Air Conditioning Not Working on 18 month old car

[Balham]

Looks like I'm not alone! My air con (climate control on VRS) also packed up yesterday. Phoned Progress Skoda in Letchworth and was told that I need an air con service for £69, but seeing as it's only 2.5 years old on a 56 I'm going to push for some warranty work as there is no cold air coming out at all....

Cheers

Update: Just spoke to Progress to ask them to check under warranty first and then they said that Skoda recommend a re-gas every 2 years. Anyone else heard of this??

[knealeedis]

Update: Just spoke to Progress to ask them to check under warranty first and then they said that Skoda recommend a re-gas every 2 years. Anyone else heard of this??

Iv just had mine sorted and done under warrenty even though I was told by the dealer that the gas (or it seems the AC system) is not covered by the warrenty. I was told that the AC service was virtually an annual thing, which if it was should be included in the annual service in my opinion.

I was not given any explination as to where the gas had gone in my system and it was reported that no leaks were present (where does this gas just dissapear to in 18 months)

I also had some other work done on my AC system as appently the radiator fans did not come on with the AC and the should. This was diagnosed as being an incorrect code in the engine ECU so I am assuming the system had noever worked correctly from new, although the dealer would not admit this to me (but codes in software dont change on their own!)

System is all working now, and gets nicely cold so fingers crossed that is the end of my problems.

[EGC]

An aircon system which is free of leaks should lose no more than about 5% of its charge each year. Many in the trade (with vested interest!) argue for annual air-con regassing, however my own view is that if the system is leak free and has 80% or more of its charge then it should be left alone. Recharging when not really necessary only runs the risk of contamination and use of the wrong oil etc (there are many types of a/c oil and a lot of a/c servicing workshops just stock one 'universal' oil ).

If a two year old car is low on gas then there are just three possibilities:

1. Undercharged at the factory.

2. Leak

3. Someone stole it.

Excluding 3, the other two should be covered by warranty IMHO - assuming not accident damaged of course.

Mind you, Skodas general attitude to warranty work is so woeful that I'm not surprised they don't want to cover it.

[GreenMachine1.6]

Just had my high pressure switch replaced under warranty on a 2 year old car.

Coincidently I was having my other car looked at by a mobile A/C engineer and mentioned the problem to him, he said it was a very common problem on Octys, Golfs and Passats:thumbdwn:

[sms]

my High pressure valve went on it a few weeks ago on what is nearly a 2 year old car. Called skoda assist so i could have some back up and make sure nothing else was wrong and they confirmed it would be warrenty and even wrote out a diagnois sheet to show they have been out and what they have found the fault to be.

Speaking to an air con guy he reckons that many cars dont need topping up for 5 years and my last car a vauxhall astra never in the 7 years i owned it or the two years with the previous owner did it get regassed or topped up. Basically if its blowing cold air through and youre happy with it then dont bother getting it regassed.

[tandk1234]

My Octy had it's third birthday while I was away on hols last year. On the last day of the hol the air con died. Fearing the worst, I rang the local dealer on the following Monday and explained that the can was just a couple of days out of warrenty. To their credit the dealer negotiated with Skoda and they replaced the broken compressor free of charge. I was told the cost was about £800 for the job. The dealer was Royce Roberts in Hull. Thanks Guys

[sms]

nice to hear some skoda dealers are not crooks then.

[calderscot]

My Superb is 5 yrs old now. I run in in "Eco" mode so the air con is off.

On hot summer days, which is not very often, I switch it on.

Never had a problem so far, when I was in Florida last year I bought a gas cannister for a/c

top ups as it's cheaper over there (Wallmart).

You can top it up yourself, if you know what your doing. Never done mine yet.

The gas canister has a gauge for checking the system pressure if you suspect it's low.

If the system pressure is low the compressor's electric clutch won't engage.

If the a/c is on all the time this will effect mpg.

I don't think the displayed mpg dash gauge takes this into account

[Balham]

My Octy had it's third birthday while I was away on hols last year. On the last day of the hol the air con died. Fearing the worst, I rang the local dealer on the following Monday and explained that the can was just a couple of days out of warrenty. To their credit the dealer negotiated with Skoda and they replaced the broken compressor free of charge. I was told the cost was about £800 for the job. The dealer was Royce Roberts in Hull. Thanks Guys

Dealer told me that I have broken compressor as well. Glad it's still under warranty if the job would cost £800!

[Yeti_Man]

DOH! Not sure how I missed this thread; I just posted a new one (sorry mods - please feel free to delete it)

I posted "Hi guys,

Tried the A/C last week and all it does is blow warm air out irrespective of what temperature I ask it to produce.

Now I have to confess I havent run it as often as I should (probably not used for three months straight in fact) and upon phoning the dealer he advised that it will probably require a re gas at £85 but they will of course check for faults in the system. I have no issue with their approach and appreciate then being up front with me, however...

Is it reasonable for the gas to have depleted in 19 months?! The car has done around 12,000 miles on the click. Ive heard that its advised its regassed every two years but I assumed that was a bit of a cashcow scheme

Previous cars A/C havent required attention at all. The Focus was still producing very cold air 4 and a bit years later when I sold it for instance!

Its going in on Monday but I was after some opinions beforehand,

Thanks,

Lee"

It reads very similarly to the OP's - I will try to argue the fact I feel it shouldnt have depleted in just over 18 months and see what they say.

[EGC]

No it is NOT REASONABLE that a 19 month old car with 12k miles on the clock should require a regas. Its pretty obvious from this forum that Skoda air-con is a weak spot. I used to work in the motor trade and it was not uncommon for us to encounter 8+ year old Japanese cars that had never been regassed but had ice-cold air-con. I would say 50% of 4+ year old VAG cars had non-working air con. It seems that on the average they just about last through warranty.

VAG should sort out their air-con systems, and in the meantime respond very favourably to customers with air-con faults - this would include free regassing during warranty (unless there is accident damage). I would suggest that a properly designed and manufactured air-con system should last at least 5 years without being touched. Many other manufacturers can manage this - why not VAG?

[56vrs]

Just got back from the skoda garage they said the compressor was broken and there were bits of broken metal in the air conditioning system so it will all have to be replaced. Condenser and all.

They said they will need the car all day.

Thank the lord its under warranty.

[Stoofa]

Just got back from the skoda garage they said the compressor was broken and there were bits of broken metal in the air conditioning system so it will all have to be replaced. Condenser and all.

They said they will need the car all day.

Thank the lord its under warranty.

Yup - for that kind of work you'd have been looking at nearly £1k for part and labour outside of warranty.