it seems to be blowing cold air for the first time in its life, so that's good.

Sent from my COR-L29 using Tapatalk
 

Not necessarily, I complained that we had had 3 cars and all had had the same problem, same with the door central locking (also a known problem) both were fixed out of warranty “as a gesture of good will”.