The first couple of years that I had my Octavia, in the hot weather the climate control would give me an icy blast until the set temp (usually about 19c - 20c) was reached, then the fan would slow right down, but still continue to give me cold air.

Last year the aircon wouldn't chill the air when we had a March heatwave, but after that, the weather was cool anyway, so I just made do.

This year, in March, I had the aircon serviced at an authorised Skoda service centre (VW dealership) and now that we've had our first hot day, I just cannot get the car to cool the way it used to.

Today I got into the car & the outside temp was 24c, so I set the aircon to 20c. It blew at full blast, but barely cooling the air, all the way home (25 miles) and although it occasionally chilled the air for a minute or so, it just kept going back to warm air. In this time, the fan never slowed and always ran at what I reckoned was full speed.

Does anyone have any idea what the problem would be? and is it something the service should have picked up on?

was the air-con re-gassed?

Your a/c is not working , if it was the fan would slow down as the cooler air reduced the inside temperature. Get back to the service centre.

I have the same problem first noticed last March just like you. My condenser was leaking and was replaced with the pressure switch, it worked for a while but now the pressure switch has went duff again. Set the temp to anything cooler than outside and the blower just blows and blows

The air con was serviced - including deodorisation and the service sheet mentions aircon refresh in the parts list. Cost £69

I think the fan would slow if the inside temp was reduced, but the odd short burst of chilled air doesn't cool the car enough for it to do that. I get something like 1/2 min of cold air, followed by 10 mins or more of warm.

Dead compressor?

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Dead compressor?

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I've just checked my records and the aircon was serviced on 9th April (4 weeks ago). Surely everything should have been checked.

It depends, if they just checked the pressure in the system, then no.

The car wont necessarily log a fault and you need to look a bit deeper to confirm whether its working. Apart from obviously seeing if the air comes out cold.

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I've just checked my records and the aircon was serviced on 9th April (4 weeks ago). Surely everything should have been checked.

Yes it should, Take it back, obviously something is wrong. If its compressor they arent cheap from Skoda

Edited 7 May, 201313 yr by Stuart_J

Yes it should, Take it back, obviously something is wrong. If its compressor they arent cheap from Skoda

I took it back as you suggested. The dealership had it for around 4 hours, said that they checked everything thoroughly and couldn't find anything wrong. I'll not know until we get another hot day - maybe 3 years from now. If it's still not working, I can live with it as it is. They did mention that the air recirculate motor (that opens / shuts a flap) was faulty, but it's not causing any problems and we rarely use recirculate anyway - so I'm not going to pay £377 + VAT to have that replaced.

Cost of investigation - £0 ....and we both got a free cuppa tea.

Cheers everybody for your input.

I've just replaced pressure switch and now its working again. see earlier post. I tried to find a way to tell if its really working , so went a short run with heat on full blast, stopped and put the ac on auto and waited then checked the condenser if warm, which it was, then carefully felt if the large pipe from the compressor was cold which it was , then the small pipe to the condenser was warm which it was. In other words the ac gas was being warmed by taking hot air from the cab and cooling it.

I'm happy with it now.

Edited 10 May, 201313 yr by erindad

I took it back as you suggested. The dealership had it for around 4 hours, said that they checked everything thoroughly and couldn't find anything wrong. I'll not know until we get another hot day - maybe 3 years from now. If it's still not working, I can live with it as it is. They did mention that the air recirculate motor (that opens / shuts a flap) was faulty, but it's not causing any problems and we rarely use recirculate anyway - so I'm not going to pay £377 + VAT to have that replaced.

Cost of investigation - £0 ....and we both got a free cuppa tea.

Cheers everybody for your input.

If you dial in the lowest possible setting (display changes to LO instead of temperature) then the aircon should blow out freezing cold air at full blast regardless of outside temp. This setting enables maximum cooling and it should keep blowing full blast cold air until you increase the set temperature.

A faulty recirculation motor, depending on the fault can cause all kinds of issues with the A/C as its not just used to switch between recirculation and outside air. For example, when you reverse recirculation mode is engaged to stop exhaust fumes entering the cabin.

If you dial in the lowest possible setting (display changes to LO instead of temperature) then the aircon should blow out freezing cold air at full blast regardless of outside temp. This setting enables maximum cooling and it should keep blowing full blast cold air until you increase the set temperature.

A faulty recirculation motor, depending on the fault can cause all kinds of issues with the A/C as its not just used to switch between recirculation and outside air. For example, when you reverse recirculation mode is engaged to stop exhaust fumes entering the cabin.

Yeah, it did cross my mind that it might have other effects, but the technician didn't see it as being a problem, more a case of did I fancy spending the money or not.

Thanks anyway for the heads-up. My wife can smell the slightest smell from miles away and she would tell me if there were fumes getting into the car.

I had an issue with mine like this, I had the a/c serviced but still didn't work. Basically it worked for a bit then went warm again (same symptoms as low gas). Turned out to be the A/C Compressor, around £500 for a dealer to replace, luckily I had Warranty Direct on it =)