Aircon pump faulty, or is it?

[cocadave]

Well, with the sun coming out to play i thought it ws about time that i got the air con sorted out as it hasn't been very clever since i got the car two and a half years ago (just about cooled the cabin down when i first bought it )

Anyway i took it kwik-fit for a re-gas and after the fitter connected the pipes up he informed me that there wasn.t any gas in the system what-so-ever

40 minutes later he told me that he'd filled it up and it was blowing "cold" air, smashing i thought, paid the fee and got on my way, went home for a few hours till late afternoon and then decided to go for a drive with gf, windows up air con on sweat dripping off mt head, WTF somethings not right here

Took it back to kwik-fit this morning where a very nice "master technician" happened to be on site at the time and decided this was a job for him, long story short, or shorter, spent a good half hour looking for leaks (none found), emptied the system (exactly same amount in as they filled the day before (definatly no leaks)

super tech, sorry master tech plugged his machine in and found that the compressor wasn't engaging, he said he got it to work by "touching the wires coming out of the compressor unit" he advised me i need a new unit as it is a sealed unit and can't be opened, is this true?
Also i have tried to get it to engage by "touching the wires" but havn't managed to get it to work,
will any aircon unit fit that has come from a 1.9 pd engine and whats with all the different serial numbers accross the vag range?

plaes help...........

 

[swoosh225]

By the sounds of it NO he was fobbing you off mate.If as he said he bridge the wires over and the compresser then cut in it obviously isnt faulty.Sounds like another fault in the system? Was there a feed at the compressor etc?Sounds like it requires a second opinion from a air con expert mate.

 

[cocadave]

By the sounds of it NO he was fobbing you off mate.If as he said he bridge the wires over and the compresser then cut in it obviously isnt faulty.Sounds like another fault in the system? Was there a feed at the compressor etc?Sounds like it requires a second opinion from a air con expert mate.

he didin't tell me that he'd bridged the wires over just that he'd had a feel about and as he touched the wires he heard it "click" and the pump started working, however i have prodded and poked and havn't been able to get it to kick in.

whilst driving it feels like it works intermitent, it sort of feels like its going to get colder but it doesn't, think i'll have to get a second opinion before i start looking at replacing anything.

 

[curryholic]

keep us posted as this sounds like mine. Kwik fit said it wouldn't take the gas (last year) but haven't got around to sorting it out yet... it was on the too difficult/expensive pile

 

[James_R]

Ha ha! A kwik fit master technician! I've heard it all now.
Kwik fit as a company should only be allowed to do two things: fit tyres and fit exhuasts because let's face it they are f*ck all good at anything else.

The most likely fault with your a/c is the electromagnetic clutch on the compressor is either faulty or has fallen apart. You don't need to take your car to an a/c expert or specialist, in fact if you'd have taken it to a dealer they could have pointed this out in minutes as they are a common problem with them.

Basiclly without the clutch operating, the internal shaft in the compressor cannot turn, thus refrigerant gas cannot be circulated which means the evapourator in the car is not getting cold. However if you say it does work every now and again it could just be that the clutch is sticking.

 

[cocadave]

MJ, fuuny thing happened on the way to work tonight, steady 60mph on motorway in 6th gear and was telling my brother all about it....................... turned the aircon on and hey presto, nice cold crisp air coming from the vents??? turned the temp to low and the power on full and it was lovely, (24 degrees outside) for a few minutes until we came to a stop, was still blowing cold until we set back off again, foot to floor 1st 2nd and 3rd back to about 70mph and then noticed a warm musky smell, felt the the vents and the aircon clearly wasn't working again, any ideas??

 

[James_R]

Like I've said dude it could be the clutch sticking but withoutbeing there to look at it it could well be a number of things.

 

[Chester]

That's exactly the problem I had last year. Stopped and the air-con would stop, set-off again, and the air-con would kick in. Took it to a mate and he plugged it in to his gauges. The high pressure side went totally off the map! There are two parts that needed replacing, and when mine was regassed, it was making some really funny noises, like whale song under the bonnet! Not joking.

Anyhow, turns out that it didn't quite have the right amount of refridgerent (the book he had was wrong), but no debri. Oil was a little tiny bit low during evacuation so they topped that up too.

Can't remember what the parts were now, but I'll check if you want to know. Can tell you though that it was £400 to get fixed, and that was from a mate!

 

[cocadave]

same thing happened again tonight, set off to work and pulled over at a set of traffic lights and turned on the a/c, heard it kick in ( sort of a slurp) and revs took a hit too so definatly pump does work, also cold air coming from vents, now when i set off it stopped working and couldn't get it to work again until i pulled over at work?????
I'm thinking 1 of 2 things

1, loose wire, turns on when stationary but looses connection due to engine vibration

2, could it be posible that the "clutch" could slip when engine revs higher than a coouple of thousand revs?

i'm presuming that the a/c pump pumps faster the faster the engine is going?

anybody feel free to jump in and add some advice.

 

[cocadave]

bump

 

[cocadave]

same thing happened again
managed to keep it working for around 20 mins on way into work tonight, then it went off again.

any ideas

please

 

[Chester]

Could be a pressure switch or something. You really need to see a specialist on this, but it doesn't sound like an expensive thing to me.

 

[cocadave]

yeh, going to take it in after the bank holiday.

 

[allan2010]

The aircon has packed in on my MkIV Ibiza too. The climatronic panel works OK but the fans are pumping out at ambient temperature. I also had a recharge from Kwik Fit about 3 months ago and I don't think it's really been working since then. The dealership prices keep me away but there's not much point going back to KF. Anyone got a better idea?

 

[cocadave]

Just a quick update, problem seems to have sorted itself out
I think it the clutch may have been sticking or something?
Anyway I'm just glad it's all working as it should, all we need now is some more of the hot stuff
thanks for the advice anyway

 

[nick9one1]

I have exactly the same problem!
had a leaky condensor.. so replaced it with a new one and called out a local air con specialist to fill it up.

He did the full vaccum/fill and told me that it still wasnt working. He suspected a faulty compressor.

He told me the pressure on the low side should go down as the compressor kicks in, and the pressure on the high side goes up.
Then actually showed me on the guages what was happening. The low side would go down a little, the high side up... a bit of cold air but then the levels would go back to normal and it would blow warm.

The strange thing is that when you turn the ac on you can definately see the centre part on the compressor tuning, it continues to turn when the vents stop blowing cold and start blowing warm.