Aircon question with Dual Auto Climate control

[jet_andy]

This may seem an odd question - but the indicating light in the A/C button is suppossed to stay illuminated when the A/C is on - right?

I ask because mine doesn't. I only noticed today after I got in the car mid afternoon with the car having been in the sun for a few hours. The A/C didn't seem to be getting very cold, although it was cooling slightly. Started to check the settings and found this problem. The light illuminates as I press the button, but goes out as soon as I release it. In this weather would also exepct it to be on when I select Auto. I've booked it into the dealer next week anyway.

 

[Kristian83]

Yes, it sounds like its at fault. It should be staying on after you activate it.

 

[NHN]

Get the gas checked at kwik fit foc, afaik if its gassed ok they wont charge & they shouldn't feck that up lol.

 

[dieseldoug]

Not sure if that is correct, set it to AUTO and it will work better, I find this works well all the time.

 

[a6_chris]

New car I would be straight back to Audi.

 

[jet_andy]

New car I would be straight back to Audi.

Booked in Wednesday.

 

[Vertigo1]

Get the gas checked at kwik fit foc, afaik if its gassed ok they wont charge & they shouldn't feck that up lol.

Not sure why on earth you'd take a car under warranty to KwikFit - just get the dealer to sort it

 

[NHN]

Because its just a gas check, which others with fair cars have abused the offer, he also has to wait a week, so to get that out of the equation quickly & probably free, go to them, logic.

 

[cemerson]

Why would the gas level affect an LED light on the switch?

 

[NHN]

If the system isn't working properly for whatever reason, it can disable the aircon & the button would not allow aircon to turn on as such & inturn wouldn't illuminate or go of depending on the car/climate system employed.

 

[cemerson]

Ah OK

 

[jet_andy]

Gas or no gas I'll leave it to the dealer. After all if gas is OK there's nothing for Kwik Fit to do, if the gas has gone there'll be a reason which dealer will have to sort out.

 

[jet_andy]

For those interested the fault was with a pressure sensor. Dealership had ordered some parts on spec so repair was completed with the one visit. And a small box of chocolates to help for the inconvenience too!

 

[manmoth]

Could this just be because you are switching the driver modes, if I recall, some driver modes put the air con in Eco mode, I haven't noticed if the light says on in Eco but perhaps this is the difference.

 

[NHN]

I'm shocked, pressure sensor/switch on a new 8V, usually they go after years on most cars, oh well.

 

[Trebuchet]

Light stays on in Eco. You can turn air on out of Eco ( but leave drive select in Eco) if you press the auto button in the climate controls again

Also, found the auto highbeam last night

 

[jet_andy]

Could this just be because you are switching the driver modes, if I recall, some driver modes put the air con in Eco mode, I haven't noticed if the light says on in Eco but perhaps this is the difference.

Err...no...they replaced a faulty sensor, as stated...

Light does stay on in Eco, but system doesn't work 'as hard' to maintain climate.

 

[jet_andy]

Well that didn't last long. Was fine coming home last night, but this morning was back to the fault condition. Thinking it's not the sensor after all...

Not best pleased. Back to the dealer Monday.

 

[NHN]

As I said, I was shocked lol.

Just curious, did they check the aircon system is full, as its not necessary on the G65 sensors I know of, just swap over & that's it.

 

[jet_andy]

Don't know to be honest, but on the way home Wednesday it was working fine, really cold. I think there's a leak and it vented overnight.

Trouble is I have to wait until Thursday now, forgot I was doing something Monday.

 

[Chris28]

Light stays on in Eco. You can turn air on out of Eco ( but leave drive select in Eco) if you press the auto button in the climate controls again

Also, found the auto highbeam last night

Trebuchet, where was this setting out of interest?

 

[cemerson]

You just turn high beam on and it handles it, surely?

 

[dbm]

High beam assist, presumably. Turn on high beam and then, at speeds over 40mph, the car will turn the high beam on and off automatically according to conditions. It works well most of the time in my experience, just gets confused in dual carriageway scenarios where it can't see the headlights of on-coming cars due to the barrier.

 

[jet_andy]

So, getting back to the OP subject....I'm not happy!

Car went in yesterday, had to keep it overnight, called this morning and told it was stone damage to the condenser and won't be covered by warranty...so that will be in excess of £600!!
I think you can imagine my reaction.

I know the dealer is limited in what they can do - I work in a similar environment and have a good friend and colleague who was once the Warranty Administrator at said dealership...

I've already been on the phone to Audi Customer Services to set the ball rolling, and expect to get a large part if not all paid, bearing in mind car only just over 2 months old. And so far had to visit dealer 5 times.

Of course this doesn't explain their initial wrong diagnosis when, as I suspected, there was a leak all along.

What I don't get - and this is a problem with most makes, is if these parts are so susceptible to stone damage, why don't they have adequate protection? It wouldn't be difficult. The cynic in me says it because they know the customer will always have to pay for the repairs...

 

[cemerson]

You should push for it being a design flaw that the part isn't adequately protected from stone damage

 

[jet_andy]

Totally agree - 'not fit for purpose' is a term I'm fond of!

 

[SJW]

So, getting back to the OP subject....I'm not happy!

Car went in yesterday, had to keep it overnight, called this morning and told it was stone damage to the condenser and won't be covered by warranty...so that will be in excess of £600!!
I think you can imagine my reaction.

I know the dealer is limited in what they can do - I work in a similar environment and have a good friend and colleague who was once the Warranty Administrator at said dealership...

I've already been on the phone to Audi Customer Services to set the ball rolling, and expect to get a large part if not all paid, bearing in mind car only just over 2 months old. And so far had to visit dealer 5 times.

Of course this doesn't explain their initial wrong diagnosis when, as I suspected, there was a leak all along.

What I don't get - and this is a problem with most makes, is if these parts are so susceptible to stone damage, why don't they have adequate protection? It wouldn't be difficult. The cynic in me says it because they know the customer will always have to pay for the repairs...

Have followed this post from the start & quite shocked that stone damage should be the cause of the AC fault, especially on a 2 month old car. Hope you get a result on this being corrected with no expense to you. I'm curious to know how stones are able to cause such damage without some reflecting/protective layer. Agree with Cemerson on pushing for a design flaw. Did Audi confirm how this was happening/happened Andy?? Did they elaborate. It's not like you have gone off-roading with the car...

 

[A3sportbackMark]

So, getting back to the OP subject....I'm not happy!

Car went in yesterday, had to keep it overnight, called this morning and told it was stone damage to the condenser and won't be covered by warranty...so that will be in excess of £600!!
I think you can imagine my reaction.

I know the dealer is limited in what they can do - I work in a similar environment and have a good friend and colleague who was once the Warranty Administrator at said dealership...

I've already been on the phone to Audi Customer Services to set the ball rolling, and expect to get a large part if not all paid, bearing in mind car only just over 2 months old. And so far had to visit dealer 5 times.

Of course this doesn't explain their initial wrong diagnosis when, as I suspected, there was a leak all along.

What I don't get - and this is a problem with most makes, is if these parts are so susceptible to stone damage, why don't they have adequate protection? It wouldn't be difficult. The cynic in me says it because they know the customer will always have to pay for the repairs...

Having a car for only 2 months shouldn't cause such a failure, I strongly beleive it should be covered by the warranty, I would push in that direction - as you are. Currently I have a ford puma, which developed an air con fault after 6 months from new, and the ford garage fixed it under warranty, no questions asked.
It's not good credibility for the Audi brand if one of their cars fail in this way after just 2 months. Of course, not every single Audi car can be perfect, but as long as they take responsibility and repair the fault under warranty, that's all we can ask.

Wishing you good luck in getting this sorted.

 

[NHN]

So, getting back to the OP subject....I'm not happy!

Car went in yesterday, had to keep it overnight, called this morning and told it was stone damage to the condenser and won't be covered by warranty...so that will be in excess of £600!!
I think you can imagine my reaction.

Feck me, how big was that stone then as that's a 1st for me, lol, also with the grill in place/the small slates, I just cant see how it could be the case, but alas I'm not there to see said damage, but sounds a bit suspect, unless they've made the part out of a lesser quality material, which would then make it susceptible to stones, but for sure I'd be heading for a warranty/goodwill as I've not read 1 person with a stone damaged condenser before, not 1, that I can recall.

 

[97catalunya]

Feck me, how big was that stone then as that's a 1st for me, lol, also with the grill in place/the small slates, I just cant see how it could be the case, but alas I'm not there to see said damage, but sounds a bit suspect, unless they've made the part out of a lesser quality material, which would then make it susceptible to stones, but for sure I'd be heading for a warranty/goodwill as I've not read 1 person with a stone damaged condenser before, not 1, that I can recall.

What about "Audi Cam" arn't they supposed to film any work that needs to be done so they can send you a link to the video and show you what they need to do?

 

[NHN]

They're not supposed to, but you may request this to show you the damage.

 

[jet_andy]

Well I'm pleased to report that Audi have done the right thing, the A/C is fixed and I've not paid a penny.

Audi Customer Services called this morning to check all the details, and advise what the 'Tech' guys had reported. Apparently there is no additional protection for the condenser because 'it's not considered necessary for UK roads'. I commented that they had a higher opinion of UK roads than I did! Further to my point that there should be more protection, they stated that if the see a number of these failures, they do review and change the design if deemed necessary. To this I said that I'd rather Audi did their long term testing with their own cars - not mine.

That aside I had another call from the dealer later in the day to say that the full cost would be met by both Audi UK and the dealer combined. It was the right thing to do and I'm glad I didn't have to argue up from a lesser offer.

Both the dealer and Audi UK have behaved as you would wish, and although I'd rather it hadn't happened in the first place, I'm entirely satisfied with the outcome and the way it has been handled.

And as nice as the young ladies are that I've been dealing with, I don't want to see them again for some time yet...

 

[cemerson]

Great result, and should prove useful if others have this problem as well - it has put my mind at rest at least!

 

[A3sportbackMark]

Well done for sorting it out, bet you have the smile back now!

 

[Cheeseybit]

Hi all. Has anyone else had this problem? I’ve just got from my dealer and been told that my 5 month old, 6000 km A3 has had its condenser splattered by a stone and I need to give Audi over 600 euro if I want to be cool again…

I live in Germany and Audi here does not accept that this is a warranty issues (even though the service specialist has told me he has seen loads of Audi condensers die such a death).

OP: would you have a ref number and some such that you could share with me (via PM) that I could give to Audi Germany so I can prove that in the UK Audi are paying out for repairs?

 

[jet_andy]

Hi all. Has anyone else had this problem? I’ve just got from my dealer and been told that my 5 month old, 6000 km A3 has had its condenser splattered by a stone and I need to give Audi over 600 euro if I want to be cool again…

I live in Germany and Audi here does not accept that this is a warranty issues (even though the service specialist has told me he has seen loads of Audi condensers die such a death).

OP: would you have a ref number and some such that you could share with me (via PM) that I could give to Audi Germany so I can prove that in the UK Audi are paying out for repairs?

My Audi UK reference was AU-2013/07-016117. I argued that if the condenser is susceptible to this type of damage, it should be suitably protected, and if it is not it then is a design flaw and not fit for purpose. I think I probably had a stronger case too because the car was only 2 months old.

However, I also pointed out that I had my first car fitted with A/C back in 1994, and had had 8 or 9 cars in that time with A/C (none Audi), probably done close to 500,000 miles in them, and never had this problem before.

Definitely argue the point - it would cost very little to protect it, but because most times the customer has to pay they do not bother. You may not get all paid, but I would try.

Don't have anything else in writing, was all sorted on the phone.

 

[Cheeseybit]

Many thanks for the quick reply. Believe me, I will argue this all the way.

As I mentioned, the service guy was very sympathetic and realized that there must be a design flaw. It really is a joke if Audi can’t find a way to locate the condenser away from a danger zone.

I’ll keep the thread updated.

 

[gjpgjp]

My car is going into the dealer tomorrow for the "A/C light will not stay on fault". I do hope that a stone hasn't hit me.

 

[gjpgjp]

Okay. My car went in and it was diagnosed that a stone chip has also hit my air conditioning unit causing £709 worth of damage. Not a good day :-(

 

[Jerodequin]

About 10 years ago I had a renault megane which I drove for around 5 years - during that time, the air con unit was smashed 4 times by stone chips - really did my head in at the time!