Hi all,

Recently purchased a 2020 octavia SEL First edition. Lovely car but it is giving me some nagging problems.

First problem was the SOS re calibrating itself showing as a knocking noise coming from the speaker (update done problem solved)

Problem 2 vibrating like mad when act engages (solved with pcm update and a set of plugs)

Problem 3 is the climate control, when the ac is not enabled the vent blow at full speed. Soon as the ac is enable it's as if a flap shuts and it stops letting the air through. You can still hear the fan working but only a dribble of air through the vents.

Any one had a similar problem or know a solution?

3 hours ago, Saracens_fabia said:

Problem 3 is the climate control, when the ac is not enabled the vent blow at full speed. Soon as the ac is enable it's as if a flap shuts and it stops letting the air through. You can still hear the fan working but only a dribble of air through the vents.

Any one had a similar problem or know a solution?

The air flow through the vents on mine can be really quite slow at times, usually when the cabin is up to temperature (or down to it on sunny days like today).

To be honest I’ve been very impressed with the AC in mine; manages the airflow very effectively. Only niggle I have is a whining noise from the AC compressor.

Are you sure there’s a problem with yours? If you haven’t already, try raising or lowering the temperature to max or min and see if the flow rate increases.

I get slightly more air flow at around 20 degrees but I can here the recirculation flap closing underneath the glovebox. Thus giving me the poor flor issue

Re a/c whining noise: On my mk II the local dealer wanted to replace my pump at a proposed cost of over £800 because of a whine. I took it an a/c specialist who said "rubbish". He just gave the system a recharge with the recommended amount of lubricant in the mix and the whine went away.

I had a similar sounding problem with the climate control.

It turned out to be a blocked pollen filter.

Would be an easy check to eliminate 1 possible solution.

Thanks Faz I will give this a try

On 05/04/2025 at 10:13, Saracens_fabia said:

Thanks Faz I will give this a try

@Saracens_fabia can you advise what happened when you tried this? Anyone else had the problem and know the fix? It's infuriating and I need the air con working in this weather!

My air con still seems go off randomly. It seems to work better when recirculation is selected rather than auto. It's a stupidly over complicated heating and cooling system.

Thank you @faz244 agreed it's over complicated, wondering if I should have bought a mk3 Octavia... I removed the air filter and it seemed ok going down my road and couldn't replicate the problem but filter didnt look very dirty so doubt that was the cause. Still missing my 2009 Focus I swapped for the Octavia 2 weeks ago...

When the air con goes off in the auto setting, I turn the climate control off then back on and cold air blasts back out again.

If you set the air con to Lo the vents close which is a fault this should not be happening. But due to poor temperature and moisture sensors they automatically put the vents into a shut position

To work around this, you will need to have done the following.

Select Clima

Press SYNC

Then select full speed and air con enabled.

Then you will need to put the temperature up to cabin temperature.

Sounds crazy but it works 28 degrees on the screen will actually blow ice cold.

Then as cabin temp decreases you can slowly work the temperature on the screen down vice versa.

It can be blowing cold air then can hear some flaps closing and goes off even when it's set to 20°c.

Is a 'flap reset' possible on the Mk4 like it has been on other Skoda's using a combination of button presses?

If so I'd try that first

I'm not sure if there is a way of resetting the flaps on the Mk4.

9 hours ago, Saracens_fabia said:

If you set the air con to Lo the vents close which is a fault this should not be happening. But due to poor temperature and moisture sensors they automatically put the vents into a shut position

To work around this, you will need to have done the following.

Select Clima

Press SYNC

Then select full speed and air con enabled.

Then you will need to put the temperature up to cabin temperature.

Sounds crazy but it works 28 degrees on the screen will actually blow ice cold.

Then as cabin temp decreases you can slowly work the temperature on the screen down vice versa.

The process outlined by @Saracens_fabia does seem to work. But this is madness, why is this necessary? I also found again today the problem seems to start when putting the vehicle into reverse?! Come on Skoda/VW - surely with reports of this across different VAG models you can find the solution and fix your software?? I am wondering if a software version update might help, I recently updated to 1985, but can't say if the problem existed before update.

Edited 11 August, 202511 Aug by jimharston23

On 11/08/2025 at 21:46, jimharston23 said:

The process outlined by @Saracens_fabia does seem to work. But this is madness, why is this necessary? I also found again today the problem seems to start when putting the vehicle into reverse?! Come on Skoda/VW - surely with reports of this across different VAG models you can find the solution and fix your software?? I am wondering if a software version update might help, I recently updated to 1985, but can't say if the problem existed before update.

It's a common misconception that an infotainment update fixes all of the problems with your car when in fact it only updates the infotainment. Not entirely sure how many control modules there are in total, but each runs its own software. I used to believe updating the infotainment was a cure all going off what I'd read on this forum but it's not.

For example I recently had an airbag issue and needed to update the airbag module software to clear it. If your air con issue was down to a software problem then you'd possibly need to look at the air con's control module, not the infotainment's.

11 hours ago, scotthugh3s said:

It's a common misconception that an infotainment update fixes all of the problems with your car when in fact it only updates the infotainment. Not entirely sure how many control modules there are in total, but each runs its own software. I used to believe updating the infotainment was a cure all going off what I'd read on this forum but it's not.

I've lost count how any times I've posted that message in here. On a typical modern Skoda there can be over 30 different software controlled modules, all with their own software.

The clima setting of automatic is very clever but, as you've seen, once the system believes everything is fine the air vent flow seems to be very minimal. I've found that moving the fan control off "auto" and selecting manual fan speed at 2 or three gets you a more consistent flow.

This is also my solution when four up in colder conditions - the rear passenger windows do start to steam up with four people in the car. Certainly a clever system but not perfect for every situation.