My brother in law has just purchased a 1 year old 1.9 TDI ambiente and was concerned that the air conditioning was not working correctly.

We started the car up, turned the temperature control to 18 degrees, switched on the air con button, and waited.

The air coming through the vents did not appear to be getting cooler at all.

Went back to my 1.9TDI 2001 Elegance, started my car up, set the air con temperature to 18 degrees & within a minute cold air was emitting from the air vents.

I can't believe that a 1 year old car needs a re-gas already.

Anyone with any ideas or am I missing something.

By the way, it was me that convinced him to get an Octavia & trade in his Ford Focus.

If the aircon had not been used for a year I suppose it could have leaked if the seals had perished, but a year sounds a bit too soon....

Presume the aircon gubbings look in order-I have heard of stones bouncing up and damaging the aircon system on other makes of cars.

Sounds like there is a fault, might be a faulty flap motor.

Or it could be out of gas if it has a hole in the condensor.

It wont be seals perishing as the A/C is always running and circulating the gas and oil in the system.

The condenser may have copped an unfortunate one, check for stone damage on the front of the coil, IIRC it's at the front of the condenser/intercooler/radiotor sandwich.

The air con is one of the first things to be checked when giving a potential purchase the once over or it could be expensive. It's regularly overlooked.

As the car is only 1 year old it could be a warranty issue or you could take it up with the seller of the car

It wont be seals perishing as the A/C is always running and circulating the gas and oil in the system.

Interesting - I thought if the ECON light was on, there was no "aircon" as such, just a normal heating system as you find in a 10 year old car with no aircon? With the ECON light out the aircon is running? Only just got my Octy so I'm still learning!

It doesnt run at full capacity all the time, when the ECON is on the compressor runs at a very small percentage of it's normal capacity. It's not enough for you to know it's still running.

Interesting - I thought if the ECON light was on, there was no "aircon" as such, just a normal heating system as you find in a 10 year old car with no aircon? With the ECON light out the aircon is running? Only just got my Octy so I'm still learning!

As Lummox says, in all newer VAG motors, the a/c is always on at about 2% load to keep all the seals and condensor moist and lubricated

I've had a problem with my aircon on my Vrs at 12months old. changed the control unit first but turns out it is a faulty flap motor. Apparently this is not uncommon!

It isnt. If a flap motor goes down it usually knocks out the 5v feed to the other flap motors from the contol unit. And the only way to find out which one is to disconnect each one in turn and wait for them to come back online,

Which is all well and good but to get onto one of the flaps the dash has to come out.

As Lummox says, in all newer VAG motors, the a/c is always on at about 2% load to keep all the seals and condensor moist and lubricated

Cool, they think of everything these days!