After having located the source of my recent aircon failure as being a leaky condenser the nice people at Skoda informed me it would be £525 to replace etc.

 

I'm in a position to get the fitting and regassing carried out for free but was wondering if there's any wisdom in using a less expensive aftermarket alternative to the pricey genuine parts?

 

I'm pretty sure there will not be much difference between an OEM pattern part and the genuine skoda part.

 

Is Skoda replacing it for free? If so you might find they won't fit an aftermarket one.

The condenser itself probably isn't made by Skoda anyway. We had one replaced last year in the family Galaxy, by a local garage specialising in aircon servicing rather than a Ford dealer. The replacement condenser was made by Hella, I think.

From £50-£75 on fleabay for a condenser with receiver/dryer for a mkII, new.

Thanks for the advice, went for third party in the end.

 

So.........

 

Came to look at fitting it and am puzzled. The perceived wisdom appears to be it's a fairly routine 2 hour job. Supposedly by simply unbolting the panel along the front end between headlights will give me access to the condenser and it can be removed. Or not.

 

To me it looks as though said panel runs down behind the headlights, front panel and bumber and seems to suggest that most of the front of the car is going to have to come off to get to the condenser.

 

Is this correct or am I bein a bit thick?

You are almost right , the front bumper/headlights has to come off, the brackets holding the bumper needs to come off but mark their position first with marker pen or something as they cant be adjusted with the bumper on and the carrier for the radiator comes forward but not right off. The radiator doesn't need draining or hoses slackened.   Its not really a big job just awkward and fiddly, I know I've done it on my drive.

 

There are excellent posts on how to do it , just try searching.