Hi,

 

Had my car serviced last week and my climate control isn't working and has been blowing warm air.

 

The radiator at the front of the car had a hole in it, so obviously a stone has gone through it  as of course it would as it's a poor design and you just don't think about those things when buying a new car do you (although mine is in it's 8th year now).

 

Now I am getting a new one fitted in a couple of weeks, but I have two questions:

 

1) As it's damage to the car, rather than the Climate Control failing, how would I get on if I made a claim on my insurance?

 

and

 

2) How the hell do you protect that front radiator from it happening again? Can you?

 

Cheers

Wayne

i wouldn't expect the insurance to pay out.. and I would say its cheaper to get a new rad fitted and it re-gassed than having a claim on the insurance and the excess... 

Mine has stone damage but it's not leaking. I'm thinking of removing the lower grill and fastening some fine plastic/metal mess on the inside of the grill to protect the radiator 

Mine has stone damage but it's not leaking. I'm thinking of removing the lower grill and fastening some fine plastic/metal mess on the inside of the grill to protect the radiator 

If you have areas of flattened fins, it's important to do something now before you get another hit in the same area. The fins act like a mini crumple zone. A hit to an already flattened area will hole the condensor.

You could buy the (condenser) protector mentioned in Post #4 in the thread below which should help prevent stone damage to the bottom 6 inches or so. The cost including clips is less than £11. I bought one recently only to find that the condenser on my FL Octavia already has a factory fitted one, ie it doesn't have separate clips and has clearly been there from new.

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/308374-two-aircon-condensers-in-six-months/

You could buy the (condenser) protector mentioned in Post #4 in the thread below which should help prevent stone damage to the bottom 4 inches or so.  I bought one recently only to find that the condenser on my FL Octavia already has a factory fitted one, 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/308374-two-aircon-condensers-in-six-months/

 

Denis, any chance of a photo of the said protector

 

 

Thanks

I will try and post one tomorrow.

Not sure about the bad design comment, nearly every car on the road had the air con condenser in the same place

Regards all

Juan

Sent from my iPhone using my thumbs

Edited 21 April, 201412 yr by Its me

I will try and post one tomorrow.

 

Thanks Denis.  

You could buy the (condenser) protector mentioned in Post #4 in the thread below which should help prevent stone damage to the bottom 4 inches or so. The cost including clips is less than £11. I bought one recently only to find that the condenser on my FL Octavia already has a factory fitted one, ie it doesn't have separate clips and has clearly been there from new.

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/308374-two-aircon-condensers-in-six-months/

I meant to do a follow up on that thread but hadn't got round to it yet.

I bought the aforementioned grille and clips and fitted it, or rather asked the aircon engineer to fit it at the same time as changing the condenser. It does provide some useful protection but I was still concerned that stones could get through and damage the upper part of the condenser not covered by the protector.

I bought some black plastic gutter grid from Homebase for about £10, cut a piece to fit the back of the lower grille then attached it to the back of the grille with black cable ties. It's virtually invisible from outside the car but should stop anything larger than grit getting through the lower grille and hitting the condenser.

A belt and braces approach perhaps but I don't want to fork out for yet another condenser.

Juan, so a poor design is an industry standard? It just seems very prone to being hit.

Regarding cost wise, how much should it cost for a brand new radiator, re gas and Labour?

The poor design is due to the vents being quite large in that part of the bumper.

 

However AC first is the best idea as its the most sacrificial of the three. The radiator at the back is most critical as that can lead to engine damage. Next is the intercooler, which will just put the car in limp mode at worst. In front is the AC condenser which if damaged won't affect the operation of the car.

Can totally appreciate all that Huskoda. Just bloody annoying.

Any idea on cost wise?

Mine cost £250 in total for parts, labour and re-gas, using a mobile aircon guy. ISTR the cost from a main dealer is about double that.

I paid about £250 at a VAG indy, too.

 

 

However AC first is the best idea as its the most sacrificial of the three. The radiator at the back is most critical as that can lead to engine damage. Next is the intercooler, which will just put the car in limp mode at worst. In front is the AC condenser which if damaged won't affect the operation of the car.

 

BMW apparently put the intercooler in front rather than the aircon condenser. Seems a sensible idea to me as intercoolers can almost leak like a sieve before they start to noticeably affect engine performance or cause limp home mode. One tiny pin hole in the condenser however will kill the aircon stone dead in a matter of hours.

There is another possible - and very difficult to trace - condenser failure mode, which was only found by a local air-con specialist, and with quite a bit of luck as there were no obvious leaks when filled with tracer dye.

 

The white nylon plug at the nearside-top (UK) corner of the condenser covers a small factory-fit pressure plug, which was found to be leaking very slowly. The guy had come across something like that before, and suspected that this might be happening - which was confirmed when we unsuccessfully tried to loosen the nylon plug to get to the metal plug below. We could not get the nylon plug out, but the "wiggling" in the process let it leak just a little more and then you could see/hear the pressure leaking out.

 

Also, in a previous problem, one of the metal air-con pipes to/from the compressor (not sure which) had been chaffing on something and worn right through!

 

The car has generally been very good, but the air-con has cost me a bomb (and also that also includes a compressor and multiple unsuccessful re-charges to try to cure the condenser leak above)

There is another possible - and very difficult to trace - condenser failure mode, which was only found by a local air-con specialist, and with quite a bit of luck as there were no obvious leaks when filled with tracer dye.

The white nylon plug at the nearside-top (UK) corner of the condenser covers a small factory-fit pressure plug, which was found to be leaking very slowly. The guy had come across something like that before, and suspected that this might be happening - which was confirmed when we unsuccessfully tried to loosen the nylon plug to get to the metal plug below. We could not get the nylon plug out, but the "wiggling" in the process let it leak just a little more and then you could see/hear the pressure leaking out.

The guy who worked on mine said exactly the same thing. Although my problem was caused by stone damage he said tiny leaks from the point you mention are quite common on these condensers and are often hard to spot.

The guy who worked on mine said exactly the same thing. Although my problem was caused by stone damage he said tiny leaks from the point you mention are quite common on these condensers and are often hard to spot.

 

I had my condenser replaced by a new VAG one - but does anyone know if aircon specialists can replace the defective plugs as I still have the old condenser in the attic, and it might be worth getting it repaired and pressure tested (to then keep or sell on)?

 

NB: The plug is easily accessible from the top of the engine compartment, so if it can be replaced then that should be possible in-situ in the car and then this sort of thing should be a quick and cheap fix!

 

Edited 26 April, 201412 yr by jeallen01

I had the same plug leaking on mine , couldn't' get it out so had to replace condenser. Nobody seemed to know that such condenser were fitted to octavias.

Common problem then

 

Anyone know if any of the air-con specialists can replace the leaking plugs and then pressure test the unit as I think the rest of it is undamaged, and, as I still have the old condenser, I would like to it repaired so as to keep or to sell?

 

John

Edited 2 May, 201412 yr by jeallen01

Couple of questions:

 

1. Has anyone actually sourced a kit or otherwise to fix this white hex plug issue??

2. Is there a pic of the deflector thing for the bottom grille: I've got mesh in front of my condenser but would like to see if the parts above give you a more substantial protector?

3. Can the protector be fitted to any pre-fl model if the new ones already have something in place?

 

Cheers

I thought the white plastic plug is the top of the dryer which is not replaceable; comes already fitted with a replacement condenser.

 

On 7/15/2017 at 16:23, blackspaven said:

Couple of questions:

 

1. Has anyone actually sourced a kit or otherwise to fix this white hex plug issue??

2. Is there a pic of the deflector thing for the bottom grille: I've got mesh in front of my condenser but would like to see if the parts above give you a more substantial protector?

3. Can the protector be fitted to any pre-fl model if the new ones already have something in place?

 

Cheers

The White plug is usually impossible to remove. This is very common fault as explained to me by a specialist. His answer to me was that they tend to oxidize inside there, and then leak very slowly. 

Solution to this is to buy a new condenser without the plug. They are available, just need to find.

Modine and Showa are the two that are available from Skoda, at a guess they both have the plugs, and the indy who's gonna be doing mine is fitting a Showa, but any ideas on what makes wouldn't have the plug?