I normally run my climatronic in auto at about 20. However recently even setting it to 25 for my half hour drive to work the cabin doesn't really get hot. I reckon without heated seats I'd still be freezing by the time I got to work!

The engine gets up to temp as I'd expect so could it be a blocked heater matrix or similar?

If you had semi-auto Climatic rather than full-auto Climatronic, I'd suggest your flap motors straightaway, although I don't know if this applies to Climatronic...

In the current weather, after a cold night, my engine (same car as you) is only just up to temp after 30mins of town driving! So there isn't a lot of heat to spare. If it heats the cabin OK after a longer drive, I don't think there is much you can do. If it never heats the cabin, then look for a fault!

Would I be able to see flap motor faults with vcds lite? It'd be. Good excuse to try my new usb cable that arrived yesterday!

Temp gauge is only a rough estimator which should only be paid attension to only when it goes over 90 or stays under 90. Took the works sharan almost an hour before the heater was hot when it was cold. It was a pd 130 so a similar engine to yours. That's the problem with diesels they take an age to warm up

Would I be able to see flap motor faults with vcds lite? It'd be. Good excuse to try my new usb cable that arrived yesterday!

Well they show up on the full version for sure! I have no idea if 'lite' excludes any modules when scanning for errors.

Well they show up on the full version for sure! I have no idea if 'lite' excludes any modules when scanning for errors.

My 130 Pd takes about 10 mins to warm up, no matter how cold it gets!

And it alway runs on the 90 ish as most VW's do no matter what the weather

My 130 Pd takes about 10 mins to warm up, no matter how cold it gets!

And it alway runs on the 90 ish as most VW's do no matter what the weather

Obviously the time to warm up is entirely dependent on the type of driving/load - no PD130 will ever warm up at idle, well not before closing time anyway!

The temp gauge is 'fixed' to show 90, as mine does, unless there is a serious overheating issue, I think that is well known - should make it easier to spot a problem in time.

Edited 10 December, 201015 yr by Kandy

I also normally run my Climatronic at 20C in my TDI 110, but have had to turn it up to 22C recently. On longer journeys I still have to turn it back to 20, so I think it's just a case of taking a long time to heat all of the air inside the cabin of the Octy.

You could try hoovering the temperature sensor at the side of the control panel and see if that helps. Perhaps it has a fur coat keeping it warm

Out of interest, do you guys run the Climatronic on AUTO? I usually press the Econ button but this disables the auto feature and I think it might make it function the same as a standard Climatic unit, albeit with a digital display. (I.e if selected at 22C that is what temperature the air will come out, not be a target temperature for the cabin. Which I believe is what the AUTO function does.)

it tells you all this in the manual

basically the temp on the diplay is the target temp it will try to achieve

AUTO runs the air con to achieve this (also dries the air which is a good thing imho)

ECON does not run the aircon ( so wil struggle to reach the target temp if the ouside temp is close to or above the target temp)

basically you should use AUTO unless you have a good reason not too - remember aircon needs run regularly or the seal will dry out and gas will escape