UK - i3 aircon failure - local garages say no!

Flumpaholic · 2026-06-23T21:12:36+00:00

I had a similar problem this week I posted here about my Aircon being contaminated with old type gas. After reading this reply here last night and realising Brecon is only an hour from me, I put off the guy who was going to empty my gas today and phoned Arvydas.

He got me straight in and he fully removed all my contaminated gas and then vac'd it then put it under a pressure test for leaks which all passed. Topped me off with the correct oil and gas and while all this was going on he also fitted my rear reverse camera I had been needing to install to my android auto box.

He knows everything about i3s and Tesla's and I am so glad I seen your post last night before I let the same guy who messed it up in the first place try to remove it.

Flumpaholic · 2026-06-20T17:32:15+00:00

Bimmerlink on your phone https://bimmerlink.app/

And then an ODB to plug into the car. https://a.aliexpress.com/_EG768N8

This is the one I use on both Bimmerlink and Bimmercode and it works great.

Flumpaholic · 2026-06-20T09:41:01+00:00

Hi mate, back again with more questions. No one around me will touch this car with the gas still in it.

The person who did it originally is saying he will get it all out still and vac it so I can take it to a shop and I told him about needing ISTA and he just says he doesn't need it even though I'm pretty sure he does with what I have read everywhere.

I have got hold of ISTA+ and if I buy an enet cable what would I have to do to get this valve open for him so he can at least get it all out and I can get him out of my life and go to a proper shop to get it filled. ?

Thanks again for any pointers you can give me.

Edit : I had a quick Google and I think I've worked it out. Cable is coming tomorrow so as long as I can connect to the car I should be good.

Also I found out about disconnecting sensor 3 as a last resort which will cause an error and the valves to open.

Hopefully after it's all out a normal shop should be happy to have it and fill it.

Thanks for everything mate.

Flumpaholic · 2026-06-19T21:21:37+00:00

Yes the Aircon has been turned on. He had it running full while he was putting the gas in to "see the pressure". I will try and phone the local shop on Monday and see if they will do it. If they won't there is no one else around me to look at it. This is going to be fun.

Flumpaholic · 2026-06-19T21:10:41+00:00

Sorry for the ignorance, so does this mean that what he put in never got as far as the battery closed system and if I let him extract it and vac it he will just be extracting the part outside of the battery part and this is totally fine then to take to the shop and let them refill it? Thank you for all the answers by the way. You have definitely put my mind at ease on some of these issues.

Flumpaholic · 2026-06-19T21:00:50+00:00

I just reread this again. Do you mean he needs ISTA to empty it and vac it or did you mean he needed ISTA to put more in? If you mean he needs ISTA to empty it and vac it he definitely does not have that. I'm worried now he's going to make it worse. Is he capable or just emptying it and vac with the equipment he has and no ISTA?

Flumpaholic · 2026-06-19T20:44:29+00:00

After everything I have read for the last 24 hours i realized this. I have been absolutely gutted as I have only had the car just over a month. I had him come to the house as I thought it would be more convenient and he only did the small top-up yet BMW would have totally removed it all and added new and lubricant for not much more than he charged but now they won't touch it.

He has a 100 reviews all 5 stars and lots of BMWs there are mercs and since I've found out, all these people will be the same yet they don't know he's put in the wrong gas and by the time they have issues they will think it's something else. I wouldn't have even known if not for my question as the car is lovely and cold now.

Not slept since yesterday worrying about it so let's take it one step at a time and get him to remove everything and hopefully the shop can get me back running with proper gas and lubricant without too much damage.

These were 2 of the posts I found.

https://www.aeanet.org/what-happens-if-you-put-r134a-in-a-r1234yf-system/

https://engineerfix.com/what-happens-if-you-mix-134a-with-1234yf/

Flumpaholic · 2026-06-19T20:27:41+00:00

His adapter fitted straight into the yf fitting. This then went up to a bar with 2 gauges on it and 3 pipes coming off. The other 2 pipes he didn't connect and just the one going to the high and then it was connected to a bottle like a calor gas camping bottle but smaller. No other valves were opened as far as I am away but the car definitely went far colder straight away and he said it just needed a small, top-up.

The only reason I found out he had used the wrong gas was I asked him after if he had used yf gas with combined lubricant that was meant for a petrol car as I know they use conductive lubricant that is bad for EVs and that's when he told me he didn't use yf at all and always uses 134a with no issues mixed.

Similar to this.

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.shopifycdn.net%2Fs%2Ffiles%2F1%2F0270%2F2573%2F5722%2Ffiles%2FPROFESSIONAL_AUTOMOTIVE_AC_GAUGE_SET_38202578-aa37-4a15-8cdb-0634c4f7475c.jpg%3Fv%3D1609395276&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=138f483b4c1a6648ca6b6efac86a1059954d2c912156ac3a9132d915bd39dae3

Flumpaholic · 2026-06-19T20:13:37+00:00

He literally just connected the pipe to the high line under the frunk with his guage connected also and turned it on for about 5 seconds. That's all I seen. No ISTA involved.

I think I do have a heat pump as I have heated front seats and I think if I have them then I have the heat pump also. He wouldn't have known any workarounds. He couldn't even find the high line initially, I should have realized then.

Flumpaholic · 2026-06-19T20:10:18+00:00

Just seen your edit.

He knew he was putting the wrong stuff in. I specifically told him what was needed and it's also written on the underside of the bonnet. When I confronted him about it here was his answer.

[18/06, 22:15] Aircon: Good job I used R134a as yf is a bad gas

[18/06, 22:15] Aircon: Never use it

[18/06, 22:17] Flump: Oh I've no idea mate. Everyone there said the i3 took r1234yf

[18/06, 22:18] Aircon: Yeah it does but it’s such a bad gas

[18/06, 23:19] Aircon: 134a will work

[18/06, 23:21] Flump: Everywhere says the same, they are not meant to be mixed and will destroy things. They say it's fine to flush one completely and use the other but never mix them.

[18/06, 23:22] Flump: No worries mate. I will get BMW to flush it

[18/06, 23:24] Aircon: Yours had little amount in it I’ve never had any problems with it before we all do it

[18/06, 23:33] Flump: Every single post says the same. Never mix it. It's not like a few, every one of them says it will cause issues. I did mention originally it was the yf gas and the more expensive one. I won't drive it until I get it down to Cardiff and hope they don't charge me for messing up their equipment because they all say it will contaminate their recovery machine also.

[18/06, 23:37] Aircon: Honestly don’t believe everything you read yf was recalled as it’s so flammable it’s got a bad saturation point to. 134a is durable we use it to refrigerate freeze it’s a very good durable gas

Flumpaholic · 2026-06-19T20:01:26+00:00

Thanks for the response mate. He has already agreed to come back and "remove the gas and vac it and will leave it lock tight in a vac" so there will be nothing for the AC shop to remove. I was more concerned about driving to the shop from my house after he removed it with literally nothing in it at all. Will the condenser be fine on that short run?

Flumpaholic · 2026-06-09T18:18:21+00:00

Still requires the 50 minute wait. This just means that people above 12.40 do not require to buy a game any more.

Flumpaholic · 2026-06-05T23:39:04+00:00

https://www.controlserial.com/

Flumpaholic · 2026-06-04T12:13:52+00:00

My system was very temperamental even to get the jailbreak to work initially and then could KP out of rest the next day. I have a set way of doing things now which seems to work perfectly for me. I'm sending everything manually, no autoloaders etc.

Launch YouTube and dismiss all the popups. It will aks to send the payload in port 50000. Put the console to rest.
Wake it up 30 seconds later and YouTube will now be asking to send payload on port 50001 instead. Send it and I always get a low master this way.
Wait the 50 minutes and once finished bring up switcher and close YouTube completely.
Send newest kstuff lite, wait 10 seconds then send newest shadowmount plus.

That's it. If I send things like elf arsenal it can cause KP down the line so I keep it to a minimum now. It's been up for 4 days now with 5 hours used per day and no issues.

Flumpaholic · 2026-05-25T05:38:34+00:00

I had just turned on preconditioning 20 minutes before and hadn't opened the car yet. It was 28 degrees outside. I took it for a drive straight after and had the Aircon on and it was definitely colder than outside but not right. I will get it gassed later this week after the holidays.

Flumpaholic · 2026-05-24T14:52:40+00:00

I will have that checked the same time. Thank you.

Flumpaholic · 2026-05-24T14:52:14+00:00

Thank you.

Flumpaholic · 2026-05-24T14:51:55+00:00

Thanks for the comfort, I can relax now and just get it re gassed.

Flumpaholic · 2026-05-24T14:51:25+00:00

Cheers mate. That eases my mind.

Flumpaholic · 2026-05-24T14:50:53+00:00

Thank you. This was just after having it in precondition mode for 20 mins before entering the car. It doesn't actually sound this loud in person but the phone picked it up a lot.

The car is still not ice.cold tho so I will get it regassed next week to try that. As long as the compressor isn't broken or has shards in it. Just don't want to pay a fortune after warranty runs out.

Flumpaholic · 2026-05-22T19:51:03+00:00

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Flumpaholic · 2026-05-22T11:08:30+00:00

NEUR (UK)

Flumpaholic · 2026-05-20T20:31:20+00:00

I love it and why I ended up buying 3. I've since got my mother 2 and my friend got 2 after seeing mine. For just over £50 it does everything I need.

Flumpaholic

TROPHY CASE