Hello guys.

Last month I noticed that with the AC on there was a strange squeal coming from behind the dash. Not very loud and easily drowned out with the stereo, but noticeable. The AC still appeared to be working though and was blowing cold air.

My initial thoughts were possibly a bearing going on the fan in the footwell, however there was no noise from there and as soon as the AC is turned off and back to just the regular blowers, the noise goes.

Given the car is 10yrs old and there was nothing in the history to say it had ever been regassed I took it to a local VW place that pressure tested, cleaned and regassed the system.

They reported no issues and initially at least it *seemed* to have removed the noise and the AC was blowing cooler than ever.

A few weeks on however and the squeal is back and seems louder. I managed to get a loan of a fault reader and found a '00229 refrigerant pressure low' warning. A Google showed this commonly being related to a goosed AC Pressure Switch Sensor, so I have changed that. Good news is that the error code has been eradicated by doing this but unfortunately the squeal remains.

I'm a bit stumped at the moment. I know the compressors can fail frequently on these but the fact the AC is still blowing cold would suggest the compressor is working in some capacity. Both of the fans at the front of the engine bay are also spinning so I don't think it's a failed fan.

I have considered that the pressure switch sensor might have caused a leak and that it may need another regas but it's blowing nice and cold so not sure and don't want to waste another 40 quid.

Any thoughts and ideas on this would be greatly appreciated as it's driving me mad!

Cheers!

I would think you have a slow leak. The noise is usually the expansion valve due to low gas.

You need the system recovering and filling with oxygen free nitrogen and leak tested. Then repaired, vacuumed and filled.

Well, the car has been back into the VW specialist and they rang back about an hour later suggesting that the condensor is damaged and leaking. Been quoted £410 to replace it which seems a bit steep when I've Googled a new condenser for about £60.