J.R.

I learned that repairing a crash damaged salvage Sierra in the 90's, hard frontal, new front panel, wings, inner wings, portapower the chassis rails etc. Radiator completely smashed & the aircon condensor in front of it, the first one I had ever seen was bent like a banana, before removing it something told me to push the Schrader valve on what I now know to be the filling port. It was still pressurised 😯 I had to leave it hanging out of the way while I repaired everything behind it which was wrecked. I even bent it sort of straight in situ with mechanical assistance without it leaking, the A/C worked fine on start up.

What does the throttle body do and does it have any functionregarding stopping the engine when the ignition is turned off? My Yeti 2.0 CR engine recently started shuddering when I switch off, I immediately thought it was the DMF starting to fail but its not the same sort of trying to shear the engine mounts shake that I had when I did have a DMF failing, it does not do it at all when the engine is cold and it almost seems like a running on effect, the engine takes a little longer I think to stop and it does not do so smoothly. If its not this butterfly valve what else could it be? I also have crap MPG but maybe thats normal for brick with 4wd transmission.

I have been doing exactly the same except its my 2.0TDi CR Yeti thats the asthmatic one. Been using the Octavia to tow with, considering they are the same platform they drive like completely different vehicles, both excellent in different ways, the Octavia has a solid well engineered feel to it but altogether old fashioned. The PD engine is a tractor by comparison. My Yeti is the 108hp one with 4x4, it really lacks grunt, seems peppy in the lower gears but thats because it has one more ratio, mid range its dangerous to overtake, but then the 105hp Octavia was like that before I got a remapped ECU. I'm hoping that a remap on the Yeti to an allleged 190hp will make a difference.

Interesting, what is that block thing that changes the high pressure pumped high side into low pressure into the evaporator? Looks like an orifice into a larger diameter pipe.

I can pretty much guarantee that parts like that will usually be significantly cheaper from TPS than an Ebay seller, they are just hoping you wont check. The exception is OE parts made in China for the local market and sold on Ali-Express and E-bay, they can often be a real bargain.

Lee i have most of what you mention and loads more that I have forgotten. Re the corocodile clips I too bought 2 boxes, one for here and one for the UK and I have no use for them at all, in a previous life yes, but as you say they will come in usefull one day.

Definitely due for a battery change as it will start to generate all sorts of fault codes & warning lights with that volt drop, a shame because the engines will start easily at that.

Look at all the Didldydaldi stuff in the background, not sure if he staged the photo or not but he wasn't kidding. I have things yet to be used that I have bought 2 or 3 times over from didldydaldi 🙁 When I realise my mistake I tell myself that it was an additional one for the UK or France, the 3rd ones are just in case. Never can find any of them when I need them or even be sure that I had bought them, thats when the duplicates get bought.

Unless the Roomster is any different to the MK1 & MK2 Octavia and the Yeti then fitting is easy, you just need the hands and the skills of a gynaecologist. I think they are all mounted on top of the transmission tunnel level with the drivers shin.

Inside or outside trim?

Thats what it sounds like. I had an airbag controller go on my MK1 Octavia, I didn't even know of VCDS so was relying on a friend who runs a French Kwik-fit type place for diagnostics (snap on tester) I did all the connections but the fault code could not be erased (no comms with unit?) I new nothing about diagnostics & VCDS then. I simply pulled another one out of a car in a scrapyard, did not know to look at the part number, suffix or coding, I just plugged it in and everything worked, probbaly had to get him to remove the fault code, cant recall, it was too long ago. I did later read that they were a common failure and the £10 I had paid was a bargain because they were sought after.

Stainless steel lockwire is my bodging tool of choice for all jobs like this, only tiny holes need be drilled and you can also plastic weld the join as well with a big soldering iron using a tywrap as a filler rod (a top tip passed on to me) the plastic welding on its own would not be enough the next time a muppet does not know how many fixings to remove or his own strength.

I did a back to back test but it was getting dark, I could not read the guages too well and I didn't record the results. But it looks like the Octavia has less charge than the Yeti (no surprise) the Yeti may not have a full charge because I have had ro recharge it twice before and the guage readings tonight were lower than I have seen before but that could be temperature related, it was cooler than earlier, my watch is showing 23°. Anyway the standby pressures were about 90psi low & high side, the Yeti being probably 10 psi higher than the Octavia. Once the compressor was loaded the Yeti rose to around 175psi before the fan cut in dropping to around 150 psi high side & maybe 40 psi low side (very difficult to read. The Octavia rose slowly, only reached around 160 psi, the fans cut in & it dropped to maybe 140/145 psi, a bit less than the Yeti but the low side was about 10 psi less. Too dark to compare the readings against the charts but it gives a good comparison between 2 partially charged systems, remember that the Octavia cooled to 10°c and the Yeti to around 5°c. After the last recharge the Yeti rose to 200psi quickly before the fans brought it down to 150 psi. I found on the Climatronic system the only way to have the engine running and no activation whatsoever of the N285 valve was to select ECON mode.

Set off slowly and build up, no matter how many times people explain it and no matter how much you believe & understand it if you start to run in competitions you will probably set off too quick just like me and learn a very humiliating lesson never to be forgotten. We open our 400m track to invited clubs twice a year for Soirée pistes, I recall the womens 2k race (5 laps) one athlete was way ahead of the others on her first lap, maybe 1/3 of the course ahead, then gradually every one of them overhauled her and she may even have been lapped by the leaders. Save your sprint for the end and marshall your energy to save enough for the sprint at the end. A good time though, I was down to 24 minutes but it feels at present like I will never again see your time, appreciate the early gains, they are really rewarding and get progressively harder and harder to make.

I'm sure thats the case on Climatronic, the Yeti is a manual system, the Octavia a Climatronic, they both dropped the temp an additional 2° on switching to recirc and both made the same noises from the flaps, it sounds like there is more airflow as if the pollen filter is being bypassed. Note that pressing the recirc button when on auto switches it to manual but I did the testing on MIN which seems to switch off the Climatronic controls. I expected greater than a 2° drop when the outside air was 30°C but maybe they both were already partially recirculating, I probably should have tested for a lot longer because initially the inside air temp would have been hotter than the outside, when driving I can feel the difference but it is not dramatic.

Yes if there is a crash sensor in the door.

I will also check with my guage set to see how high the high side goes before the cooling fans drop the pressure. I dont know if either of my vehicles has too much or too little charge but maybe the measurements will give an indication.

I would say from the temperatures and pressures they are coming on and the system is cooling and pumping, I would suspect the flaps but there are no fault codes or compressor shut off codes. A mystery that I would like to hear the cause of when it becomes known. I recieved a thermometer today from Ali-Express that will go into the vent ducts, I did back to back tests on the Yeti and Octavia with it, its only a small analogue dial so not that accurate. The ambient temperature was 30°c and idling at a standstill the Yeti took the duct temperature down to 5°c, the Octavia to 10°c yet last week the Octavia felt like it was cooling much more than the Yeti, I had however just regassed it and was forced to use a nitrile O ring on one of the pump connections so some of the charge may have been lost. Later on I will compare the engine not running static pressures of both using VCDS. Both cars would drop the temp additionally between 1 & 2° when the recirculating function was used, not as much as expected with such a high ambient temperature.

And I was told that Santa Claus climbed down the chimney that we didn't have, I believed it at the time. What sort of alert would it display? - Danger, you will rip your gearbox to pieces, recode immediately?

Sorry for the thread hijack and to keep posting links, this one makes the most sense to me and is written in a very readable and understandable format: https://www.contractingbusiness.com/refrigeration/article/20865898/refrigerant-evacuation-dont-be-a-clockwatcher Clearly longer is better and I need to get a proper micron guage, when my guage shows a vacuum there is more to be pulled assuming that my pump is up to the task and that takes time, a micron guage would show me when to stop and also indicate any moisture remaining in the system. I am beginning to realise why it is the enemy of cooling and that the compressor and pump oils become contaminated with it.

This one I need to read through several times to understand better but the gist that I get from it is that you can pull a vacuum yet still have moisture present which will cause the vacuum to diminish slightly, several subsequent evacuations may be needed. I think I need a proper vacuum guage, my pump does not have one and the one on the manifold set only has a tiny portion of its range for vacuum. https://www.trutechtools.com/Vacuum-Training_c_1100.html

The first hit seems to be on the fence and cover all bases: A vacuum of about 500 microns or 29.92 hg gauge pressure is needed for removing any moisture that may have entered the system along with the non-condensable gases while it was open. The automotive A/C system must hold the vacuum of 29.92 in Hg for at least 1 minute. With a vacuum pump connected to both, low and high air conditioning system sides pull a deep vacuum for at least 5-45 minutes. Some interesting knowledge though. https://autoacrepair1.com/how-long-to-evacuate-the-auto-a-c-system/

MicMac. I dont think that's a good idea if by relax, you mean let it fill with air again, the air is very humid at present. Maybe you meant hold the vacuum & then switch the pump back on several times. My knowledge of the gas laws & from dive training et etc is that as soon as pressure is reduced the boiling pint of all liquids reduces immediately & they gas off if they reach their threshold, when you open a bottle of carbonated sugary coloured water the bubbles are produced straight away, they dont continue for 45 minutes, or maybe they do, I havn't touched the muck for decades. Some googling needed methinks.

I bet they get a lot of less honourable people making all sorts of excuses about the cat walking on their computer etc. Every single person that cancels a booking with me within the last 7 days when its chargeable phone me up with a long winded sob story involving sick children, alien abduction etc. Do you have any links to on line car auctions, I would quite like to be a voyeur, presumably if you dont register to bid you can still watch and be safe from keyboard errors?

WD40 or any clone copy.