Car is just over three years old and is going in for it's fourth service week after next (first I have to pay for!) a couple of weeks after this I'm going away to the South of France camping with the family for two weeks.  The aircon is "ok" but I've never been particularly impressed with it.  Has anyone had an aircon service, what do they do and is it worth it?  With this weather I'm thinking it might be worth a shot!

How much will the dealer charge? ATS currently have an offer of £33 for recharge and cleansing.

offer

 

edit: The aircon within my Octavie has always felt rather weedy compared to my old 3-Series. A recharge will probably help (after 3-years use), but don't expect miracles.

Edited 20 June, 20178 yr by Orville

Matt, I was gonna ask if anyone elses A/C was suffering in this heat as mine is just "ok"

 

As mine goes back August 31st it getting sweet FA done it.

The previous hotspell at the end of May, it was 27c or so for a couple of days, I did a trip back from Northumberland down the M6, and the aircon in my early 2014 VRS 2.0 Tsi was working very well, infact almost too well as I started to get a bit too cool, and when I got out of the car it was like entering an oven.

 

I have only had the car since earlier this year so no idea if it has had any work done to the aircon, nothing on the service history printout I have so I suspect not. So air con seems to be fine for me. Did have a Saab that had air con issues and it needed regassing after which it was working well again.

Funny... Just come back from a work trip this afternoon and thought exactly the same! Had the Aircon set to 16.0c all the way. Mine is 3.5 years old now and while it was cool, it wasn't Baltic and borderline uncomfortably cold. Is it unreasonable to expect this even with a freshly gassed system? 

Mine is still OK with 185k km on the clock. Works like on the first day...

TBH, it will be hard to know how much efficiency it's lost until it's regassed, (unless obviously it's barely working at all).

 

For £33 I certainly would do it, after three years. Peace of mind if you're heading to France in hot weather, especially with kids.

If you go by Skoda's recommendation, air con service should be done every two years.

 

Doesn't stop by my dealer to claim it should be done every year, and when I point out the website recommends every 2, they say that's incorrect and the website needs updating 

Edited 20 June, 20178 yr by Yaumeister

A couple of points to Matt and Tony:

 

1. Have you been operating the A/C in recirculating air mode? If not there is only so much the laws of thermodynamics can do to reduce the temp of warm fresh air coming into the car. 

2. One of the common problems with A/C in cars is that peeps set the car to the lowest temp setting straight away - if there is a lot of moisture in the air in the system this can cause the evaporator to freeze creating a blockage, which in turn reduces efficiency of A/C. Again operating in recirculating air mode will prevent the likelihood of this occurring. 

 

In terms of prices for recharging the A/C you generally get what you pay for.

 

If done properly and without any leaks takes approx 1 hr in automatic mode - £33 is cheap - potentially some steps missed out or a loss leader for other work - tyres, brakes etc!!!  

 

This is the same system we use on aircraft...

 

 

12 hours ago, Black_Sheep said:

A couple of points to Matt and Tony:

 

1. Have you been operating the A/C in recirculating air mode? If not there is only so much the laws of thermodynamics can do to reduce the temp of warm fresh air coming into the car. 

 

 

Sorry have to disagree with you on that point. The system will control the recirculation flap to limit the amount of fresh air coming in under circumstances like this. 

 

You shouldn't need to re-gas an aircon system unless it has a leak, and it should not have a leak. It will start leaking around the compressor pump seals if you leave the system unused for long periods of time. So use it or lose it. 

In my Octavia 3, when I press recirculate mode, I loose the Auto mode.

 

Manual said recirculate mode will be enabled automatically, so I don't think point 1 applies here?

Whilst more than happy to put my hands up when wrong, the auto mode  monitors a number of different things temp/sunlight/air quality/humidity etc.

 

If you want to operate the A/C in Max mode you need to perform the following:

 

Recirc Mode - On

Blower Speed - Max

Vents - Forward facing only

 

In the Leon the climate control buttons are slightly different and there is an 'A/C Max' button which defaults to the above settings. 

 

Whilst in auto mode the recirc flap will be closed to reduce the temperature in the cabin initially; however, it will fluctuate open and closed to allow fresh air into the cabin, thus A/C performance will be compromised. If you read the manual it states that you must not operate the vehicle in recirc modes for prolonged periods of time as the cabin air quality will be reduced, will leads to driver/passenger fatigue. 

Skoda want £75, ATS (via Groupon) want £33 for a re-gas and anti-bac.

 

It's booked in with ATS next Saturday, deal end tomorrow and most ATS places seem to be booked up.

I had a flick through the manual. It says as Blacksheep have said, Auto will regulate recirculate mode as needed. It will only enable recirculate mode when external temperature is 2c higher than internal. So during summer, recirculate should be automatic when in Auto mode.

 

To be honest, I think I'll leave everything on auto, loose a bit of efficiency by cooling external air every so often is no big deal.

 

 

 

I had my old car, a 11 year old Mercedes C class coupe, done by ATS earlier this year when Groupon deal first became available. The car never had re-gas done, and apart from hearing strange air sucking sound when AC is turned on, it still generates acceptable cooling. They tell me there's 400 odd left in the car, spec says should be 800 (sorry, forgot the unit), gas has been drained, leak tested and then re-gassed up to spec. Now, it cools down the car within minutes, and the strange sound is gone. Fantastic value for money, they also gave an assessment on tyre for free: no problems and no change since my February service+MOT there.

 

To be honest, the speed Merc cools is fine before gassing. Similar to Octavia speed on lowest Auto setting. Both cars gets cool enough within 5min. I'm okay with this.

 

I certainly don't buy the "re-gas every 2 year" line. Unlike timing belt, if it ain't broken, don't fix it.