Air Conditioning Not cold when stationary? Any Ideas?

[neo265]

Noticed the other day that when I was waiting in traffic, the air from the vents was heating up to a point that its not chilled any more even tho it was cold when moving. The indicator on the climate is still on but just pumping warm air. As soon as Im on the move again, it goes back to a normal ice cold temp.

What I have noticed is Im sure the cooling fan on the radiator isnt coming on like it used to, can any of you confirm this is the likely cause? Its obviously loosing the ram of air.

Thanks

 

[BCM]

poss needing the air con recharged?

 

[neo265]

I dont see why it would need recharging as when Im moving..30mph+ its nice and frosty. Just when Im crawling in traffic. It has to be the cooling fan?

 

[Big_daddy]

It most liley need recharging.

when you moving the condense air from the air is blown out at a faster rate, which makes you fell more colder. so when you are parked there is no wind so is comming in. (Abit hard to explain)

 

[RobM]

It most liley need recharging.

when you moving the condense air from the air is blown out at a faster rate, which makes you fell more colder. so when you are parked there is no wind so is comming in. (Abit hard to explain)

But that wont be affected by it being re-gassed.

If the temperature was consistently low, I'd instantly say re-gas it. But I don't think that's the problem.

I think it's more likely that the air con unit itself needs attention as it sounds like it's struggling to create the air pressure needed to cool the car when there isn't a steady rush of air.

Either that, or somewhere along the line you have a blockage! Checked your pollen filter recently?

 

[BCM]

but if the gas isnt up to much then surely a that would make the unit stuggle and not do the job effectively, a reachard is only 25 quid, but i'd maybe check the fans as you say along with pipes etc first!

 

[RobM]

That's true, but then it goes back to the fact that when moving it's doing a perfect job.....?

 

[neo265]

Yea, when Im moving its perfectly frosty. Excuse my ignorance regarding air conditioning systems but when it was working fine whilst crawling in traffic, I could hear the main cooling fan come on the radiator every now and again. Ive not noticed that recently.

 

[Bogwoppit]

It's not the gas(refrigerant) as the system is working fine when the car is moving and air is flowing through the condensor and cooling the refrigerant. It has to be the condensor fan that isn't working. I work with refrigerant display units at work so this is a fairly educated guess.

 

[neo265]

It's not the gas(refrigerant) as the system is working fine when the car is moving and air is flowing through the condensor and cooling the refrigerant. It has to be the condensor fan that isn't working. I work with refrigerant display units at work so this is a fairly educated guess.

That was my guess too. It had a new glo plug under warrenty a few months back and Ive not used the AC much...I'll check the connections. Cheers

 

[Bogwoppit]

It could also be the sensor(if it has one) that tells the condensor fan to turn on, after checking these I would then suspect the refigerant charge.

 

[neo265]

Thanks peter0976. Any ideas where the sensor is? Could be a bad connection there unless its not acessable.

 

[neo265]

Just to let you know. Had the car booked into LC Charles in Crewe and they had to replace the engine cooling fans and the control unit. I basically had no cooling whatsoever for the engine or air conditioning. Good job its a diesel.

 

[RobM]

That's not good, was it an expensive bill? Aren't the cooling fans and control unit a damn expensive setup?

 

[neo265]

Under warrenty thankfully.

 

[STEYRMASTER]

hi chaps had same poblem on my 04 leon cupra tdi it turned out to be one of the fuses mounted on the battery had blown!
I would check that first as they cost £1 from the dealers and it is a realy common fault.

 

[Danbo]

Ive just started having this problem. Im hoping its a fuse then. Will check tomorrow.

 

[Leigh15]

It's worth bearing in mind that if it was the fan fuse that had blown, this is normally indicative of the slow fans having failed - the constant stop/start of the fast fans causes the fuse to overheat.

Do a search for 'LCR twin fans' - there's a big thread there about this - if slow fans are dead, solution is either new OEM setup which is very expensive or there's an aftermarket fix available

 

[Danbo]

Cheers for that Leigh, reading with interest.

Was not the fuse for me...... fan not switching on at all.

 

[edmong]

Stick the recirculation button on, problem sorted!