In all but the hottest weather the dual zone climate control in my 2008 1.9tdi works perfectly, heating or cooling the car as required. As long as the temperature inside and out is coolish when I set off, the climate control keeps the inside temperature steady (usually about 20c), even when the outside temperature rises to 25c or more, as it did today. As it gets hotter outside, the air from the vents gets quite icy at times - but it does it's job.

The problem is when I start to drive the car after it's been standing out in the sun and it's hot inside and out, then the air never gets cooler than the outside temperature. I've tried reducing the demand by opening windows and by increasing the required temperature to only a degree or so lower than that outside, but other than producing an occasional trickle of cold air, these things don't seem to work. The aircon was fully serviced at a Skoda service garage at 37,000 miles (Feb 2011) and the pollen filter was replaced....that's now 11,000 miles ago.

Any idea what could be the problem?

Not sure, but I may have something similar going on. My observations this sunny week have been that whether I use Auto or Eco mode, and at least in the hot weather, with a cooler temperature set for the interior than outside (and a warm/hot interior), the Climate initially seems to be working OK, with the fan running at or near full speed, but then, long before the cabin has got down to a comfortable temperature, the fan speed slumps, and the car lets you slowly cook. On one occasion I left it to it's own devices, and it came back on-line after about 10 minutes. In another case, it only seemed to resume determined operation when I selected LO.

Any thoughts? I wondered whether to to the flap auto-reset, but I don't want to trash any fault code data that may or may not exist.

Thanks,

Andy

Update: I performed the flap auto-reset soon after the above post, but I'm not sure we had the right hot and sunny conditions to test it since, thanks to our less than perfect summer. All I can say is that the climate control hasn't given any cause for concern since.

I've experienced something like this during the summer. The AC didn't seem to bother cooling on auto until the engine was up to temp. Or I set it to LO.

Flap reset procedure can sometimes do the trick, but probably isn't the cause with these symptoms.

I'd say the issue might be with the internal cabin temp sensor, especially if it doesn't do anything unless on 'LO'.

Have you had the car scanned for faults with VCDS or at a dealer? That might point you in the right direction.

Yes, I thought about the internal cabin temp sensor. I did ponder where the temperature sensor is fitted, and wondered whether a flap position could cause the sensor to get chilled while the driver wasn't so cool, but it doesn't really fit the way it shut down for indifinite periods. So, as it is generally OK, is it just extreme heat that might cause it to start misreading?

I'm lothe to visit my dealer now that the car is out of warranty, as they want to charge me forty to fifty pounds every time the word "diagnostic" is mentioned. In anticipation of replacing the battery, I rang them to find out whether I needed the Radio Code. "That'll be £42 to plug in and read the code, sir". However, it turns out that my car radio is resilient to flat batteries, which the service centre guy simply neglected to mention...

If anyone local to Worcester is offering to scan the car for faults, I'm happy to let them have a go.