Can anyone please help in diagnosing this? My 940 (Australian model) has a dead aircon unit caused by the R134a gas leaking out somewhere. The aircon was converted to R134s with the Volvo kit 2 years ago and it worked fine until a month ago when I noticed that the compressor stopped working. I had my local independent aircon shop check it (no leakage was detected with the vacuum gauge) and charge it up with R134a gas with a colored dye to help in detecting the leak. It ran OK for about 4 days before it quit again (fast compressor cycling then dead compressor). I brought it back to the shop but the ultraviolet light could not pick up the leak. My aircon man thought that it can be a bad compressor or a leak in the evaporator unit but these can only be confirmed by disassembly (both of these cannot be repaired but will need replacement). He wasn't confident about replacing the evaporator because of the disassembly of the dashboard etc.

I am bringing this to an accredited Volvo repair shop but I wonder if any of you folks have experienced this kind of problem before. Are any of the expensive componentry (condenser, compressor, or evaporator) prone to failure? I am worried that the Volvo workshop may start changing these using the "trial & error" method and I might have a huge repair bill in the end if only the last component replaced is the really bad one. The 940's aircon unit is a manual one, not the climate-control unit. Sorry about the long post, but it is important to get all the facts straight. I will be grateful for any suggestions.

Sam in Sydney 1992 945GL 116,000 km