Aircondition capacitor/cooler change - DIY or not?

[vrod]

So, the aircondition in my Plus is gone. Had the car to a mechy and they have told me that the capacitor/cooler on the front is leaking and will need to be changed. Its pretty hot in my area (NRW, Germany) - we have had up to 38*C temperature and i could kinda have used the aircondition at that time. 

The workshop (Euromaster) have made me an offer of approx 540€ to do the whole change. Almost half of the price (250€) is mechanic hours so i'm thinking of doing it myself. I have read around that its a kind of dangerous task and it should be done by a professional. I dont know if i will need to get the system "de-gassed" since its already leaking so i was just thinking of doing the change and then tell the mechanics to "gas" it up and refill it. :)

Any suggestions?

[Baz300]

The gas will need to be disposed of properly as it can be hazardous to the enviroment.

I'm sure you could get a big fine if cought venting the gas to the atmosphere.

Do you have any mobile air conditioning engineers near by? You could ask them to empty the system then come back when you have swapped over the parts to leak check then re gas the system.

[E30Dom]

Once that's done it's DIY.