This is the second summer I've had the Fabia, and it has never cooled very well. When it was serviced recently I asked them to check the air-conditioning, and they said it was working fine. Since my sweaty commutes told me otherwise I decided to take some formal measurements. Using a thermometer sitting in the cup holder under the radio, and with climatronic in automatic mode, I got the following data.

 

			Initial		Final
Date	Time	Setting (°C)	Out (°C)	In (°C)	In (°C)	Duration (minutes)
31 July	pm	19	23	26	25	30
31 July	pm	19	23	26	24	45
2 Aug	am	16	19	21	18	30
2 Aug	am	16	19	21	18	45
2 Aug	pm	16	25	27	25	30
2 Aug	pm	16	25	27	22	60
6 Aug	am	LO	21	21	17	30
6 Aug	pm	LO	23	25	20	30

 

That is, the first line shows that with an outside temperature of 23°C, and climatronic set to 19°C, after 30 minutes the temperature in the car was reduced from 26°C to 25°C. So I took the Fabia back to the dealer with my table of measurements. Again they couldn't find a fault, though both times they've had the car it's been about 15°C outside, so the car hasn't had to do any cooling. They have suggested returning on a hot day, which I intend to do if I can arrange it around work.

 

Does climatronic normally work well in Fabias? In my previous cars I've tended to leave it at auto / 22°C throughout the year, but with this Fabia, in summer I set the temperature to LO and manually adjust the fan. Is there anything else I can do to try to diagnose the problem?

You have gone to town on your data collection but you have missed the most obvious and simple check which is to measure the air at the vents.

 

If you wait for a warm day in the low/mid 20s and set the car to LO you should be able to achieve less than 10 degrees easily which will prove the air con is working and its not just that the climate system is at fault 

Good idea. It's about 20°C outside now, so I've run it on LO in the driveway, and the air from the vents got to 7°C without trouble.

Looks like the air con is fine then and either the climate is rubbish or there is something not quite right somewhere, this is where VCDS would be very handy as you could see all the temperatures and flap positions

As the chiller seems to be working okay, and the auto AC is set on Auto mode, I'd think that its down to these air flow system not being designed very well, same for similar Polo and Ibiza in my experience.

 

Now, what my wife is very guilty of doing is, while the auto AC is set on Auto, pressing the "foot wells" button to get more air lower down, without considering that by doing that she is closing all the other air flow flaps - again its down to the poor design of the system, if it worked okay she would get the desired cooling form leaving it in Auto.

OK, sounds like I need to wait for some hot weather for another trip to the dealer. Since I haven't seen any other Fabia complaints about the climatronic I guess it must be something wrong with my car, rather than a general design flaw.

Hello everybody, in my case, living in Catalonia I am surviving the first summer with my Fabia with Climatronic.

 

I think the power of the A/C is lower than in my previous Fabia II also with Climatronic. At temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius and especially 35 it costs quite cool the car.

I agree with you Moisbd, the aircon was much more efficient on my Mk 11.  In the old car when it was very warm inside just setting it to Auto would soon have it cool inside with the fan turning itself to full speed.  In my current car I find that I'm the one who has to turn it up to full speed which then helps, I also set it to recycle for a while which seems to help.  Perhaps we've had manual Climatronic installed in our cars!! 

I have no idea about the climactic version but the 'standard old skool' AC is not exactly the most powerful. It works but tends to take it's time to get the cabin down to acceptable temperatures. I guess this is a function of it's size, IE it does exactly what is asked of it however it takes longer to get there.



 

Just a thought but could it be the temperature sensor on the climatronic unit that is faulty and therefore not regulating the temperature in the cabin very well?

 

Possibly the sensor is under reading the actual temperature so isn't pumping out cold air as much as it should?