There are 2 radiators at the front of the car. I have damage to the front one which I believe is the condenser for the aircon. Can you confirm this?

The damage is right at the bottom and was caused by a 60 mph pheasant going through the front grill. Although the bottom strip/row of the condenser has become separate from the others at one end the system still seems to be working fine and as this happened a while back I not sure if I need to rush to do anything about it. Is replacing the condenser a specialist job?

 

Yep it is the airconditioning condenser. I've just sourced myself a replacement as half of the cooling mesh has disappeared from between each heatsink on mine. It's a relatively straightforward job to remove but you will need to take the front bumper off and also get it de-gassed somewhere first.

If your aircon still works fine though I wouldn't bother worrying about it

 

The start of this thread has some useful information re costs!

 

2 things that I had not thought of:

1. I would need to de-gass the aircon before dismantling - thanks floppy
2. I didn't know that there was a fin type material between the cross pipes - thanks dennohue

I had assumed the coolant had not been compromised but now I'm not so sure. I think need a second look at this.

thanks

 

I had one replaced in my last S under warranty, it can be done with the bumper in situ but is fiddly, if your air con works fine I wouldn't worry too much about it at the moment.

 

I would get the air con checked for leaks, if the condenser is leaking R134a not only is this bad for the environment (yawn!) but it could be bad for your wallet if the compressor starts to run low on gas.

I don't think it costs that much to get a dye that will tell you if it is leaking from anywhere and you put it into the refrigerant systems through one of the filling valves, but you will need a special tool.

Graham

 

a good point, thanks, Graham.

I am going to evaluate this in more detail at the weekend. It appears more complicated/involved than I first thought