Aircon High Pressure sender 2006 1.9tdi 4x4

As way of a thankyou re searching on this forum and the hint i got to resolving my own aircon fault, i thought i'd let you know how i have got mine back working again.

Having bought my 2006 1.9tdi 4x4 last March, i was sure the aircon worked when i got it, but sometime since i realised it had given up the ghost, particularly during onset of winter, where car kept misting up, with defunct aircon not helping.

I presumed that it just needed re gassing...

Ist tip. Before taking it in for regas, you can easy enough check whether or not it is gassed up by wearing a gloved/covered hand and eyewear and just giving the schrader (bicycle inner tube style) regassing valve, near the front drivers side of the car, under the bonnet, a quick push in, with a screwdriver. Take care here, as if gassed up, it will eject a bit of the refridgerant at a fair gust, so don't get it in your face/on your hands.If nothing much happens, then you are out of gas.

I was advised this after the event, but got it regassed up locally; they stated that whilst it had been gassed fine, there was a problem, where the pump compressor appeared to be turning, but not circulating the stuff around. I was skeptical regarding the quality of their work done, anticipating a rouse just to get more work out of me, so set about diagnosing the problem elsewhere.

2nd tip There is a lot of talk about whether or not the pump should be seen spinning when aircon is switched on. On some cars, such as my other motor a 3 series BMW, when one switches it from off, where a magnetic clutch is not engaged, so the centre remains stationary; to switching it on, where the centre now spins, once magnetically engaged, is an obvious clue.

Even the aircon garage that regassed it for me was not aware of this, but on this year of car, externally, the pump will always appear to be spinning, whether on or off, as i believe there is some kind of internal switching/clutch. I am led to believe that later model cars have gone back to the visible magnetic clutch idea, but cannot add to this.

A good friend of mine has diagnostic equipment, and read the fault codes as 05697 please check air conditioning; 0819 high pressure sender short circuit/intermittent and 32769 fault - no info.

I know these have a reputation for the valeo compressors being poor, but mine is a 78000 one previous careful owner car, surely they can't be that poor? Wanting to try the cheapest options first, i opted for the most obvious culprit, the high pressure sender sensor.

The other post i searched for on this forum mentioned a N290 control solenoid, which gave me the hint to this fault, so thanks for that; they are one and the same thing. It is located on the front drivers side aircon high pressure (the narrower one) pipe, near the compressor pulley, with a three pin wire connector on it.

The sensor has a list price of £68 according to my invoice from the european car parts supplier i used, (I don't think i'm allowed to quote the proper name), but the trade price is much lower. Aim for a price of £20-£30, easily available from another german 3rd party national parts supplier too. Its Skoda part number is 1J0959126, but this supplier had its own part number reference of 236440030.

Fitment is tricky in terms of no room for a spanner, but is 17mm regular spanner size....i did it my filing out an old 'crow foot' open spanner attachment, at the end of three 3/8 drive extension bars, on a ratchet, done from above, which did it easily.

There is no need to have the car degassed or regassed by doing this either, provided you take it off swiftly, i.e. don't leave the sensor half way undone; this is because as you see when removed, it exposes another shrader valve, which obviously will self close, when the sensor is taken off.

Tip 3 - On mine, another fault clue was that neither of the visible twin radiator fans were coming on, when aircon switched on. Now i can't vouch whether or not these are also temperature related fans, as this time of year they won't kick in at all.

Anyway, with the right tool, the part can be fitted in about 1 minute. The result? Aircon is back, and both fans now kick in, when the aircon is switched on! And it also validated what the aircon garage had told me, so they'll get my regass business again.

I have taken pictures of the sender location, it taken off and the tool i used, but don't know how to upload it here; if anyone can enlighten me, i'd be happy to do so.