Hi Folks wondering if anyone can advise on this one?

My recently acquired 110 TDi Elegance Estate has developed a strange issue with the Climatronic/heating.

I always have my Climatronic set to auto (as I did with my previous Elegance) at 22c. Obviously in this cold weather the heating is on and on the move the heater warms up no problem. However the issue becomes apparent when you come to a standstill or you are in slow moving traffic. The heat from the heater starts to reduce and ends up being only tepid or cool. When you start moving again the heat comes back and the Climatronic then compensates by giving you a blast of warm air until 22c is reached again.

I've only had the issue a couple of times, however it seems to be becoming more frequent. I also have a 'fusty' smell as well when the heat is on, similar to the smell you get when you have a dirty pollen filter which needs changing. I changed the pollen filter yesterday which was dirty and smelly, but the smell is still present.

Temperature gauge is fine and waterpump was changed with the cambelt at 108k (covered 128k now) however not changed in my ownership.

Any ideas???

Thanks

Dan

Try a self test on the climatronic unit as a first step. See here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SrtUI28DfP8

Normal is 444 00

When I have only been going for a while in town traffic, but with the temp display just reached 90, the vent air temp increases quite a bit when I reach a dual carriageway and using higher revs. I put this down to the fact that oil/coolant heat exchanger is bidirectional and perhaps the coolant is warming the oil initially.

Another heat load on the engine is the fact that you are using AUTO mode. The air con is cooling the air to reduce the humidity before the heater heats the air again back to selected temperature. It would be interesting to see what happens with the unit set on ECON initially.

On wet days I use AUTO to clear window condensation remarkedly quickly then go back to ECON

Thanks pikpilot, will run the Climatronic diag and try using econ if that makes a difference. Will keep you posted!

Dan

A DIY mould cleaner spray fired into the heater box where you fit the pollen filter might help with the smell at least.

Just done diag on Climatronic comes back 444 00 so all OK. Issue hasn't seemed to have presented itself for a couple of days hopefully all OK now - just got to get rid of the fusty smell will try the anti-mould spray!!

Cheers

Dan