Climatronic. Am I going mad?

[TMinfidel]

So, I have a MY14 Mk3 Octavia vRS. Had it just over a year, and in all that time I believed the climatronic unit had a faulty LED, in that the second LED on the fan control wouldn't light up. First LED came on as normal, nothing for the second (first went off too), third, fourth etc worked fine.

 

I recently had the car in for service and showed them the "problem" and asked about it. They confirmed it was faulty and arranged for a new unit to be fitted under warranty. Today I had the work done, and upon picking it up it seems that when pressing AUTO the fan comes on immediately to the second LED (which at least now works) but it's got me wondering if there ever was an issue, or if the reason the LED didn't light was because that was the AUTO position? I asked them about it at the time, but they just said that must be the position I had set AUTO at, something I wasn't even aware you could do. I also now have a SYNC button instead of a DUAL button, though I doubt that makes any difference.

 

Can anyone shed any light on this?

[pist0nbr0ke]

Fan speed does not show by lighting the leds when in auto. It can be enabled with VCDS, but as standard you will only have each individual light activate if you adjust the fan speed manually, thereby cancelling auto.

[gregoir]

I agree, mine works as above. I'd prefer the leds to light up in auto, just like they did in my Mk2 Facelift. My concern was on a long journey in hot (30C plus) weather, the fan appeared to be running at maximum speed and I wondered if it was ever going to slow down as the noise was getting a bit much for me. I went on to manual and turned down the fan. Things calmed down eventually.

[Warrior193]

10 hours ago, gregoir said:

I agree, mine works as above. I'd prefer the leds to light up in auto, just like they did in my Mk2 Facelift. My concern was on a long journey in hot (30C plus) weather, the fan appeared to be running at maximum speed and I wondered if it was ever going to slow down as the noise was getting a bit much for me. I went on to manual and turned down the fan. Things calmed down eventually.

My fan runs at full speed in Auto setting until the cabin temperature get down to the set point I have dialed in, then it starts to back off the fan speed - I believe that the fan will continue at full speed if you have the set point at "Lo" (or "Max for heating) 

[pist0nbr0ke]

20 minutes ago, Warrior193 said:

My fan runs at full speed in Auto setting until the cabin temperature get down to the set point I have dialed in, then it starts to back off the fan speed - I believe that the fan will continue at full speed if you have the set point at "Lo" (or "Max for heating) 

 

Yep, that's what mine does. 

 

Here's the link to VCDS instructions to enable showing fan speed in auto:

 

https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/299424-octavia-iii-vcds-adaptations-tried-and-tested/?do=findComment&comment=3576129

[TMinfidel]

Thanks for the replies. Seems maybe my unit wasn't faulty at all, and the new one is either a newer revision, or has been coded to show the fan speed at all times, even in AUTO mode. I'm surprised (I guess I shouldn't be really) that the dealer didn't know and a warranty replacement was approved.