I've just received an e-mail from my dealer offering a Summer Health Check and an air-con service for £99. My records show that the car (Karoq Sept 2018) had an air-con service some 3 years ago during its 4th annual service.

Is an air-con service worth bothering with? Is £99 an OK price?

Comments welcome! Cheers

I'm sure that all they do is check it works and report back at extra cost if it needs gas or anything else - that fluff about inspecting the compressor, condenser and dryer is just that, fluff - as for the other 34 point car check, hmmm........

So, in answer to your question, ask yourself, does it work, is it cold enough?

If no then don't waste £99 on what you already know, use it towards the cost of re gassing.

I had a similar offer from my local dealer - astonishingly it doesn't include the regas, it's just a disinfect of the evaporator.

I’d ask “is my AC working (getting cold)? Is it smelly?”. If the answer is no twice I’d tell the dealer “no thanks”. Lots of these extras are just fishing trips by the dealers. Better things to spend your money on. If the answer to the above questions is “yes”, not sure I’d use a Skoda dealer to fix it.

Had the full a/c service, at two year service. Drain/recover gas, check pipework, etc, refill gas/oil/dye, set off freshener bomb. That is not cheap, so would not get much other than a look over in the health check. As only serviced in March, can’t see what a health check would gain me, but different circumstances for different people.

I found out my air con wasn't working a few weeks ago. I had the car in for some other warranty work so they re-gassed the air con system at the same time. The cost was £99 (I think this was some kind of promotion by Skoda). Works fine now. But I do ask myself why I had to pay for a re-gas when the car was under warranty.

Probably re-gassing while still under warranty will always be charged for as these "mobile AC systems" do lose some gas across seals and plastic piping - it is expected and allowed while still being able to claim that the system is "leak free", all relative I'm afraid.

Edited 3 June, 20251 yr by rum4mo
"seals" not "sealed" !!

12 hours ago, nbramwel said:

I found out my air con wasn't working a few weeks ago. I had the car in for some other warranty work so they re-gassed the air con system at the same time. The cost was £99 (I think this was some kind of promotion by Skoda). Works fine now. But I do ask myself why I had to pay for a re-gas when the car was under warranty.

If it stops working again, in a short time, then you may have a fault that the warranty may cover. Otherwise, they may put a slow loss of gas down to fair wear and tear. Not sure if the modern gas is more prone to leakage, but all my old, with the old gas, cars never needed two yearly “service” - more like a once in five years top up.

2010 Golf, owned from new, never needed a top-up, still frosty cold………

The car still has until November on its 'All-in' service deal. The aircon is still working as usual, so I'll wait until I really notice a decline in performance, and take it to my local independent.

I should add that the aircon in my Karoq has never been very impressive.

1 hour ago, StEdmund said:

I should add that the aircon in my Karoq has never been very impressive.

Just like the heater the worst air con and heater I have experienced in 59 years of driving!

On 23/05/2025 at 16:49, StEdmund said:

Is an air-con service worth bothering with?

If you're not happy with the aircon, call a mobile service who'll come to you at home or work. Don't waste time and money on a Skoda Main Stealer.

10 hours ago, Karock said:

Just like the heater the worst air con and heater I have experienced in 59 years of driving!

That's interesting, as despite finding many aspects of my manual 2023 1.5 TSi SE L dissapointing, the HVAC system appears to perform well😀

The dealer changed the compressor on ours at about 18mths old and I'm sure it just needed regassing (was a making a squealing noise in hot weather, but there was always a background fan like noise from the dash when the a/c was on).

With a new compressor the background noise was just the same, and a courtesy Karoq they gave me was the same. The squealing is gone, but like I said, I reckon that was just low gas (have had similar in other cars but after much longer ownership).

We also have an Ateca and the a/c on that is completely silent.

My Aircon is also completely silent probably becasuse it is not doing very much!

I remember reading that there are two settings for the aircon; one for more temperate climes (e.g. the UK) and the other for warmer (e.g. Mediterranean) climes.

I understand that an adjustment cannot be made by the average punter (e.g. me) but can be effected by clever/daring people using a box of electronic tricks that gets them into the car's inner thoughts.

I think mine must be set for arctic areas!

21 hours ago, StEdmund said:

I remember reading that there are two settings for the aircon; one for more temperate climes (e.g. the UK) and the other for warmer (e.g. Mediterranean) climes.

I understand that an adjustment cannot be made by the average punter (e.g. me) but can be effected by clever/daring people using a box of electronic tricks that gets them into the car's inner thoughts.

It's clearer colder in our Ateca - icy cold out the vents.

The Karoq reminds of a Mercedes I had where the a/c seemed to do just about enough, but nothing more. Owned that car for 15yrs, had various work done the a/c but it never improved. Yet they sell the same car is the US and Saudi etc and it's the same setup.

You can change the a/c profile in both the Ateca and Karoq in the HVAC setup menu in the infotainment. Not clear exactly what it does - the only obvious thing is the lowest fan speed is a little higher as you go up in profile.