Had a crappo kind of day today. Took my VRS in for an air con problem (was hoping it was the condenser). Bad news it was the compressor. After I had recovered from the near heart attack I'd had, when told how much Skoda want for such a part, my trustworthy mechanic is trying to source one from a specialist company. I have been mooching around the internet this afternoon, and this appears to be a common problem. Has anyone else had issues with theirs? My car is a 56 plate, but only has 17k on the clock. Would have liked it to have lasted longer than that, but depends on what the previous owner did to it I suppose.

Not much help but has anyone else noticed that AC seems to be designed to fail on new cars. On all my older cars that had AC they never needed a re-gas or repair. The last car I had which had perfect AC was a MK1 Focus. Bought new and was sold on withing the family. It was 10 years old when it left the family and in that time it had never needed even a re-gas and was ice cold. Since then, MK2 Focus, MK2 Focus ST, MK7 Fiesta Titanium and now the Skoda have all needed work on the AC within a year of new.

I get the feeling that the parts are being built down to a specification to guarantee future work. I have always been quite meticulous with making sure the AC is "excersised" regularily, but the newer cars all seem to suffer.

Common problem, had mine pack up on my 06 vrs in August. Compressor replaced etc. luckily mine was covered by warranty (got car in July).

I know this isn't much help to you, but would definately seem to be a common fault. I know at least 3 or 4 people on hear had theirs pack in at same time as mine.

You can try for a gwg from Skoda which would soften the expense blow.

Mine went on my 07, I went to my local specialist who fitted a 2012 spec Sanden compressor, flushed out the system and backed it with 24 months warranty for about half what Skoda wanted.

I did think about Skoda, but given that the car is over 5 years old, I would think they would, show me the door so to speak!

Trouble with modern compressors is they run all the time. Despite operating at very partial load (something like 2% of full capacity) the mechanical bits and bobs in the compressor are always running with the engine, they've done away with the clutch and use a capacity control valve to vary the compressor output depending on the demand in the cabin.

This is advantageous when it comes to keeping the open drive shaft seal lubricated and gas tight but no doubt shortens the life of the whole compressor compared to the old clutch type.

Skoda use different manufacturers for the compressors so its worth doing some research on who is the most reliable.

I must have been lucky with my L&K as it was all original and still good at over 150k - luck of the draw sometimes.

This seems common on these (and other VAG cars built on the same chassis) I had to have the whole A/C system replaced last summer on my 56 plate VRS, luckily it was covered under the warranty but due to a shortage of parts I had to wait nearly 3 months to get the parts - luckily summer wasn't the hottest on record!

it looks like that i might end up with a similar ac issue.it looks like that the skoda is taking longer than usual to start to cool.i owned an octavia earlier and had replaced cooling coils thrice and compressor once now the the 2009 octavia(laura-locally).what should i do the warranty is gonna expire in two months.

it looks like that i might end up with a similar ac issue.it looks like that the skoda is taking longer than usual to start to cool.i owned an octavia earlier and had replaced cooling coils thrice and compressor once now the the 2009 octavia(laura-locally).what should i do the warranty is gonna expire in two months.

I extended my warranty twice and got more than my money's worth, I'd extend, £300 with skoda including breakdown

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/sis.html?_nkw=Skoda+Air+Con+Compressor+Skoda+AC+Compressor+Skoda+Compressor+Skoda+Aircon+Pump+Skoda+Parts

Ques: Apart from the a/c not blowing cold air, are there other symptoms of this problem?

My 2007 vrs is showing '0' compressor RPM (via dual-zone climate), but I put this down to the fact that the ambient air temp was 6deg at the time? I query whether mine has failed as recently the two fans behind the radiator appear to run more frequently and at a higher speed, even when it is cool outside and I haven't driven far or very fast.

Do I have (a) problem(s), or am I being paranoid!?

(car was last serviced by Skoda in Feb)

Ta