for sometime i have been complaining that my aircon isn't cold enough on really hot days particularly if i am driving at low speeds. When i go on long drives however on motorway, in about 30-40 mins at high speeds aircon goes cold enough to freeze and numb my toes. just not cold enough at low speeds.. thinking the radiator dirt and dead bugs could be causing this, i gave radiators a super nice clean.. didnt seem to change anything.

when i bought the car 3 years ago, the owner also told me that aircon needs regas.. well over that 3 year period aircon did not get any worse or any better, so i am assuming there isn't really a significant leak or anything.

i just took the car to a mechanic, he told me that the car has enough gas, maybe a tad bit low, but regassing the system wouldn't make much of a difference in his opinion.
i was quoted 110 for regas and additional 30 for the receiver if i want it. (Gold Coast pricing)

so here are few things that i am confused.

i would think that you can top-up the gas in a system that doesn't have leaks etc...
but mech told me he needs to empty the system and fully gas it back again, a top up cannot be done.

He also said we can't go by the bubbles, and it wouldnt really indicate the system is low on gas. ( i am seeing bubbles on and off in 3-5 second intervals. like its flat for 2-3 seconds, then i see lots of bubbles for 2-3 seconds so on so on .

how is your aircon doing these days on hot days? I would expect better performance from the aircon of a v6, my wife's CRV is probably 50% cooler than my 2000 magna.

i'm a little lost here guys... i don't want to bin 140 bucks and barely see any improvements..

any help and input is appreciated.

My TJ is like yours, the aircon takes a while to get going. Max fan, air recirc seems to work best on this car, but only after 10 minutes at decent speed. Fan is super noisy on full speed though.

TL is super cold, after a few minutes, even in city traffic.
Neither car has ever been serviced as far as aircon goes.

Some aircon places will top up a bit, watch the gauges, cross their fingers, and send you on your way. Others want to evacuate the system first, to get rid of any moisture.

I remember some threads a while back, apparently gases other than the standard 134A can be used that make the aircon work better. Pros and cons, there.

i just did a quick test which made me doubt myself :)

i placed a temperature probe inside the aircon vent, the outside temperature is 30 degrees, and i got 11 degrees on the probe at full blast, and 8 degrees at setting 1.

which seems good, but i just dont understand how some days aircon feels completely useless.
wondering if there is anything at all i can do to improve its efficiency.

Park in the shade, drop the front windows a couple of cm to let the hot air out 10 minutes before you get in the car.

It takes a lot of 11 degree air to cool down the interior of a car that's at 55 degrees. lol

Most will not just top up, they do not know what is in there to start with as there are many gasses on the market these days.

I would recommend a total degas, vac, test, re oil, some dye (which is law) and then perhaps some high chill. In my Pajero I have a temp of about 2 deg at the vents on a hot day, is great. My Galant was about the same, have not got around to doing the Legnum as yet.

logic says if the outer radiator is clean, how about the inner radiator?
so digged in removed the glowebox and the fan blower trying to see whats in there,
it seems hard to get to but mobile phone picture taken from the blower gap shows a fair bit of dirt on the radiator, i am trying to take a better shot but its proving to be difficult.
i reckon cleaning the inner radiator would benefit, but i dont know how to get to it without buggering stuff.. i might try alternative cleaning methods.

any suggestions?

I'm in the same boat. My A/C is what i'd call acceptable, it's not great. But I keep getting conflicting opinions, some say the A/C is fine, others say its not. I know that the KJ Verada I test drove before I got my KF had much colder aircon. I know there are many cars that have A/C so cold you could shatter your hands with a hammer after 5 minutes on full blast. I can leave mine on 17c maxing out all day, until night time when it gets what i'd call 'cold'. IMO a good A/C system should not require rolling down windows at any point, should be able to park it in the sun and within 5 minutes its cold inside. I've been in vehicles that can do that no problem. And the general consensus seems to be the magna/veradas have fairly good A/C systems thus i'd expect something similar
The mixed opinions make me hesitant to even bother with a regas since it may not make any difference. It's also illegal to install hychill in QLD so I can't opt for a 'better' gas

http://hychill.com.au

No Hychill in Q'land? Problem!

managed to get a shot here,
when i reach from the blower gap and touch the radiator i can feel its dirty and damp, feels spongy and on the surface.
but getting to it seems very difficult.... now how can i clean this radiator? i believe it would significantly improve cooling.
of course it will have to be without removing the radiator from pipe system..

http://i.hizliresim.com/D8GMyO.jpg (http://hizliresim.com/D8GMyO)
http://i.hizliresim.com/mrRPJR.jpg (http://hizliresim.com/mrRPJR)

figured that area isnt easy to get to.. cleaned with pressure air as much as i could from the gaps i could reach.. aborted further dash dissect :)
i tend to go impatient and rip stuff apart on the process.. better leave it be

i got quite close to it, but the bottom cap just wouldnt come out.. while doing so i saw a cement block sort of thing with electrical connections, seems to be corroded on the pins inside and cracked on the corner , would that matter?

http://hychill.com.au

No Hychill in Q'land? Problem!

You can purchase it even without a licence, it's just illegal to install it. Yes, logic, I know

I had the air-con in my TJ regassed at around the 10 year mark. Made a noticeable improvement.

I had my 380 done last year and it only made a small improvement.

Get the car to a A/C bloke and he will whack the gauges on it and check the head pressures, these can tell you a lot (blocked condenser etc)

At the top of the heater/AC box behind the centre of the dash there is a section of ducting that feeds the centre vents. Where this ducting clips onto the lower assembly it is sealed by foam strips. Over time this foam deteriorates badly and the seal is lost.

A lot of air can escape from this poorly sealed assembly, obviously not getting to you. It is a dash out job and fairly time consuming but it does make a difference when this joint is resealed with good quality foam eg. 3M automotive foam.

It's a good job to incorporate into changing your leaking heater core and blowing the leaves and other crap out of your heater box.

for sometime i have been complaining that my aircon isn't cold enough on really hot days particularly if i am driving at low speeds. When i go on long drives however on motorway, in about 30-40 mins at high speeds aircon goes cold enough .

The A/C is a heat exchanger - and dear old Sir Isaac Newton came up with a law that the transfer of heat is proportional to the difference in temperature between items ie: the A/C radiator in the car and the air. Even if your system is gassed *properly* ie: more gas can actually make a system less efficient as it effectively clogs up the system, less gas and the transfer is slow... you still are limited by Newton's Law.

The flow of air at higher speed is vastly better than the thermo fans can produce so the heat exchange is much more efficient at speed, plus at a crawl in traffic you have the heat of your own engine pooling under the bonnet, and all the heat from the other cars sucked into your radiator. Of course you could fit a bigger A/C system - but then you'd sound like an EA-El Falcon where everyone is cool and those that weren't sucked off their feet were deaf!

Does insulating the A/C pipes in the engine bay do anything?

Also, does running the A/C often help? I've pretty much always got my mine on (hot or cold) and never had a problem with it, aside wearing out the blower fans.

You can purchase it even without a licence, it's just illegal to install it. Yes, logic, I know

You can even import cans of refrigerant from overseas (surface mail only) and the gauges, and have a totally illegal DIY session.

Had my TH since 2001 (just over a year old when i bought it) - AC is run at least once a week during summer and winter - hasn't had to be re-gassed - is my daily driver to and from work (and for lugging larger material when needed). Works perfectly still and is very cold.

Does insulating the A/C pipes in the engine bay do anything?i did a little research into this recently and the short answer is no. There are issues as to where to put the insulation, the type of material and interference with the operation.

I noticed something FWIW, my KH blows "freezing" air in just a few minutes and the cabin feels cool very quickly. Never serviced. My KL seems to take a lot longer however does it very quietly but never feels "freezing".
I think there may be a trick tho, cos I notice that most of the air in the KH is directed at my upper body in the front area of the cabin whereas the KL is much better at circulating the air around the cabin evenly. It has additional rearward facing vents in the center armrest.

I may get a thermometer of some type and check cabin temps under same conditions.

I may get a thermometer of some type and check cabin temps under same conditions.

You can tell a lot with a thermometer.
Any old fashioned alcohol thermometer will do, put it in one of the air vents. (Car in shade, preferably, Not on a stinking hot day.)
At idle, a good system will give you 4 degrees within a few minutes at lowest fan speed. As you crank up the fan, the temp will go up, but not by much. If the temp goes up a lot when you turn up the fan, the system is low on capacity, may need a gas top up.

You are right about the different ways Magnas of different ages cool, TJ blasts at the upper body, while the climate control in my TL is less like that yet cools the whole inside of the car down quicker.

Some numbers - just been out in my TJ.
Digital thermometer with probe.

Air temp = 30.
Temp in car = 50.

Min temp on low speed fan, measured at right centre vent - all other vents closed = 12.
As fan speed is increased, temp goes up slowly to 15.

. . . . not working too well, I think.

Going to compare it with the Lancer next.

CJ Lancer, idling.
Low speed fan, all vents closed except the one being probed: 8 degrees.
Fan max speed, all vent open: 8 degrees.

Obvious next step is to probe while on the move, to see how temps go with higher engine rpm.

Max, if the car was so hot inside I assume it was under the sun.
Maybe all the pipes etc were hot + it was trying to cool down 50 degree air.

Max, if the car was so hot inside I assume it was under the sun.
Maybe all the pipes etc were hot + it was trying to cool down 50 degree air.

Correct. (No, actually I had it set to suck in air from the outside, but 30 degree outside air has to travel through some hot ducting first)

That is why I did the same test on the Lancer, to do a comparison under the same starting conditions.

Does insulating the A/C pipes in the engine bay do anything?

Not if the system is properly gassed - the cooling is achieved by two functions - the liquid coolant evaporating to a gas in the car evaporator (controlled by TX valve) and then the gas being returned to the compressor where it forces the gas back into a liquid and the heat is radiated by the A/C radiator. so the intermediate hoses - unless they run really close to high heat make very little effect on the system.

Also, does running the A/C often help? I've pretty much always got my mine on (hot or cold) and never had a problem with it, aside wearing out the blower fans.

It's said to make sure the seals are kept moist (there's oil in the A/C system for the pump) I know some 1990's Nissans automatically turned the A/C on every time you selected reverse for just that purpose.

Obvious next step is to probe while on the move, to see how temps go with higher engine rpm.

Lancer - interior temp 30 degrees, after 2 km at 50/60 kph air from vent (all open) is 5.2 degrees.

{Hey look! He is quoting himself!}

Hmm strange. I wouldn't call my A/C awesome, no passenger has ever called it awesome. Infact they all reach out and feel the vent. I think the last time I checked the air vents it was around the 3-4c mark after a couple minutes of starting
I'll have to check them again at some point since if I do indeed get 3c and you guys are getting around double that, i'd be sweating my ass off in your cars

3c air that is blowing gently does very little in a stinking hot car. Crank up the fan speed, and close the recirc lever, that way cooled air is sucked in under the dash to go through the aircon again.

My TJ fan is pretty wimpy, and on maximum, gets very noisy. Works well on max, but has a deep humming/throbbing sound. Probably a dead rabbit or kangaroo in there, must have a look at it some time.

Do those blower motors ever wear out, I wonder?

I have a KF, none of this manual lever adjustment peasantry :booty:
Air temp should be tested at lowest possible air speed, in a center vent with the rest closed. This gives the air the best chance to be as cold as it possibly can be. Higher fan speeds are too variable

I have a KF, none of this manual lever adjustment peasantry :booty:
Air temp should be tested at lowest possible air speed, in a center vent with the rest closed. This gives the air the best chance to be as cold as it possibly can be. Higher fan speeds are too variable

I also have a TL with climate control, so I think my TL trumps your KF. :booty: :booty: lol :booty: :booty:

As you say, lowest temp is with min fan and all but one vent closed.
But giving it max fan with everything open, tells you a lot about the capacity of your A/C, ie how it performs in normal use. No point having a min of 3 degrees if in normal use with max fan and all vents open, you get 24 degrees.

The TL blows a major gale when on maximum fan speed, TJ fan is quite weak in comparison.

Do those blower motors ever wear out, I wonder?

Yes, I'm onto my third (incl. the original) and they are around $60 to replace from a wrecker. That being said, my car has covered a lot of miles, mostly on the freeway where I've kept the windows closed and the a/c on.

To my way of thinking the performance of the AC/climate control system will depend on the efficiency of the cooling, the fan power, vent placement and any leakage of hot outside air into the cabin and if the car is standing in sunlight or shade.
I can see some sense to measuring the temps at centre vent on low fan to determine if the cooling part of the system is working properly but I don't see that test saying anything about these other components of the total system.

I want to measure temps in the cabin, say around headrest height (and out of the air flow), to see how efficient the entire system is at cooling the cabin. The measure would be how long to reach 21c or, failing that, then how far below outside temp can the system make it?

The variables would be the outside temp and whether the car is in sunlight or in shade.

Probably doesn't help that I have a wagon which is a glasshouse on a hot day.

Going to pull the blower motor out of my TJ to see if it is defective in some way.
Any hints on how to get it out?

EDIT: Glove box off, fan exposed.
Front two screws are 8 mm self tappers, rear one seems to be highly mutilated though, someone been here before me, I think! Not much room back there.

Waiting to let the weather cool down before I try again.

Violence is always an option . . . lol

Edit2: At least I've identified the problem! Squirrel cage fan is full of leaves, packed in pretty good.
No, rear screw won't move.
Might just pull the debris out with some wire, and see how it goes then.

Yes, well! :hmm:

Blower motor came out, pulled apart.
Worn/scored commutator, brushes way down, dust from brushes everywhere, tight bearings.
Ran it off the car, weak as . . .

Not really worth putting back in, so WTB thread started.
Could ask the Mitsu dealer how much they are, or go look at the wreckers. B#tch to pull off though, I'd prefer one that is out of a car already.

Explains why the A/C wasn't putting out masses of cold air though.

It's also illegal to install hychill in QLD so I can't opt for a 'better' gas

Isn't that the same stuff as LPG? What would happen if it leaked out, such as in a crash? Would the car go up in a fireball with the condenser being right at the front of the car.

And thats why its illegal to install it in cars in QLD

Isn't that the same stuff as LPG? What would happen if it leaked out, such as in a crash? Would the car go up in a fireball with the condenser being right at the front of the car.

The amount of HR12 in an A/C system, it it was filled with hychill, would not make much of a fireball at all.

There have been fireballs with large stationary cooling systems going up, but not so much with car A/C systems.

So what if you have a rear end crash? There's up to 70L of flammable hydrocarbons in that fuel tank, yet that is an acceptable risk?

The amount of HR12 in an A/C system, it it was filled with hychill, would not make much of a fireball at all.

There have been fireballs with large stationary cooling systems going up, but not so much with car A/C systems.

So what if you have a rear end crash? There's up to 70L of flammable hydrocarbons in that fuel tank, yet that is an acceptable risk?

Whilst there is only about 300g of gas in the system, it is in a system that is not designed for a flammable gas and is right at the front of the car. The petrol tank is actually under the back seat in most cars and many precautions have been taken to make it safe during both normal operation and an accident.

Drove up to Canberra and back. I noticed the air-con worked well and felt freezing at the vents.
I notice that on auto mode the fan speed is very low, which mostly works, but I had to manually increase it a couple of times when the hot sun was streaming directly through the windshield.

Just replaced the blower fan in the TJ with a second hand one (thanks mudfish) and the air flow has improved considerably.

Temps now drop to 6.5 degrees on maximum fan speed after a few minutes of idle time before the compressor starts cycling. (All vents open, measured at right centre outlet).

If your aircon seems low and slow, consider it may be that the fan is not putting out its rated airflow and not passing the air across the evaporator in the dash fast enough to cool the car like it used to.
ie the A/C is ok, but the problem is with the heater/Aircon fan.

I may just have saved myself the cost of a regas and finding no improvement.

Can you provide some more information on how to get to the blower motor and inspect it? If nothing else, cleaning out the funs and any crud that may have fallen in there should help. If you can do a step by step with any pitfalls to look out for i'll give it a go

Remove plastic shroud under glovebox. Held in by 2 plastic push plugs at the front, 1 at the rear.
Remove 2 philips head screws across bottom of glove box, remove glove box.
Fan is held in by three 8 mm self tappers. Front 2 are easy, rear one a pain, really needs a quarter inch 8 mm socket on a flexible drive or wobble joint to undo. Or small hands and a shortish 8 mm spanner.
Electric plug at the side, can't really see it until the fan is partly out and rotated.

Spin the thing by hand and feel for friction. You can plug it back in to power and hold it in one hand while operating the fan switch with the other (ignition on). A good one will blow quite a gale on top fan setting.

I pulled my old one apart to have a look, commutator worn, bearings very tight, brushes worn down.
Unfortunately when you pull it apart to that extent there is no way you can put it back together without damaging it, so spinning by hand or power is about the only way you can test it. Judgement call whether or not to put it back in or buy a new or second hand one. (eBay $65 for S/H, I've also ssen them new on the web for $150. No idea if Mitsu has them and at what price, or if aftermarket ones are availiable.)

I went and pulled mine out (8mm ratchet spanner is the goods for that rear bolt) I'd just been for a couple short trips and the motor was quite hot (normal?) couldn't really hold it in my hand for very long
Spun it by hand, it felt slightly stiff but not really that bad, felt pretty much like normal electrical motor resistance. I can give the cage a flick with the wrist and it'll spin 360 degrees. The cage was pretty clean considering its a 17 year old car, just a few specs of dust on the tips, and a couple small twigs. Pulled the cage off and there was quite a bit of dust from the brushes. No idea how to check those, held it in hand and spun it up with the car, seems to blow a decent amount of air on its own. Though I wouldn't say its a gale from the vents so maybe I have a bit of leakage behind the dash. Air flow is decent but not overpowering
Gave it a blast with contact cleaner followed by some silicone spray, did make it spin a tiny bit better

I don't think my blower motor is a problem

So I decided to take some vent temps again. I can't recall the conditions of when I last took the temperature, it may have been inside or outside, day or night I don't remember
So I grabbed my temperature probe, I know its accurate at boiling point but just to be sure I took my mouth temperature with it, it read 36.9c so we can assume its pretty much spot on
Car had been for a couple short trips 45 mins prior, so engine bay is hot. Parked car outside but not in direct sunlight
Opened all windows to match ambient temperature, a brisk 35.3c <(") ......... in the sun the car said it was 39c outside, a big :upyours: to cairns :nuts:

Anyway, car in park and engine running I put the temp probe in the middle left vent, closed the other vents, set it to recirc and set fan speed to lowest. Left it for 10 minutes and temperature read 10.9c
Then set it to highest fan speed, opened all vents, over the course of 10 minutes it rose to 19.1c then slowly fell to 17.6c
After this I went and parked the car and measured the inside cabin temperature just above the gear knob, it read 27.7c

Given that its so ridiculously *** hot today I don't know if thats acceptable or piss poor. It certainly feels 100x better in the car than out, but needless to say i'm not exactly freezing my ass off either
Compressors are supposed to cycle? huh? really? I call BS on that

Sounds like your fan is ok. Seeing it is a DC motor with brushes and solid bearings, you'd expect some resistance to turning it by hand and some heat buildup in use.
I got to see the brushes on my original fan, but unfortunately it is pretty much impossible to put it back together again and end up with a working motor. lol

My latest test:
Inside car: 60 degrees + (display blanks out above that, just shows "H" lol) Ambient was around 30.
Driver's window down a bit to let some of that furnace air out.
Air on, fan on full blast, all vents open, temp probe in left centre vent - it went down to 10 degrees within 1.5 km. Took a while longer to get the temp inside the car down though due to heat soak.

I find that putting the air flow on recirculate after a few minutes helps a lot, you are cooling air from inside the car rather than constantly trying to cool ambient air.

The fact you got 10 initially but it rose at high fan speed suggests to me yours is low on refrigerant. Then again, your outside air temp is very high.
Try it again when it is around 30, possibly?

We have some 39 degree weather coming to Adelaide soon, so I will do another temp test of the A/C then.

Compressors are supposed to cycle? huh? really? I call BS on that

No, they switch on and off to maintain cabin temp once they reach a certain point and to stop the build up of ice on the evaporator in damp conditions.
At idle, and in really hot weather, it probably will run non stop. If the radiator fan runs non stop you know it isn't cycling.

Air con will cycle depending on the temperature you have set it to and is controlled by a thermostat. Both my TL'S will cycle on idle when I have the temp set at 20 degrees and outside temps are early thirties. It is a good idea to clean out your condensor now and then as no matter how much the fan runs air con will not function properly if air cannot be drawn through the condensor if it is partially blocked. The condensor sits in front of the radiator.

I just cleaned my condenser, there were actually quite a few bugs in the top portion, nothing on the bottom portion. Gave it a spray with truck wash and also scrubbed it to try and lift as much dirt off the condenser as I could. Not much room to get in from behind even after pulling the radiator out of its mounts, but did the best I could. I've heard that cleaning the condenser - as in lifting dirt, not physical blockage like leaves and bugs - isn't directly responsible for improved cooling, however it can lower the high side pressure in the system which improves efficiency. Whatever the reason, it needed some bugs removed anyhow

I ran the car for a bit but my temperature probe has suddenly lost some of the digits on the display. Can't tell if its 19 or 13c so I can't get an accurate measurement. I think for the first time ever the compressor started to cycle. However this is a mute test at the moment since the condenser is covered in water which will assist in cooling. I'll see how it goes during the day in a typical setting

The other thing I was thinking is maybe adding an extra hose from the windshield sprayers with a little 3 port solenoid valve, and a switch in the cabin. Off would direct water as normal to the spray jets, On would redirect it to a couple sprayers in front of the condenser to soak it with some water. Would it make enough of a difference to be worth it though?

So I decided to take some vent temps again. I can't recall the conditions of when I last took the temperature, it may have been inside or outside, day or night I don't remember
So I grabbed my temperature probe, I know its accurate at boiling point but just to be sure I took my mouth temperature with it, it read 36.9c so we can assume its pretty much spot on
Car had been for a couple short trips 45 mins prior, so engine bay is hot. Parked car outside but not in direct sunlight
Opened all windows to match ambient temperature, a brisk 35.3c <(") ......... in the sun the car said it was 39c outside, a big :upyours: to cairns :nuts:

Anyway, car in park and engine running I put the temp probe in the middle left vent, closed the other vents, set it to recirc and set fan speed to lowest. Left it for 10 minutes and temperature read 10.9c
Then set it to highest fan speed, opened all vents, over the course of 10 minutes it rose to 19.1c then slowly fell to 17.6c
After this I went and parked the car and measured the inside cabin temperature just above the gear knob, it read 27.7c

Given that its so ridiculously *** hot today I don't know if thats acceptable or piss poor. It certainly feels 100x better in the car than out, but needless to say i'm not exactly freezing my ass off either

Well, we had a 39 degree say here yesterday, and pretty much the same results for me.
I guess the car needs to be parked in the shade if you want any chance of being comfortable within a reasonable time frame when driving it.

Squirting water on the A/C condenser might work, then again . . .

Shitfully hot in Melbourne today - was ferrying family members to and from hospital to visit a niece born this morning, car spent most of the time parked in blazing sunlight.

Cool to cold air coming out of the vents, but even on "full", not as cold as I'd like. May get it re-gassed with some Hychill, if I can find any in the area who uses it...

Spraying water will help but should not be needed. the Magna air conditioners are probably one of the best out there. If the car has been sitting in the sun locked up on a hot day it will take longer to cool down no matter how good the air conditioner is. I was looking at insulating the exposed air conditioning piping (cool side) to try and minimise temp loss from heat generated under the bonnet.

My third gen and my 380 (even moreso) are excellent in hot weather. Having been built in Adelaide, they were designed with great aircon. Neither have ever been regassed.

I hired a brand new ASX last week for a week or so and the aircon was rubbish. Never really got cold air blasting out of the vents.

Spraying water will help but should not be needed. the Magna air conditioners are probably one of the best out there.

And thats exactly the problem, if it was a half assed air conditioner to start with and cooled to its current capacity, fair enough. But a lot of people say its supposed to be really good, yet i've been in cars that leave it for dead
I can leave my hand over the vent on a hot day indefinitely. So somethings not right. And the problem with A/C units is it can be incredibly difficult to find the exact reason why.
Getting the pressures checked soon though

So yes I have confirmation something wasn't right. Mechanic went to hook up gauges and got a small puff of air on the high side, visually confirmed a slow bubbling leak under the cap. Gauges showed low side was a bit high and the high side was fluctuating rapidly which apparently indicates a bit of air in the system. New receiver dryer and valve will be installed soon and regassed

So finally found a digital thermometer with a sensor on a wire. Tested against a big analog one i've got in the fridge and they agreed, so I assume its accurate.
Temp at center vent, with others closed and fan on low, reached 6.5c after ten minutes drive.
It would have been about 26 outside. I'll test it again next 35+ day we have.

I also set the temp control on the dash to the "20" mark and put the sensor behind the passenger headrest out of the air-flow and set the climate system on full auto.
That area of the cabin cooled to about 20.5C after driving about 10-15 minutes.

So finally found a digital thermometer with a sensor on a wire. Tested against a big analog one i've got in the fridge and they agreed, so I assume its accurate.
Temp at center vent, with others closed and fan on low, reached 6.5c after ten minutes drive.
It would have been about 26 outside. I'll test it again next 35+ day we have.

I also set the temp control on the dash to the "20" mark and put the sensor behind the passenger headrest out of the air-flow and set the climate system on full auto.
That area of the cabin cooled to about 20.5C after driving about 10-15 minutes.

Sounds like yours is fine, but a true test is when the outside temp gets closer to 40.
I wonder if Magnas with climate control run a more powerful A/C system than those without?
My TL with climate control is definitely more effective than my TJ without it.

Wife's 2013 Lancer has window tint and despite the all black interior, doesn't heat up as much as my Magna from sitting in the full sun. A/C works better on it too, it's our first choice on a hot day when we go out. Dash readout says it is 30 degrees outside, nice and cool inside. I'm starting to be a window tint convert!

<snip> I'm starting to be a window tint convert!
Oh yeah, definitely recommend tint! Especially UV protective stuff. Helps reduce sunburn on your arms and legs as well as reducing damaging UV light on the interior plastics.

Oh yeah, definitely recommend tint! Especially UV protective stuff. Helps reduce sunburn on your arms and legs as well as reducing damaging UV light on the interior plastics.

Hadn't notice it, but yes, no more hot, burned right arm! lol

Thought I should post an update. Had high and low side valves replaced since one of them was leaking, also replaced receiver dryer. I've had a few trips in the car since then. It's currently 28c (Car says 26c outside) and the sun is going down, but bloody hell is it cold inside! even on minimum air speed. 10 minutes after stepping out of my car and my nose and arms still feel a bit cold. Massive improvement over what it was before

I have had a couple of hot days around the 33c mark, with the car reporting as high as 37c after being in sunlight. If it sits in the sun and gets really hot i'll still wind all windows down for a couple minutes, but it takes no more than 5 minutes to get to a comfortable level, 10 minutes and its starting to get chilly inside. I can hold my hand in front of the vent but it starts to get pretty uncomfortable after about 10 seconds. I can bare to leave it to maximum/17c on a really hot day, but unlike before I don't have to keep it there. And in fact its actually nice for a minute or so after stepping out of the car just to warm up a bit. I'll typically leave it on about 20c on a really hot day and it does a good job, fan speed does not need to be on maximum. And I can even wind the drivers side window down at i.e. a drive through and not feel like I need to wind it back up, inside remains cold.

So in my case a regas did good

What is a receiver dryer?
Were you told how much gas was taken out of the system and how much put into it?

https://macsworldwide.wordpress.com/2010/10/13/what-is-a-receiver-drier/

And no, but since both valves were replaced I imagine thats total evacuation and replacement of the system

How much did this cost all up?
And is the receiver dryer a part that wears out?

https://macsworldwide.wordpress.com/2010/10/13/what-is-a-receiver-drier/...
Thanks for the link Millenium. Short and sweet explanation.


.......
And is the receiver dryer a part that wears out?
Looking at the explanation in the above link I see there are no moving parts, I dont see any reason for it be worn out. But I am sure it does have an expiry date sooner or later especially if the car is 15 year old!! Anyone who had an opportunity to see a faulty receiver drier closely can shed some light on the kind of damage it was.

The receiver drier, in general, acts as a temporary hold for lubricating oil and refrigerant that is surplus to the system's requirements at a given time. Most receiver driers contain desiccant which absorb moisture trapped in the AC system or from outside humidity, and also contains a filter which prevents debris from circulating in the AC system.
Both of these are normally replaced when the AC system is serviced or opened up, as a necessity (or if the desiccant has swelled/no longer absorbing moisture or the filter blocked), and are often only serviced as a complete receiver drier unit.

*edit, pretty much what the link in the previous post said