How cold does your get, and how cold is it supposed to get? I had mine serviced recently even though as it turned out there wasn't much wrong with it. It had only lost a minimal amount of refrigerant, and no leaks were detected.

It doesn't get icy cold though when on the 'LO' setting. Having never owned a car with air conditioning before I didn't know if it was supposed to. It does get cold, or cool as I should say, and I can feel a slight difference in temperature when I press the 'ECON' button on and off so I know it works. Is this normal? Also the compressor does bring the engine speed down a couple of hundred RPM when it's switched on.......

You'll notice it more when the weather is hot outside try it again in the summer, it should feel uncomfortably cold after a while

As just been said. Not the time of year to test it. A hot sunny summer day you will know whether it's working or not.

On my own octavia ive always thought the climate control was pretty bad. ive tested air flow temp loads of times on LO setting ( with fan speed on half ) with a top notch digital thermometer and it was around 2-4 degrees which ive been told is the best you can expect as minus temps will freeze the heat exchanger up. That said every hire car or work vehicule ive had seems to blow a lot cooler. Maybe its a vag thing?

On a sunny day, you can get it to blow "uncomfortably cold" (we're talking cold enough to take all the feeling out of your hand if it's in the blast from a vent). This time of year though, the air con acts more as a humidity control than as a chiller.

Just did a search on this and found this thread. Answers my question, because I was just driving my car for the first time in the sun (having picked it up in December) and thinking "the air con doesn't get very cold"...

However - people who said it's better to test on a hot day - it's 16.5 degrees today and it didn't feel that cold compared to every other car I ever owned. Is there any common fault that makes it less effective?

When was the refrigerant mass last checked?

When was the refrigerant mass last checked?

Ken - I've no idea. The car's an 07 plate MkII vRS and I've only had it three months so wouldn't have expected it to need checking to be honest! (Yes, I know I have posted this in Mk I thread...)

07 plate, so 2 and a bit years old yes? I'd check the refrigerant, and maybe a leak check, because you don't know how much the previous owner used the air, and using it makes it work better by lubricating seals.