Originally Posted by more_fasterer

Thanks for the advice guys. We can't buy R134a over the counter here in NZ for environmental reasons, so I'm gonna be stuck with taking the car to a service agent to get the aircon working properly.

With that said, I went to a friendly auto electrician today (to talk about an issue with the 335i... sigh, BMW life) and it turned out that he had a set of gauges. The low side was sitting at 26psi and high was at 220psi, so a bit low but not out of range. Oddly, he added a bit of gas into it and now it generates a modicum of cold air, unless the engine is idling - in which case no cooling occurs.



Yes, it has a variable compressor.



I feel like you could've presented those options in a slightly different order




Good feedback. Thanks for the link to your useful write-up, too. I'm gonna organise to have the car looked at by an aircon specialist, cos I don't really have much option. Which kinda grates, as I have DIY'd everything else on this car (including changing the trans solenoids). But it sounds like I can expect a "you need a new compressor" diagnosis.


Cheers guys