Faulty Air Recirculation Motor/Valve

[chadlington]

Apologies for no pics / review yet, but spent today diagnosing an issue with the new MKIII I picked up this morning.

 

Noticed a loud clicking / knocking sound under the dashboard passenger side. Happened after engaging reverse gear, and on after selecting first to move forwards again. Also happened after using windscreen / headlamp washers.

 

Drove it back to the dealership, and we soon worked out what the problem was - every time the reverse gear is selected or windscreen wash applied, car closes the exterior air intake widget and reopens afterwards. We fo8und turning off aircon solved the problem, and then realised than just manually pressing the re-circ button on the dash would cause the same noise.

 

Is anyone else experiencing this issue?

 

Dealership extremely concerned about it, as I've just driven one of their most high value orders out of the showroom and found a fault immediately. Why not noticed in any checks? 1) Aircon off until car was in it's last position to do the setup and 2) Windscreen washers not used after car was detailed. They have been great about it, and I'm confident they will do their utmost to resolve.

 

It's unfortunate and has rather taken the edge off the experience however I'm glad we found the source of what might have been a random noise.

 

The after sales manager is going to ensure they know 100% what to do in order to resolve before they start any investigative work.

 

Does anyone know though if the auto-recirculation can be turned off with VCDS or similar? It might actually be an option just to disable it completely and leave well alone, as opposed to starting to dismantle the dash to get at the motor.

 

Once I have this under way I'll be posting pictures etc. I have to say in every other respect the car is amazing!!! L&K interior is just fantastic. I love the brown.

 

 

 

[BillyJim]

Not happening in mine. There is a sensor to detect noxious odours that switches to recirculating automatically and it sounds (pardon the pun) like whatever mechanical gizmo is switching it (probably just a flap) isn't fitted properly.

It's probably activating to prevent the smell of exhaust and washer fluid entering the cabin.

As for brown, I thought I'd hate it, but now I love it too!

[Nick_H]

not sure if I've actually done a screen wash with the air con turned on. I'll try later.

[BillyJim]

Chadlington, I flicked the recycle on and off a few times. There was a very faint motor hum, ending in a click. It was so faint I could only hear it when there was no other ambient noise (and I'm still blessed with good hearing).

[chadlington]

Chadlington, I flicked the recycle on and off a few times. There was a very faint motor hum, ending in a click. It was so faint I could only hear it when there was no other ambient noise (and I'm still blessed with good hearing).

 

Thanks - mine is a definite clunk, enough that whilst driving you think a stone's hit the bodywork, or the seatbelt clasp has banged against the hard plastic trim on the pillar. Certainly sounds like a fault :-(

[Nick_H]

Chadlington, I flicked the recycle on and off a few times. There was a very faint motor hum, ending in a click. It was so faint I could only hear it when there was no other ambient noise (and I'm still blessed with good hearing).

The same.

[chadlington]

The same.

Thanks Nick, appreciate your help.

[chadlington]

All,

 

I've been offline until I know what was going to happen to my L&K, which went in for open dashboard surgery yesterday! With great relief, it was discovered that the aircon recirculation flap was catching on a wiring loom - this was discovered without the need to remove the dashboard. All is now resolved and I'm due to collect the car tomorrow.

 

I've been unable to stop worrying about the implications of this and was massively relieved to get this news yesterday evening.

 

Hopefully once I have the car back and checked over, I can start to enjoy it, and get back into sharing in the forum.

 

All best, Mike

[DanJayUK]

It's also reassuring as whilst things like that can be simply bad luck if it's an actual fault on a new part you then start wondering if everyone else's is going to start failing the same way! Great outcome though and hope you're back in love with the car now. Dan

[chadlington]

Obviously I need to double check etc when I get the car back tomorrow - but it's a great relief. Surprised me how awful it made me feel actually - and hence why I've been keeping a low profile - best to blank it until I knew what the resolution was going to be. I could imagine endless grief from a removed dashboard :-)

[Guest]

Chadlington I to started to hear the issue with the recirculation flap about 2 weeks ago. I could recreate it when just pressing the re-cir button but it would also happen on a cold day when I started the engine, the flap would close (or attempt) for the first minute of the engine running, I guess to not let any more cold air in from out side until the heater had time to prime.

 

The issue turned out to be the motor was skipping some of the teeth on the cog it was interfacing with, it would unwind, miss a tooth and the wind in again but would over do it and that crack noise is the motor skipping back over the cog as the flap is fully open but the motor is preprogrammed to do a certain number of rotations.

 

This was unfortunately found after the whole dash was removed. The motor was replace and re-assembeled. Hopefully you issue was not the same as mine.

 

4 week old car and the dash has already been out. :-(

[chadlington]

Chadlington I to started to hear the issue with the recirculation flap about 2 weeks ago. I could recreate it when just pressing the re-cir button but it would also happen on a cold day when I started the engine, the flap would close (or attempt) for the first minute of the engine running, I guess to not let any more cold air in from out side until the heater had time to prime.

 

The issue turned out to be the motor was skipping some of the teeth on the cog it was interfacing with, it would unwind, miss a tooth and the wind in again but would over do it and that crack noise is the motor skipping back over the cog as the flap is fully open but the motor is preprogrammed to do a certain number of rotations.

 

This was unfortunately found after the whole dash was removed. The motor was replace and re-assembeled. Hopefully you issue was not the same as mine.

 

4 week old car and the dash has already been out. :-(

 

Sorry to hear you've had a similar issue. How was the car when you had it back? Was there any major issue as a result of the dashboard removal / replacement?

 

I've been told that the issue is resolved, that it was down to the flap catching on the wiring loom for the infotainment system. However what you describe sounds EXACTLY like what I've experienced. Mine did this from new, and was there on collecting the car the first day from the dealership. I've already made some noises about rejecting the car if it wasn't fixed properly. I would be very surprised it wasn't fixed, but fingers crossed!

[chadlington]

All fixed, working fine now - completely silent operation :-) Much relief! Thank heavens the technician decided to have a really good look rather than just pull off the dashboard. I suspect they might have had the Columbus out to re-route the cable that was snagging but all appears well. (Worth checking - can the screen unit be removed independently - I would expect so).

 

Def. worth keeping any eye out for this issue, and if you do get a problem, ensure that a good visual inspection (I now have a good excuse to buy a fibre optic inspection camera) is done before pulling everything apart.