Peugeot 306 Air Conditioning Faults

A common problem on the Peugeot 306 Air Conditioning system is escape of refrigerant through corroded pipes. The holes created in them are not obvious and are normally pin hole size.

On the 306 the two pipes that run along the bottom of the front radiator are susceptible to this problem. The corrosion normally occurs at the point the pipes are held by the brackets as they are a good place for road salt and other contaminants to get stuck in and work through the metal of the pipe.

I will be providing a full How To on replacing these pipes but have not had the time to do this so far...please bear with me! ;-)

You will find a DIY A/C refill guide here

Currently many garages are offering low price A/C top ups, including places such as Kwik-Fit. These are done with standalone machines which are simply connected and work through various tests on the A/C system before topping up. 

Working from my experience with 2 different 306 models that had faulty A/C, I can say that the leak test on these machines is not very reliable. On 3 occasions the machines passed the leak test, yet leaks were present and all gas was lost within a couple of hours or within 2 days. One presumes that when the system is actually full of refrigerant and becomes cool any holes are increased due to metal contraction and this is why leaks are not detected beforehand.

Another point that has been noted is that the machines are not as intelligent as they think. In one case a garage charged me for a top up and the system failed to work. I was advised there was a fault in my A/C system (this was after I'd replaced the defective pipe). Yet, when I topped up the system at home with a DIY kit, it worked perfectly.

If you're really stuck then I would advise an A/C specialist to look at your system as they have far more indepth knowledge of faults.