Hi,

Just asking for a bit of advice before Skoda take my car in to look at a few problems...

1. Whne using the heating/cooling controls once the heat has been on and the car is warm enough, I turn down the control but the temperature does not drop. It keeps at the same temperature. Only by turning the heaters on and off a few times does the temperature of the air blowing out actually drop. I think this is caused by the Flap motor but am willing to listen to other suggestions.

2. The next problem is possibly linked to the first one but the first one started back in January and this started today... I was driving to work (40 min drive) and the coolant temperature display reached the middle point, where it normally settles for the rest of the journey. I noticed a bit later that the display needle had dropped down to the first quarter mark, making it look as if my engine was cooling down when I was on faster roads. I pulled over and left my car ticking over for 5 minutes, during which time the needle moved back to the middle mark. For the rest of the journey the needle fluctuated between the 1st quarter mark and the middle mark depending on whether I was driving on slow or fast roads...any ideas?

Could these two problems be linked? I am a bit crap with cars and don't want Skoda to carry out a load of unessecary work that isn't covered by the warantee.

Thanks for your help!

Jenni

(1) That sounds plausible. Does your car have plain heating, heating + air con, or Climatronic? In the first case it pretty much must be the flap valve. In the other 2 it could be the flap valve, or it could be that the air con needs a regas. Also, with Climatronic, there's a DIY fix by just playing with the buttons for 5 minutes that could work.

(2) This sounds like a failing engine temperature sensor. Are you getting any or all of rough running, loss of power or poorer fuel economy? These would pretty much confirm it.

(1) That sounds plausible. Does your car have plain heating, heating + air con, or Climatronic? In the first case it pretty much must be the flap valve. In the other 2 it could be the flap valve, or it could be that the air con needs a regas. Also, with Climatronic, there's a DIY fix by just playing with the buttons for 5 minutes that could work.

I have heating and air con but have never used the air con...

(2) This sounds like a failing engine temperature sensor. Are you getting any or all of rough running, loss of power or poorer fuel economy? These would pretty much confirm it.

I have to say I haven't noticed any of the above, but that's probably because I only spotted the problem this morning and was too busy waorrying about that to pay attention to much else...I will see what happens on my way home. Thanks so much for your help!

Jenni

It might be worth regassing the aircon anyway. I had mine (Climatronic car, so needed to get the full benefits) done last month and got a faster engine warmup and better economy. Also, it's worth knowing that air con doesn't just chill the air; it dries it out too, so it's useful for demisting.