We've just obtained a 57 Plate Octavia 2.0FSI Elegance with 96k on the clock and an aircon fault, first thing to try I figured was a re-gas to see what happened and it worked fine for about 12 hours then packed in again.

 

This evening I was just taking the dog out for a walk & heard a loud whoosh from the car followed by a hissing so I popped the bonnet for a look and there seems to be fluid & gas bubbling out from what I think is the high pressure sensor for the air con down in the front corner of the drivers side of the engine bay.

 

I know nothing about VAG cars as I've always owned Fords but this is the Wifes car and i'd like the aircon working as it's fairly tidy otherwise & it'd be nice for her and the daughter to not have to ride around in an oven all summer.

 

Is this sensor a common failure point and is it easy to get at from under the car? I haven't had a proper look yet as it's too dark.

Yes a common fault caused by condensation building up on the alloy and the crimped joint corroding and splitting, access is from above with a short 17mm spanner, you will scratch your forearms but its easy once you have done it once, you work mainly by feel.

 

there is a shrader valve beneath it so any residual pressure will not escape.

 

Good luck, its the easiest, cheapest and simplest part to replace on the aircon system, with a regassing all should be good fingers crossed.

Thanks for the quick reply! Fingers crossed it sorts it out!

Given that it was working for a short while after the recharge, you saw and heard the refigerant coming from it and its a known problem item you can be 99.9% confident it will cure your problem, dont buy the cheapest Ebay sensor though, my first one was duff.

Thought i'd report back. It has indeed fixed it and it's now been fine for about 2 weeks, ice cold air con.

 

If anyone else is looking to do the job i found a £5 tap spanner from B&Q was perfect for the job. Took 10 mins and hardly even got my hands dirty :)

On 23/06/2019 at 10:25, iamzod said:

Thought i'd report back. It has indeed fixed it and it's now been fine for about 2 weeks, ice cold air con.

 

If anyone else is looking to do the job i found a £5 tap spanner from B&Q was perfect for the job. Took 10 mins and hardly even got my hands dirty

Did you need to regass the car after replacing it? 

55 minutes ago, Martini06 said:

Did you need to regass the car after replacing it? 

The sensor screws onto a schrader valve, so minimal leakage. You can read the G65 sensor value with a good scan tool, I use VCDS. IIRC it reads about 6 bar normally.