Hi all,

I hope somebody out there might be able to help me please

My 8 year old Fabia's air con is intermittently working.

Tried it for the last couple of days and not working at all. AC light is on as normal but no cold air.

After reading several posts on the forums I thought I'd try a gas recharge so I went past Halfords and got the gas recharge kit with pressure gauge Air Conditioning Measure & Charge

Thought I'd measure the pressure first as instructed. Put the AC on full and put the gauge on. It measure about 100 psi in the red. The AC pipe is also not cold. I concluded that in this condition the it seemed the the AC system was not circulating (I guess). Ambient temp about 28 degress at this time and engine very hot.

Decided I'd leave the car for a few hours. Tried the AC again and it seemed to be working. Tested with the gauge and its now in the yellow area about 50 psi - still too high to need a recharge according to the instructions. Ambient temp at this time about 19 degrees and the AC pipe is pretty cold. I guess something is circulating!

The AC definately has working and not working condtions. When it is working, it is lovely.

Any advice as to what I can check and it what order and a guess as to what the problem might be?

Many thanks!

You will need to get the car scanned for fault codes. It could be one of several sensors, or if unlucky the compressor.

You might want to see if you can see any pattern in when it works and when it doesn't. If it works when you first turn the car on from cold (i.e. everything's at ambient temperature), then it could well be the evaporator temperature sensor, which I did a technical guide for, here. It's a tricky job, but cheap to DIY.

I've never had a definitive answer as to whether codes are stored for that particular sensor, and I did it before I got VAG-COM, I'm afraid...

Cheers guys. I'm going to put it in for a service anyway and get them to have a butcher's.

Will let you know...