AC not working after Condenser Replacement

[m4ttn1]

Morning Guys,

I've had my 2018 1.4 TSI Leon for just over 6 weeks now and its a lovely car.

However when I bought the car it had just been re-gassed and the AC was ice cold, however after 3 weeks it was blowing warm, so I contacted an RAC approved garage locally to me and they said they were 90% sure it was condenser issue so they replaced that, luckily this was covered under my warranty, I just had to pay the diagnostics fee. However 3 weeks has passed and its blowing warm air through.

Has anyone got any ideas what it could be?

I spoke to the chaps in the garage and they said they'd pressurized the system for about 2hrs and it was very very slowly loosing pressure (before the condenser replacement), so they put it down to a stone chip in the condenser mesh as this is a common fault. They did also put soapy water over the parts of the AC system that are accessible from the engine bay but couldn't find a visible leak.

Obviously with the summer coming, and it currently being a bank holiday weekend that's surprisingly warm I want my AC to work, just not sure what to do next.

Any advice is welcome

All the best,
Matt

 

[James_R]

What they did there Matt, was guess, fire the parts cannon and got it wrong, and your warranty company has picked up the bill.

The issue now is your warranty company might have a problem paying for a second repair given the original misdiagnosis.

I'd return to the repairer and let them deal with it.

The likelihood is, that if you can't find a leak within the engine bay then it could possibly be the evaporator behind the dash.

 

[m4ttn1]

Afternoon James,

Yes tricky one! This might be the case with the warranty company, I'll give the garage a ring on tuesday and see what they say.

Idk if it helps or not, but when I press the AC button in the cabin to come on, I hear a motor kick in and a bit of a hissing noise like it's trying to do something but then it just blows out warm air. Even on AC max its just hot air.

Thanks for the quick reply

 

[Jasonpaul]

We have the same car same year and ours is leaking from the hose that goes from the compressor to the condenser. It's leaking where the hose joins the front of the condenser. We changed the o ring in the hose but that made no difference so it seems likely the hose itself is the problem. Apparantly they degrade over time and become porous. UV dye showed it bubbling out where the two join

 

[m4ttn1]

We have the same car same year and ours is leaking from the hose that goes from the compressor to the condenser. It's leaking where the hose joins the front of the condenser. We changed the o ring in the hose but that made no difference so it seems likely the hose itself is the problem. Apparantly they degrade over time and become porous. UV dye showed it bubbling out where the two join

Thanks for the info Jason.

I did have x2 O-rings replaced with the condenser so potentially it could be a hose, however I would have thought the chaps at the garage would have seen bubbling when they did the soapy water test but idk for sure.

 

[Jasonpaul]

Have they regassed it with UV dye at any point?

 

[m4ttn1]

Have they regassed it with UV dye at any point?

Tell you the truth I'm not 100% sure if they have, I know they said they'd pressure tested it which I believe was with Nitrogen, however in terms of UV dye I'll have to check when I ring them on tuesday.

My issue is that I'm kind of stuck with the garage as for it to be done under warranty it needs to be done by an RAC approved garage, and it's the closest one to me.

 

[Jasonpaul]

I was in the same situation but the high pressure hose wasn't covered by the warranty and it was £396 from SEAT

 

[m4ttn1]

I was in the same situation but the high pressure hose wasn't covered by the warranty and it was £396 from SEAT

Update: So I was on the phone yesterday and I've booked in with the warranty garage for them to look over the issue again on Friday.

However, I was also on the phone with an AC specialist to get his point of view on the issue, and his advice was that when the condenser is replaced, the pipe / hose that leads into it should also be replaced (as you said Jason), as it can go porous over time. His comment was that if you're doing it properly it's one of those things you replace whilst you're down there and the whole front is off.

So bit bummed out about that, however its good in some ways as hopefully this will fix it.

It'll be more interesting to see if the warranty company will cover it, as it's basically doing the same job twice.

Cheers guys

 

[m4ttn1]

Evening chaps, so here's what the garage found this afternoon with the UV dye pressure test on the AC system (image below).

The garage have said they are happy to replace the rubber O-Ring seals, but I suspect the actual pipes might need doing...

From looking at a technical drawings on screen at the garage, I believe if the lower pipe needs doing there are a couple of sensors attached to it and its rather complicated - so I'll get a quote on Monday to find out the damage

I have found an image from the Repair Documents / Seat Manuals on here which are super helpful (as attached below - I'm referring to pipe 8 and 2)

What are your thoughts?

 

[Jasonpaul]

It's not a cheap job I'm afraid. We started with the O rings then the high pressure hose and now the Condenser is found to be leaking. Bumper off each time for access. The Condenser was covered under our warranty but the hose wasn't. It's not easy negotiating between the garage and the warranty company. Looking back I should have just replaced the hose and condenser from the start and fought with the warranty company afterward. Best of luck

 

[m4ttn1]

It's not a cheap job I'm afraid. We started with the O rings then the high pressure hose and now the Condenser is found to be leaking. Bumper off each time for access. The Condenser was covered under our warranty but the hose wasn't. It's not easy negotiating between the garage and the warranty company. Looking back I should have just replaced the hose and condenser from the start and fought with the warranty company afterward. Best of luck

Thanks Jason, yeah sadly having a car is an expensive hobby!

Do you by any chance know which pipe / hose the high pressure one is? For example referring to the image I put in above would it be the upper or lower. I can see the upper leads directly to the condenser and is a shorter hose with no sensors on it... therefore hopefully cheaper but idk until I get the quote. Just wondering if you had one or both hoses replaced?

Cheers,
Matt

 

[Jasonpaul]

It was the upper one the part number was 5Q0816721AE on my car £396 from SEAT

 

[m4ttn1]

It was the upper one the part number was 5Q0816721AE on my car £396 from SEAT

I'll be interested to see the quote from the chaps at the garage, as that upper pipe is the short one with no sensors and that was nearly 400 quid for you. I dread to think of what the cost could be for the lower one or replacing both.

Thanks for all the info