Colin170CR

Well no sooner said than done. Yanked the Racechip XLR out my wife's Karoq (while she was out) & fitted to my Superb. I wonder if she will notice it's gone? Exact same connections & pedal layout. It does make a difference in the Superb. I'm not sure that N (normal) mode on the Racechip adds anything in D mode but S & S+ mode on the Racechip certainly do. R (Race) mode is a bit bonkers in D so I won't be using that setting. If I want bonkers acceleration I'll put the DSG in Sport mode & listen to the wailing of the twin flap assisted exhausts as the engine races up to just over the redline before gear changes. Its early days using it in my car so I'll see how I get on with it. Certainly better to re-use it than to let it go with the Karoq when we sell it.

Even with a remap mine still has a bit of lag taking off in D. Not a problem if its in S mode but that can mean rather savage acceleration which isn't always needed. As mentioned elsewhere I have a Racechip XLR on my wifes' Karoq which we are selling soon so I think I'll switch it over to my Superb & see what it can do.

To recover the gas you will need an approved refrigerant recovery cylinder like this one. Yes, different recovered refrigerants (and the hoses used) are kept separate from each to avoid contamination. E.g. R22 uses mineral oil for lubrication whereas all newer refrigerants us POE synthetics so cannot be mixed together unless the refrigerants are going to be destroyed in which cas different refrigerants can be mixed together in one cylinder & labeled accordingly e.g. R12 from old car systems with R22 or R407c. Brazing pipes without nitrogen is the main cause of 4-way valves getting stuck & internal filters & cappilliary tubes getting block from the scale that is formed inside the pipes. It's worth checking out the 4-way solenoid because this could be an easy / cheap fix. Also, tapping the valve if the solenoid istests OK. If you have a A/C engineer as a neighbour I would buy him a big dinner & see what he can do for you. New modern systems don't cost that much & your neighbour could probably get equipment from his normal wholesaler / supplier & install it for you with your help at "mates rates". I'm not sure what the situation is in France but in the UK Refrigeration / A/C wholesalers "should" ask to see your certification cards (FGAS, REFCOM etc) before they sell anyone any refrigerant or A/C equipment containing refrigerant. This it to prevent unauthorised persons handling, transporting or installing refrigerant based systems. It's a tightly regulated industry over here but like all things there are ways of getting around the rules. Hope this helps.

My system is a heat pump so it can heat & cool. If your system works in cooling but not in heating the problem is either:- 1. Stuck slider inside the 4-way valve. 2. Burnt out / open circuit Solenoid on the 4-way valve. 3. Combination of 1 & 2. 4. No signal from control board to the 4-way valve solenoid. If you have an electrical tester with a continuity / ohms setting test the solenoid on the 4-way valve. If it’s open circuit, then a new valve assembly or just the solenoid (if removable type) will be needed. If the solenoid checks out OK then it’s either a stuck slider inside the valve or no signal from the control board for heat mode. Check for signal from board when heat mode is selected. If signal & solenoid check out OK it’s a stuck slider inside the valve. Gentle tapping with a soft faced hammer can free up a stuck slider but if it’s really stuck & cannot be shifted then a new valve assembly will be required which will require all the system gas to be removed into a suitable refrigerant cylinder, the old 4-way valve un-brazed & the new 4-way valve brazed back in with nitrogen flowing through the pipes during brazing to prevent any oxidisation on the inside of the pipes. After fitting a new 4-way valve the pipework must be pressure & leak tested. After that a vacuum pulled on the whole system to 1,000micron & held for 30mins to remove all oxygen, moisture & other contaminants from the system before adding any refrigerant back in. Below is a picture of a 4-way valve with a removable solenoid valve & below that how a 4-way valve works in an A/C system. If the slider is stuck & new valve is required, it will probably be better to replace the system with a new one rather than spend time & money on trying to fix it. A new system will be more efficient & come with a minimum 3 year warranty. The existing system is 16 years old so has lasted reasonably well. However, if you do go for a new system note that the pipework will have to be replaced as well because old R407c system pipe sizes are two large for the latest R32 gas systems which generally use pipe sizes as least one size smaller. If you let me know the make & model of your system, I may be able to find a service manual for it which may help you diagnose the problem further. Interesting info on the flaring tool name in French & history. Fun fact, pipe-work flaring tools for R410a & R32 pipework systems are different than for older R407c & R22 systems. The angles of the flare are different & the tool forms the flare concentrically & not by just crushing the copper all in one go. Also, all modern flared joint nuts must now be tightened with a torque spanner to the manufacturers recommended setting. In the old days we just used two spanners until we thought it was about right or, until the cheeks of your backside touched together 😂. Invariably this meant that most flare nuts were overtightened which was the reason after some time many flared joints sheared off or split which caused refrigerant leaks. I hope this helps.

To be fair most engineers will charge at least £350 for a P&L test + whatever it takes to repair the leak & recharge the system. You could be looking at £400-800. Might be worth considering replacing the indoor / outdoor units with a more modern versions. Most new models can re-use existing pipework if its the correct size which needs to be flushed to remove any existing oil or contaminants before recharging with R32 refrigerant which is what most new small capacity systems are using now. Good luck with your search.

As per JR. If installed correctly a house A/C installation should never leak unless the flared pipe joints on the outdoor / indoor unit have become weakened or the pipework itself has been damaged. Of course there's also the possibility of leaking pipes inside the outdoor / indoor unit due to corrosion or damage. If that nameplate is anything to go by it hasn't been serviced for a very long time. It should be checked & cleaned at least once a year by an A/C engineer. I did mine just last week & the outdoor coil was full of leaves & debris which would reduce its efficiency. The indoor unit is also a breeding ground for bacteria so should be checked & cleaned with anti-bacterial spray every 6 months. The condensate pipe to outside or via a pump also needs to be cleaned & flushed. I think I can just make out the refrigerant type as R410a which is an HFC refrigerant. While still available R410a is being phased out as higher global warming refrigerant. If the outdoor fan is not coming on & the compressor not running then it is probably a low pressure issue due to loss of gas. It needs a pressure & leak test by an FGAS certified A/C / refrigeration engineer. By law no gas gas can be put into the system until the leak has been found / repaired & a vacuum pulled on the system to remove any moisture or non-condensibles that may have got into the system. The service manual for your 2.5kW outdoor unit can be found here http://mitsubi****ech.co.uk/Data/M-Series/MSC(H)/2007/MUH-GA-VB/MUH-GA25[35]VB_SM.pdf This indicates your system is circa 2006 vintage. Hope this helps.

Have you considered fitting a Pedal Box to improve the throttle response? I fitted a RaceChip XLR pedal box to my wife's 1.5 DSG Karoq which cured the hesitation it had. It takes 30 mins to fit & can be removed just as quick. Alternatively tweek the throttle response with VCDS software - I believe there is a setting called Audi Throttle! So9me say it does improve things but others say it does. Last but not least have the ECU modified but that would probably void the warranty if a dealer found out. My 280 now pushes out 360bhp after I had a Revo stage 1 remap done. It has so much extra torque that D mode is all I need for day to day driving & quick speed pick up. In S mode it is a bit of a hooligan so I use it very sparingly.

My wife's Karoq goes in for a 4 wheel refurb next week. £80 per corner + VAT. She's had the car for 2 years but we are selling it soon so time to get the wheels done & two new front tyres.

Glad you got to the bottom of it. The refund was a bonus & an honourable gesture.

I'm just about to get 4 x Crater 19" wheels refurbished for my wife's Karoq before we sell it. £80 per corner. Bent or twisted wheels can be repaired / welded by many specialists for a bit more b& still cheaper than buying a new wheel. The only drawback is that the car will be off the road for 3 days.

After much debate between my wife & myself we are reluctantly going to sell our 2019 Karoq Edition 1.5 DSG 4 x 4 in Moon White with opening Pano roof, powered tailgate, folding - tumbling & removable rear seats (Varioflex) & all the other Edition model features. We are the 2nd owners of this car & it's only done 5k in the last year. Current mileage is just under 20k & the car is located in Newport Pagnell Bucks. I will fully document the car with pics after I've sorted out some new front tyres & refurbed 3 of the wheels (minor curb rashes). I will put all the details on the Cars for sale forum section - if I can figure out how to fill in & post the form! It's going to be a reluctant sale but it's time for us to get a smaller EV for my wife & I to use locally. The Karoq has been great & I've fitted a few accessories to it while we've had it. Gas struts for the bonnet OEM Boot bumper protector Boot liner OEM mud flaps K&N air filter. Original filter & baffle available. Inner rear wheel arch mud protectors - prevents mud from getting inside the the rear door cills. Not that it's been off-road. Front & back door cill protectors. Two new tyres last year & two new fronts about to go on. Huge number of roundabouts where we live take their toll on front tyres. MOT just done this last week. RaceChip XLR pedal box fitted to improve throttle response. I may remove this & fit it on my Superb. Bodywork is unmarked & it's been serviced at the local Skoda dealer. As for the price I'm thinking around £23k. PM me if anyone is interested or wants to know more details. Full details will be posted on the Cars 4 sale section in due course after I get the wheels & tyres sorted.

I agree. Looks good though when kept clean. Black also looks good but needs cleaning regularly to look it's best (i have a Black Superb). IMO Greys are the best to hide day to day road grime.

I think quite a few of us have been victims of "new tech" on modern cars. For me it was the Virtual Pedal on the powered tailgate of my L&K Superb Estate which I bought second hand. I couldn't figure out why for no apparent reason the open tailgate would start beeping & closing on me while I was still fiddling around in the boot. A swift exit was needed before the tailgate came down on my back (probably wouldn't as it has a safety resistance sensor as far as I know). Anyhow, after 3-4 times of doing this "early close" scenario it suddenly dawned on me that the car might have the Virtual Pedal option. I tested it on a closed tailgate by waving my foot under the bumper & hey presto open sesame. Doh!!😖 It seems you have to be careful not to put your feet under the rear bumper while putting in or taking stuff out of the open boot. To this day I don't know if the VP was standard fit or an option on my 2016 model.

Did you have a leak?

I think to meet my wife's "spec expectations" it will have to be the Ultimate model (sunroof needed) which I believe comes with the 64kWh battery as standard which gives us the range to get to family & get back without having to cadge electric while we are visiting. A 21/22 plate example with lowish miles would be just the ticket. Got to prep my Superb for sale first though. I looked at Niro's. Good cars but a but they are a bit more expensive & larger than we really need so the Kona is "goldilocks" size / model for us I think.

Charger is already installed but no EV yet.

Yes I did. As well as working for A/C manufacturers, distributors & an AC Consultancy firm working with Tesco amongst others. Regular visits to Europe & USA as part of my work. They were good times through the ups & downs of the economy but more relaxed these days. My only contact with the industry these days is from afar & going to old colleague retirement do's (one this Friday) & funerals. Makes you think a bit about life & what's more important.

It's not quite that easy. Wholesalers, trade counters & A/C manufacturers & distribution companies "should" want to see your personal & company F-Gas handling & registration certificates before they sell you any bottled refrigerant gas or any pre-charged A/C equipment. There are audit trails on gas cylinders & every piece of pre-charged equipment you buy. Back in the day you couldn't get an F-Gas certificate unless you were a minimum 2 year apprentice & attended a 4-5 day practical & written test. These days you could get an F-Gas cert in a day if you had some previous experience. It's a lucrative market for "training centres". Say no more. Most Mech services companies, won't employ subbies if they don't hold all the right tickets or industry association memberships. That doesn't stop the chancers doing their thing though.

I'm not so sure. The amount of paperwork that is now needed to track every gram of refrigerant used & recovered from old systems plus every gas cylinder in circulation is very tiresome. Much of the reclaimed refrigerant in cylinders these days is destroyed so not worth anything. Especially if it is not pure & contaminated with different types. No one pays you to take refrigerant back to a recycling centre you are just expected to do it as part of your job. There was a time when I was an apprentice that we only had 2 different types of refrigerant gas in the van. R12, R22 & perhaps a bit of R502 for lower temperature freezers. If you ran out of R502 you could mix R12 & R22 together to top up a R502 system. We also used to use R12 for cleaning air cooled condenser coils - just like a high pressure air line!! No environmental worries in those days! If our bunsen burner leak testers had run out of gas we often used lit cigarettes to leak test joints. If the tip turned green when you pulled on the cig then you knew you had a leak. Little did we know that we were inhaling Phosgene gas - the stuff that was used to gas troops in WW1 😲. Frightening really but we knew no better back then. My abiding memory as a rookie apprentice was ripping out an old walk in chiller cabinet system in a butchers shop on the Edgware Road in London. First job was to de-gas the system. The engineer told me to grab a bucket & fill it with water. He then handed me a hose & told me to put on a rubber glove & keep the hose under the water. The engineer connected the hose the the compressor discharge valve & opened it slowly. At my end the hose started bubbling as the refrigerant came out under the water. It smelt of rotten eggs which was not surprising because the refrigerant was Sulphur Dioxide. When finished I asked the engineer what to do with the bucket (which was now Sulphuric Acid ☠️). He told be pour it down the drain in the road outside 😕. At least the drains were clean!!

48 years in the AC/Refrigeration industry & I retired 2 years ago. I believe this document might be what you are looking for regarding the legal aspects. https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/82878/html/ There are a variety of cases where individuals & companies have been fined for releasing refrigerants to atmosphere & other F-Gas regulation infringements. That said, it is also well documented that DEFRA & the Environment Agency do not have the manpower to enforce these laws which allows widespread breaking of the laws to continue. Example. When I was involved in an AC installation company we regularly got calls from builders or office interior fit out companies who needed to move or relocate split AC systems as part of their their works. When we told them the price to attend site, remove & recycle the gas in accordance with F-Gas regs they said "nah, I'll get jimmy to "accidentally" cut the pipes!! Unless you can video someone in the act of deliberately releasing refrigerant to atmosphere then its very difficult to get a conviction. The cases that get prosecuted are mainly those involving workplace injuries or fatalities in which the HSE get involved. You are correct in that there are many many HVAC engineers in the UK but not nearly enough the increasing demand for home heat pump systems brought about by the increase in people working from home & the massive rise in Gas & Electricity prices. Most HVAC engineers are well trained & aware of their environmental responsibilities. However, like most industries, there are always a few rogues individuals & companies who seem to go out of their way to cut corners in the pursuit of profit or, are just unaware of the current regulations that apply to the industry they work in. As the famous saying goes, "ignorance is no defence in the eyes of the law".

Under current F-Gas regulations it is illegal to add or "top up" any AC system that contain F-Gases without first undertaking a "pressure & leak test" to determine if the system has a leak. It stands to reason that if a system has lost some refrigerant a leak must be present (unless under charged previously). If a leak is found it must be repaired & tested before any more refrigerant is added to to the system. Long gone are the days of topping up leaky AC systems whether they be in cars or fixed installations. The maximum fine for intentionally releasing F-gases to the atmosphere or, adding F-Gases to known leaky systems, is currently £200,000. For "lesser" offences fines of £100k, £50k & £10k can be applied. Ref Cooling Post F-Gas fines DEFRA doc Enjoy!!

It is for exactly the reasons you describe that we will only be using the EV for local trips, by my wife mainly, & it will be charged from home from the grid or solar when available. I'm not comfortable with cost or the availability of public charging so I will be avoiding any of that for as long as possible. For trips any further than 200+ miles we will use whichever of the ICE cars we are left with. TBH both my wife & I only do around 5k miles or less a year each these days (both retired) so there's an argument that says says we should be able to make do with a single car now. However, I'm not ready to do that if it means only an EV so for now we will have to run two cars until we can't afford to do it anymore. I am considering hiring an EV to give it a longer tryout but I think a used Kona is the right size / price of car for us as a 2nd car so to speak. Not the greatest looking thing but it covers all the bases & in Ultimate trim it gives her most if not more of all the bells & whistles she's used to on the Karoq. Just still quite get my head around the fact that I may be selling my Superb to part fund the new car 😒

Ho ho.

Thanks for the info. After looking at & sitting in the E-2008 the wife didn't like it. Apparently the bonnet is too big so she can't see the road ahead😕 Not sure how that works because she's currently driving our Karoq which has a similar bonnet. Ah well. So we are now looking for a Kona. Test drove one the other day & it was pretty good & has buttons for most functions which is a plus in my book. I think we will wait until the new Kona comes out in a few months which should reduce the prices & increase the availability of the current facelift models. I now need to decide whether we lose the Superb 280 Estate or the Karoq 1.5 Edition to make way for the Kona? I really don't want to part with my Superb but it is the older car so it's time with us may be up. I would take over the Karoq & the wife would have the the Kona which we would both share for local trips. I got a valuation from AutoTrader on the Superb of £19,200 but I think I'll be after £20k minimum. When the time comes I will post it on the cars for sale section of the forum & probably on AT.

She's wearing the years very well. I had a 2010 Superb 2.0TDi Estate for around 6 years & did over 140k in her. Never missed a beat.