Hi

i have a 61 plate diesel vrs.

for the last six months the air con has not felt very cold, and on occasion the cabin has become quite hot to the point where i have had to open the windows.

it went into the dealer, who completed an air con service and re gas - when it was returned to me it was nice and cold and appeared to be fixed.

(this was around one month ago)

on to the new issue:

over the last week i have noticed the cabin becoming hot again, and i have felt the need to open the window slightly again.

today, i fitted a new aftermarket double din sat nav unit a Chinese one ( in know i know ) my car already had a parrot kit fitted, which i completely removed, plugged in the loom etc into the new stereo and it was working great.... ( i have no issues with the sat nav unit )

with all of this aside the sat nav / stereo unit is great (at the mo) I'm really impressed with it, and is this one for reference: http://www.erisin.com/erisin-es1089s-7-double-din-skoda-octavia-2012-car-radio-gps_p372.html

all of the ac bits etc were displayed on the sat nav screen as it should be.

in the process of fitting the stereo some how i knocked out the wire that is plugged into the airbag off light below the air con controls, i plugged that back in and an airbag fault was on the dash.

i drove to the local skoda dealer (Sparshats of Botley) who are spot on, the tech plugged in and cleared the fault for me at no cost, however on the way there the cabin was warm again and the blower was going ten to the dozen.

i asked him if its showing any faults, low and behold it was showing a whole screen of faults, he cleared them but my air con doesn't seem to be blowing cold air, in fact it was colder outside the car then inside.

the tech confirmed that he felt it was ambient temperature / and the ac was not working.

i got home, took out the Chinese unit and put the bolero back in, checked all the cables behind the stereo, and checked the fuses by the dash and all seem fine.

Ive got the car booked in for next week to have it looked at, however I'm worried I'm going to get an Almighty bill for something i may of done ?

is there anything else i should be checking ? when i press the ac button the compressor doesn't seem to start, there is no click from or change in engine note (as there used to be)

is it just a coincidence that its packed up now ? or have i fooked it up somehow ?

sorry for the SA post.

cheers

Wayne.

Sounds to me like you have a leak somewhere on the air con & it worked for a while after the service until its run low on gas again,id hope they put some dye in when they did the air con service & hopefully they can find the leak easily.

Since the car has already been in previously for the same fault I doubt the stereo replacement has anything to do with it.

I'd be questioning the competence of the dealer, A/C gas doesn't just disappear from the system - its sealed. The only way an A/C system on a 2011 cars need to be regassed is because there is a leak.

It felt nice and cold again straight after the first re-gas because it was (temporarily) full of gas. It's now all disappeared again due to a leak, missed by the delaer the first time.

It's in warranty, you have no worries.

Climate control on modern cars is much better than it used to be so there is no click or change in engine RPM as the compressor kicks-in (it runs continuously on the Octavia anyway).

Thanks for the replies, it makes sense that there must be a leak its just bad timing I guess lol

Thanks for the reassurance.

Wayne.