The Climatronic system on my Elegance 2.0TDi Estate has stopped providing any cooling effect. Anything obvious I can check myself before taking it in to a dealer? Should the system be serviced annually even if on the variable servicing regime?

First service was at 18000 and the next is due at about the same interval in about another 2000 miles, at 2 years 6 months.

Ideally should be regassed every 2 years.

Might be a fault, dealer will be able to tell.

Ideally should be regassed every 2 years.

Might be a fault, dealer will be able to tell.

It has spent 6 weeks each summer in hotter weather than we usually get in the UK so it looks like it is probably well overdue for regassing. Might try a mobile aircon specialist service as my dealer is unlikely to be able to fit it in quickly, and it is off to the sun again very soon.

Ideally should be regassed every 2 years.

Might be a fault, dealer will be able to tell.

didnt know that one :( does it cost much?

Lots of places will regas the aircon, if your desparate for cool air then you can get an aerosol can from halfords and DIY it but it depends on how low the gas is.

mines still blowing quite cold, coming up to three years in october. Is it wise to get it done anyway or leave it alone until performace trails off?

mines still blowing quite cold, coming up to three years in october. Is it wise to get it done anyway or leave it alone until performace trails off?

I'd leave it alone untill problems show up. At my company we've just sold our Toyota Hilux Tracker 11 years old with arround 200.000km. It has never had AC serviced and we use it a lot in south of Portugal.

I'll let you all know how my 3 year old system performs.

I am driving it all the way to Gibraltar in just over 3 weeks, where I will be driving along the costa del sol for 2 weeks.

Get the Halfrauds regass can, you can do a few cars with it, done my previous Golf with it, and a few other workmates cars for £10 each, easy made my money back:thumbup:

Thing is with the Halfords can are you not in danger of overfilling the system?

Pressure has nothing to do with the quanity of gas. At the same temperature a 13kg bottle of R134a has the same internal pressure as a 2kg bottle, so how do you know your not overfilling, to much gas and/or oil and you can kiss your compressor good bye.

The Climatronic system on my Elegance 2.0TDi Estate has stopped providing any cooling effect. Anything obvious I can check myself before taking it in to a dealer? Should the system be serviced annually even if on the variable servicing regime?

First service was at 18000 and the next is due at about the same interval in about another 2000 miles, at 2 years 6 months.

Found out yesterday that mine was blowing just slightly cool air (OK on most days, but not after the car sat in the sun for a few hours), until I switched "Eco" off, and it went icy within seconds.

Found out yesterday that mine was blowing just slightly cool air (OK on most days, but not after the car sat in the sun for a few hours), until I switched "Eco" off, and it went icy within seconds.

I have never actually switched "Eco" on. Having it checked on Thursday. The car tended to stand unused for a couple two or three weeks at a time during the winter. Apparently it would have been a good idea to operate the climatronic on "Lo" for a while each time I did run it.

Still, it will get used more now my faithful old '94 306XLD runabaout has gone off to the scrap yard. Utterly reliable and got through three MoTs with no work to do until this year. Just not worth having it fixed given what scrappies are giving lately, plus the cost of insurance and road tax. It helped keep the mileage down on the Octavia, made a great Dad's taxi for short runs, was a boon in cut and thrust traffic on the ring road and could be parked anywhere without a care. :(

Found out yesterday that mine was blowing just slightly cool air (OK on most days, but not after the car sat in the sun for a few hours), until I switched "Eco" off, and it went icy within seconds.

"ECO" is the same as "OFF" for AC. I don't know why they wrote "ECO" on the switch when it just switches off AC (but not ventilator).

Thing is with the Halfords can are you not in danger of overfilling the system?

Pressure has nothing to do with the quanity of gas. At the same temperature a 13kg bottle of R134a has the same internal pressure as a 2kg bottle, so how do you know your not overfilling, to much gas and/or oil and you can kiss your compressor good bye.

No, I bought the one with the gauge on the top, so you know how much is in the system, and how much your topping up with, very easy to do:-

Air Conditioning Measure & Charge from Halfords Price £39.99 Although, I`ve seen the same item for about £25 on ebay.

I bought the gas system in Halfords last year to do my Octy Elegance and completely stuffed up the system. I went to a specialist in Southampton and they said that the Skoda has a variable rate compressor on it so you cannot use these cans.

I took this up with Halfords and using the internet as a source of info for these so called 'death kits' I managed to get a refund and the cost of sorting out the mess.

Take my lesson learnt and get it done at a specialist - £60 is a small price to get it 30minute deep vacuumed (ESSENTIAL you remove the water that had entered the system through the porous hoses) and re-gassed.

Hi My AC went in for service and came out broken, Fixed a week later with new relay, pressure valve and fuse oh and the full AC service again and gas recharge. OK now. Get the AC serviced its cheaper in the long run and more come back if it goes wrong after a service!

Update.

It ended up needing a new compressor under warranty. Don't know if it was the favourite clutch "dropped off" failure.

Would you believe it - it has just happened to me, first time ever. No cool air today, on any setting.

Went into Rivervale Portslade for advice - they couldn't check it on the spot - but he said almost certainly it needed regassing. Cost? £150.

Phoned Clarion Worthing, where it is getting the 3 year, end of warranty, service in 10 days time, and they are getting it in, in just 3 days, for it to go on diagnostics, just to be sure it is only a gas problem, so that I can get anything more serious done under warranty.

However, if they reckon it is only re-gassing, they will do it for about £45 as part of the service.

Does this outline the difference between a well-run specialist dealer and a main dealer used to selling Porsches and Mercs?

I'd take it to the dealer as I've just had a new compressor fitted as part of that failed and dumped all the gas. They re-gassed then it only came on when the air was warm not cold.

No idea what part it was that failed exactly, just that the car needed a new A/C compressor :(

my 2008 vRS seems to have very feeble A?C compared to my old Mundano. And it's definitely not on ECON mode.

Update.

It ended up needing a new compressor under warranty. Don't know if it was the favourite clutch "dropped off" failure.

Won't be , yours doesn't have a clutch.

Hope they also replaced the drier and flushed the system.

Well, if it's a DSG it has even more clutches, odd enough.

my 2008 vRS seems to have very feeble A?C compared to my old Mundano. And it's definitely not on ECON mode.

Does that include when on the "Lo" setting?