Porsche air con £200!

Soldato
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I rang the local Ford dealer yesterday and they quoted £85 for 134a and £165 for the newer stuff - mine is older but cancelled appointment as I found A/C was working fine - Operator error on wife's part. I was driving and have distance glasses so can't see some of the dash so said to her turn on A/C which she did but didn't turn temp down to cold.
 
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When i had my 911, the previous owner had fitted grills. I know this is a source on contemption with porsche and their warranty (mine was 51 plate) but i wonder if you could fit them and then remove them if any warranty work was needed. I guess if its a damaged condensor, its just a side effect of having low intakes as im 99% sure 911, boxsters and caymans have the intakes at the front in the same place.
 
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It's a rather contentious issue with owners too, the grills reduce the potential of damaging your radiators, but they invalidate your Porsche warranty :mad: Many owners simply fit them when out of warranty.

You could fit and removed them come service time, but it's fiddly and if not done carefully you can scratch your intake housings and/or paintwork. There is suggestion that the dealers could then tell you've been using grills, but I haven't read any evidence of this.

When my AC stopped giving cold air, it was traced to a damaged radiator. This was replaced promptly under warranty and without discussion. Quite an expensive job at £1k+ Hence the reason I will extend my warranty when the time comes and why I returned my Zunsport grill kit unfitted.
 
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air con is usually a consumable or a part which isn't covered like the exhaust.

OPC Guildford replaced my air con condenser as part of the extended warranty even though the fault looked to be due to a stone, they seemed happy to do the work without argument (I just gave it to them as 'air con not working') and the 'bill' was £0 for me and about £900 for Porsche (or whoever underwrites the warranty).
 
Soldato
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It's a rather contentious issue with owners too, the grills reduce the potential of damaging your radiators, but they invalidate your Porsche warranty :mad: Many owners simply fit them when out of warranty.

You could fit and removed them come service time, but it's fiddly and if not done carefully you can scratch your intake housings and/or paintwork. There is suggestion that the dealers could then tell you've been using grills, but I haven't read any evidence of this.

When my AC stopped giving cold air, it was traced to a damaged radiator. This was replaced promptly under warranty and without discussion. Quite an expensive job at £1k+ Hence the reason I will extend my warranty when the time comes and why I returned my Zunsport grill kit unfitted.
It's mad isn't it? All I can think is that there will be slightly (very slightly) reduced air flow to engine cooling but I can't see it making any difference.
 
Soldato
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I did both on my 2011 Cayman which was also under warranty, first time whilst in for a service to be covered if there were any major issues, was £130 I think. Couple of years later just had it regassed at Kwik-Fit for about £50. The warranty mandates using OEM parts even if work done outside the dealer network IIRC, but no parts involved in an aircon regas so I'm not sure where that would leave you if a problem was detected.

I got to 80k miles on the original condensers without grilles fitted.
 
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What are these grills that you all speak of? And what are they mean to do?

Thanks for everyones advice - I took it to a local reputable garage who hooked it up to their air con machine and an 90 mins later I walked out with perfect/cold air con for £70! Glad I saved the £130 to be honest as it seems Porsche were going to do exactly the same thing, using exactly the same machine, for 3x the price.

Need new discs and pads for the front soon. Porsche quoted me just over £1k. Iv asked a local garage and a local Porsche specalist for a quote using Porsche genuine like for like parts (to maintain my warrenty) and they are at around £600! Big saving on the labour rate I guess.

Id like to maintain full Porsche service history (especially as the next ones not due for ages now) but if I can save money having stock parts fitted elsewhere for simple jobs - happy days!
 
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https://www.zunsport.com/en/porsche-cayman-981-manualpdk-with-sensors-front-grille-set

They protect the radiators which are quite exposed to potential damage from stones. Such damage unlikely to be covered by warranty but conversely the grilles could affect airflow and void the warranty anyway - I've never seen a definitive answer on that, may depend on your Porsche dealer.

Are they popular? Iv had my car for 5 years and had no problems. Then again iv only done 20,000 miles in those 5 years.

Can you see them? Are they an eye sore?
 
Soldato
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Are they popular? Iv had my car for 5 years and had no problems. Then again iv only done 20,000 miles in those 5 years.

Can you see them? Are they an eye sore?

Black grilles work well and are mostly hidden.

The Boxster (986) has the DIY version with a large rectangular section of protective grill purchased on Ebay.

It's then cut up to fit the 3 holes, mounted from behind the bumper.

I needed to remove the bumper to do this.
 
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The Boxster (986) has the DIY version with a large rectangular section purchased of grill purchased on Ebay then cut to fit the whole and zip tied behind the bumper. Needed to remove the bumper to do this, but I had to clean out the condenser/rad area anyway and inspect them for leaks etc.


I see the words but have no idea what your talking about lol. Not very hands on myself. How old is your Boxster?
 
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I see the words but have no idea what your talking about lol. Not very hands on myself. How old is your Boxster?

My autocorrect seemingly turned my post into a mess. Made it a bit clearer.

It's a 2003 986.
 
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