I have an X reg (2000) 1.4 Fabia 16V Comfort, and since I bought it the air con has been playing up. Initially it appeared not to work so I asked the garage I bought it from to sort it out. A few days later they told me that the air con had never been activated internally within the car and it should now work fine, although I am dubious that this was actually true.

So fast forward a few months to the warmer weather and it appears to not work again so I get a service and regas done and nothing is leaking and gas levels are fine and it works, occasionally.

It now seems that the air con will only work when it is not sunny or particularly warm outside, for example I drove all the way to Oxford (some 150 miles) and it was a bright sunny day (24C ish) on the way there, and the AC did not work one bit. On the way back the following day it was dull, windy and overcast (14C ish) and the AC worked brilliantly, but as I got closer to home the weather improved, until it hit about 18-20C outside and the sun really came out and the AC stopped working!

I have it booked back in with the original garage, as despite it being out of warranty I have returned it on the basis that the original repairs they have done have not resolved the problem of the AC not working.

Does this sound at all feasible, that the AC will only work in colder weather? Or am I going insane? I am past caring if they charge me for it actually, I just want the air con to work once and for all and to be honest air con that only works in chilly weather is not that great. Any thoughts?

it needs fault code checking, but a common fault is evaporator temp sensor, a search will throw up lots of info

Thanks, sorry I should have done a search really.

Hopefully I can convince the garage to check for this.

Sounds just like the evap temp sensor. I had the same problem and the air con wouldn't work in the heat of the day, but would when it was cooler at night. If it is that, the sensor is only a few quid and there's a guide to DIY fix it. The dealer will charge 3 hours labour and try and remove all the dash to get to it....

Chris

Maybe I should just fix it myself - not much experience with these things though, would it be relatively straight forward for a novice?

Reading the results of some of the people on here who've done, I'd say it must be a very easy DIY job

Here's Apogee's excellent how to....

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/technical-guides/fabia-evap-temp-sensor-how-pics/66182/

Chris