air con always blows out hot but feels cold by armrest?!

[ol' smokey]

Hi All,

Newbie here with a suitably newbie-ish question, looking for some insight.

My air-con has never worked (I thought it did, this is the drawback of test driving in winter!) and last summer in the heatwave it was unbearable.

I have noticed however that when I have my arm on the central armrest, I can feel a cold breeze coming from *somewhere*. This makes me wonder whether there is a leak somewhere, are there any of the a/c components in this region that could be leaking, etc?

Also I have noticed within the last month that occasionally it locks into eco mode, without much rhyme or reason.

Your thoughts and advie about both issues would be most appreciated.

 

[OliNix]

In short no. I assume you have tried to have it re-gassed? The eco light coming on looks like it is telling you there is either no gas in the system or the A/C clutch is bad. A VCDS scan will tell you about if there is any A/C gas in the system. Just checking that you also know that the eco light turns the A/C off.... not on!

The A/C rad is at the front of the radiator stack and the condenser is usually in the right hand side of the engine bay. The compressor is then driven off of the auxiliary belt. The location depends what engine you have though.

There is obviously a hole to the outside where the shifter and all the linkages come through to the cabin, one of your seals could be bad, creating this “cold” draught?

 

[Mike B]

Lots of ways you can check aircon easiest is to feel the pipes feeding through under the bonnet.One should be really cold.Nothing near armrest so look for an open vent or gap somewhere.Aircon might just ned a regas or possible compressor failure

 

[ol' smokey]

Thanks guys. I've not had it regassed, this is one my pre-spring/summer jobs to do (but at this rate I'll need it done before march). Hopefully this will solve the problem and there isn't a larger underlying issue.

Will the pipes be cold to touch all the time or only when engine is running?

Handy to know the locations of the various A/C gubbins, thanks Oli. It's a 2.0 170ps Tdi.

I'll have a look around for the hole, in general the interior is pretty tidy though so I would hope that it is in good fettle- that being said, there wouldn't be the cold blast without one...

It's reassuring to know that there is nothing that could be leaking in that area, this should make resolving more straightforward.

 

[Mike B]

regas would pointless if there is a major fault.Try checking to see if you can hear the compressor kick in when you switch econ off.If the light wont go off then best to check things and get some advice before any big spend.If its working the intake pipe will only get cold when the engine is running and the aircon is on

 

[ol' smokey]

ok, will check this, thank you. The light sometimes stays on but as I say sometimes it is possible to switch it off, just depends on what mood it is in.

 

[OliNix]

A VCDS scan will most likely tell you the whole story. Especially as it seems to be self diagnosing and throwing a warning light

 

[ol' smokey]

Car being serviced today and have asked them to do a scan too.

What element is self diagnosing, out of interest? The fact that it is jumping into eco mode?

 

[OliNix]

Car being serviced today and have asked them to do a scan too.

What element is self diagnosing, out of interest? The fact that it is jumping into eco mode?

Yes, this is the system giving a warning that there is a fault

 

[ol' smokey]

Took car to ATS on Saturday, pre-gas vacuum/pressure test was A-OK and actually some gas came out too as it was still half full. So re-gassed etc and now working fine, they got 6 degrees C out of it. No longer stuck in econ mode which is a relief.

Will continue to monitor as I was expecting it to be empty due to the econ mode being stuck on- so makes me wonder whether something else is amiss and the AC now working is only temporary...however now I long for some hot weather to get my moneys' worth!