My Air Con stopped blowing cold, so I thought re-gas, phoned the Skoda dealer,

£79 please.

Halfords £49

Local company £59 and if it leaks no charge.

 

What would you do?

personally I would go to a air condition specialist, keeping clear of these national service centres.

Whoever does it must be covered by some warranty...after all they should check it for leaks first.

If the car's still under OEM warranty, dealer.

 

Otherwise the local specialist, who's more likely to use discretion and carry on if the system's well down on mass of refrigerant but hasn't been regased for several years.

Local specialist would be my choice

Whoever does it must be covered by some warranty...after all they should check it for leaks first.

 

All the proper kits do a leak check before refilling, but its not completely accurate. My Audi failed the leak test, but 1 year later the AC still works perfectly, it failed because one of the seals when pulled on the vacuum let air in but when under pressure sealed perfectly.

It's worth adding that if you don't already, it's best to leave the aircon turned on. Modern systems sap minimal power and leaving it on keeps the seals lubricated reducing the need foe a re-gas.

My Air Con stopped blowing cold, so I thought re-gas, phoned the Skoda dealer,

£79 please. :no:

Halfords £49  :coffee:

Local company £59 and if it leaks no charge.

 

What would you do?

Keep searching for a better deal.

My local independent does it for just over £30.

It's worth adding that if you don't already, it's best to leave the aircon turned on. Modern systems sap minimal power and leaving it on keeps the seals lubricated reducing the need foe a re-gas.

Yes, leave it on all the time. I had my last car (Audi A4) for 8 years and never had an aircon service. It worked perfectly all the time. I intend to do the same with the Yeti

The dealer recommended it at its three year service last month but I declined. It's still quite capable of making it much colder than I like it! I leave it running all the time, as I did with my previous Octavia. I had that done locally (Bosch service centre) after four years as they were half the price of the dealer (after the dealer said it should be done) but didn't notice any difference. It was still working fine when I part-ex'd it for the Yeti over five years later.

 

My concern if it stopped blowing cold, rather than just being less effective, would be that there was a leak/hole in the system (as opposed to a poor seal).

what Skoda say but do not put in the Service Schedule.

http://skoda.co.uk/owners/caring-for-your-car/air-conditioning/default

As far as I am aware the coolant also carries a lubricant. If you run the air-con on a regular basis [i keep mine on all of the time as suggested earlier] the lubricant gets to the seals and keeps them in good order. As such leakage will be reduced, but it will still happen. I have heard 10% loss per year is typical.

Year on year you may not notice a difference, but the efficiency is decreasing. When air-con service is done they should empty the system and measure what volume of coolant comes out. They then refill with the correct volune and lubricant. In the past I have had mine "done" every 2 or 3 years, usually at an independant  garage.

 

Colin

Like putting on new tyres; you don't realised what your missing and what an improvement it makes.

I'd like to have an app/mod that switches on the AC when descending a hill, actuated by the brake lights, cos I keep forgetting to turn it on enough.

have you checked the obvious and looked at the condenser (looks like radiator in front of main radiator) for stone damage?

 

most failures seem to be this sort of damage, pump etc are fairly solid so loss of refrigerant is normally hole in the condensor

I turn the Air-Con on for about 5 minutes once a month in my Fabia and that is 10 years old never been touched and works perfectly.

If it needs regassing you have a leak.

As above - chances are your condenser is holed.

 

Just paying for a re-gas is basically going to be gassing your money away.

Surely the process of re gassing Involves a pressure test to start with?

Normally!

re post #17

If the system needs Re-Gassing you may not have a Leak.

The A/C might not have been used regularly or as some do, all the time, the seals and not getting lubricated and there is a gas loss.

 

Re-Gassed System that have lost a percentage of the capacity might then not lose very much or any into the future when the A/C is getting run.

 

So basically you can not just say, Re-Gassing Required, there is a holed condenser or pipe work or seals.

http://skoda.co.uk/owners/caring-for-your-car/air-conditioning/default

 

PS

Next time you check the Tyre pressures on your car or push bike and they need re-inflated and a bit of air added,

look for a puncture if you want, get it repaired if needed,

but you might find that over time where rubber and metal are jointed pressure can be lost over time.

Edited 15 June, 201511 yr by goneoffSKi

Yes pressure is lost over time - usually over about 20 years - and AFAIK no Yeti's are 20 years old yet?

 

If it's lost gas, you have a leak. Pure & simple.

'AFIK', is correct on the age of Yeti, but they do not have a unique A/C system from other Volkswagen Group Vehicles.

 

What type of Garage Workshop is it you work in, or were you told this by someone that does Re-gas A/C's ?

or as the case according to you, only needs to re-gas holed systems.

 

If you do not need it doing, then do not have it done,

and if you think others having the new lubricant and gas put in are being conned, then that must be how it is. AFAYK.

My local dealer has both mailed and phoned re getting the system re-gassed  at 2 years. Our Golf had the same from that dealer too. The sales pitch is basically that the lube component needs replaced and not doing it could cause the compressor to fail.

 

I've said my (previous) Land Rover was over 4 years old and going strong A/C never touched so VAG should be able to match that - he gave up.

 

My neighbour (Octavia and Fabia) was mailed also.

 

Grumpy

There are two elements of a proper air con service, in addition to the pressure test and re gas there is also a need to sanitise the system as all sorts of bugs can make a home in the ducting. This can be done with a £10 can of sanitizer from a motor factor. As others have said, the system shouldn't leak if used regularly and could indicate an issue, hence the need for a pressure test. Clearly a service is a 'nice little earner' for a dealer, with a good profit margin, hence their enthusiasm to offer it. Bottom line, if it's blowing nice and cold, leave alone, if it's cold but smells a bit stale get a can of sanitizer.

I've had a "reminder" from my dealer and despite all the above I'm still tempted to take it in. When I bought the car I took out the extended warranty as I'm planning to keep it at least 5 years and my reasoning is simply that if I stick to the Skoda recommendations for such things if anything does go wrong there's not a lot of wriggle room to make the repair my problem rather than theirs. It's the same logic that says pay a few pounds extra for a Skoda dealer to do the service - if something then goes wrong the dealer's mechanics are the only ones to have touched it. Each to their own but we're not talking huge sums of money here when you compare it with depreciation and even annual fuel cost or a decent set of replacement tyres. (I did try the £10 sanitizer in my last car - took quite some time for the strange, slightly unpleasant smell to wear off so never used it again).