Since buying my car the air con hasn't worked so I bit the bullet and asked my independent garage to have a look.  He has replaced the pump and condenser the first was knackered and the second although not leaking was also in a bad way.  He said that despite this when the car is cold the air con works but as soon as the engine heats up power is cut to fan and the air con stops working.  He tried replacing the fan but that didnt help either.  His concern beyond the obvious air con not working is that if allowed to continue that rather expensive pump will fail in short order.

 

Has anyone got any ideas because he is scratching his head?

 

PS he has vcds which hasnt shed any light on things

 

The car is a 2.0 deisel, skoda superb mk2 on a 2010 plate

Edited 6 October, 20169 yr by Thinlysliced

I'd start looking at temperature sensors I think. Sounds like a spurious temperature signal somewhere is causing the a/c to drop out.

I'd think sensor, or maybe the air con compressor clutch if the pulley is a separate part.

Apparently, all sensors have been checked.  A helpful techie at skoda thinks it is likely to be the control unit, they fail fairly regularly because of car valeting getting them damp..  A design flaw for a part of the dash perhaps

Don't think it will be the clutch as I'm fairly sure they use the clutchless variable displacement compressor.

Apparently, all sensors have been checked.  A helpful techie at skoda thinks it is likely to be the control unit, they fail fairly regularly because of car valeting getting them damp..  A design flaw for a part of the dash perhaps

 

Just curious - did you find out where the sensor is? The top of the dash is certainly a bit "dodgy" in that the dash top air ducts below the windscreen are like a big wide sink hole. Any free liquid would pretty much get drained into the vents below the windscreen.

 

When I was putting my fist insurance disk on the windscreen I saw the setup and my first nightmare was someone putting a coffee on top of the dash and knocking it over...  

Just curious - did you find out where the sensor is? The top of the dash is certainly a bit "dodgy" in that the dash top air ducts below the windscreen are like a big wide sink hole. Any free liquid would pretty much get drained into the vents below the windscreen.

 

When I was putting my fist insurance disk on the windscreen I saw the setup and my first nightmare was someone putting a coffee on top of the dash and knocking it over...  

The mechanic said there are sensors in the mouth of the air vents.  I took one vent cover out and it can clearly be seen sticking up into the mouth of the vent.  There are some in the foot level vents as well.