Hi Guys,

 

I own a Fabia 1.2 Comfort estate reg '54 which I purchased some seven years ago. Recently before attempting to go on holiday later this year I decided to install a Nextbase dash cam. As my cigarette lighter socket is used for mobile phone charging I also purchased with the camera a Nextbase wiring kit. The camera was installed on the F16 fuse position ( instrument panel lights) which is live only when the ignition is on.

The camera in in parallel with the lights and seperately fused (2amp fuse).

Now my air-con normally runs most of the time Winter and Summer and was regassed some two years ago.  A few days later on a warm day my wife noticed that the air-con was producing only warm air, and that the A/C light was not illuminated. I therefore checked all of the fuses in the fuse box which were all OK, so nothing wrong there. Thinking that the system was in need of re-gassing I called in a local guy who specialises in this but the gas was 'acceptable'. He could not find anything physically wrong with the system but advised me to see a VaG specialist electrician.

Previous to this I had a chech made with my VAG401 tool but which gave me no fault code for this.

I fail to see how wiring the dash cam could have caused the air con to fail - but it could have just been a co-incidence! The air con could have gone 'belly-up' earlier. 

I can understand that the system i.e. air con, air recirculator and temperature control are linked together and therefore if the power fails then the system also fails but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Fortunately our holiday is nor until September having been postponed from early May whis does give me some leeway in getting the problem solved

Meanwhile I am driving a 'HOT' car!

Unrelated to the dash cam install I'd say. 

I'm not sure what a VAG401 tool is but can it scan the HVAC module specifically? Or even look at measuring blocks within it?

 

This is a handy thread for fault finding A/C problems: https://forums.ross-tech.com/showthread.php?633-Tis%92-the-HVAC-Season

Hi Wino,

Well I didn't think the Dash-cam installation would have affected the Air-con as all of the fuses were intact.!!

I am attaching a pic of the VAG401 Box the gadget of which has saved me some time and expense in the past. A recent update of the software and another check in the ODP port produced a fault on the Air-con which read "Recirculating air flap motor false positive" sorry but I should have written down the fault code before clearing it! Anyhow it hasn't made any difference the A/C light still refuses to come on and the system understanderbly isn't working.

If it means a new recirculating flap motot which I suspect then (a) I can't see one of those being available because of the car's age, and (B) I would certainly not be prepared to do the job myself being five times older than the vehicle,  it would probably be a used unit in any case with doubtful reliability.

So unless someone is prepared to do the job for a few hundred quid then it looks like the "End of the Road" for this particular vehicle.

Recirc flap motor problem won't be relevant. It's a very common, near universal failure but not worth fixing usually.

 

 

Does the cabin fan work at all 4 speeds?

Yes - all 4-speeds are OK.

I don’t suppose its the broken wire syndrome the same as mine was is it ? The connectors next to the bell housing I am thinking about.

4 minutes ago, maccy said:

I don’t suppose its the broken wire syndrome the same as mine was is it ? The connectors next to the bell housing I am thinking about.

I’ve had that issue also, but my A/C light still came on

It's probably something like that, as there seems to be no power to the A/C switchor the recirc flap motor. Mechanically the car runs well even at fifteen years of age - the electronics however seem to be crap! My old felicia went the same way at about the same age.

The other problem is finding someone who is prepared tp do a complete diagnostic - where I live between Winchester and Southampton no-one wants anything to do with a sixteen year-old motor- they only want to work on more modern ones. Winchester Skoda are not interested, also they are bloody expensive! 

Two years ago I had a problem with the engine 'hunting' on startup so I called in a VAG trained Mech. It cost me over a hundred quid for an airflow sensor plus his time. Eventually I discovered the problem to be a split in the brake servo hose!!! Cost - five quid for a length of vac hose plus two Oertiker clips.  So much for your bloody "Experts"