Hi,

I have a 2006 Octavia mk2 L&K (Sold in India as Laura) and the climatronic aircon does not seem to cool enough.

I think this started after the climatronic module was removed and reconnected. Why? The dials in the climatronic would jump wildly at each notch. Sometime going from LO to HIGH and everywhere in between even with the mildest twist.

This was eventually narrowed down to some dust in the rotary encoders that I cleaned up with isopropyl alcohol.

However, in the process I ended up turning the ignition ON with the climatronic disconnected and since then I never get to ac to cool enough.

The ac would blow warm/tepid air on start-up and then after some minutes of driving cool air would start blowing, but not ice-cold.

I've recharged gas (assuming that it was low) and still no change.

I've since purchased VCDS and compared numbers with another FL Octavia2/Laura. The numbers look similar in all respects except the evaporator temperature reading that stops at 16 degrees C and goes no lower even at the lowest setting (LO)

The other car's evaporator temp goes down to about 5 degrees C.

Got it checked at the dealer and nothing shows up on VAS and hence their conclusion that the compressor is going out.

However, even on the hottest day the AC evap temp goes from (say) 32C down to 16C pretty consistently and stays there and I tend to think the compressor is ok.

There was another thread that talked about the control valve in the compressor sticking. Maybe it is. I bought the control valve and will check if it sorts out the cooling issue.

Would the climatronic unit be bad? (I've played with electronics enough to take ESD precautions, but...).

Someone at VWVortex hinted blockage in the expansion valve. How would one figure that out without dismantling the dash/evaporator unit?

Anybody facing similar issues?

-Naren

Update after replacing the control valve (N280)

One theory I had about why the temperature stopped at 16C was the presence of some kind of restriction in either the control valve or the expansion valve.

Today I spent a considerable amount of time with a aircon mechanic at an independent workshop and got the control valve out.

The compressor needs to come out before you can get to the C-clip that holds the valve in place.

Once that is out, the valve slides out.

The old valve had some debris. I can only attribute this to the first gas recharge event about a 1.5 years ago when I notices gurgling noises and go the gas recharged. Since then I have had cooling problems that got aggravated in recent months.

Here are a couple of photos of the old valve. Those are metal shavings that you see in the pics. The aircon mechanic was not too concerned about those and I don't know if I should be worried about it. I probably has been in the system for a while now.

The compressor load and pressure readings are almost the same as a brand new aircon (1 month old).

After replacing the valve the evaporator temperature goes all the way down to 5C!

Need to keep a watch on how it performs.

-Naren

how i can replaced it