Air Con problem?

[Pe09]

Hi 

Quite new to the forum but have picked up lots of tips from everyone’s posts.

I have a 69 plate Vrs 245 dsg and have done about 3k in it so far.

i have a question about the air con.

appreciating that it’s been scorching for a couple of days I can’t believe how low powered the fan is at pushing out cold air. My old insignia used to blow my wig off when I dropped the temperature on auto but the Vrs hardly puts out any volume of air at all. It’s 100% cold but I think I could waft my hand and generate more air thrust. I can hear all sorts of flaps moving around when it starts up but even if I go manual, full fan speed and direct it to the dash vents it’s a trickle at best. Has anyone got any ideas or is that my new norm lol? 

[Nickj633]

You may have already done this, but if you have climate control have you altered the profile, there should be 3 available settings. I normally have mine on medium, but found this not good enough to cope with the heat, so have changed the profile (via the setup button) to strong.

[J.R.]

Pollen filter clogged.

[Pe09]

35 minutes ago, Nickj633 said:

You may have already done this, but if you have climate control have you altered the profile, there should be 3 available settings. I normally have mine on medium, but found this not good enough to cope with the heat, so have changed the profile (via the setup button) to strong.

Thanks I will check the settings in a min 

[Pe09]

19 minutes ago, J.R. said:

Pollen filter clogged.

Do you think it could be already, it’s only 6 months old. 

[J.R.]

In that case then no.

[Pe09]

50 minutes ago, Nickj633 said:

You may have already done this, but if you have climate control have you altered the profile, there should be 3 available settings. I normally have mine on medium, but found this not good enough to cope with the heat, so have changed the profile (via the setup button) to strong.

Bit of an update, started the car, air con on auto 16 degrees dash vents, air con starts blowing quite strongly nice and cold, no more than 30 seconds there is a noise, from somewhere in the passenger dash area like a large flap closing, the air flow turns to a trickle and remains like that. I found the fan speed in the settings, it was on medium, changed it to high but it didn’t make any difference. 

[Nickj633]

Ok, try a re-set of the control flap.

 

if memory serves, with the engine on press and hold the a/c button together with the vents toward the seats button on the row above. The lights should all come on and the internal flaps should all recalibrate.

 

see if that works

[Pe09]

26 minutes ago, Nickj633 said:

Ok, try a re-set of the control flap.

 

if memory serves, with the engine on press and hold the a/c button together with the vents toward the seats button on the row above. The lights should all come on and the internal flaps should all recalibrate.

 

see if that works

Thanks will give that a try next

[J.R.]

I recall my MK2 with Climatronic doing that occasionally, I think it was part of an evaporator defrost routine, I could hear the flap moving and feel the airflow dropping, the fan speed indicator lights dropping exactly as you describe except it would only last for say 20 seconds and the gradually resume with the fan speed increasing one step at a time.

 

So I think its a normal albeit unknown function behaving abnormally.

 

I recall (I think!) that it would do it often after initial start up dependant on what the settings were on shut down.

 

Try switching to recirculating mode to see if it makes any difference, with this hot weather it reduces the load on the system considerably, I get much colder air on recirc but then my refrigerant will be low again as I have a leak.

[durhamfisher]

In addition to the fan speed profile you can change the aircon profile in the driving mode. Needs to be on Normal and not Eco for the best performance.

[Pe09]

7 hours ago, durhamfisher said:

In addition to the fan speed profile you can change the aircon profile in the driving mode. Needs to be on Normal and not Eco for the best performance.

Thanks will give that a try this morning 

[Pe09]

8 hours ago, J.R. said:

I recall my MK2 with Climatronic doing that occasionally, I think it was part of an evaporator defrost routine, I could hear the flap moving and feel the airflow dropping, the fan speed indicator lights dropping exactly as you describe except it would only last for say 20 seconds and the gradually resume with the fan speed increasing one step at a time.

 

So I think its a normal albeit unknown function behaving abnormally.

 

I recall (I think!) that it would do it often after initial start up dependant on what the settings were on shut down.

 

Try switching to recirculating mode to see if it makes any difference, with this hot weather it reduces the load on the system considerably, I get much colder air on recirc but then my refrigerant will be low again as I have a leak.

Thank J.R I will have another play today and see if recirc changes anything

[SkodaKing]

My 59 plate insignia with climate blew this octavia 3 climate out of the park. I just had my air con re gassed at 5 years old and its icy in normal weather but in the sun or heat it struggles to cool the cabin. Might just be the black car with black interior 

[J.R.]

Mine on the Yeti struggles in hot weather but its leaking and I am regularly recharging it, it does not take much refrigernant loss, less than 100g to make a big difference.

 

Switching to recirc does make a big difference and when you think about it its quite obvious, however the Climatronic never seems to do this even when its fighting a losing battle, its so good at controlling temps the rest of the time that we dont think to over-ride it to recirculate.

 

Maybe other manufacturers do this and hence their systems cool much better during a heatwave.

[Pe09]

Afternoon - bit of an update. Tried all of the suggestions but nothing seems to be working but it is very odd?

Start the car - aircon running lovely, nice noisy blast of air through the vents exactly what I would expect for a fan on cold in full blast, 20 seconds or so after I have started the car there is a thud, like some form of 'flap' has closed (is sounds like its in the passenger dash area) the airflow drops to a much reduced flow that can hardly be felt?

So far I've tried

resetting the system with the two buttons

changing it with cliamtronic on/off

changing the auto recirculation to on/off

changing the engine modes eco eco fan/ sport normal fan

changing the fan output from normal to high

 

nothing makes it come back to the power it had on start up - are there any more tips I could try?

 

 

 

[Pe09]

I've added a video of what's happening you , its a bit of a crude attempt but you can hear and see what happens at around 1m 16seconds.

Hopefully I'm allowed to add video? apologies if I shouldn't have.

[cheezemonkhai]

On the Octavia you can go into air con config and set the low medium and high settings for the AC. In very hot weather high makes quite a difference.

edit:

The video just looks like the Climatronic flaps are just changing the direction of airflow in reaction to conditions.

 

put the system temperature to LO, make sure you select the vents from the air flow and that the fan is on max (Speed should be automatically set to max with temp to lo).

 

Does it drop off then?

Edited 26 June, 2020 by cheezemonkhai

[foregonereality]

He Pe09 - I don't think that vid is crude - if anything it highlights exactly the problem. I'm surprised to hear such a clunk and the ribbon to simply drop with the reduction in air flow.

 

I don't think this will help too much but will suggest as Cheezemonkhai said - have you considered lowering the temperature to 'LO' below the 16 so the air con knows it has to blow out as much cold air as possible regardless of the car's internal temp. 

 

If this or previous options haven't worked then I'd say it's definitely worth a visit to a dealer - my 2015 VRS doesn't do this at all. 

 

Whatever you do don't delete that vid - just in case the usual situation occurs in the dealers - like in my case where for whatever reason the problem or noise is magically gone when I try to recreate it but is back the minute I leave the place.

Edited 26 June, 2020 by foregonereality

[Guest]

Just read the thread. Rather than respond with a lengthy reply trying to tackles all permutations, lets take this step by step.

 

Is 16C being maintained? ( your actual words were 100% cold )  If so then that's weird. It's very warm outside so the system will be fighting to maintain 16C. If the fan isn't blowing or blowing very gently then I'm asking myself how is it able to maintaining 16C?

 

Set sync to ON, set Climatronic to ON and set the AUTO button ( right hand dial ) to ON, and turn down to 16C.  

 

For me, 16C is very uncomfortable, too cold, but if you do the above, are you saying that after 5mins, the internal temp is approx 16C ?

 

PS - Just out of interest, what is it you're actually after? You say the car is 100% cold and the aircon is working so just wondering what does it matter if the fan is loud, gentle or whatever?

 

 

Edited 26 June, 2020 by Guest

[Pe09]

18 minutes ago, Scot5 said:

Just read the thread. Rather than respond with a lengthy reply trying to tackles all permutations, lets take this step by step.

 

Is 16C being maintained? ( your actual words were 100% cold )  If so then that's weird. It's very warm outside so the system will be fighting to maintain 16C. If the fan isn't blowing or blowing very gently then I'm asking myself how is it able to maintaining 16C?

 

Set sync to ON, set Climatronic to ON and set the AUTO button ( right hand dial ) to ON, and turn down to 16C.  

 

For me, 16C is very uncomfortable, too cold, but if you do the above, are you saying that after 5mins, the internal temp is approx 16C ?

 

PS - Just out of interest, what is it you're actually after? You say the car is 100% cold and the aircon is working so just wondering what does it matter if the fan is loud, gentle or whatever?

 

 

Hi Scot5

I've probably not explained the situation well.

I get in the car - its hot inside, opened all the windows for a min to let some of the heat out, raise the windows turn the engine on and turn the dial down to low or 16 as an example, this is to cool the cabin temp down, my previous cars have all coped with this strategy and once down to a lower temp you can gear the fan begin to lower to almost silent as it balances my temp requirement with the ambient internal temp.  Initially for the first 20/30 seconds lovely cold air is immediately being blown into the cabin by force I can feel it on my face, at 20/30 seconds in there is a noise like a flap closing, the cold air is still coming  but now at a trickle to how it was like in the video its not being re-directed to my feet or the windscreen it just disappears, it certainly hasn't reached 16 degrees and with the amount of which is now being pushed into the cabin even after a 30 min drive home the inside of the car is still uncomfortably warm . I think I could make more of a difference turning the system off and opening the window to lower the overall cabin temperature. just trying to figure out if there is something wrong with the system/car or is this my new normal. Cheers, any thoughts are welcomed.

[PetrolDave]

5 minutes ago, Pe09 said:

the cold air is still coming  but now at a trickle to how it was like in the video its not being re-directed to my feet or the windscreen it just disappears, it certainly hasn't reached 16 degrees and with the amount of which is now being pushed into the cabin even after a 30 min drive home the inside of the car is still uncomfortably warm .

Have you done a fault code scan?

 

I'm wondering if the internal temperature sensor is faulty so it thinks the cabin has reached the desired temperature and hence winds the fan speed down.

 

Have you tried disabling Auto and controlling the fan speed manually?

[J.R.]

I dont have time to read mine at the moment but if you search for and download the VAG self study guide on Climatronic you will see and understand the function of all the flaps, what they should do and when, I'm confident armed with that knowledge and a MK1 earhole you will be able to work out what is going wrong, I think one flap closing as it should but another not opening.

 

Is your pollen filter free of bumfluff?

Edited 26 June, 2020 by J.R.

[Guest]

37 minutes ago, Pe09 said:

Hi Scot5

I've probably not explained the situation well.

I get in the car - its hot inside, opened all the windows for a min to let some of the heat out, raise the windows turn the engine on and turn the dial down to low or 16 as an example, this is to cool the cabin temp down, my previous cars have all coped with this strategy and once down to a lower temp you can gear the fan begin to lower to almost silent as it balances my temp requirement with the ambient internal temp.  Initially for the first 20/30 seconds lovely cold air is immediately being blown into the cabin by force I can feel it on my face, at 20/30 seconds in there is a noise like a flap closing, the cold air is still coming  but now at a trickle to how it was like in the video its not being re-directed to my feet or the windscreen it just disappears, it certainly hasn't reached 16 degrees and with the amount of which is now being pushed into the cabin even after a 30 min drive home the inside of the car is still uncomfortably warm . I think I could make more of a difference turning the system off and opening the window to lower the overall cabin temperature. just trying to figure out if there is something wrong with the system/car or is this my new normal. Cheers, any thoughts are welcomed.

 

Hope you do think I'm being cheeky but can we forget about your previous cars because I'm still having trouble understanding what you're saying.  Reading the above I don't know if you mean it's only with your previous cars that the fan lowers once the required temp is reached or is it with this car.

 

If you're saying the fan blows cold air for 20/30 secs but it never reaches the required temp, then I'd have thought the problem is with the cabin temp sensor .  Sounds to me like the system is working correctly, it's only reacting to what temp it thinks the cabin is.

 

In the middle of the center dial  ( above the menu option in your car ) is the sensor.  If you've reset the system as above, then I don't think there's nothing much else you can do other than visit the dealer. There's nothing obstructing it or anything daft like that?  Perhaps someone on here has replaced the sensor themselves.

 

When is cooler over the next dew days or at night, why not try turning the temp up to 26 or 28 - the fan should then be blowing like mad to raise the temp.  Wonder if it'll cut out after 20/30s?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 26 June, 2020 by Guest

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

6 hours ago, Pe09 said:

I've added a video of what's happening you , its a bit of a crude attempt but you can hear and see what happens at around 1m 16seconds.

Hopefully I'm allowed to add video? apologies if I shouldn't have.

Aircon.MOV

 

Hiya. Watched the video - wow, that is a strange one, as you say, it's like a door slamming! For what it's worth, regardless of everyone discussing resets and the climate control doing things because of this and that - my Mk.3 Octy VRS (which I have owned for 6 years) has never done anything like that. Once I select LO and max fan with the aircon on, it blows freezing air into my face for hours on end, and never clunks or changes the flow. So for me, that's a fault which needs rectifying.

 

I hope it's not a dash out job...  

 

Good luck and let us know how you get on.