Air Con issues, again!

[motr]

Going to try and cut a long story short (try to), so here goes.

 

Took my Octavia II in for it’s 60,000 mile service in April to a local Skoda dealer. Got a call to tell me that I had a hole in my radiator and was asked ‘had I noticed my air con wasn’t working properly’. I said yes blah blah blah…..

 

New radiator fitted and air con fully regassed free of charge. Nearly £500 light I went away reasonably happy but within two weeks, air con was blowing warm air again.

 

Car went back in, regassed and some special dye put in to hopefully locate where any leak was coming from. At this point I should point out that I am not mechanically wise and wasn’t sure why my air con would be affected by the leaking radiator. I’ve always thought that would be down to the condenser in front of it and I had asked the question previously as I was confused about reading about three parts. Obviously was put right that my FSI does not have a turbo.

 

After another week or so, the hissing/gurgling sound returned and yet again the air that was cold was now blowing luke warm again. Spoke to the dealer and by this time I was getting a bit annoyed. I had spoken about air con ever since the service and despite the fact that my invoices stated that a ‘air con test’ had been done, I was informed that just means a simple regas and nothing had really been done about the air con, even though I expressed my surprise that despite a leak in my radiator the condenser hadn’t apparently got any holes. Would have been the first thing I had checked if the air con wasn’t functioning correctly I thought.

 

Anyway, car went back in at the beginning of July and after having the car for a couple of days, leak detected in the condenser, which didn’t surprise me at all. I have had a new one fitted etc…..but now I have further issues.

 

1) Last Thursday and Friday the air from the vents didn’t seem that cold in the warm temps and 2) the fans seem to be very noisey in the sense that they sound like it should when you are in stationary traffic and they kick in to keep the water temp down.

 

I will be giving it a few days before I get back in touch with the dealer again but it’s the noise that I am particularly concerned about at the present moment as they weren’t like that before. Should also note that there is no hissing/gurgling noise from the air con that I can hear.

 

Any ideas why?

 

Cheers

 

Wayne

 

[motr]

The £500 was for the radiator Mike. I paid less for the Condenser including labour ( skoda wanted to charge £85 an hour labour -slightly more than yourself after haggling etc..) and I have the mesh on my grill too, which was commented as a good idea by the dealer. I have read your posts mate. The pictures were interesting. I knew they had to take the front apart, but actually seeing the picture of yours confirms it.

 

I am just concerned something still isn't right.

Edited 15 July, 2014 by motr

[motr]

Yeah, I was losing a small amount of coolant and had been topping up a little more regularly than i'd have expected for a good 6 months or so. So yes, both the radiator and the air con condenser. Bad luck eh?

[motr]

 

Do you know anyone with VCDS? If so, get a scan done of the HVAC (air con) module, have a look in the measuring blocks are take a note of the system pressure. You are looking at around 8 bars for a fully charged system. Anything less and the system has lost gas again and is not working properly.

 

Mike

 

I don't know anyone with VCDS Mike but that info is helpful. Cheers.

[motr]

After switching the engine off, can you hear the compressor spooling down? Having said that there is a pressure switch which doesn't allow the compressor to kick in if the pressure (gas level) is down. If there is no or little gas there, then there is certainly a leak somewhere in the system -- get the joints on the new condenser, the pressure switch and he pipes running up the off side wing and bulkhead all checked. If the UW light doesn't find the leak, get the system filled with hydrogen and get it sniff tested (air con system not the undies!) Hydrogen, being far smaller molecules, will leak out of pin holes and hairline cracks far more readily than the refrigerant, and there is a far better chance of finding the leak this way.

 

Worse car scenario, of course, is failure of the air con compressor - get the pressure checked on VCDS first to ensure there is gas in there. If there is gas there and the compressor isn't kicking in, your problem could lie there.

 

Mike

 

There is definately gas in the system Mike as this morning for instance, it was cold, but i'm convinced it wasn't cold enough last week when it was really warm out.

 

I can definately hear everything slowing down when I turn the air con off and when I put it into econ mode.

Edited 15 July, 2014 by motr

[motr]

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/224376-vcds-owners-map/

 

Have a look in here, you're bound to find someone local. Drop them a PM to get something sorted out.

If you can't find anything here, there is a similar VCDS owners map on SeatCupra.net and another on VWAudiforum.co.uk.

 

Most members will happily plug the car in for a few beer tokens, and plenty will do it for free. Certainly far, far cheaper than the dealers doing it, and it would give you some ammunition against the dealer if the gas is down and they have already charged you so much and haven't sorted the leak out.

 

Of course, if you fancy a round trip of hundreds of miles to the seaside at Whitby, I'd be happy to help out!

 

Mike

 

 

Cheers for that Mike. I'll have a look.

 

As much as i'm sure Whitby is lovely this time of year, i'll find someone a bit more local ;-)

 

Thanks

 

Wayne

[motr]

Will do cheers.

[steve95]

The pressure sensor affects fan running speed (ie. If stood still, no air flowing over the condenser to cool it down, the pressure builds, the signal from the pressure sensor increases and requests increased fan speed to get air flow over the condenser to bring the pressure back down)

There is another thread on this at the mo, the other weekend I fixed my wife's mkv golf air con by replacing the pressure sensor, the symptoms were air con not working, radiator fans almost permanently running at full whack (like a plane about to take off)

New sensor fixed both. Vcds showed it as a fault I think it is known as g65 sensor - open circuit or short to ground.

Where in the uk are you?

[motr]

Thanks for that Steve. Again, interesting. I had seen the other thread too.

I am in Dudley in the West Midlands.

[steve95]

Ah, nowhere near me either. I would definitely investigate the fan thing further, they should run when a/c is on, but only at low speed unless the engine is overheating. The compressor will only kick in when certain conditions are met, so whatever is causing the fans to run high could be preventing the compressor running. It could be the a/c pressure sensor, or one of the temp sensors in the thermostat or bottom of the radiator, or wiring of course. Good luck with it

[motr]

Cheers Steve.

 

I am going to contact the dealer to get it back in. Although the air con wasn't working properly due to a leak, the fans have never sounded or run like they are doing now.

 

Thanks

 

Wayne

[Fabby]

Ran diags on Wayne's car today.   Showing too much pressure in Aircon system.  Compressor shuts down when pressure gets to 31bar.  Starts at 25ish then goes up to 31 then compressor shuts off, then restarts when pressure drops to about 25.   Checked on a VW Touran of the same year and was running between 12 and 14bar pressure, so either there is too much pressure to start with, or the sensor is faulty....

[motr]

Hi Rob, thanks again for running VCDS for me last night. Was told by mikeholroyd that the bar setting at idle is about 8-9 bar with system on AUTO at idle on his car, yet mine was high 20s. HUGE difference.

 

Mike also said the same as you, seems as if there is too much gas in the system.

 

The fact that you can hear it cutting out when it hits 31 bar and then cuts back in again is puzzling, as it was like that when the car was given back to me. You can hear it.

 

Also, when we turned the settings down to just two green lights, the air went cold and stayed cold.

[steve95]

Also, when we turned the settings down to just two green lights, the air went cold and stayed cold.

At low load the variable valve in the compressor will be near closed, this will limit the flow and hence pressure of the gas, probably just enough to keep it below the high pressure cut out threshold

[motr]

Car back after it went back in yesterday. It's been sorted. Going to Wales tomorrow so will see how things are, but one thing that was obvious were the fans were quiet again. Fingers crossed.

[motr]

Hi Mike,

 

Right, didn't want to say anything until i'd had the car back a month or so, but all seems ok still so far.

 

The problem was the dealers end and an issue with their equipment. I just wonder how many others might have experienced problems because by all accounts, it could have been over filling for a few months.

 

Wayne