over the last two days my air conditioning has started to become noticably noisy when in use. sounds like the noise is coming from the front of the engine bay. when i turn it off it comes to a very loud juddering halt. has any one else had similar problems? 5 year old 2.0 tdi 99000 miles. thanks.

First thing i would do is check the electric fan(s) that cool the condenser when the Air con is running. Make sure the fan blades aren't catching anything as they rotate.

Obviously do this with the engine off and keys out of the ignition!

If it isn't the fans then the only other working part is the compressor, a juddering noise could be an internal fault. I'm not 100% sure whether or not the Mk1 uses a clutch type compressor or whether it has a capacity control valve.

The Mk1 has a clutched compressor. It also has its own drive belt - so you could remove it to eliminate the compressor from the noise investigation.

rotodiesel.

thanks for the replies. after reading dstev2000 post this morning i went and had a look at the fan. somehow the bonnet release cable had managed to find its way onto the fan housing. moved it back in font of fan noise problem solved.

Good. make absolutely sure the cable is undamaged and that the outer is free to move. It's a crazy conversion from LHD and the outer has to push on the latch to operate it.

If the cable gets stuck and breaks, you're in for a horrible and destructive job to get the bonnet open. The LHD B5.5 is much better and uses the inner to pull the lock. It feels far more convincing...

rotodiesel.