Aircon service cost

[octavianestate]

£75 for my Aircon service from the dealer.

No thanks.

[Neily03]

Troll.

[Mikebham]

Mines having a brake fluid change and aircon service for £89 at Trust Skoda Redditch.

[octavianestate]

That's a decent price for the two

[Railroad]

Is that for a re-gas, or just to clean and disinfect the heater ducts? I find an aerosol can of Dettol disinfectant available from any supermarket for about £3 is every bit as good as a 'bomb' a dealer will sell you. Switch on the A/C and set the heater to cold, and on 'recirc'. Wedge a matchstick under the nozzle so that it can be left and until it's empty. You will return to a car with a freshened and disinfected A/C system.

[GoneToBeemer]

^^^ Great shout.

Mine is in for its first service in a couple of weeks and I'm going to ask them to check the air con, as it's been cr@p from day 1. It takes ages to cool the cabin on a really hot day, and it's nowhere near as good as the manual air con system I had on my Mazda 6.

[Alex1980]

^^^ Great shout.

Mine is in for its first service in a couple of weeks and I'm going to ask them to check the air con, as it's been cr@p from day 1. It takes ages to cool the cabin on a really hot day, and it's nowhere near as good as the manual air con system I had on my Mazda 6.

I asked my dealer exactly the same and got told "it's within tolerance". Basically we aren't going to do anything!

[GoneToBeemer]

I asked my dealer exactly the same and got told "it's within tolerance". Basically we aren't going to do anything!

Sounds about right!

[octavianestate]

Is that for a re-gas, or just to clean and disinfect the heater ducts? I find an aerosol can of Dettol disinfectant available from any supermarket for about £3 is every bit as good as a 'bomb' a dealer will sell you. Switch on the A/C and set the heater to cold, and on 'recirc'. Wedge a matchstick under the nozzle so that it can be left and until it's empty. You will return to a car with a freshened and disinfected A/C system.

Clean and disinfectant only.

[pickard]

I asked my dealer exactly the same and got told "it's within tolerance". Basically we aren't going to do anything!

 

Precisely. The aircon in all my Octavias was crap. Always took ages for it to actually start blowing cold air. All the dealers claimed that it was "normal". I can't say myself. Our other car is a 10+ years old Corolla and it blows cold air within 5 secs after startup having received ZERO a/c maintenance/repair/refill during its lifetime. So go figure. 

[Orville]

I don't mean to sound overly positive, but the aircon on my 2.5 year-old VRS TSI works perfectly. It has never been serviced, refilled or disinfected, however it does not smell and it throws out cold air within seconds of startup. It is far better than my previous 3-Series and light-years ahead of the wife's stinky Renault.

 

The rest of the car is rickety and unreliable, but the aircon works fine. Perhaps I got lucky?

 

edit: My local Kwik-Fit was advertising an aircon refill and disenfect service for £39 1-2 weeks ago. Online price currently shows £49, which is still better that OP's £75 Dealer price.

Edited 31 August, 2016 by Orville

[GoneToBeemer]

I don't mean to sound overly positive, but the aircon on my 2.5 year-old VRS TSI works perfectly. It has never been serviced, refilled or disinfected, however it does not smell and it throws out cold air within seconds of startup. It is far better than my previous 3-Series and light-years ahead of the wife's stinky Renault.

The rest of the car is rickety and unreliable, but the aircon works fine. Perhaps I got lucky?

In light of your other saga Orville, I don't think lucky is the right word!

Still though, every car has its plus points right?!

[Tech1e]

Is that for a re-gas, or just to clean and disinfect the heater ducts? I find an aerosol can of Dettol disinfectant available from any supermarket for about £3 is every bit as good as a 'bomb' a dealer will sell you. Switch on the A/C and set the heater to cold, and on 'recirc'. Wedge a matchstick under the nozzle so that it can be left and until it's empty. You will return to a car with a freshened and disinfected A/C system.

Don't forget to remove the pollen filter or all you are doing is spraying disinfectant onto that.

[silver1011]

There are plenty of A/C specialists out there. That's all they do, service and repair car air con systems, all day every day.

 

Don't take it to a dealer (unless under warranty) and definitely do not take it to Kwik Fit or Halfords etc.

[Tech1e]

 

Don't take it to a dealer (unless under warranty) and definitely do not take it to Kwik Fit or Halfords etc.

Why not a dealer? They have the approved equipment and will stock the correct PAG oil for the compressor etc. At least one tech will have F gas certs and been on the Skoda training for AC.

[silver1011]

Based on two things, experience and price.

 

Experience is down to an unusual noise with my A/C from 18 months old. Took it to the local dealer, acknowledged the noise, no fault found, recommended a re-gas (default answer). Paid £75 and noise remains.

 

Price is down to the £75 been approx double the price of an A/C specialist (York) for a service.

[Tech1e]

Based on two things, experience and price.

 

Experience is down to an unusual noise with my A/C from 18 months old. Took it to the local dealer, acknowledged the noise, no fault found, recommended a re-gas (default answer). Paid £75 and noise remains.

 

Price is down to the £75 been approx double the price of an A/C specialist (York) for a service.

Fair play, I think most will know me by now, always playing devils advocate.

[silver1011]

I'm often one for singing the dealer praises, perhaps I'm lucky but my preferred dealer price matches making them pretty competitive.

 

They collect my car from work, wash and hoover it and drop it back at work. The process couldn't be easier and their level of service easily justifies the extra few quid.

 

Not all positive stories (A/C diagnosis being one).

 

I never knew that there is at least one tech that is specifically trained on the A/C systems, sounds like I hit the dealer on a bad day.

[octavianestate]

For me i was a little naive when called by the dealer informing me I was 'due' an Aircon service. Bearing in mind my lease plan includes 'free' car servicing for 3 years I wrongly assumed the Aircon service was also gratis. Wrong to assume yes.

So this was declined. I'm now running around in a Citigo for a day or two as other warranty repairs are being implemented.

[Tech1e]

 

I never knew that there is at least one tech that is specifically trained on the A/C systems, sounds like I hit the dealer on a bad day.

You have to do the training to hold an f gas cert to handle AC gas.

[James@RRG_Skoda_Rochdale]

Everyone at our place has the minimum F-gas qualification but I'm the only "specialist".

[OscarTheGrouch]

^^^ Great shout.

Mine is in for its first service in a couple of weeks and I'm going to ask them to check the air con, as it's been cr@p from day 1. It takes ages to cool the cabin on a really hot day, and it's nowhere near as good as the manual air con system I had on my Mazda 6.

We have exactly the same spec and my air con gets the cabin cool in a couple of minutes. The output is cold enough that I tend to direct it up in the air and away from my hands. I leave it on auto and have the profile set to high in the vehicle air con settings.

[VRjest]

My AC has started surging when I set the fan to full. Does this mean the compressor is on the way out or does the system just need a re gas??

Edited 31 August, 2016 by VRjest

[James@RRG_Skoda_Rochdale]

That could be the compressor labouring because of a low refrigerant level.

[VRjest]

That could be the compressor labouring because of a low refrigerant level.

Ahh I see. I have noticed the air isn't exactly ice cold either