Poor Air-Con.....

[smipx]

Yes I have been trying all the settings just now. Its in the menu of the climate. Press the Climate menu button on the middle wheel and select intensive in the fan speed profile. It will then just blow the same air around and make a ton of noise. I am not at all convinced it turns the profile of the compresser up in any way. I think it might also help to turn OFF the "Air Care" feature but I am not sure as the purpose of this seems a little vague to say the least in the manual. 

 

I myself have fiddled with all the settings (without any carista tweaking) and can say that it is very slow to cool the car. The intensive setting makes the fans go hell for leather but the air is still not that cold so the AC is still pretty pathetic compared to my old Tiguan :-(   Even with recirculate ON and the rear vents shut it takes 20 minutes to cool the car which, when considering many journeys might only be less than 20 minutes  - it not really fit for purpose - even in our pathetically mild climate.

 

If its 28C outside and you get into a car that has been slowly poaching all day then you really want to open the windows for a moment to purge the hot air and then an instant blast of very cool air in the 1st 15 minutes to quickly get the temperature of the hot plastics and fabrics down (as well as the air). It just doesn't deliver like "in the olden days".  "It is not climate control like we knew it Jim". 

 

Such a shame.  

[pragmatix]

48 minutes ago, cheezemonkhai said:

 

Not sure on the Karoq, but on the octavia you either go to settings on the audio system screen or press and hold the lower central button on the climatronic with the word setup or menu on it.

 

This setting is not available on the MIB3 system .

[smipx]

2 minutes ago, pragmatix said:

This setting is not available on the MIB3 system .

Nightmare - even more of a pain then.  I would hope that it should be somewhere in the advanced settings of the cooling menus unless its fundamentally changed from the 2019 model.

That's what I have so apologies that I don't know :-(

 

[Gabi4]

I usually keep it to 22.5. I found the air con efficient and the ventilation not intrusive. I mean that it manages to cool the interior and keep the set temperature without feeling the air flow. 

One idea is to measure for some time the temperature at the air vents and somewhere in interior with a termometer and compare the results with other cars in similar conditions, to see if indeed there are differences.

Edited 21 July, 2021 by Gabi4

[pragmatix]

1 hour ago, Gabi4 said:

I usually keep it to 22.5. I found the air con efficient and the ventilation not intrusive. I mean that it manages to cool the interior and keep the set temperature without feeling the air flow. 

One idea is to measure for some time the temperature at the air vents and somewhere in interior with a termometer and compare the results with other cars in similar conditions, to see if indeed there are differences.

22.5 that's heating not cooling I'm on 17.5 all year round,  il like to feel the air flow.

Edited 21 July, 2021 by pragmatix

[smipx]

For me 21.5 is personally desired. To get even close in the summer (when its over 26C) I seem to have to have it at Lo for 1st 20 minutes then 20C (and still the car is not really 21.5C). Many joirneys are only 1/2 hour or so so it Lo all the way. They always used to tout Climate Control as "set it and forget it" due to the constant monitoring and automatic adjusting to keep the set temperature for the occupants (and it used to be the case mostly but its not with this car).  Its no better really than the £900 or so cheaper AC on/off system.

That's whats a bit annoying for me. We all pay extra for these so called super features when we get an SEL or other premium variant but in the case of the Climate Control it seems that it might not be living up to the sales patter.  When you go and complain to the dealer they always fob you off with "they are all like it sir" or similar. 

 

Luckily in the UK its not often above 25C for any extended period but if I was a poor customer in, say, Spain I would be kicking up a massive fuss with my local Skoda Head office if the Climate Control was the same as mine.  I bet its only the UK and a few other "cold countries" who have the "Normal Climates" setting set in the computer and the rest of the world probably have it set to "Warmer Climates" by default (if that even makes a difference which by some peoples posts on here and other threads - it might not)  and I would not raise an eyebrow if someone told me that they do the emmissions tests and certifications in one of those colder set countries to make the figures look better  :-)

 

It could also be that the "Warmer Climates" setting is only set in cars/countries where the number of grams of the new 1234yf gas is initially a higher amount.  I wonder if a Spanish Karoq or an italian Karoq has the same number of grams of 1234yf gas out of the factory as a car destined for the UK.  If you have a lower gas weight then maybe the lower setting makes little difference in the computer???   I have no idea but it could be......  That might also be the reason some other models have a better system (with all other things being equal)???

 

For Info my UK Karoq from 2019 has 0.460Kg of 1234yf. Its on a sticker under the bonnet.

 

 

 

Edited 22 July, 2021 by smipx

[Berisford]

I'm more and more convinced it's down to the type of system fitted by Skoda and others nowadays. EU responsible perhaps?

 

Spent yesterday test driving a selection of used motors as a favour for an elderly (89) neighbour, a selection of Jazz and Yaris varying in age from 3 - 10 years.

 

Apart from a couple of the older ones where the air con was obviously busted the newer vehicles performed very poorly when compared to the older ones. In the older motors the cooling effect was noticeable within moments of firing up where the newer ones never really got to the point where you'd say 'that's nice'. The 3 year old Yaris was slightly better than the 3 year old Jazz but neither were 'good'.

 

By the 6th test drive even my elderly friend was on the case of the 'poor air con', and that was from someone who initially said she 'wasn't too fussed' about the air-con being cold.

 

As an aside: Modern vehicles for all their fancy toys are too complicated for elderly folk, not least getting to grips with 'keyless'. Some main dealer used car staff (Honda get a special award) are so full of crap I could punch 'em!

 

Used car prices are just silly at the moment - despite looking for a fairly new motor with better safety features and to help get her insurance cost down a little we ended up buying a 10 year old used Jazz for £7000. One owner, 16000 miles, full main dealer history in truly excellent condition with ice cold air-con from the vents within 1 minute of starting up. For the few miles she travels and the driving time she has left it'll suit her just fine. Just a pity we weren't looking this time last year when we'd have no doubt got the same car for £5k. 

[FabFabFabia]

I was loaned a 1000cc 2020 Skoda Scala last summer when my £30k 2018 1500cc Karoq Edition went in for servicing and the aircon was absolutely freezing on the Scala. Loved it. When I collected my serviced Karoq later that day I put my aircon on and it was only slightly cool by comparison, even on maximum. I will never again buy a car without auditioning the air conditioning first.

[Berisford]

29 minutes ago, FabFabFabia said:

I was loaned a 1000cc 2020 Skoda Scala last summer when my £30k 2018 1500cc Karoq Edition went in for servicing and the aircon was absolutely freezing on the Scala. Loved it. When I collected my serviced Karoq later that day I put my aircon on and it was only slightly cool by comparison, even on maximum. I will never again buy a car without auditioning the air conditioning first.

Normal policy for me, however, committing after a test drive in December I didn’t get the chance to check the efficacy other than to confirm it felt ‘cold’! 
It never crossed my mind that it would be crap.

[Arsen]

Did anybody tried this?

Worth trying. 
Reminder: ignition on but dont start the engine. 

Edited 3 August, 2021 by Arsen

[FabFabFabia]

1 hour ago, Arsen said:

Did anybody tried this?

Worth trying. 
Reminder: ignition on but dont start the engine. 

What does this achieve?

[Berisford]

I suspect it’s to reset the control system if you’re having trouble, nothing to do with poor cooling temperatures……….?

[agedbriar]

I think it's all about reducing fuel consumption - and hence emissions.

 

Edited 3 August, 2021 by agedbriar

[Arsen]

13 minutes ago, agedbriar said:

I think it's all about reducing fuel consumption - and hence emissions.

 

I wouldn agree..still makes a lot of  consumption difference between ac on or ac off. Also..slower cooling keeps revs higher due to electricity demand hence higher consumption.

regarding clip i posted, it suppose to align flaps..how they direct cool/hot air. Sinplified..maybe flaps are not fully open when they need to be fully open. Worth a try.

Edited 3 August, 2021 by Arsen

[FabFabFabia]

I'd be interested to see if this method improves the aircon on the Karoq - hopefully someone braver than I will give it a try and post here what happens.... :-)

[Arsen]

26 minutes ago, FabFabFabia said:

I'd be interested to see if this method improves the aircon on the Karoq - hopefully someone braver than I will give it a try and post here what happens.... :-)

I have. And seems as an improved iefficiency. Its a harmless, easy and legit procedure. Although im not that unhappy with a/c..its a bit slow when just  starts (direct sunlight, seems that dash material becomes crazy hot) but after few minutes cant complain..keeps interior quiet pleasant..and here we had scorching temps lately. Climatronic seems to love longer trips.. 

[FabFabFabia]

Do I have to use the Auto Climate Control to get any benefit from this "trick" ?  I always just use the manual aircon/temperature control instead.

[xman]

I think all you are doing is accessing the hidden diagnostic menu of the climatronic. All climatronics can do this. Once you get the lights flashing you use the temp and fan controls to access the multiple channels of data available e.g. sun load sensor reading.

 

 

The data channels are documented somewhere, I know I accessed these on my mk2 fabia climatronic, that was here on Briskoda. Not sure if all models have the same channel allocation.