Guide · Basics
Vacuum, leak test and re-gas to the exact weight your car specifies. In practice it means recovery of the existing charge and full system evacuation, plus the checks that confirm the fault was what it looked like.
Refrigerant is measured by weight, not by pressure or by feel, and every car has its exact charge printed on a sticker under the bonnet. We evacuate the system, hold vacuum to confirm it is not leaking, then charge to that stated weight with the correct refrigerant and the correct oil. A system charged by guesswork cools worse than one charged correctly, whether it is over or under.
Air and moisture left in an AC system do not compress, so they occupy space the refrigerant needed and raise head pressure. Worse, moisture reacts with the refrigerant and PAG oil to form acid, which corrodes the system from inside. Pulling a deep vacuum boils that moisture out. Skipping it is the difference between a re-gas that lasts and one that damages the compressor.
Too much refrigerant raises high-side pressure, cuts cooling, and puts liquid where the compressor expects gas. Because a system in Dubai's heat reads high pressure anyway, charging by gauge alone leads to undercharging in an attempt to keep pressures down. Charging by weight avoids the whole problem.
Dubai compresses every wear cycle a car has. Ambient heat, fine airborne sand and the stop-start driving that most local mileage is made of mean components reach a given wear state at a lower odometer reading than the manufacturer's schedule assumes. Service intervals written for temperate climates are optimistic here, and this job is one of the places that shows.
You should be shown the old part, told what the test read before and after, and given the price you were quoted rather than a revised one. Those three are cheap for an honest workshop to provide and awkward for a dishonest one, which is exactly why they are worth asking for.
A sealed system should never need refilling. If yours is low, it is leaking, and the leak is the actual repair. Refilling alone buys weeks to months.
About an hour: recovery, vacuum, hold test, charge and temperature check. We can do it at your location.
In Dubai summer, roughly 6-10 degrees at the centre vent on full recirculation after ten minutes. Much above that with a correct charge points at airflow, the blend door or the condenser.
Call, or send your location on WhatsApp. We will tell you the price before we set off.
